Christ Church

This is a mild church in downtown Niagara Falls. Just really a good take imo. Also a beautiful place. It's on the Niagara Gorge...

We visited the church today, Oct 06, 2019, my wife and I as we were in Niagara. It is a piece of art and history. Congregation is loving and welcoming. We loved the worship. God bless you.

We worshipped at their 8 a.m. service. It was different from ours in Euclid, however it was a nice service and start to our day.

Sunday morning has joined all the Sunday mornings of the past. A month of Sundays is a great phrase but I'm talking a series of Sundays reaching back to the invention of Sunday on the calendar. Which seems expansive, and yet I can defend myself against the charge of expansiveness. While I have known fifty- five years of Sundays, I am aware of Sundays that arose with the sunshine and expired with the dark before my time. In honor of those Sundays, I dared to arrive late to Christ Church, on the Niagara Gorge north of the Rainbow Bridge. I knew a Eight O' Clock service had already finished when I woke up. I also knew I would not enjoy a nice hot breakfast at the Victoria Castle if I shot off for services at Ten. So I enjoyed an omelette, fresh fruit including two kinds of grapes and hot coffee in a dining room that could have served fifty guests in their fine, evening attire. I think she said the house served as a private residence over fifteen decades before her loving restoration a few years ago. So I enjoyed the meal at my appointed table, enjoyed a second cup of coffee, grabbed all my personal belongings gathered up in my new camera bag, and sauntered over to the church. The owner, Mary, made sure I had a bottle of water and hard candy for the road. "And could I have a hug"? Why not. "When you come back, I'll welcome you like family". She's a super host for AirBnB, but when the August ritual returns us to the Shaw Festival, I still think we'll stay at the Vineyard Cabins. For the most part, I try never to return to the same property a second time.

I mistakenly walked up the stairs to the fellowship hall where four women who grew up in the church, among the oldest churches in Canada, were setting out four different trays of butter tarts. "I'm sorry, but we can't serve you until the rector arrives. Please, feel free to sit down and wait". And since I just finished a proper breakfast what I said wasn't a total dodge and lie. "I know I am late for service but which way to the sanctuary"? I thought maybe I could catch the benediction. "Go that way", the leader pointed. I ended up in a study which must have been right behind the organ pipes, the walls vibrating like a speaker. I ran outside and found the main cathedral door by the memorial garden.

Finally inside, the rector talked quietly to his fifty congregants about the sick of the parish, including a young woman returned home after a transplant. She'll return to elementary school in January once her immune system has gained strength. He could talk quietly from the pulpit because the acoustics of the sanctuary carried his voice between two old walls of limestone. A woman helped me find Hymn 317 in the common book of prayer, a woman who was the grandmother of a pair of grandchildren, the two babes in the arms of their parents. So of course I sang. As the final hymn, the choir ushered out together, two by two for six rows total, a deacon held aloft the bible high as her arms could reach and the rector sang the hymn from memory as he passed my ear.

Afterwards, I began to examine flags given to the church by the Lincoln and Welland Brigade, defenders of Niagara Falls during the War of 1812. From 1865 to 1929, the regiment must have worshipped at the church because the flags were given to the church in 1929. I could imagine the men and their families filling the scores of rows on a Sunday, a Sunday before my time.

The Verger came over to inquire. "May I help you"? "Oh sorry. Just touristing"!

"You were late for service, sir ".

"Sorry, I was staying at the Victoria Castle, and she served breakfast at 10".

"Accepted. Please join us for fellowship upstairs".

"Thanks. I was already in the hall. The auxiliary kept me from demolishing the butter tarts prematurely".

"We're having butter tarts? That's good news".

I excused myself to visit the memorial garden, near the gorge wall, sacred to the memory of the Lincoln and Welland Brigade. Benches honored the families of the congregation, left by families who knew them.

This is a beautiful church. I have photographed at the Christ Church in Niagara Falls several times. I enjoyed the architecture at the Christ Church. The Christ Church is located in the Downtown Niagara Falls neighborhood of Niagara Falls and is very close to the Henri's Motel - Rick Trus review