A Short History of Bridgeport United

If you walk the Waterloo Trail from University Avenue or Columbia St. near Hillside Park, you will come to a clearing where a great religious revival week stirred our community in August 1839.

Bishop John Seybert, a powerful preacher of the Evangelical Association rode four hundred miles on horseback, from Illinois, to Upper Canada. He led a team of five missionaries and local preachers. Fifteen tents were set up, and 800 persons attended, they were of many denominations and none. This was the beginning of this German Church in our area. Two classes of communicants were formed at the close of the camp, one in Berlin, the other in Waterloo. Bridgeport members travelled to Waterloo.

The Evangelical Association was a church of German-speaking believers in North America whose Conference Records in 1876, mentioned a Bridgeport Class as having thirty-one members.

This local congregation organized in 1878 to raise $500.05 to buy the old brick schoolhouse on Bridge St. at Woolwich St. to hold Sunday School.

In 1889, after ten years of growth this Emmanuel Evangelical Congregation built their white brick church. We were a joint mission with Waterloo until 1910. After 1914 we had a full-time minister until 2008.

In 1933, Builder Oscar Wiles used some unemployed men of the congregation to help keep costs down for a new building. A thousand people attended the Cornerstone laying on October 1st. Dedication by Bishop J.F. Dunlap was held March 18th, 1934. The Gothic design structure which holds 410 persons cost $25,000.00 to build. On Easter Sunday, four infants were baptised, also a number of adults, giving 38 new members. The historian Wilfrid Roedding wrote,” We thank God for this new temple, for the salvation of souls and for the consecration of God’s people to the task that is ours. May the Lord bless Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Bridgeport, Ontario.”

On May 6, 1940, Bishop Epp of Naperville, Illinois led a moving event to burn the mortgages on the building and parsonage. He returned to dedicate a new Woodstock Organ on December 6, 1942. In 1942, a petition was filed to become self-supporting.

In 1946, with the merger of the parent denominations in the U.S.A., the church became part of the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church.

Thirty-seven young men, and two young women from the congregation enlisted during World War II.

After the war, as in other churches, membership in the church and Sunday School swelled. bringing about a need for an education wing completed in 1958 at a cost of $45,000.00.

In 1968, it was again a merger of the parent church in the USA with the Methodists, which propelled our Emmanuel, and it's E.U.B. counterparts into the United Church of Canada. An article in the United Church Observer said, "They brought to the new church, a strong sense of mission and stewardship" "In 1963, E.U.B per member giving was $20 for Church Missions and $73 for all purposes, compared to the U.C.C. figures of $8 and $56.50.".

This church provided a home base for Flood Relief Committees several times, and after the 1974 Flood, the basement served as a distribution centre for donated clothing and furniture, working with other local churches.

In partnership with St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Vacation Bible School was held alternately for nearly forty years. The churches also took turns hosting the Annual Scout-Guide Church Parade, and the ministers continue to participate in the Decoration Day Service at the Free Church, most years, in June..

During the 100th Anniversary year, in 1978, special worship services and celebrations were held including reviving the annual pork supper.

The 1987 Annual Meeting decided to change to the historic name of Bridgeport to stop the confusion with Emmanuel United in Waterloo.

This congregation celebrated it’s 130 Anniversary with a month of special events in November 2008

A proposed amalgamation and closing of BUC was narrowly voted down in March 2009, but hope soared for those voting to remain as the sunshine flooded through the windows as the results were announced. Earlier, Wilfred Roedding, in his history of the congregation mentions we had 39 ministers in 130 years. Perhaps their short ministries at Bridgeport taught our congregation to work together to carry on from one leader to the next, continuing Christ’s mission and work in this area. Thanks be to God.

B.A.Q.