Five existing Anglican and Lutheran churches in Peterborough could be merged into a single church, and a new \u201cmission church\u201d planted elsewhere in the city, under a proposal put forth earlier this month by the area bishop.<\/p>\n
On October 1 and 2, Riscylla Shaw, area bishop for Trent-Durham within the diocese of Toronto, presented the\u00a0plan<\/a>\u00a0to parishioners at two public meetings. It foresees three Anglican churches\u2014St. Barnabas Anglican Church, St. Luke\u2019s Anglican Church and All Saints\u2019 Anglican Church\u2014and Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church all closing \u201cin the immediate future,\u201d with parishioners gathering to worship for traditional services at the one remaining church, St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church.<\/p>\n At some point after that, Shaw proposed, a new church might be built, probably in the city\u2019s southwest corner, to house a \u201cnew missional congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea, Shaw told the\u00a0Anglican Journal<\/em>, is that the newly-merged congregation at St. John the Evangelist would focus energetically on \u201cbringing the Word, the good news of Jesus out into the street, into Peterborough and out to meet the people where they\u2019re at,\u201d gathering new parishioners to the point where the new church would need to be built to house them.<\/p>\n