The country church at the Sunnybrook Farm Museum was officially opened this week to the sound of a choir and visits from its former pastor and congregation.
About 75 people packed into the Willowdale Zion Presbyterian Church on Thursday — the biggest crowd since the church was closed and the building was sold in 2010.
Among the special guests at its official re-opening of the church at its new location at Sunnybrook Farm was Richard Duffin, its pastor from 1965 to 1972. Several Red Deer city councillors were also in attendance, along with Willowdale residents and museum volunteers.
The Red Deer Chamber Singers tested out the renovated church’s acoustics by launching into Locus Iste, a sacred piece by Anton Bruckner, which was composed in 1869 for the dedication of an Austrian cathedral.
After performing with the choir, Sunnybrook Farm’s executive-director Ian Warwick expressed his pleasure at seeing so many previous members of the church’s congregation in Willowdale.
The families from southeast of Red Deer were clearly thrilled their rural church is being saved for posterity at the museum that also has an old school house, farm homes, barns and agricultural machinery. Several had even donated funds to create new stained glass windows for their former church.
Warwick said the relocated place of worship was built in 1950 to replace a previous Willowdale church from 1905. It retains six original colourful windows that depict flowers and Central Alberta landscapes, and is in the process of getting four new stained-glass windows. These are being designed in Calgary and created by Innisfail company Windows of the West.
After the small church was de-consecrated 13 years ago, due to a dwindling congregation, the building was used as a martial arts studio by new owners for about a decade — until they needed to expand their home and had to either move or demolish the church.
Warwick, who had received a $250,000 from a donor for a church to be added to the museum’s display of rural life, had looked at several possibilities — including an older and larger church in Bashaw.
When it came down to cost and ease of relocation, the best candidate was the Willowdale church. Warwick said the entire relocation/renovation project, which relied on a hired contract, as well as volunteer labour, and necessitated a basement created for storage, came in at $457,000.
In its new location next to the old Calder school house on the farm museum’s property, the Willowdale Zion Presbyterian Church “looks like it has always been there,” Warwick added. The building retains an original pulpit and communion table and its original ornate Bible from 1905 is in a display cabinet.
Although the church will not be used for regular religious services, Warwick said it can be rented for special occasions, including weddings (there’s a large reception hall also available in the next-door school house).
The next project at the farm museum will be creating an entry wall of stored bricks from the original Bower family farmhouse, which was demolished in the 1940s, said the farm museum’s president Robin Larsen. When more funds are available, there are ideas to create a farming interpretive centre on the southwest corner of the property.
sunnybrook farm
Red Deer’s Sunnybrook Farm Museum executive-director Ian Warwick (left) and president Robin Larsen are pleased with the renovation of the relocated Willowdale Zion Presbyterian Church. (Photo by LANA MICHELIN/Advocate staff).