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History
Under the direction of the Board of Home Missions and the Presbytery of
Ottawa the first service of Parkwood Presbyterian Church was held in Parkwood Hills
Public School September 20th, 1964, with the Reverend Ron Balsdon as part-time minister.
Thirty adults and sixteen children attended. Attendance grew to 100 adults and
50 children within nine months, and Presbytery was asked to form a congregation in
January, 1965. The congregation was formally erected by the Presbytery of Ottawa on
February 14, 1965.
As attendance grew, a full-time minister was required and Reverend Leslie Files was appointed by the "Mission Board" in 1967. Property at the corner of Meadowlands and Chesterton Drives, including the Mulvagh farmhouse, was purchased in 1967. That farmhouse became the manse. A building committee was formed and a building fund established. After many fundraisers and substantial donations, the church was built; the first service in the new building was held March 17, 1974. The dedication service was held April 21st of that year. Rev. Files moved to Calgary that summer. From 1975 to 1979 Parkwood was served by the Reverend William Palmer. After Rev. Palmer's appointment to Kenora, Rev. James Crabb was appointed interim minister. Then, in 1980 Parkwood became self-supporting and issued a call to the Reverend Floyd McPhee. Mr. McPhee was inducted September 14th of 1980, and has been with Parkwood since that time. In the early 1980's the Sunday morning 11:00 a.m. service reached peak capacity. At the same time, a bible study that met at 9:30 Sunday mornings outgrew it's room and moved into the sanctuary, experimenting with formats. Some music was often added. When it became obvious that something had to be done, the session suggested the 9:30 bible study become a service, with the minister preaching, but retaining an informal character. Both organ and piano were used, with the occasional addition of guitar. A year or so later the music duties were shuffled, and the senior organist was given sole responsibility for the 11:00 service, while the pianist was made responsible for 9:30 services. Guitar continued to be used at the early service. During this period, the need for an expansion became more evident. The congregation hired an architect in 1984 to propose ideas for enlarging the church building. At the same time an "expansion fund" was set up. One of the archtitect's suggestions was that the manse be taken over by the church, and the minister paid a housing allowance. This was done in the summer of 1987; the McPhees purchased their own house and the "manse" was renovated for use in Christian education. The kitchen became a nursery, the front porch was winterized as a pre-school room, the living room became the "fireside room" and the bedrooms upstairs were used as classrooms. This area was formally dedicated as the Fellowship Centre November 14, 1989. The addition of a ramp in 1990 made the main floor wheelchair-accessible. By the mid-1990's the expansion fund had grown to over $100,000. The congregation decided to get serious about adding on, and ideas were collected from a few architects in 1995. Around the same time, the church received a bequest from a Mrs. Mitchell, whose maiden name was Mulvagh. Mrs. Mitchell had grown up in the farmhouse that was to become the Parkwood manse and later the Fellowship Centre. The congregation decided to use some of the money for outreach, and part of the money was set aside for that purpose. The rest went into the expansion fund, and concrete plans began to take shape. An architect was hired, plans were drawn up and approved by the congregation, a builder was hired, and in the summer of 1996 the sanctuary and narthex areas were expanded, new offices on the main level and a new kitchen, office, meeting room and expanded hall on the lower level were built. As well, a handicap-accessible washroom was added on the main level and a handicap lift between the main and lower levels. The congregation moved into the new facility in October 1996. Details of the summer's activity can be found on the Expansion '96 page. In 1995, Rev. McPhee encouraged some youth leaders at Parkwood to consider mounting a mission to Nicaragua, to assist in the ministry of some friends of Parkwood, the Rev. John and Mrs. Vi Duff. These efforts were successful and the Youth Mission took place in March 1996. A separate account of the mission is included on this site. Parkwood was honoured to be involved in the National Capital Region Billy Graham Mission in June of 1998. We were involved in many ways. Parkwood people were counsellors, ushers and singers. Rev. McPhee was the representative of the Presbyterian churches on the organizing committee. Parkwood arranged for buses to get people to and from each mission event. And we were priviledged to be able to follow up with people referred to us who had indicated at the mission that they wanted to deepen their faith. Read Rev. McPhee's post-mission article from our newsletter entitled "Lessons from the recent Billy Graham Mission". Rev. McPhee announced his intention to retire some time in late 1999. At that point Parkwood asked Presbytery to appoint an interim moderator, and the Rev. James Statham of Grace church Orleans was assigned the task. The vacancy committee conducted a survey of needs and a congregational profile was developed. The profile gives a picture of Parkwood at that point in time (August 2000). The result is available for viewing here. Floyd McPhee retired from his ministry at Parkwood church in the summer of 2001. His last Sunday in the pulpit was June 3rd, although he remained minister until the end of July. Rev. James T. Hurd preached for a call to Parkwood on June 24th and at a meeting on June 26th the congregation extended a call to James, a native of Kirkland Lake, Ontario and graduate of Knox College, Toronto. James had been pastor of St. Paul’s Church, Woodstock, New Brunswick for almost ten years and prior to that spent five and half years as minister at Knox Church, Wanham and Munro Church, Blueberry Mtn., AB. James and his wife Karen and daughters Jennifer and Janet moved to Ottawa in late October and James started his ministry at Parkwood December 2nd, 2001. Parkwood continues to reach out to the community through its worship services, its courses and activities, and new efforts to meet the needs of people into the 21st century, such as this website. Please pray that we would be faithful in using our resources to share God's love with others around us, and if you can, join us in this task from God. Rev. Leslie Files retired June 30 '01 as senior minister at New St. James church, London ON Rev. William Palmer retired to Winnipeg MB and passed away there January 7, 2002. |
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