A History of the Christian Reformed Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia

The first and, to date, only Christian Reformed congregation in Halifax was officially organized in April, 1958. However, as early as 1953, members of the Christian Reformed denomination were meeting together regularly as a church community. These meetings took place in adherents homes or in the local YMCA chapel.

As the size of the church community grew, the attention of the Home Missions Board was drawn to the need for pastoral leadership. As a result, Ralph Bos, who had been serving as a home missionary to the Maritime provinces, began in 1954 to travel from his Truro home to lead the worship services which were by then being held regularly at the YMCA chapel. By 1957, the Christian Reformed Church community had grown to fourteen families and Bos relocated to Halifax to become more directly involved in developments here. The missionary was housed in a parsonage located on Rosemount Avenue in Armdale which had been purchased by the Home Missions Board.

In 1958 the Halifax Christian Reformed Church was organized and the first consistory was installed. Rev. Bos continued to lead the congregation, exchanging his designation as a home missionary for that of a pastor. He received salary support from various sources, including a large Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1959 Rev. Bos and his wife moved on to serve elsewhere and they eventually came at one time to be the oldest living ministerial couple in the denomination.

In 1960, G. Andre came to serve as pastor and during his brief tenure assisted the consistory and congregation in planning for growth and greater self-sufficiency.

In 1961, Harry Mennega, a recent graduate of Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was called to serve as the pastor of the Halifax Christian Reformed Church. At this time the congregation was still meeting in the YMCA chapel, and it was decided that better facilities would soon be required. Needs surveys were conducted in the growing Halifax suburbs of Fairview, Princess Lodge and Rockingham it was concluded that those areas would be appropriate venues for a new church building. Accordingly, three adjacent lots were purchased in Rockingham and Edward Gavel, a member and architect, prepared drawings for a small church building to be built on the site. Unfortunately, the cost of building the structure proved prohibitively high and the land was eventually sold.

Nonetheless, the Halifax Christian Reformed Church continued to grow. A church school programme was established, with classes held on Saturday mornings at First Baptist Church on Oxford Street. The transition from Dutch to English as the language of worship also began during Mennega's ministry.

In 1964 Mennega was called to serve elsewhere and his position as pastor was filled by Jerry Dykstra, another recent graduate of Calvin Seminary. The search for permanent facilities resumed, with options ranging from building across the harbour in Dartmouth to renovating abandoned houses on Lower Water Street being considered and rejected. Eventually, a venerable Victorian-era house at the corner of Inglis and Lucknow streets was acquired. The building had housed several apartments so extensive renovations were required, including the construction of a chapel on the main floor which could hold 90-100 people, church school rooms in the basement, and a manse on the second floor. The inclusion of a new manse permitted the sale of the Rosemount Avenue property. On November 5, 1966, the first worship service was held in the new building by the congregation which then numbered approximately twenty-two families.

In 1969 John Winters became the congregation's regular organist and in 1972 a new organ was acquired for the chapel.

In 1971, Jerry Dykstra began a full time university and hospital ministry in the south end. As a result, Wayne Gritter was called to serve as a pastor, with Jerry Dykstra as his associate. During Gritter's ministry a number of changes occurred, including holding church school on Sundays and conducting monthly evening services at Joseph Howe Manor and, during the summers, in members' backyards.

By 1976, Gritter had taken a pastoral position elsewhere and the congregation was experiencing decline. The option of disbanding was seriously considered. However, the process of seeking God's will led to James LaGrand being called to pastor the struggling congregation, beginning November, 1977. By 1978, the ministry had been revitalized and the congregation changed its name to All Nations Christian Reformed Church in recognition of the congregation's widened ministry as well as the increasingly multi-cultural character of its membership. Under LaGrand's leadership the congregation reached out to the local universities and also developed a number of diaconal programmes, including an emergency food service and children's clothing centre. The congregation also broadened its ecumenical contacts within the city, through the Halifax-Dartmouth Council of Churches and also through the establishment of the annual "Epiphany Series" in which local ministers of other denominations preached at All Nations during epiphany on the theme "Light to the Nations". James LaGrand also served as a part-time lecturer in New Testament Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology. During these years, the congregation advocated for change within the denomination, particularly as regards the promotion of the gifts of women in ecclesiastical office and also the severing of ecclesiastical ties with the Gereformeerde Kerk in South Africa because of its acceptance of the policy of apartheid.

Responding to the need for affordable housing in the urban core of the city, in 1981 several families within the congregation began organizing a housing cooperative. They partnered with others in the community and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and by 1984 had built a twenty-two unit housing cooperative on Creighton and Charles streets in an economically disadvantaged and racially mixed area of the city known as the old north end. A number of All Nations members moved into the cooperative and served on its board of directors. The co-operative was named "Anathoth" to commemorate the prophet Jeremiah's faithfulness in buying an abandoned property as a sign of the Lord's intention to redeem the city. During this time, many of these same members began organizing the worshipping community that came to be known as the North End Mission, which was designed to serve as a street level outreach to the surrounding community. This ministry was motivated by a vision for a new ministry in the north end and by the need to alleviate overcrowding in the Inglis Street building's small sanctuary. With funding support from the Home Missions Board, the North End Mission called John VanDonk as its pastor in 1986. The group met for worship first at the Joseph Howe School on Creighton Street and then later in a storefront unit on Gottingen Street near North Street. The North End Mission did not receive sufficient support and by 1989 had been wound down, with attendees returning to worship with the rest of the All Nations congregation.

In June, 1987, James LaGrand formally completed his pastorate of All Nations Church and moved to Basel, Switzerland, to resume doctorate studies with Marcus Barth. He later was called to minister in the Christian Reformed congregation in Gary, Indiana.

In the fall of 1987, David Kromminga accepted a call to become the pastor of All Nations Church. The years that followed were marked by a preoccupation with finding larger accommodations for the congregation. A number of options were initially considered, including the option of expanding the sanctuary within the Inglis Street building. In August, 1989, the congregation began a successful space-sharing arrangement with the J. Wesley Smith United Church of their spacious church building on the corner of Charles and Robie streets. However, this arrangement ended with the disbanding of the United Church congregation in December, 1993. By this time the congregation would not have been able to fit back into the Inglis Street building and so a number of other options were explored, including space sharing with the a local Seventh Day Adventist congregation. Finally, in October, 1994, All Nations purchased the J. Wesley Smith building and embarked on a series of substantial renovations and upgrades, at a total cost equal to the proceeds of the sale of the Inglis Street property which took place the following year.

With the question of accommodating the congregation resolved for the foreseeable future, the congregation has turned its attention to expanding its ministries, particularly within the congregation's neighbourhood. A broad range of contacts with the surrounding community were established and a process of formally reviewing the congregation's outreach ministries was begun. A decision was made to free up human and financial resources within the congregation so as to allow for a mentoring ministry, whereby families in spiritual or physical need would be drawn into a holistic relationship with God and the community of believers. With the assistance of Diaconal Ministries of Eastern Canada, a mentoring ministry coordinator has been hired by the congregation and the development of this ministry is ongoing. At the same time, the congregation has been involved in supporting the establishment of a Christian Reformed campus ministry at Dalhousie University.

In October, 2000, David Kromminga concluded thirteen years of service as pastor of All Nations Church, having accepted a call to serve as the pastor of Sherman Street Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 2001, All Nations joyfully welcomed Rev. David Vroege as our new Pastor.