Grace Presbyterian Church

History

Our congregation in Woodstock began meeting for worship in 2001 after a group of believers was called by God to establish a biblically grounded Presbyterian and Reformed witness in Oxford County. The congregation called the Rev. Jeff Kingswood to serve as the founding pastor of Grace.

In the early days the congregation met in what was then the Super8 motel at the corner of Norwich Ave and Juliana Blvd. Quickly outgrowing that space the Lord then provided a facility at 50 Finkle St. that formerly had been a funeral home and then a thrift store.

In 2009 the congregation called the Rev. Brian Murray as an associate pastor of the congregation. Pastor Murray’s chief responsibility was the establishment and administration of the Gillespie Academy (www.gillespieacademy.ca). While Brian also preaches at Grace, and in area churches, and helps with pastoral work when called upon, his chief responsibility continues to be administration and teaching at Gillespie. In 2018, seeing a need for the training of Canadian theological students in a Canadian context built on the local church, the Session of Grace asked Pastor Murray to add Gillespie Divinity School to his already large responsibilities.

As the congregation continued to grow, a new place to worship was being sought and the Lord graciously directed us to the former Chalmers United Church on VanSittart Ave. We are thankful that this facility is able to be restored and renovated in such a way that it provides us with a much larger place to worship and space for our various educational endeavours.

With our growth has come additional pastoral work and outreach opportunity. To assist in this the Rev. Robert Widdowson was called and ordained in January of 2019 to be our second associate pastor. Pastor Widdowson assists in pastoral work, does some preaching here at Grace and at other churches in the area, and leads and coordinates outreach activity in the community.

We are thankful to the Lord for His faithfulness to us over the years and pray that we may faithfully serve Him and be a living witness to God’s grace to sinners in Jesus Christ, His Son, and our Saviour.