‘A constant trickle … until there’s little or nothing left’

Massive loss of cultural wealth feared as cash-strapped churches struggle to preserve buildings

Second in a two-part series, Endangered Legacy: Churches at Risk. Read part one.

The destruction by fire of St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto last June underscores risks faced by aging churches across Canada, an architectural historian says—and the country could face significant loss of cultural heritage in the years to come.

Peter Coffman, a Carleton University art and architectural history professor who specializes in Canadian Gothic Revival buildings, says many churches are in danger of being destroyed or collapsing. As their congregations shrink, so does the money to pay for their maintenance and preservation.

Canada’s loss of its historic churches is likely to be a protracted process, he says.

“I doubt there’s going to be a wave,” Coffman says. The danger, he says, is that it will be “more of a constant trickle—drip, drip, drip—until there’s little or nothing left.”

For Coffman, the loss of St. Anne’s is instructive. He describes the unique Byzantine Revival church, which housed the only known religious artwork by members of the Group of Seven, as “in a class of its own in terms of its heritage importance.” Yet, he adds, “they still were scrounging year after year to raise enough money to patch the roof.”

A May 1998 report on CBC’s The National said the congregation at St. Anne’s was trying to raise $1 million to fix a leaky roof. Another report that summer by The Globe and Mail estimated the cost of repairs at $2.25 million, though the latter figure included costs to repair the brick exterior of the church.

Even before the fire, Coffman says, the future of St. Anne’s was far from secure. More than 25 years ago, he visited the church to do research and spoke to then-rector the Rev. Peter Orme.

Orme, he recalls, “was pointing out to me in various spots where there was water damage and water coming in. It was affecting the ceiling. They’ve been trying in a sort of patchwork, piecemeal way to fix that for two or three decades.”

Modern sprinkler systems, Coffman says, have helped reduce the threat of fires—but cash-strapped churches often cannot afford them. In a Toronto Star article published after the fire at St. Anne’s, rector the Rev. Don Beyers said the church had no sprinkler system. A traditional one, he said, would have put “too much pressure” on the historic structure.

“It’s not an easy thing to retrofit a sprinkler system into a building like that,” Coffman says. “You’ve got to add a lot of plumbing and it’s going to cost some money. It might require some structural reinforcement because plumbing and water are heavy. So it’s a big investment.”

An official investigation into the fire at St. Anne’s was still underway as this article was being written, though police have said the blaze is not considered suspicious.

Other churches face collapse due to long-term structural damage. The 140-year-old Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Winnipeg needs $7 million in repairs and faces possible demolition. The vestry has been exploring options for alternative worship locations, including nearby St. John’s College, in case of an emergency arising from structural and safety issues.

Structural deterioration is not the only fire risk. On July 24, a wildfire burned the historic St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church in Jasper, Alta. to the ground.

The Anglican Foundation of Canada often provides grants for church repairs and maintenance. But it requires properties to have fire insurance in place beforehand as a security measure—and insuring church buildings, foundation executive director Scott Brubacher says, has become much more expensive in recent years after a wave of church fires and the continuing threat of wildfires.

Challenges preserving churches are by no means confined to the Anglican Church of Canada. Coffman, who spent two years at Dalhousie University on a research fellowship looking at conditions of historic churches in Nova Scotia, says he has recently seen important Roman Catholic churches in the province up for sale with “astonishingly small” asking prices—but little buyer interest.

“There are no nibbles because nobody knows what to do with them,” he says.

For Coffman, the likelihood that a society will preserve a historic building is tied to its perceived usefulness.

“If a building isn’t needed, if a building has literally no use… it’s either just going to fall apart or it’s going to catch fire or it’s just going to be demolished,” Coffman says.

Conversely, he adds, the first task in preserving a church building is to find a use for it—whether religious, secular, or both. It also means being selective, since it is likely not feasible to preserve every historic building, Coffman says.

Some Anglican churches have successfully preserved their buildings as purely religious spaces. John Ross, trustee for overseeing building projects at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, says the 129-year-old church has undergone several major renovations in the last 15 years.

In 2014-2015, Christ Church Cathedral launched a successful fundraising campaign to replace its roof and add a new bell tower. Among those who donated was the B.C. government, which gave $1 million for the campaign. The cathedral also installed a new sprinkler system and upgraded the structure to protect against earthquakes.

“We’ve been very fortunate that we consider ourselves Vancouver’s downtown church, and a lot of people come by and support the building just because they like it,” Ross says. “They appreciate it. They might come in and sit for a while or attend a service the odd time. But I think a lot of people who work downtown have provided support, both individuals and corporations… We’ve had significant support from the general public in addition to our own congregation, so we’ve been very fortunate that way.”

A more secular use was found for St. Philip’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg, put up for sale in 2021. CTV News reported in 2023 that when Stephen Borys, director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery- Qaumajuq, heard rumours St. Philip’s would be bought and torn down, he and his wife bought the church, restored it and maintained its facades while creating six rental apartments inside.

Coffman sees the interest of community groups in Winnipeg as potentially indicating a shift in public attitudes on the need to preserve historic buildings.

“The trajectory is, I think, headed in the right direction,” Coffman says. “That trajectory is not steep enough and was too slow to be of help to St. Anne’s in the end. But I think there is some hope in that respect—that there’s a growing critical mass of people who realize that we have something special and of value.”