The Gibsons United Church is being sold.
The building, at 724 Trueman Rd., was built in the late 1950s to accommodate a growing congregation, and it’s been on the market with an asking price of $779,000.
Terry Harrison, the property resource team lead for the United Church’s B.C. Conference, confirms a conditional offer has been accepted. They won’t release any details until the deal closes.
The church facilities cover three lots in Gibsons, which could be used for low- or medium-density residential development.
Although the pending sale is just becoming widely known, Rev. Terri Scallon told Coast Reporter it’s the outcome of discussions going back several years.
Scallon said the congregation is concerned about their financial viability and looked at several options, such as selling the land and creating a church-run seniors home, or merging with another congregation.
There was a series of special meetings leading up to a vote last November where 78 per cent of the congregation approved selling the property and negotiating a lease with the Gibsons Public Market.
“That helped us to come to the decision that who we are is not the building, and what’s in our hearts to do is that we want to be in the community,” Scallon said. “If we let go of the building, then we will have the financial resources we need to go back right into the heart of the community.”
The decision has also led to rumours about that potential arrangement, including a claim the church would donate all the proceeds of the sale to the public market.
“That’s certainly not the case,” said Gibsons Community Building Society executive director Gerry Zipursky. “The church has expressed interest in the opportunity of holding their congregation’s services once a week at the market, and we have been discussing with their management team the opportunity to look at a long-term lease.”
For Scallon, the change is exciting.
“What we really want is revitalized action, participation in the community,” she said. “It’s somehow lifted our spirits, it felt like our hearts were opening and to us that means this is feeling right, this is feeling good.”
Harrison echoes that thought.
“People used to come to church. They don’t come anymore. The church needs to go to them, and the Gibsons Public Market is a perfect place for the church to go to them and be a part of the community again – on the community’s terms.”
