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A Brief History
Don Heights Unitarian Congregation was founded in 1956.
Our first minister was Jay Chidsey who remained with the
congregation for eight years and Norman Abbott was our first
Chairperson of the Board of Directors.
During our first four years, Sunday services were held in
various locations such as school auditoriums and factory
cafeterias. We were able to build our first church in 1960
at Kennedy and Highway 401 in the east end of the city. In
order to accomplish this, many fund-raising events were held
and debentures undertaken by members of the congregation.
It was during this time - in the 60's - that our numbers
were at their highest. Creativity flourished and there was
much involvement in social action. Part of our space was
given over to a nursery for mentally challenged children and
continued until professional qualifications were changed
beyond our power to meet them.
During this time we initiated Stratford Festival Unitarian
weekends and offered packages to Unitarians across Canada
and the U.S. This provided an opportunity for Unitarians to
meet and greet each other. Our Arts Committee sponsored a
number of events with well-known speakers which attracted
many visitors to our church and brought us considerable
press coverage.
Prior to leaving our congregation in 1964, our minister
assisted us in lay leadership until the time when we would
call another minister. During the next few years we had
number of ministers both full-time and part-time. From
1973-2000 Don Heights was a lay-led congregation.
In 1985 we embarked on a plan to redevelop our property - we
sold our air rights to the Co-operative Housing Federation
thus enabling them to demolish our building and erect a
10-storey co-operative apartment building with space for Don
Heights. The building was completed in 1991. Over the next
few years the building developed many problems so it was
agreed to sell it. In 2000 space was rented at the Civic
Garden Centre to hold our services and social gatherings.
We have been at our present location since 2004 and enjoy
the spaciousness and the ability to hold services and
programs at all times. Rev. Debra Faulk, was called to our
congregation in 2006 as our full-time minister.
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