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Waverley United Church
Decoration Day Service
August 19, 2001
Speaker:
Orland French
When I told people I was returning to my rural home
church to speak today, a couple of them asked me if
the church was being opened for a once-a-year special
service. They assumed that since it was a small rural
church, it was probably closed.
I told them, no. Worship is every Sunday morning.
And that’s a point of pride, I should think.
When many rural churches and even big city churches
are closing for lack of support, Waverley United Church
continues to survive.
When I return to this area occasionally, I see that
Waverley really hasn’t grown much over the years
but there newer houses on the sideroads and fewer
old houses in the village. Like many crossroads communities,
the village has seen a decline in services.
The post office, one of the first established in North
Simcoe county, is gone. Drinkle’s corner store
is gone. The school is closed. Hornsby’s corner
garage is gone. The Orange Hall is closed. You’ll
notice I’m using ancient names familiar from
my childhood.
The soulless highway planners in the department of
transport wiped out the entire northwest quadrant
of the downtown core when they redesigned the intersection.
They took away the Truax house, the Woods house, the
Farney house, and Mrs. Archer’s house. They even
tore down Santa Claus’s house*! The old church
drive shed across the road had already disappeared,
but not before a fully-assembled farm wagon was found
on its roof the morning after Halloween one year.
But look what remains. This small village has not
one, not two, but three active church congregations.
When you think about social changes and the erosion
of church support in Canada, that’s quite remarkable.
And now this church building has been granted heritage
protection.
I was quite pleased to learn about this, although
I was somewhat puzzled when I noticed that the heritage
designation had been obtained through the Township
of Tay. Since the church had always been in the Township
of Flos, I wondered if they had moved the building.
Turns out that the borders of Tay have been adjusted
to encompass the entire village.
Until then, the village of Waverley had been sitting
on the corners of four townships. Belatedly, I realize
that if the development of Waverley had not been held
back by jealous personalities on the four township
councils, it might well be a metropolis rivalling
Toronto. On this site could have been the CN Tower
with a little plaque at the bottom saying this was
the former location of Waverley United Church.
Well, it didn’t happen. We’re still small
but we’re still here! One hundred and thirty-three
years after the original building opened in 1868,
we are still worshipping on a regular basis in this
old Methodist church. The part where you’re sitting
was the original church; this part, where I’m
standing, was added in 1883.
Oh, there have been other changes. The front porch
was replaced with a soaring Memorial Tower in 1961
and stained-glass windows have been added, giving
the building a more “church-like” appearance.
But it is still basically a Methodist meeting-house,
and to prove it the pews are still as hard and upright
as ever.
The most dramatic change was the addition of the church
hall in the 1950s. This marked the transition of the
church from a Sunday meeting house to a community
centre. Fowl suppers, wedding receptions, bridal showers
and any number of community events shifted to the
church hall. The ladies catered in the kitchen while
the men mowed the lawn and talked about their trucks.
It is this sense of community involvement and community
purpose which provides the soul of village congregations.
Active congregations save heritage buildings; heritage
buildings can’t rescue dying congregations. I
dare say that if Waverley United Church had been only
a once-a-week meeting house, it would have closed
its doors a long, long time ago.
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