THE BIG MOVE 1977

THE BIG MOVE 1971

In the late 1960's, many farm families in Valleyfield were selling their farms and moving to Montague, or beyond. Many of the farms were sold to immigrants whose religeous affiliations were not with the UCC. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the congregation there to maintain its building, programs, and minister. In 1969 the Lower Montague United Church had closed and the congregations merged with that of Trinity United in Montague. The church building was too small for the resulting congregation.
Many people now claim responsibility for coming up with the idea to close Trinity, moving the Valleyfield church to Montague and forming one wider congregation. There are motions recorded in the minutes of various committees and congregations; but they don't reflect the long process of discussions. On May 16, 1971, the last service in the Valleyfield United Church before being moved to the present location and being rename Hillcrest United Church.

At a meeting on March 23, 1971 the name for the new church was discussed and voted on. The name “Montague-Valleyfield” passed. The next recorded meeting, on October 3, 1971 was called to discuss the opening services of “Hillcrest United Church ...”. Sometime, somehow between March and October the name changed to “Hillcrest”.

In June 1971 when the first section of the Valleyfield Church was travelling on the flatbed across the Valleyfield River at Sutherland's Hill, there were people praying that the bridge would give out and the section would crash into pieces in the river, bringing to an end a project which did not have their blessing. But there were even more people praying for the opposite, that it would make it, and beyond that, that the congregations would make it too, so that one strong congregation would result from the adventuresome move.

MORE HISTORY

Not only was it an act of vision and faithfulness to move the church in 1971 from Valleyfield to Montague, it was also a financial cost, $100,000. But the project proceeded under the assumption that the three congregations of Lower Montague, Montague and Valleyfield would pull together, pay the bills and become one. They certainly did. The years have shown that the building, in pieces, did survive the move, and survived it well.

In 1974, three years after the church building was moved to Montague, a stone cairn was built in Valleyfield on the site of the original log meeting house. Inscribed on it are the church buildings and dates from 1842 to 1971. It also includes this quote from Psalm 119.90 A
in Gaelic and English:

o linn gu lino tha d'fhirinn
“Your faithfulness endures through all the ages”