Historic Union United Church looks to future on 110th anniversary
Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson used to offer piano lessons at the church in the 1930s
The Union United Church has had visits from Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, it's where jazz pianist Oscar Peterson learned to play and this weekend, the church celebrated its 110th anniversary.
Union United is among the oldest black congregations in the province. It was founded in July 1907 — when railway porters and their wives met to lay the plans for it.
"What brings me back as many Sundays as I can is the family, it's like coming back home to family, always," said Gale Grant.
Grant's family ties with the church stretch back to her great uncle on her father's side — he was one of the original porters who founded the church.
Grant's father met her mother in Sunday school in the 1940s when they were young teenagers. The couple was later married for 62 years before her father passed away in 2004, said Grant.
"All my children were baptized here, my husband and I were married here, my sisters and brothers, we all came here. I live two streets away," she said.
Faith-filled celebration
The congregation was forced to relocate when its century-old church building on Delisle Street in 2011 needed urgent repairs, and they weren't able to return until 2015.
Erene Anthony has been a member of the church for over 40 years and is a former chair of the church board.
"This was a faith-filled, joyous church and I was extremely hopeful today the the future of Union is going to be great," she said.
Anthony admits it has been difficult to attract younger people into the church. She said there have been a group of young adults who have been meeting regularly and she hopes they'll be part of the church's future and carry on its tradition of social activism.
"As members of the black community, we certainly rely on our faith," she said. "When the church was founded, that was one of its main goals, helping the people within the community."
Florence Westmoreland has been going to Union United for 85 years.
She remembers when Nelson Mandela visited in 1990.
"They had all the streets all around here closed off and chairs all outside, it was a wonderful affair, just to come to our church," she said.
"He did not have any hatred, he only had love for the people, after 27 years in prison, all he had was love for everybody, he tried to unite and get people together."
Westmoreland said she took piano lessons with Oscar Peterson, at the steep price of ten cents an hour in 1937 and 1938. She was at Peterson's wedding in 1945, to his first wife, she said.
with files from CBC Montreal's Navneet Pall