{"id":20797,"date":"2018-05-31T11:52:58","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T15:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20797"},"modified":"2018-05-31T11:52:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T15:52:58","slug":"get-a-virtual-tour-of-new-aurora-united-church-at-sundays-street-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/get-a-virtual-tour-of-new-aurora-united-church-at-sundays-street-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"Get a virtual tour of new Aurora United Church at Sunday\u2019s Street Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n

The empty plot of land at the corner of Yonge and Tyler Streets has been raising questions about its future since the spring of 2014 \u2013 but that will change this Sunday as members of the Aurora United Church will be stationed outside their former home to provide Aurorans with a sneak peek of what\u2019s to come.
\nMembers of the Aurora United Church (AUC) community will be on hand to provide a virtual tour of the new church space, the foundations for which they hope to lay by the end of this year, a space which is designed to be a modern and airy place of worship with plenty of nods to its storied past.
\nThe front of the church might be modern-style glass and brick, but just inside the door, suspended seemingly in midair will be five stained glass windows, prominent features of the historic Aurora United Church building, which were salvaged from the fire.
\n\u201cWhen we were able to tell the congregation the windows survived, it was a powerful moment,\u201d recalls Lorraine Newton-Comar, who leads AUC with Andy Comar. \u201cWe just couldn\u2019t believe those windows surivived. They weren\u2019t pretty, but they will be renewed and suspended from the entrance way. That, I think, for folks coming back, will be just wonderful.
\nJust beyond this reminder of the past will be an open sanctuary space, with flexible seating that will lend the space to many different uses \u2013 including community uses \u2013 and balcony seating.
\n\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re on the other side of being able to imagine what it would be like to just open the doors and say, \u2018Come on in!\u2019\u201d says Lorraine. \u201cWe already have our shovels, so we\u2019re anxious to get going. The video is essentially a view all the way around the project. You come in the front doors and what you see is the sanctuary and up to the balcony. It will be wonderful.
\n\u201cIt is the heart of the building and I think people have been reassured. The building looks so contemporary and modern, but the inside still has some reflection of the past and that is what we\u2019re hoping for: that it wouldn\u2019t be so new that people would feel they were just out of water; there\u2019s enough there that they will feel home again.\u201d
\nIt is a home that has provided spiritual healing to the community for 200 years.
\nIt\u2019s a milestone anniversary that will be marked, but not marked in their traditional space.
\nSince the April 2014 fire, planners have been working hard to ensure a phoenix rises from the ashes. Most recently, archaeologists have been on site to ensure standards are met, but this activity has led to some confusion, according to the Ministers.
\n\u201cWhen the archaeological dig started, a lot of people felt we were starting the project, and again, it is just that there are so many \u2013 a new learning for us that before you get onto the land there are all these assessments that have to be done,\u201d says Lorraine. \u201cUnless you were building, you wouldn\u2019t know. There are some tests that are specific to Aurora, with the soil and all of that. The archaeological process is level two, so once they are done, we\u2019re done!\u201d
\nAnd it can\u2019t come soon enough.
\nFrom the Ministers\u2019 perspectives, there is excitement in the air. They have fielded a lot of questions on just what they are intending to do with the site.
\n\u201cThe building is the first touchstone for many people and they talk about what happened in the building, what happened when they were growing up and those relationships that people developed over the years,\u201d says Andy.
\nAdds Lorraine: \u201cThere is a curiosity too. When we talk about the old sanctuary, we talk about it as that golden space, and it really did feel like a golden space and it was a wonderful feeling. The appeal will be for people to come to see what did you do with those memories? How were they translated in a more modern setting? We did want a more modern setting, we wanted something contemporary, something that people would note as they were driving up and down Yonge Street. They wanted a place they could be proud of as a congregation and ensure we have lots of space.\u201d
\nThis is a view reiterated by Bill Newman, Chair of the Congregational Council.
\nAurora United Church, he says, is not building for the present. Rather, they are building for the future.
\n\u201cThe community is changing, the church itself is changing,\u201d says Mr. Newman. \u201cWe want this building to be flexible enough and forward-looking enough to suit the future because what is going to happen in the future, even in the way of worship and community involvement, isn\u2019t the same way that has happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The empty plot of land at the corner of Yonge and Tyler Streets has been raising questions about its future since the spring of 2014 \u2013 but that will change this Sunday as members of the Aurora United Church will be stationed outside their former home to provide Aurorans with a sneak peek of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-31-09.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5pr","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 04:17:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}