Old Grand Manan churches turn to new tech to protect their future – CBC.ca

To save themselves, three congregations on Grand Manan have turned to some advanced technology, and each other.

In 2016, a trio of Wesleyan Churches faceddwindling attendance and increasing costs to keep their aging church buildings open.

The solution: to merge allthree and build a new church in the middle of the island, one that's relying on a 20-tonne custom geothermal heating system to "future-proof" it for generations to come.

Five years ago,North Head Wesleyan Church had around 30 people come throughitsdoors each Sunday. The case was the same forSeal Cove Wesleyan Church.Central Wesleyan Church in Grand Harbour had about 80 people in its congregation. Every winter, each church saw the price of maintaining its building increase;in particular, the cost of heating.

After long discussions andbargaining over 18 months, the concept of a merger was put to a vote. It passed.

From there, theLighthouse church was created.

"It is no small thing to walk away from your building, your heritage, and things that you value, and to choose something new for the greater good," said Pastor Tim Guptill, who now heads theLighthouseChurch.

For now, the Lighthouse church congregation gathers in Grand Harbour in theCentral Wesleyan church building. But as a condition of the merger, a state of the art building with cutting-edge systems is beingconstructed.

"What everyone had to agree to in the merger is that no group got to keep their building or their pastor," said Guptill. "And all three churches had to agree to a brand-new start.

"One of the reasons for doing that is so nobody 'wins.'No one gets to keep what they had. It's equal sacrifice, we're all going to start over."

A key part of the decision to create a new building was to construct it in a way thatwould ensure churchgoers using it in future generations wouldn't be saddled with the same issues that threatened the three original churches.

After months of planning and looking at several options for heating,the Lighthouse settled on installing a massive geothermal well system.

"I don't think there's any other system like this around," said Andre Theriault, the project manager for Atlantic Heating and Cooling.

According to Theriault,two wells were drilled between 50 and 100 metres beneath the new church. Those wells will pump water deep into the earth,where it's warmed and then recirculated to the surface. The energy extracted from those warmed waters is then used to heat and cool the church for a fraction of the cost of the baseboard heaters used in the older churches.

"It's a system that's so efficient compared to any other conventional system that's out there," saidTheriault. "You'll probably savebetween 50 and 60 per cent compared to any other system out there."

Guptill said the upfront cost of purchasing and installing the 20-tonne geothermal system was steep, but according to the church's calculations "in 10 years or so, the system should pay for itself."

Guptillsaid it's a bit of a novelty on an island known for a resistanceto change. He's aware of only one other geothermal system on the island, but none as large or as advanced. This one hassix environmental zones within the building that can be independently managed.

"I walk into the control room and looks like something from a science-fiction movie," said Guptill.

Although the church has around 140 members now, Guptill said about 100 children use itsmid-week programs during "normal, non-COVID" times. Thatupcominggeneration led the church to make decisions such as the investment in geothermal wells.

"We're thinking about them and trying not to saddle them with a ton of debt, trying not to saddle themwith a bunch of headaches down the road, but set everything up for long-term growth," said Guptill.

The first service is expected to take place in the new church this summer.

But as involvedas he's been creating this new advanced church, Guptillwon't be the pastor. As part of the original deal, he'll leave his pastor role of nearly 30 years in July and be replaced by 31-year-old John Lamos.

Guptill will still be involved with the "church of the future" but will get to focus more on his family-run coffee shop just down the road.

"I look forward to the future," said Guptill. "It's all sweet, no bitter."

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Old Grand Manan churches turn to new tech to protect their future - CBC.ca