Courtesy: CBC News
In “urgent” financial crisis, Saint John’s Trinity church must “make some important decisions within the next few months,” according to Rev. John Paul Westin. The spire of Trinity Church is a high gothic gem of Saint John’s skyline and according to lore, the gilt fish atop the church’s 67-metre tall steeple was once used by sailors as a guide as they navigated into port. The current building has hosted Sunday services for 136 years. But soon, parishioners at the uptown landmark will be forced to consider other venues.
“All of the churches in the uptown are struggling,” says Westin, rector at Trinity since last January. “We have to have an engineering study that costs $38,000. The leaks are in the windows, on the side plaster coming down, in the sacristy. But we can’t go forward unless we can come up with the funds to even get the study done.” “We have a shortfall every week in our takings: $2,000 or $3,000, sometimes, we are out of pocket every week, just for general maintenance, just because we don’t have the people putting the money in the plate.”