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First United selling 62 years of collected items

White Rock church sale set for March 24

A liquidation sale set for this Saturday in White Rock is one for the curious, organizers say.

And if there happens to be anyone in need of a pew or two – or two dozen, for that matter – First United Church will be the place to be.

“Got lots of pews still available,” Merv Lutes, a former church minister and co-chair of the futures committee that began looking at redeveloping the site more than five years ago, said.

“We’d like to sell them. They’re lovely light oak. The trouble is, they’re so long – I think they’re about 12 feet long.”

Work to determine what to keep from the church and sort what could be sold has been ongoing, following city council’s granting last week – on a split vote – of requested variances for a development permit for the property.

In short, it means the church in its current form will soon cease to exist.

Built more than six decades ago, the 15385 Semiahmoo Ave. building is to be demolished to make way for a four-storey residential care facility that will incorporate a new, ground-level Peninsula United Church that Lutes said “will serve the community that is here and also the community to come.”

In addition to comfortable chairs and a lower ceiling, the church space – in total, no bigger than the 6,000-square-foot sanctuary that the congregation has gathered in since 1959 – will put “old and new together,” incorporating some of the sanctuary’s wooden arches in its interior. As well there will be movable walls to accommodate both church services and a variety of programming.

The changes are not just for the church family, Lutes said, explaining that the community’s needs have changed over the years, with more and more people looking for smaller spaces to meet.

“This church… always wants to serve the community and not just the church family,” he said.

Lutes said council’s decision on the development-permit variances came about six weeks earlier than expected, and “has us kind of catching our breath” getting ready for the next steps.

Last Friday, as he and other church members busied themselves preparing for tomorrow’s sale, collecting and organizing everything from furniture and choir gowns to garden equipment and candelabras, there was a distinct emptiness.

The organ that has graced the sanctuary since 2000 is gone, moved to Crescent United Church; large holes in the walls are all that remain of where the speakers used to sit. Stacks of plastic and wooden chairs filled one downstairs room, while empty cupboards and an echo were all that remained in an upstairs counterpart.

The basement was another matter, however, as rows of tables filled with hundreds of items that will be up for grabs, and floor space was cluttered with shelving, dining tables, desks and sundry other furnishings.

“A church is a place where a lot of the stuff that you don’t need is brought, in case somebody else needs it, and we’ve had 62 years of collecting, so we’ve got just about something of everything,” Lutes said.

“For the curious, this would be a very interesting sale to come to because you have no idea what you’re going to get. We hope the public will come and put this stuff to good use.”

Lutes said even large rocks that are currently part of the church’s landscaping are available.

He noted the church’s memory garden, where the ashes of many church members have been buried, will be treated with care. The soil is to be saved for a new memorial garden.

“That’s a very special part of the project. We want to ensure that we do that well,” he said. “There’s people’s ashes that are in there, we need to keep them.

“I intend to make an ash of myself sometime and get in the new garden.”

While the sale is rife with mixed emotions, marking both the end of an era and a new beginning, Lutes said there is much optimism.

“An awful lot of lives of people were put together in this particular building,” Lutes said, describing weddings, baptisms and more that have taken place within its walls.

“It’s got a lot of memories… a lot of history.

“We’re looking forward to the future.”

Saturday’s sale is set for 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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June Koster shows a memorial vase that will be at the First United Church sale Saturday. (Tracy Holmes photo)
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Sundry items fill tables in the basement of First United Church, where a liquidation sale is to be held Saturday. (Tracy Holmes photo)
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The exterior of First United Church. (Tracy Holmes photo)
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Retired First United Church Rev. Merv Lutes sits among dozens of chairs that will be up for sale. (Tracy Holmes photo)


Tracy Holmes

About the Author: Tracy Holmes

Tracy Holmes has been a reporter with Peace Arch News since 1997.
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