FLAMBOROUGH CALVARY CRC

Place of Worship:
Highway 8 at 265 Middletown Road (Christies Corners)

Calvary Church of Flamborough was formed because the Calvin Church of Dundas grew to more than 160 families. This increase made it necessary to hold 2 worship services on Sunday mornings. Several ways of dealing with the overcrowding were looked into and the decision was made to begin a new congregation. Boundary lines were established and it was determined that West Flamborough was the most suitable.

Members in the area west of the Brock Road were asked if they agreed in principle to form a new congregation. Fifty-two families and several single members agreed to this.

On June 26, 1984, a meeting to provide information and discuss the formation of the new congregation was held.

The West Flamborough Presbyterian Church was willing to share its facilities with the new congregation. The consistory of Calvin Church was asked to assist in a presentation to the January 1985 meeting of Classis Hamilton to ask for approval to organize a new congregation.

On April 1, 1985, upon approval of classis, the organizational meeting of the new congregation was held. At this meeting, office bearers were elected and the name "Calvary" was chosen. Rev. R. Stienstra was asked to be a counsellor for the congregation. During the month of April, we worshiped with the Calvin congregation and on May 12, 1985, we held our first worship service in the West Flamborough Presbyterian Church, as a new congregation which by this time had grown to 65 families.

During the summer of 1985, Jeff Weima, a student of Calvin Seminary, served us as student pastor.

On July 3, 1986, Rev. A. Dreise was installed as our first pastor.

In the fall of 1986, 5 acres of land, located on the corner of Highway 8 and Middletown Road, were purchased to be the site of the new church.

On Thanksgiving Day, Oct. 12, 1987, the ground breaking ceremony took place.

During the next 6 months, the various stages of building progressed rapidly with the help of many volunteers and favorable weather conditions.

On Good Friday, April 1, 1988, we were able to occupy the new facilities.

On September 1, 1988, Rev. A. Dreise was granted a release from service to the congregation, for the purpose of study.

During the summer of 1989, John Bouwers served the congregation as student pastor.

On November 16, 1989, Rev. J. Julien was installed as our second pastor.

During the year 1990, the congregation experienced a difficult period due to denominational issues and synodical decisions which some of the members could not agree with. As a result, in April 1991, a number of families left our congregation and established the Sheffield Independent Reformed Church. In May of 1991, Rev. J. Julien accepted a call to that congregation.

In September 1991, Rev. J. W. VanWeelden became our interim pastor and served our congregation till May 1993. During this time, the congregation, by God's grace, experienced healing and a renewed sense of unity.

On May 6, 1993, Rev. A. C. Geleynse was installed as our 3^rd pastor.

During Rev. Geleynse's nine years of service as our pastor, we experienced growth in spirit as well as in number (95 families).

The Lord has guided and richly blessed us and we have the assurance from Scripture that:

We are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him we too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Rev. Dreise

Rev. Julien

Rev. VanWeelden

Rev. Geleynse