Church Celebrating 175th Anniversary This Year

(Dave Flaherty, Lindsay Post Reporter)

“St. Paul’s is a vibrant and growing church. The faith is still strong”.

2011 will be a monumental year for St. Paul’s Anglican Church.

Reverend Warren

The church is celebrating its 175th anniversary, and the event committee has a number of events to help recognize this significant occasion.

The festivities kick off on Sunday, Jan 16 with “St. Paul’s Day” which will be attended by the Most Reverend Frederick James Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada as a celebrant and preacher at the service.

Next up is “Volunteer Appreciation Day” on May 15, in which the church will honour its many volunteers over the years with Bishop Douglas C. Blackwell as the special guest.

On Sept. 11 it will be “Youth Sunday” in which the youth that will carry St. Paul’s into the future will be honoured, with Bishop Linda Nicholls present as celebrant. November 25 to 27 is “Homecoming Weekend”, in which church officials will provide a variety of activities for both current parishioners and former congregation members who have moved to other places in Canada and the world.

Church officials will also be providing a series of once-a-month articles on the “Life of St. Paul’s within the Lindsay community”, using the Rectors, church leaders and the life and times of Lindsay in each era as the focus.

Harold Brown, co-chair of the 175th anniversary committee said the focus is on celebrating the past but also to look toward the future.

“St. Paul’s is a vibrant and growing church. The faith is still strong”, he said.

Rev. Warren Leibovitch, who has been at the church for roughly two years, said when he arrived, he saw right away what kind of impact the church has on the community.

“There is more outreach than a lot of churches. It was off and running for me, the involvement of all the people, it just blew me away,” he said.

The church has many programs that focus on youth, namely their Christmas and Easter programs.

“Our hope is to do even more with the local children, the definition of family has changed,” Leibovitch said. “We see the need to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children.”

The first article in the series will appear in next Friday’s edition of The Lindsay Post.

More information on St. Paul’s 175th anniversary can be found at www.st-pauls-lindsay-ca.

-dflahery@thepost.ca