First Mill Woods Church Timeline
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1984, June
The congregation of First Mill Woods made a decision to build a church structure on the six remaining lots adjacent to the church house. But it would be another five years before our financial position would allow us to purchase the land from Edmonton Presbytery. See 1989.
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1984
First Mill Woods became a distribution agency for the Edmonton Food Bank.
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1985
The Building Committee have begun the early stages of planning and have toured several new church buildings garnering ideas from other church’s experiences. At the end of the year, there was $9,551 in our new church Building Fund achieved from offerings and fund-raising.
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1985, October 15
A draft constitution for our congregation was made available for further study to be presented for approval at the next annual congregational meeting.
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1985, November
The Christian Development committee catalogued and cross-referenced 280 volumes in our new church library in our church house.
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1986
This year saw more concentrated efforts to educate the congregation of the urgent need to somehow increase our general revenues in the face of having embarked on a three year phase-out of our reliance on an annual block grant of financial support from Edmonton Presbytery which will end in 1988. This is in addition to the pressure of trying to contribute to the building fund, which now stands at $22,557.
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1987, December
The remaining church house mortgage balance of $28,994 held by Knox-Metropolitan United Church was paid off out of the building fund, giving us clear title to the property and clearing the way to proceed with our church building plans.
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1988, November 8
The Mission Statement had been created and was adopted.
We are partners on a faith journey, called to be the Church, Christ’s voice, hands and heart, to continue His mission in Mill Woods, Edmonton and throughout the world. As a part of the United Church of Canada, we strive to reach out to our community and beyond, growing and changing, but always as doers of the Word, not just hearers. While affirming our faith in Christ, we share global concerns with people of other faiths.
We undertake, with all Christians, the ministry of fostering and caring for all God’s people and creation. The nurturing and Christian education of our children and adults is an important part of our ministry, was it was in Christ’s.
We welcome all people to become part of our family, sharing in warm worship, meaningful fellowship and communion.
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1988, December
First Mill Woods United became the only Food Bank hamper distributor in Mill Woods. One room in our church house was dedicated full time to Food Bank use.
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1988
The Building Committee was hard at work researching and planning for a church building on the land adjacent to the church house. After paying off the mortgage on the church house last year, the Building Fund balance is back up to $14,417.
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1988
Some interesting statistics – Of the 40 congregations in Edmonton Presbytery, First Mill Woods had the largest number of people involved in various programs sponsored by the congregation and we placed third in the size of our Sunday School with 131 children.
1989, January 1
This is the beginning of our first year as a financially self-supporting congregation. We are no longer on the annual Block Grant Assistance program supported by the Mission & Service Fund of the United Church of Canada.
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1989, April 16
The congregation approved the submission of our offer to purchase the six lots, which was later consolidated into one parcel of land to be known as 15 Grand Meadow Crescent, from Edmonton Presbytery for our church building site.
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1989, June 27
Edmonton Presbytery accepted our offer to purchase the land for $135,000 with three payment years, interest free. By the end of this year, $25,000 of this debt was paid off.
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1989
The Building Committee persistently kept very active, having held 10 committee meetings, 2 congregational meetings, participated in 4 Presbytery level meetings, toured 10 churches, contacted 16 architects, and ran fund-raising projects.
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1990
The Building Committee continued to work diligently at collecting church design data, developing congregational awareness, establishing a fund base and selecting an architect. The excitement of the congregation had become very evident as our plans continued to progress towards actually realizing our building dreams. Another $30,000 was paid on the land mortgage, leaving a balance of $80,000.
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1991, January
Ground work was initiated with Edmonton Presbytery and Alberta & N.W. Conference leaders to confirm our intention to apply for a Ventures in Mission loan from the United Church of Canada for our church building needed in 1992.
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1991, February 3
The congregation approved the selection of the architectural firm of Woolfenden, Hamilton, Brown Architectural Group Ltd., to design a church building and to supervise its construction.
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1991, April 14
Preliminary Drawings and a scale model were presented to the congregation for the purpose of eliciting further input from individual members. The congregation accepted these preliminaries including the estimated cost of $735,000 as the basis for our Capital Fund Drive that was conducted from April to October, and reached a total of $190,584 in pledges and donations. The drawings also needed to be sent to the Architectural Advisory Resources Group of the Division of Missions in Canada of the United Church of Canada’s national office for their approval.
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1991, December 1
The congregation approved that we proceed to a July, 1992 construction start and approved a motion by the building committee to apply for a Ventures in Mission fund loan of $600,000 from the United Church’s Division of Missions in Canada.
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1991, December 31
Another annual payment of $40,000 was made out of the building fund on the land mortgage, leaving a balance of $40,000.
