Special service marks closing of historic Third Avenue United
The last sermon has been read at a landmark place of worship in Saskatoon that has suffered from rising maintenance costs and a dwindling congregation.
Parishioners gathered Sunday for the final time at Third Avenue United Church, which has only had about 25 regulars in the pews in recent months and another 10 in the choir. People from other churches attended to help mark the event.
While the church dates back 113 years, the Gothic-style stone structure itself opened nearly 105 years ago, a fact noted by Rev. Alan Minarcik in a service that focused on remembrance.
Kenneth Holmes, who chairs the church’s unified board, said upkeep and heating costs had become too big for the congregation to handle, so a decision was made last spring to be out of the building by June 30. Holmes says the structure has been sold and an announcement about its future could be made soon.
“We look around and who would have ever thought this time would come to us? That which we treasure so much is now gone,” Minarcik told the congregation. “It will always exist in our memories, in our hearts, in our laughter and in our tears. Remember Third Avenue. Remember its goodness.”
Holmes said there were 145 to 165 people in the congregation and another 35 to 40 in the choir when he started attending services in the 1980s. “There’s a lot of people who are quite sad about it. It’s taken a long time to get to this point where we can actually know that we are closing down and that we no longer will be a congregation,” he said.