With mixed emotions, Betty Belado, a lifelong member of Knox United Church, remembers her 72 years as part of the congregation as the church closes its doors at the end of the year.
In its heyday in the 1950s, it was standing room only in the sanctuary come Sunday mornings, she recalls.
Now diminished to a mostly aging population of about 35 remaining members of the congregation, they will make their way through the doors of St. Andrew's United in the new year, where the two churches will amalgamate and be known going forward as Trinity United.
"I was born into the church and my mother and father (Olive and Ted Williams) were very active in the church and of course so were my grandparents (Edna and G.B. Williams)," said Belado, noting the closure of the church has been coming for a long time. "The congregation has been shrinking. You get to a point where you have to be practical. The church is a beautiful church, but it's the people in the church that make the church and we're going to be together as we move on."
Belado is no stranger to St. Andrew's. She attended for years as she was raising her children in the Lakewood area. Some time later she went back to Knox to attend with her parents and her granddaughter attended, too, Belado added.
"Oh my, I get emotional when I talk about this," Belado said. "I was so happy she phoned me last week and told me she would be attending the Christmas Eve service with me and that will be very nice."
Belado has a lot of great memories growing up in the church, she said.
The original building was created in 1922 and the larger sanctuary was built in 1957.
"Back then, children didn't attend church service," Belado smiled. "We were sent to the basement for Sunday school. And I mean, that basement was full of Sunday school kids."
Music was a huge part of the church, with the junior choir singing during morning services and the senior choir singing during evening services, Belado recalled.
"Our choir is very little but very powerful," she added. "They are beautiful voices even now and they'll be going on to join the Trinity United choir."
There was a strong social component to the church and its activities included youth groups and afternoon teas.
"We'd go to the Ranch bakery on Second Avenue and we'd get special bread sliced just so and we'd make special sandwiches, which, of course, had no crust," Belado laughed at the memory. "We got out the silver tea services and we had to make special tea - no tea bags - it was a specially brewed tea essence for those occasions. And, of course, Dad was very involved with the men's side of the church and the over-all running of the church as an elder."
Belado has fond memories of holidays, especially during Christmas and Easter.
"Everybody came for the big turkey dinners and the Sunday schools would hold the fun concerts afterwards," Belado said. "There was always so much going on."
Belado feels the church has come full circle in Prince George because when Knox United was bursting at the seams in the 1950s, St. Andrew's was opened to take care of the over flow.
"And now here we are again, coming back together," Belado said.
Knox United was established in 1910, which makes it the longest continuously opereating church in Prince George.
Rev. Michael Hare, who served at Knox United for a little over a year, will retire to his home in Chilliwack, while Rev. Dr. Bob Fillier will lead Trinity United. He's been at St. Andrew's for the last year.
There has been no decision made yet as to the fate of the Knox United's bell or the physical building, located at 1448 Fifth Ave., which is home to a daycare, hosts several 12-step programs and a few other community-interest groups.
Hare said those decisions will be made in 2018.
"I think what the merger enables us to do is focus the energy of what would have been two congregations as one congregation, so we put a lot more effort, a lot more time, greater resources, to support the mission of Trinity in Prince George and beyond," Fillier said.
The mission is being formed and right now there are three core values the congregation will follow, which are inclusive fellowship, joyful service and living faith.
The hope for Trinity United is that there will be more people attending the church services, which usually see about 90 people attend regularly, the choir will be more robust as the small number of Knox United voices join St. Andrew's.
"There will be more vibrant programming as you see more people involved," said Fillier. "Initially those are the things you will see and over time we'll start to notice in other ways."
The first sermon at Trinity United will take place on Jan. 7 and will be about how the churches will move forward after coming together from different places, Fillier said.
"We're going to be focusing on the epiphany story and the arrival of the Magi to visit Mary and Jesus and talking about their willingness to risk the journey of following that star, of believing there was something that God had intended them to discover, that it was some sort of mission that God had sent them on and we're going to compare that to the whole conversation around merging and what that means," Fillier said.
He'll talk about the gifts the Magi brought with them and bring it together with the gifts the founding congregations can offer the Trinity while providing service to God.
"And we'll talk about how the Magi didn't go home the same way they came," Fillier said. "We can't just say 'oh, well, this is what we used to do and we'll just do the same old thing together,' and now we'll need to chart our way home that's going to be different than any of the paths we have used before."
Farewell service takes place at Knox United on Sunday, Dec. 31.
A brief history provided through knoxucpg.ca:
Knox is the oldest continuously operating church in Prince George. The first Methodist service in the area was held June 26, 1910, and the first Presbyterian service was held on Oct. 2, 1910.
In 1910, Knox Presbyterian church was established in South Fort George and in 1911 the First Presbyterian church in Central Fort George was created.
On Feb. 13, 1916, the original Knox church building was moved from South Fort George to the Millar Addition in Prince George.
On Aug. 18, 1922, the cornerstone was laid for a new building on the corner of Brunswick and Fifth Avenue and the new church was opened and dedicated in October 1922.
The building is still being used today as the Heritage Hall. At the time, the First Presbyterian congregation in Central Fort George unanimously decided to cast their lot with the Knox congregation.
On June 10, 1925, Knox, along with two thirds of all Presbyterian churches across Canada, joined the Methodists and Congregationalists to become the United Church of Canada.
On June 10, 1956, the cornerstone of a new sanctuary was laid The new sanctuary was dedicated May 19, 1957, and has been in use ever since.
History of the Old Bell:
The original church bell, which sits proudly on the front lawn of Knox and is still rung every Sunday calling one and all to worship, was brought to the Prince George area in 1912 by the Presbyterian church in south Fort George.
The bell came by paddlewheeler up the Fraser River because there was no railway at that time.
The Presbyterian church was one of the largest buildings in the area and it doubled as a concert auditorium.
The bell only hung for a short period of time. It had to be taken down because the bell tower was not sturdy enough to support such a large bell. When it rang, it rocked the whole building.
Unfortunately, the original church burned down in 1923. It was hoped that when a new church was built that the bell would be housed in its tower. However, when the bell was rung they discovered that the new tower was not strong enough either.
The bell was left lying in the back alley for about forty years. No one could decide what to do with it.
An elder of Knox, Ken Irwin, worked many years trying to build a new stronger tower for the bell. Eventually he created the current setting for the bell and rescued it from the back alley and the scrap metal yard.
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