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1992, January
Edmonton Presbytery approved a loan of $110,000 interest-free from the Church Development Council until our church house was sold. The congregation determined that the church house would no longer be needed after the church building was in use, thereby providing much-needed funds for the church building.
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1992, April
The Financial Support Group at the United Church of Canada’s national office approved our application for our Ventures in Mission loan of $600,000 amortized over 20 years at 5% interest, with the first year interest-free. Monthly repayments were to begin July 1, 1993. (This repayment schedule was completely revised under a new plan effective July 1, 1996.)
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1992, May 3
Final design development was completed and presented by the architects to the congregation for approval.
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1992, May 23
Official sod turning ceremonies took place on the building site with guests from Alberta Conference, Edmonton Presbytery, Knox-Metropolitan United Church, former Ministers, Church Development Council, our project Architect, and a group of our church members. Board Chair Randy Round, Trustee Donna Skoreiko, Building Committee Chair Linda Paddon, and Youth Representative Kirsten Kitagawa turned sod.
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1992, June
Final payment of $40,000 made to Edmonton Presbytery to clear the land mortgage loan.
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1992, August 7
Of the six general contractors invited to bid on our construction project, on the recommendation of the architect, Delnor Construction Ltd. was notified that they were awarded the building contract with their final bid of $722,308.
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1992, August 11
At 7:40 a.m. sharp, construction of our church building finally began!
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1992, December 24
Permission was obtained from Delnor Construction to hold our Christmas Eve service in the unfinished shell of the building before any furnaces were installed. About 220 very excited and very cold people attended the service.
1992
The Building Committee held 20 meetings, 9 bi-weekly construction site meetings, and made countless numbers of phone calls. This pace also carried on through all of 1993, as a lot of work was yet to be done after the main construction was completed.
1993, February 5
The church steeple, having been built on the ground, was lifted to the top of the roof using a huge crane. This part of construction attracted much community attention and because the press was notified, pictures appeared in the Edmonton Journal and the Globe and Mail.
1993, March
In addition to our Ventures in Mission first mortgage, a long-term loan of $100,000 was negotiated with Church Development Council of Edmonton Presbytery with a 20-year amortization at 5% interest, but only $78,000 was drawn to meet our needs. (The repayment schedule was revised under a new plan effective July 1, 1996.)
1993, April 5
The building passed substantial completion inspection. During the next two weeks, volunteers installed the sound system, and moved furnishings and things from the church house to the church.
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1993, April 18
The congregation held part of their service in Hillview School, then went to the new church building for the final part of the service to commemorate the move.
1993, May 2
The church was officially dedicated in a worship service led by the Right Rev. Dr. Stan McKay, the Moderator of the United Church of Canada.
1993, June/October
Our own volunteers worked on finishing and painting the church basement, installed kitchen fixtures including wiring, landscaping including planting trees and laying sod, installed lawn sprinklers, built a wooden storage shed, built an altar, baptismal font and communion table, along with many other projects.
1993, July 20
Final inspection by the Architect.
1993, August
Fourteen years after it was built, the church house (along with a lot of emotional congregational tears) were sold for $98,000 to a Filipino church group who wanted to use it for the same purpose as we had used it. We deemed it to be surplus property and no longer needed for our church operations.
1993, September
Sunday School registrations are now back up to 230 children, approaching our all-time high water mark, when our services were held in two schools in 1981. This year saw 52 adults joining our church membership by profession of faith and transfers. There were about 184 active families on our church list.
1993
The Building Committee met 22 times and held 5 construction site meetings. They turned over operation of the building to the Property Committee, had a well-deserved party and disbanded. Members of the Building Committee were commended for a big job well done. More than 100 members of the congregation joined various work groups to complete the volunteer work required to bring the building to a more usable state.
1994
Our church library was set up in the loft area. The books have been shelved and catalogued for signing out by anyone interested, including our youth, for reading or research.
1994, September
Wim Kreeft, a student intern minister, joined the staff of First Mill Woods to gain practical experience. His term ended June 30, 1995.
1994
With our new building in place, the congregation needed to cope with many major adjustments in the way we ran our church business. New rules and policies had to be developed, worship service format changes, and we had to face many new challenges, even financial ones. Some conflicts had to be resolved. There were also new opportunities to serve the community better, as we gained a greater visual presence and more confidence to become better leaders in the community.
1995, May
Southwoods United Church Board passes a motion requesting that First Mill Woods Church be a part of discussions with them to see what the future holds for both congregations in Mill Woods. In September, representatives from Southwoods United Church, First Mill Woods United Church, Edmonton Presbytery staff, and the Presbytery Planning & Development Committee formed a Joint Visioning Committee, for the purpose of exploring ways in which the two congregations can work together as a partnership in Mill Woods.
