St. James Centennial United Church

St. James is a friendly congregation, with active participants of all ages. We are a great place to come and consider questions of faith, spirituality, social justice, and the challenges of daily life. In the midst of our faith journey, we regularly find time to gather for food and fun. We have nursery/toddler care during the service, but children are welcome to stay with their parents. Our Sunday School welcomes children from four years of age up to Grade 8. Our building is a large, attractive, air-conditioned downtown building. You can choose from pews or padded chairs for your comfort.

About the Service

Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Newcomers, cottagers, and visitors always welcome. Wheelchair accessible, hearing assistance devices.

About the Neighbourhood

Parry Sound lies on Hwy 400/69 on rugged Georgian Bay, formed when glaciers receded over the mighty Canadian Shield. With 30,000 beautiful islands, we host marinas, public beaches, trails, golf courses, resorts, inns, camps and lodges. Most of the year, we have a population of 6,500 in town and another 10,000 in surrounding communities, but in the summer, with the addition of cottagers, we burgeon to over 35,000. Accordingly, we have a small town feel, but services and attractions of a larger centre such as the West Parry Sound Health Centre, Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts, Island Queen Cruise, Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, Parry Sound Station Gallery, and West Parry Sound Museum. We are minutes from Wausauksing and Shawanaga First Nations and Oastler, Killbear, and Massassauga Provincial Parks. We are centrally located within 90 minutes of Bracebridge, Huntsville, Barrie, Sudbury, and North Bay.

Quick Facts

What is special about our church?

We have over 300 active members in our large, downtown church. Yet, we have a warm, intimate atmosphere. Anyone is welcome to participate in any way they wish.

What is the accessibility of our building?

It is fully wheelchair accessible, with an elevator that can be accessed from the lower parking lot door. We have an up-to-date sound system with devices for the hearing impaired.

How do people dress for service?

Anything goes – dressy or casual are both seen and accepted. Summer is always more casual.

What music is played during service?

Traditional and contemporary hymns on our beautiful, historic organ, some piano and usually a modern selection by our choir (from More Voices United).

What happens after the service?

We visit over coffee, tea, juice and treats at the back of the hall for those who want to stick around and chat. We also regularly host lunches after church.

What do we offer to children?

Year round, we have nursery/toddler care and Sunday School, however, children are also welcome to stay with their parents during the service.

What are the office hours?

Office hours are 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., Tuesday to Friday. During the summer we reduce office hours, with the secretary definitely in on Fridays, however the minister is in and out all week.

What happens during the week?

We have a variety of church-based and community groups that use our church facility such as Stephen Ministry, United Church Women, Ageless Grandmas, Al-Anon, Lions Club, Beavers.

Any special outreach projects?

We run, in partnership with a number of other churches, a low-cost, used clothing store out of the church called Mary Street Boutique (Sept.-June).

What about spiritual guidance?

We currently run two study groups that are based out of people’s homes: people gather and discuss issues of spirituality and how they impact their lives and our world.

Church Minister

Rev. Joe Gaspar

Our full time minister, Rev. Joe Gaspar, joined us in November 2006. He comes with much enthusiasm and a sense of possibility for the church’s role in our hurting world. Joe came to the United Church in 1995 after being nurtured in the Roman Catholic faith as a child and after spending many years searching for a spiritual home. He finds the United Church to be a place of great openness to new ideas and a church that is willing to take risks in order to make the message of Jesus Christ relevant to our time and place. He is a first generation immigrant of Portuguese ancestry who came to Canada when he was five. He is married with three school age children (two boys and a girl), a cat, a dog and numerous fish! Joe previously had a career in the social services field before responding to a call to ordered ministry. Joe has been ordained for three years and previously served a church in Hornepayne, Ontario. Joe’s passion is helping people to lead more spiritually significant lives.

If you would like to tour our church or have a pastoral need, please call Joe at (705) 746-8553 or email him at revstjamesNOSPAM@cogeco.net. If interested, he can email you his past few sermons.

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