SURREY — Sixty years after the first service on the site, the congregation at Christ the King Lutheran Church has a modern new home.
The building, at the corner of 104th Avenue and 133A Street, has been under construction for nearly three years. During that time, church-goers gathered for services in a retail space at the Dell Shopping Centre on King George Boulevard.
Bosa Properties built the church building as part of a land-sale deal with the congregation that involved construction of a residential tower next door.
A dedication service and grand opening of the new church will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26 starting at 2:30 p.m.
“It’s such a warm feeling in here, it feels great,” said church pastor Gordon Charles as he gave the Now a tour of the building.
“There’s a lot of glass in here and we thought it might echo, but no, it’s great,” he added. “The acoustics in here are just about perfect.”
The original church building opened on the site in 1957, with Reverend J.T. Dahle as pastor.
Looking ahead, the congregation has a plan to welcome additional worshipers to the new building, which can seat close to 200 people in the sanctuary and adjacent fellowship hall.
“We can have concerts in here, and we’re opening our doors to people who want to do events of all kinds,” Charles noted.
“With all the new residents in the towers here and university students, we’re hopeful they will come.”
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PICTURED: A view of the church interior, as seen on the Christ the King website.
Viola Emerson, president of the church council, said a multi-purpose building was a key feature.
“We’re a small congregation, around 30 members, and we can’t afford to keep this building without renting out some of the spaces to other churches and to other groups,” she said. “We bought a beautiful grand piano so we’re hoping for recitals in here and that sort of thing.”
The old church building housed Surrey Urban Mission, which has moved to a space at the corner of King George and 108th Avenue.
“When we made a deal with Bosa, it was $5.2 million or something like that, and we gave Surrey Urban Mission a million of that and said, ‘You people are renting space from us and now this building is coming down, we want to make sure you keep doing your good work in Surrey.’”
A humorous aside here.
“We were at a meeting,” Charles recalled, “and the director over there (at the time) asked, ‘Would it be OK to change the name to Surrey Lutheran Urban Mission Society. Well, not on your life. You have to be careful with acronyms, right, because of what it spells.”
For several years in the mid-2000s, the congregation was forced to deal with a legal mess that involved the church property.
“Someone transferred the title of this whole property,” Charles explained. “It took a year in court and it was a total falsehood. But we’ve moved on from that. There’s a line in the Lord’s Prayer about forgiving those who trespass against us.”
Construction of the new church building was completed late last year.
“We were able to have our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning services in here,” Charles said proudly. “One thing to remember is,” he added, “that as nice as a church is, like this one we have now, it’s not the building that makes the church, it’s the people who make the church.”
Photos of the new church can be found on its website, Ctklcsurrey.com/pictures.
For the event there on Sunday afternoon, parking is available in the church’s underground lot, at 13388 104th Ave., Surrey.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com