South Gower Baptist Church donates $100,000 to Canadian Foodgrains Bank

For Murray Bennett, who grew up attending South Gower Baptist Church in Kemptville, Ontario, seeing his church close last year was extremely difficult.

“I have been involved at the church since I was a little boy,” he says. “I was baptized there. But it fell upon hard times and eventually closed.”

For Bennett, there’s a silver lining in the church’s closing; money raised through the sale of the building will be used to help people in the developing world.  

In January the church’s trustees sent a cheque for $100,000—the vast majority of the proceeds from the sale—to Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Bennett, who has been donating grain from his own farm to the Foodgrains Bank since 1994, sees the donation as a way to help “people who are really in need.”

He saw those needs first-hand several years ago, while on a Foodgrains Bank Food Study Tour to Ethiopia. Since then he says he has been encouraging other Canadians to get involved in efforts to end global hunger.

As for the church, his sadness at its closing is tinged with gratitude for how its legacy will continue.

“My dad and mother worked so hard there,” he says of the church, which traces its history back to 1826. “I have fond memories of the place. But through the donation, the good works of the church will live on.”

Neil Hunter, a Baptist Minister and accountant, worked with Bennett to sell the church and distribute the proceeds from the sale.

“Selling the church was a last resort, but it will go on to do some good,” he says. “The money will be used to feed a lot of people.”

While sorry that the church has closed, the Foodgrains Bank is grateful for the donation says John Longhurst, who directs communications and fundraising for the organization.

“The gift is a wonderful tribute to the over 180 years of history of the church,” he says. “The church will live on in the lives of people who receive food and other assistance in the developing world.”

According to The Centennial History of the South Gower Baptist Church, 1841-1941, the South Gower Baptist Church is one of the oldest churches in the Grenville County area, located south of Ottawa. Congregants built the first church, a wood frame building, in 1843. The present brick structure was constructed in 1886.

Image: South Gower Baptist Church.