Fort Garry Church turns 100, celebrates new community kitchen

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This article was published 04/10/2022 (1433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FORT GARRY

Though St. Paul’s Anglican Church Fort Garry is celebrating its 100th year in the neighbourhood, there are plenty of new achievements to celebrate along with it.

(Like many organizations in Winnipeg, St. Paul’s Anglican Church Fort Garry turned 100 two years ago during the height of the pandemic, so, in turn, it postponed festivities until guests could safely attend.)

The church will host a free fall pancake breakfast to mark the occasion and launch its new community kitchen on Sat., Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. in the parish hall, followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. There will be activities for children and adults, and an auction.

The parish wasn’t always located at 830 North Dr. In 1910, a priest began to hold worship services near the banks of the Red River, around where the Wildewood Club used to be, for campers and canoeists.

As the congregation grew, it decided a more permanent home was needed. So, in 1920, it broke ground on the site that now contains St. Paul’s Anglican Church Fort Garry, though the buildings there today are not the original. The main church was built in 1958 and the hall was built in 1951.

“The services were held in this hall until the main church was built,” Doug Cameron, project manager of the kitchen renovation, said, his voice echoing through the space.

The community kitchen renovation project got its start in 2018. The pandemic set the work back about a year, which gave the project committee extra time to rally funding.

Prior to the renovations, the kitchen was of late 1950s vintage and didn’t meet contemporary standards. As such, the church could no longer use the kitchen to host parish events. Its outdated facilities weren’t conducive for use by renters or the community-at-large, Cameron said.

“Our objective was really to bring the kitchen up to code to enable us to prepare meals and food of any sort and type,” Cameron said. “We’re strongly tied in with the community. We support the breakfast program at the school next door, for example.”

St. Paul’s Anglican Church Fort Garry also works with 1JustCity and other inner-city organizations.

The church worked with an architecture firm and contractor to realize roughly $130,000 in funding from its five-year capital campaign, Sir Thomas Cropo Foundation, The Winnipeg Foundation, the City of Winnipeg’s community incentive grant program, and the Canada Community Revitalization Fund.

Renovations were extensive. The church kitchen has a new floor plan and flooring, new appliances, cabinets, countertops, ventilation, windows, sinks, and cleaning stations.

“We’ve reconfigured the whole space,” Cameron said.

On Sun., Sept. 25 at 10 a.m., the congregation is hosting a special 100th-anniversary worship service. All are welcome.

“We’ll take advantage of using our new kitchen,” said Trish Steadman, the parish’s people’s warden.

To cap the centennial celebration, the church will open its doors for a gala dinner on Sat., Sept. 23, 2023, again in the parish hall. More information about this event can be found on the group’s Facebook page as the date approaches.

For more about St. Paul’s Anglican Church’s community kitchen, pancake breakfast, or special worship service, call 204-475-7549 or email stpaulgarry@gmail.com