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1995, June 30
Rev. Tom Sawyer’s resignation became effective after submitting his resignation earlier this spring, on March 26. Wim Kreeft’s term as intern student ended.
1995, July 1
With too little time left to call a permanent replacement for Tom, the congregation decided to accept Edmonton Presbytery’s offer to appoint Rev. Norm Macdonald as interim minister for a one-year period.
1996, January 7
The congregation decided to recommend to Edmonton Presbytery that Rev. Norm Macdonald be kept on as interim minister for a second year ending June 30, 1997.
1996
Under the guidance of our new minister, the church constitution was suspended to enable the congregation to pursue a new “vision”. A new “Visioning Board” was established to study topics such as Growth, Spiritual Identity, Congregational Makeup, and Stewardship Resources, during the first four months of the year. Some subtle changes took shape, but no extreme or drastic changes were deemed necessary. Work needed to be done on the Constitution and more time was allotted to this task. More emphasis was placed on the need to make our church more meaningful to the youth of our congregation.
1996, June
During our stewardship visioning process, a finance sub-committee determined that the seven year phase-in of our upwardly spiraling mortgage payments, which had been re-negotiated in October, 1993, was still happening faster than increasing revenues. As a result of this, a $10,000 operating loan from Presbytery Planning and Development Committee was negotiated amortized over 3 years.
1996, July 1
Miraculously and unsolicited by us, the Division of Missions in Canada of the United Church, who was administering all Ventures in Mission capital loans to all united churches, had begun work on developing some new repayment options on these loans. By the end of 1996, retroactive to July 1, 1996, they accepted our application for an option that included changing from a principal and interest model to an interest-free loan with payments geared to 10% of our gross revenue from all sources and for all purposes, except Mission & Service Fund offerings, with no amortization term. A pro-rated portion of this payment also goes to Edmonton Presbytery towards our long-term loan under the same arrangement. Implementation of this plan greatly reduced our financial burden to a tolerable level.
1996, October 6
The Joint Visioning Committee had worked continuously for over a year considering Southwoods-First Mill Woods relationship. It now became evident that an agreement could not be reached at this time, so further negotiations were suspended.
1996, October 27
The congregation recommended to Edmonton Presbytery that Rev. Norm Macdonald’s contract as Interim Minister be extended to June 30, 1998, when he plans to retire from active full-time ministry.
1997, January
Our Clothing Bank was established in the east loft room which provides donated clothing of all kinds, free to needy families in the community. It is open to coincide with the Food Bank hours two evenings per week.
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1997, February 2
The congregation agreed to suspend the Constitution for an additional year to January 31, 1998, so that proposed changes in the Board Composition & Design of 1997 can be incorporated.
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1997, October 1
As the result of a motion passed by the Official Board on May 13, Deanna Cox was hired by the church to become our Youth Worker until May 31, 1998, with the contract renewable on yearly basis. Under the youth ministry program of Edmonton Presbytery, youth worker salary subsidies were made available over a 3-year period, on an annually reducing scale. Her job is to spend a minimum of 12 hours per week working with our church youth, and coordinating church youth activities, education and programs.
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1997
This year in general saw the re-energizing of many committees with some implementation of new ideas and re-vamping of areas of responsibility coming from the “Visioning” Board. A spirit of optimism and caring is evident among the church membership, but the process of re-establishing committee work has been a struggle after work habits were slowed down during the recent period of re-examination of our operations. Capital expenditures included a new, lighted sign on the front lawn and 150 new Voices United hymnbooks.
1998, June 30
Rev. Norm Macdonald’s term as interim minister expired, which coincided with his retirement from full-time ministry.
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1998, July 1
Rev. Deborah Hoekstra accepted our call to be full-time minister at First Mill Woods.
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1998, September 1
Deanna Cox, Youth Worker, was hired for another term ending May 31, 1999.
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1999, March 21
The congregation of First Mill Woods United Church passed a motion, upon recommendation of the ad hoc Merger Committee, that we are pleased to have the congregation of Southwoods United Church merge with us. The Southwoods congregation would officially end June 30, 1999.
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1999, May 30
Congregation approved the recommendation of an ad hoc committee of four people established in February to study and report back to the congregation if and how the “church year” should be changed from the present calendar year format to a more practical time frame. The new system approved was as follows: a) Fiscal year remains as the calendar year, with budget approval in early February. b) Stewardship year to be ongoing with major focus extending for a 4 week period beginning 7 weeks before Easter. c) Board position elections in early May to start June 1. d) Program year runs from September to June.