About Burlington East ...
Who We Are ...
We are Burlington East Presbyterian Church. We are a mature Christian congregation located in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
We are part of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Our worship services are traditional Presbyterian.
We were formed on January 1, 2007 by the amalgamation of two former Presbyterian congregations in east Burlington: Strathcona and Pineland. We reside in the former Strathcona church building. With the addition of many new families since our amalgamation, we have built upon our former heritages to become a body that is greater than the sum of its parts.
What We Believe
The centre of our faith is the Living God. We believe that God is our heavenly father in whom “we live and move and have our being”.
We are part of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Presbyterian Churches are those Christian Churches that share certain beliefs and have a Presbyterian form of church government. As such we are Evangelical, Catholic and Reformed.
We are “Evangelical”. In the New Testament the word “evangel” means good news. It is exactly the same word as “gospel”. The good news, of course, is about Jesus Christ: his life, teachings, death and resurrection. Based on our understanding of the Bible, evangelicals, then, are those who believe the good news and want to share it.
We are Catholic. “Catholic” does not mean “Roman Catholic”. The word catholic means universal, or worldwide. To belong to the Catholic church is to say that we belong to the Christian church as it is found around the world, and throughout the ages.
We are Reformed. The words Reformed and Presbyterian mean the same thing. The word Reformed is used more often on the continent of Europe. The word Presbyterian is used more often in Britain and in North America. Both words refer to our denomination which came out of the Protestant Reformation, a major religious movement that occurred around the 16th century.
Where We Live
We are located at 505 Walkers Line in southeast Burlington close to the Walkers Line and New Street intersection. The original part of our church building was built about 40 years ago and comprises the sanctuary, lower hall, kitchen, washrooms and various smaller rooms. In 1991, a major extension was added comprising a custom-built nursery, meeting rooms, additional washrooms, wheelchair accessible washroom and offices together with a lift to make the whole building wheelchair accessible.
Since our formation as the new congregation of Burlington East, we have undertaken a major renovation of the former Strathcona church building. This has included numerous external repairs to the fabric of the building to return it to mint appearance – and indeed better. In addition, we have made many upgrades to improve year-round comfort. These have included installing new heating and air conditioning, upgrading our kitchen and lower hall, renovating our washrooms, refreshing our nursery, meeting rooms and offices, etc. Most recently, we have completed a total refurbishment of the sanctuary. The final phase is to refresh the extension built in 1991.
We have been extremely fortunate that all these renovations have been fully paid for by the sale of the former Pineland church building.