Residents rescue Canada’s oldest Baptist Church building

The Goat Island Baptist Church in Upper Clements is Canada’s oldest surviving Baptist church, and the Goat Island Church Preservation Society is hard at work to keep it that way.

The Society hopes to re-open the building to the public this summer for the first time since 2006, when the one-exit structure, lit by kerosene lamp chandelier and candles, heated by wood stoves was deemed an untenable fire hazard.

Much work remains, but the dedication and TLC of the Society is pulling this heritage building back from the brink, and will soon return it to its rightful place as a social magnet for the area. “I remember weddings and summer services and Christmas Eve services. The place would be packed. Upstairs in the balcony, too. They were standing in the aisles. People came from miles around. It was very popular,” says Maureen Potter, Society treasurer.

Society secretary Cora Mailman looks forward to bringing back special services, concerts, picnics, “And, old fashioned hymn sings. Anything to draw people in, make them aware of this lovely building. Too much of our built heritage is being lost. This is a historical building in my community, and I just want to be a part of saving it.”

Potter, great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Rev. Israel Potter who originally built the church as a non-dominational Meeting Hall, agrees, “For me, it’s partly because it was built by an ancestor, but it’s more than that. We’re losing a lot of our heritage. You can read about it in a book and I love to read, but to be able to walk into a building, to see it and feel it, that is a great experience. For us, and for generations to come.”

Indeed, like others in the area the church is important for its age and interesting for numerous intriguing design elements (click View all Photos), but the person and handicraft of Rev. Israel Potter makes this church a unique monument.

Eschewing from a Revivalist movement that swept the area then known as Clements in the 1700s, Potter remains an icon for locals, many of whom trace the roots of their family tree back to this charismatic and productive lumberer, farmer, fisher and brickmaker turned preacher. He was a driving force in constructing a number of public buildings that still stand in the area, such as the Deep Brook Baptist Church originally built as a Temperance Hall. Rev. Potter’s home stood until the 1960s on what is still known as Potter’s Point. It was torn down not for decay, but to make room for the picnic park that still exists today just west of the staff entrance to Upper Clements Park. Goat Island Church is known to some as Potter’s Church. A plaque to his memory hangs above the pulpit, and like a humble protestant pharaoh he rests within feet of his architectural legacy beneath a well-preserved grave behind the church.

Rev. Potter’s 200-year old wide hardwood boards, doubtless milled nearby, are untwisted, untainted by generations of use. Entering the balcony nary a creak or warp is to be found. It really is wonderful to see how patience and good craftsmanship can so elegantly surpass much of the astonishing scientific advances and technical wizardry of the centuries that have passed since Goat Island Baptist was built.

Next June 7th the Society hopes to re-open for another ten generations this simple monument to a bygone era of moral strength and simple conviction.

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