Beginnings
First Minister
Building a Meetinghouse
The Sixties: Social
Justice
The Seventies: Shared
Ministry
Church Expansion and
Growth
Church Affiliations
In the spring of 1963, a building committee was formed to look at possibilities of a church building. An architect was retained to draw up plans for an education building with a chapel seating 150 persons. The ground breaking service took place June 27, 1965, and on December 5 of that year the first devotional services were held in the new building. The church was dedicated on May 22, 1966.
One might expect that this young church would be rather protective of its new success as a congregation. After all, these were the founding families, with the most at stake, who had courageously committed themselves to carry the rather heavy financial burden of the congregation. But none of this happened. Instead, the congregation became more anti-establishment. They seemed to me a fluctuating membership of students and other young people, and were more than tolerant of their righteous demands for rapid, radical change, even at the risk of becoming a provocative nuisance in the neighbourhood. They set up a coffee house in the church basement and an office to assist American draft dodgers. They also invited prestigious public figures, like the then Minister of Justice John Turner to address them, using the opportunity to pointedly challenge his government's policies.
One might also expect that this educated, upwardly mobile congregation would engage the services of a tweedy, urbane minister whom they could easily control, and who would preach to them in a sonorous ecclesiastical drone on safe subjects. But again, this didn't happen. Instead, they hired Frank Epp, an aggressive, sometimes abrasive, certainly impatient crusader for justice and the oppressed.... In his sermon on May 18, 1969, in the service attended by John Turner, Epp called upon the church to take on the role of a "prophetic minority".
"With the Prophet Isaiah, we believe that solemn
assemblies and prayers are an abomination to the land
if they do not reduce evil, promote the good, advance
justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless,
plead for the widow."
Frank Epp made his, and Ottawa Mennonite Church's presence felt on Parliament Hill and among the embassies of Rockcliffe. He played a leading role in the Ottawa Council of Churches, and in the formation of its successor, the Christian Council of the Capital Area (a much more inclusive body) in 1970-71. He was prominently associated with the Elmvale Interfaith Social Action Council. Frank Epp generated Mennonite Central Committee support for the Ottawa Service Programme, an experimental programme designed to assert the Mennonite presence in the national capital area -- a precursor of the Ottawa Mennonite Central Committee office.
In the early 1980s, it seemed obvious to the congregation that expanding the church building was necessary. On Sunday mornings, people were crowded into the church, and it was necessary to come early to get a good seat. By 1985, the decision was made to expand the building, and people responded generously with money and labour.
We are also affiliated with Mennonite Church Canada, and Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.
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