Our Church

Barrhaven United Church (BUC) has always been about community. It all began in late 1978 with a call-out to the Barrhaven community to see if there was an interest in forming a local United Church. Members of the community responded, and quickly thereafter, the first worship service occurred in 1979 in the library of Barrhaven Public School. The group continued to meet and grow and the services were moved to St. Patrick Catholic School. Within a year of that first service BUC had an active United Church Women’s group (UCW) engaged in bake sales, take-out turkey dinners and garage sales. As our second Minister wrote in 1982, “…We have no beautiful sanctuary in which to worship…We have no land on which to build a sanctuary… But we have an enthusiasm which is unexcelled.”

It was that enthusiasm and steadfastness which led to the purchase of 5-acres of land in 1984 and the church becoming an official Pastoral Charge in 1985. During the building planning process, it was agreed that there should be mixed-use buildings on the site that would include both community housing as well as the church. Working with the March of Dimes, a need was identified for affordable rental accommodation in the Barrhaven community for people with physical challenges and those with Environmental Sensitivity (ES). In response to that need appropriate apartments and townhouses were built and in 1992 the first tenants moved into the Barrhaven Non-Profit Housing (NPHI). The NPHI is a separate non-profit corporation with some BUC representation on the Board of Directors.

After NPHI was constructed, work began in earnest on the church. More than a hundred volunteers from BUC rolled up their sleeves and under the guidance of the professional construction workers got busy building a church. In February 1993, after many thousands of hours of labour, the BUC family was joined by members of the greater Barrhaven community to watch as a large crane gently placed the metal steeple atop the nearly completed church structure. The congregation would be worshipping in the church shortly after Easter that year.

BUC still strives to be a responsible and active Barrhaven community member. Many community groups use the church facilities during the week and for many years the Barrhaven Food Cupboard was housed at BUC. Every Christmas the BUC senior choir welcomes other church choirs and the Barrhaven community to a “Come Sing Noel” evening of Christmas carols and music. BUC also hosts the Canadian Blood Services to provide a local blood donor clinic.

In order to be open and more accessible to the community as a whole, BUC installed an elevator and automatic front door openers in 2005. The land adjacent to the Church was originally leased to the City for a community baseball diamond which was recently decommissioned and converted to community gardens.

BUC believes in its church community and the greater community because “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” (Helen Keller)