congregations of Lot 14 and Lot 16. The two newly estab- lished United Church congregations retained the name of Richmond Bay East Charge and shared a minister until 1951. This union worked well until the Grand River Ferry

mm. a.“ mqkmum W.

Story told by the late Donald MacLean, Tyne Valley:

“On the Sunday after Union was declared, those Presbyter- ians got up early and went to church. When all the Presbyter- ians were inside, the door was locked and barred. Those in favor of Union were unable to get in when they arrived for church. The Unionists beat, to no avail, on the door but were barred from entry. The gentle- man who owned the land across the road was in favour of Union. He addressed those who were shut out: Let us not bother with them! Let us go dorms the road

and [MM our own church! And that f

is what they did.”

To this day the two churches sit on opposite sides of the road facing each other.

was shut down in 1946. The two charges found themselves separated by the river with a long distance to travel by road. Roads blocked by snow and deep in spring mud were a challenge for the clergy and, thus, the churches moved towards another change.

Discussions were held in the 19505 to decide on the most suitable place for the Lot 16 United Church Congregation. Surrounded as it was by Catholic com- munities, there were no obvious close unions, whereas Lot 14 could easily join with the west. A Congregational meeting of the Richmond Bay East Charge was held in the Lot 16 Church May 12, 1956 to discuss presenting a case to Presbytery to either join with Wellington, hire a retired minister, or afﬁliate with Trinity United Church in Summerside. The con- gregation believed afﬁliation with Surn- merside was the ideal solution since a sec- ond minister could be hired and housed in the Lot 16 Manse. A committee was appointed to meet with the Summerside congregation but the Trinity congrega— tion and its minister were not in agree- ment with such a move and no further action was taken. This proved a great dis-

appointment to the Lot 16 congregation which was unable to independently ﬁnance a minister.

In 1959, Presbytery once again joined Lot 16 with Princetown, now also a United Church, to form the Princetown—Lot 16 Pastoral Charge. But, at this time, Malpeque Bay was not used for travel back and forth between

43 ORIGINS OF OUR FAITH