The long, slow decline of Trinity United Church

It was once a place where the message of Jesus shone as brightly as the glowing pink, blue and yellow light of its stained-glass windows.

Trinity United Church in downtown Kitchener has seen baptisms and weddings and funerals for 112 years in its sturdy red-brick building.

Today, it’s a pile of charred rubble, with several fires started there in the past few weeks. The part of the building that is still standing will be demolished soon.

Yet for more than a century, it was a place where people gathered not only to pray and sing and read the Bible together but also to help others.

Sponsorships for refugee families were organized here. Volunteers cooked hot meals for hundreds of impoverished, hungry people every week. Dozens of homeless people came to sleep on the church gymnasium floor once a week, knowing they would be safe, warm and dry.

But eventually, the volunteers burned out, discovering that some of the overnight guests presented problems they couldn’t handle. The sleepover program, shared with several other churches in the area, ended.

Trinity’s building, with its brass baptismal font, carved wooden pews and huge pipe organ, became less of a delight and more of a burden on the rapidly shrinking congregation.

Even then, the remaining few church members tried to keep hope alive.

The building site stands on some of the most valuable real estate in town. It’s a few steps from a light-rail station, in the heart of downtown Kitchener with its thriving shops, restaurants and workplaces.

Church members hoped to work with a developer to build condo towers with space for community groups that perhaps they might also use for worship. They hoped for some affordable housing to be included.

But that didn’t work out. The land and building were bought by IN8 Developments, which will build the city’s highest tower, at 33 storeys. The condos will be geared to urban professionals. Amenities include communal garden plots, a rooftop patio with barbecues, a pet play pad, and a fitness and yoga centre.

Members of Trinity United now worship at nearby St. Matthews Lutheran Church. Their old home has stood empty for nearly a year.

Into that dark shell of a building, a different kind of homeless person arrived. These were people who felt they couldn’t stay at a traditional shelter. They “sleep rough” and used the empty church to provide shelter from the cold weather.

They lit fires to keep warm. Someone called the fire department Thursday after smoke was seen pouring out. About six homeless people, plus the YWCA emergency shelter for women next door, were evacuated.

Then, a day later, someone else lit a different kind of fire.

Based on the speed with which it spread and the fact no one was inside when emergency personnel came in, Kitchener fire prevention officer Rick Brooks thinks it was set deliberately to burn the building down.

It’s dangerous for firefighters to go into a building like that, he said. The pressure of the water hoses put a “significant strain” on the structure of the building.

Now, for safety reasons, the demolition company will work to bring the building down as quickly as possible.

What a miserable ending to a place that once brought so much comfort to so many.