Visiting Brockville’s Wall Street United Church

When one visits a church and hears that the congregation’s clergywoman is sometimes known as “the little Pope from Brockville,” the risk of tuning out the sermon is greatly diminished. I had the chance to visit Wall Street United Church in Brockville on a couple of occasions this summer and in each instance, I found a multi-generational congregation and a faith community that clearly puts much time and effort into its music ministry.

Located at 5 Wall Street in downtown Brockville, the original Methodist church was erected on this site in 1830 — nearly four decades before Confederation. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the church underwent several phases of expansion, followed by a final major enlargement in 1960, erecting the Fellowship Hall next to the church. The sanctuary’s vaulted ceilings, the grand organ and the ornate woodwork, as well as the rounded wood balcony overlooking the impressive space remind me a little of the even more palatial Dominion-Chalmers United Church in Ottawa’s Centretown. The rounded balconies at Wall Street United blend some of the simplicity of a meeting house with the grandeur of the woodwork and the Casavant organ that we face during the service.

Reverend Kimberly Heath presided at the liturgy and I learned a few things about her right off the bat. For one, she swims in the mighty St. Lawrence seaway. She’s also Christ-centred and hasn’t gone down the path of eschewing the spiritual. And in a denomination that often leans heavily to the political Left, I felt that she struck a moderate tone — all while still embracing a social justice orientation, especially around poverty relief and the Indigenous. At that August service, she shared how she was one of a handful of candidates nominated to become Moderator of the United Church of Canada and had been referred to as the “little Pope from Brockville.” She spoke about accepting any outcome — leaving a church she calls home with a heavy heart and serving in a stressful job for a three-year term at the helm of a denomination that has seen better days, or staying with her Brockville faith family, coloured with the natural tinge of disappointment at not being selected.

Ultimately, Reverend Heath was selected as the United Church’s new moderator and she brings a fascinating background to the job. She was born in Zambia to expat parents who worked in the African country as teachers, before spending most of her childhood in Canada. She studied at McGill University in Montreal and was ordained in 1999.

Wall Street United Church’s music ministry, directed by Samia O’Day, stood out as especially vibrant. The repertoire leaned in the direction of Christian worship, with the occasional more traditional hymn making an appearance as well. The choir included a good representation of the congregation’s youth as well and seemed like a place where people developed their talent.

As the morning service drew to a close, all were invited to coffee hour in a hall adjoining the sanctuary. I also learned that a second, less traditionally structured service is celebrated on Sunday evenings, geared more to people facing personal struggles and those on the margins of church life. What I found in Brockville was a lively United Church congregation and a place where more people greeted me than I could count.