A quaint country church has closed after 146 years.
On Sunday, November 26, former members of the congregation at St. Paul’s Anglican Chapel in Fenaghvale gathered for a deconsecration service. The small, red brick church beside County Road 10 has formally closed due to declining attendance.
The first, wood-frame church building at the site was built between 1874 and 1877 to serve an Anglican community that first established in the area in the 1840’s as part of the Vankleek Hill parish. It was consecrated by Bishop John Travers Lewis on September 15, 1879. During the construction from 1872 to 1875, two curates, the Rev. Arthur Jarvis and the Rev. Arthur Philips served the congregation. The building committee members were Philip Downing, R.L. Downing, John Sproule, Henry Blaney, and William Bradley. Rev. W.J. Muckleston became rector of St. Paul’s Mission in 1875. The wood-frame building was destroyed by fire and reconstructed, and was again consecrated on October 19, 1910, by The Right Reverend Charles Hamilton, Bishop of the Diocese of Ottawa. St. Paul’s was joined with the former Anglican parish in Plantagenet until it closed in 1915. At that time, the Fenaghvale church was rejoined with the Vankleek Hill parish.
In recent years, St. Paul’s Chapel was part of the Parish of the Lower Ottawa Valley, which includes St. John’s Vankleek Hill, Holy Trinity Hawkesbury, St. Michael and All Angels Maxville, St. Matthew’s Grenville, and Holy Trinity Calumet.
The deconsecration service on November 26 was officiated by The Venerable Rhonda Waters, Archdeacon, who recited the Act of Deconsecration. Parish Rector the Rev. Bob Albert assisted, and Bill Shields delivered a reflection. Bill Connors provided music, Randal Storey acted as liturgical assistant, Rhonda Gates was reader, and Danny Ryan was intercessor.
According to Storey, many of the people who attended the deconsecration service attended St. Paul’s as children and are now in their 70’s and 80’s. He said the Diocese of Ottawa will be responsible for selling the St. Paul’s Chapel building. Rev. Albert said St. John’s in Vankleek Hill will receive the proceeds from the sale. That revenue will be used for capital projects at the church or to fund the maintenance of the Fenaghvale Cemetery. The contents of the church will be respectfully and reverently distributed to other Anglican churches locally and further away.
