A new mega-church throws opens its doors just outside of St. Albert this weekend and it's huge.
Christcity Church is holding the grand opening of its new building this Sunday at 10 a.m. The massive 50,000-sq.-ft.-building has been under construction since 2009. It stands at the intersection of 156 Street and Mark Messier Way across from City Ford.
The church has about 1,000 members, says associate pastor Jeff Harmon, and they can seat up to 1,700 in the building's main hall. By comparison, Edmonton's Winspear Centre seats 1,916.
That makes this church likely the largest in the St. Albert region in terms of capacity, according to local priests — the next biggest is likely North Pointe Community Church on 167 Ave., which can host about 830 people.
Harmon says the church will be open to people from throughout the greater Edmonton region. "We want everyone to enjoy the message of God's love."
Almost finished
Construction workers were still busy putting the final touches on the church when the Gazette visited Thursday. The plan is to have the interior finished by Sunday, Harmon says, with the landscaping to come later. "It'll be fully functional as of this Sunday."
The church, formerly known as Bethesda Church, first opened its doors in Edmonton around 1965, says Harmon, a former St. Albert resident who's been with the church 29 years. "We really wanted a more metropolitan focus," he says, so the church decided to move to this higher traffic location.
The new building has been under construction for about 18 months. Their old building is now home to the Western Canadian Alliance Church.
"We wanted this to be modern, efficient and able to be used very economically," Harmon says of the $18-million facility. The main hall has theatre-style seats, sophisticated stage lighting and excellent acoustics. The building also has a 400-person banquet hall and several large side rooms, each able to hold about a hundred people.
The church is non-denominational, he continues, and draws its members from throughout the greater Edmonton region. "We have a very young, culturally relevant congregation," he says, and they tend to use a lot of multimedia in their meetings.
Dean Kurpjuweik of the St. Albert Christian Ministerial welcomed the new church to the region, noting many St. Albert residents attend churches in Edmonton and vice-versa. The ministerial, which brings together local churches for various social causes, hasn't worked much with Christcity before, but has often teamed up with North Pointe. "We hope they do God's work in the Edmonton area."
Any questions on the church should go to 780-475-1486.
