Covenanter Church

About

Covenanter's Church is a New England meeting house style structure located in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, and is the oldest extant Presbyterian Church in Canada. The meeting house was constructed between 1804 and 1811, with the tower, belfry, and steeple being added in 1818. The meeting house was preceded by a small log church which was demolished in 1795 in anticipation of a larger construction.

Under the leadership of Rev. George Gillmore, who had trained at the University of Edinburgh, a new church based on plain, meeting house lines was begun in 1804. In 1833 the Rev.

William Sommerville established a school and introduced a stricter regime; only allowing psalms to be sung as hymns and conducting prolonged services. The congregation was segregated during this time as well, with men sitting on one side of the church and women on the other. Sommerville and his successor, the Reverend Thomas McFall, were ordained pastors of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

Members of this church called themselves 'Covenanters', as successors to those dissenters from the Church of Scotland. From the time this church became identified with this body, and other Presbyterian churches were built...