Last Spring when Prairie first began, we struck an agreement with the owners of the Church at 590 University Crescent. The agreement asked for certain renovations to be completed in order for Prairie to be able to occupy the space on a full time basis. The chief renovations are nearing completion and we are going ahead with moving in for a first worship service on Sept 7th.
For a number of the congregation it is moving BACK. 590 University Crescent was the place of worship for Trinity Presbyterian Church prior to the amalgamation when Prairie was formed. We are thankful that we were able to continue worshipping where St. Andrew's has been located, at Prince of Peace Lutheran, for these last 5 months.
The congregation members of Prairie have been fantastic. They have been willing to worship at 9:15am and even park off site to accommodate the increase in people using the lot. A big thank you to you all for your patience, grace and your dedication to Prairie in sticking things out in less than ideal circumstances.
Things will not be perfect on the first few Sundays in 590 University Cres. You may see some old carpet which needs replacing, or there may be baseboards missing. Not all of the stuff from Prince of Peace Church will have made it over to the new space right away either, and the sound system probably won't be ready to go. The leadership felt getting into the space on Sept 7 was more important than having everything absolutely ready. We can worship God without all the bells and whistles for a while if we need to!
Prairie is the primary lease holder at 590 University and we are responsible for all the property management. This means that Prairie members need to treat this place as their home. This also means we can have increased use of the space for different ministries and programs that we might wish to do. Some of the leadership are already thinking about and planning for ways we can use the space to reach out more to the community. Our partners, Lighthouse Evangelical Arabic Church, will be meeting there on Sunday nights, and will use it for some other activities as well. We are also very happy to share the space with a new Church plant that is starting up in the area and needed space on Saturday evenings. This new Church plant is connected to the owners of the building and so their use once a week is built into our lease agreement.
We are excited about what will be possible in this space, and how God might use us to bless this community over the next few years as we continue to look ahead to our more permanent home which we are planning to build.
Rev. Matt Brough
Pastor of Prairie Presbyterian Church