A BIT OF HISTORY
St. Croix Church was started by Peter and Mary Ellen Fitch and a church planting team on October 4, 1992. Our original name was St. Croix Christian Fellowship. We were planted under the sponsorship of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Lewiston, Maine, but we weren’t officially adopted by the Association of Vineyard Churches until January, 1994, and became St. Croix Vineyard.
Right from the start we had a deep desire to grow in terms of understanding worship, healing prayer, care for children, care for broken people, and care for building a strong and healthy community of people that actually helped each other in practical ways. We’ve also had a consistent focus on sharing with those in need outside of our church community.
For three years we met in a small community hall outside of St. Stephen, then we moved to the St. Stephen Elementary School Gym. Later we found offices to rent and a worship space over top of a local pub. Finally, in November of 1997, we moved into the Sara McCaffrey Parish Center, an old Catholic School.
We continued to rent space in this building for the next period of time, along with the local Boys and Girls Club and several other groups, until the end of December, 1999. At this time, through several wonderful events (including a large unsolicited gift that arrived one week before the closing of the deal), we were able to purchase the school and rename it The Vineyard Center. This was the fulfillment of something we felt God had told us earlier: if we would get involved in helping to build a new home for a family He called us to help near our area, at the right time He would give us a house of prayer, a building of our own. In the end, that’s what happened.
A NEW BEGINNING
In 2020, we were asked to leave the Vineyard denomination in Canada and stop using the name because we are an affirming church; that is, we believe that the serious relationships of people of minority sexualities are as important as those of heterosexual people. We, therefore, perform same-sex marriages and we celebrate the gifts and lives of all people in our community. Our new name is St. Croix Church. Our building is now called The Victoria Street Centre.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHURCH COMMUNITY
There are several other distinctives about our church community:
First is our close relationship with ► St. Stephen’s University. Quite a few of the people who attend our services either work or study at SSU, including many of our church staff members. SSU students add life and passion to our art, music, and work in the community.
Second is the fact that all of our church staff members have other jobs. This means that much of the pastoring work of the church is done by other people in the church. People tend to do this quite naturally without a lot of planning or supervising from the leadership team.
Third is the sense that God is building a community in our area that is larger than our church and the university but is deeply connected to both, and to other local groups as well. People sometimes move here in order to participate. Although St. Stephen has many social challenges, it is a wonderful town. In recent years there has been a resurgence of creativity, economic development, and the arts. We believe this is something that God is doing. Celtic Christians sometimes speak of a “thin place”, a place where the veil between the natural and the supernatural worlds is tissue thin. There are times when it seems as though God is building St. Stephen into such a place.