Visiting Rideau Park United Church in Alta Vista

Completed in 1955 in the Neo-Gothic style, Rideau Park United Church remains a vibrant congregation with a particularly robust music ministry — something that became clear to me when I visited on the last Sunday of the summer season, September 21, at the 10:00 am service. Close to 100 people were in attendance that Sunday. Led by Reverend Jim Baldwin, a minister with evident experience in theatre, the liturgy focused on marking the International Day of Peace. More than simply the absence of war, peace in the Judeo-Christian tradition is Shalom — a word repeated during the liturgy in a prayer that defined the Hebrew term as “deep peace, just peace.”

Rideau Park is a multi-generational United Church of Canada congregation with a solid attendance of close to 100 members on this third Sunday in September. Rev. Baldwin began by inviting the community’s children to the sanctuary, where he shared with them the story of Peace Cranes. Sadako Sasaki, a child survivor and ultimately of victim of Hiroshima’s atomic bombing, folded 1,000 origami paper cranes, some from medicine paper, in her hospital room. Rev. Baldwin shared dozens of colourful paper cranes during the service as the children looked on. Later, in his sermon, he spoke of the role that both ecumenism and interfaith encounter can play in peace initiatives. He shared some words from a Muslim woman who spoke to a gathering of mainly Christians about working together for peace, as people of faith from diverse backgrounds. As Christians, the Prince of Peace sets the example. The words of a prayer near the start of the service were especially apt and lyrical: “Revive our desire for the reign of Christ, who releases prisoners and liberates the oppressed, who frees the world from greed and proclaims God’s peace. May justice roll down like a river and righteousness flow like an everlasting stream.”

The highlight of the service, at least for me, was Pete Seeger’s classic song “Turn, Turn, Turn,” offered by choristers Carmen Harris and Adam Sperry. It was a beautiful and striking cover, with the congregation falling completely silent as they sang. The choir also led the congregation in the 1955 Christian folk hymn “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” accompanied by piano. The song was the result of a husband-wife collaboration between Sy Miller and Jill Jackson-Miller. The service wrapped up with a more traditional hymn, “To Show by Touch and Word,” with the grand pipe organ making an appearance as well.

Although a mid-century church, the remarkable rose window above the pipe organ might have one fooled. The church, in fact, is rich in Scripturally-themed stained glass on either side of the nave, as well as in a side chapel. The pipe organ, however, did not form part of the original church building, which celebrates its seventieth anniversary this year. It was added and inaugurated in 1989, following a campaign that raised more than $215,000 to cover this major enhancement to the sacred space.

The congregation was invited to coffee hour after the service. That’s when I discovered what abundant community spaces Rideau Park United has available in the building attached to the church itself. And from the many posters and community calendar information, it’s evident that Rideau Park serves the broader Alta Vista community in a wide range of ways.