The Center of Hope International Church has been reborn, just in time for the Easter season.Evicted late last month from its 3,500 square foot space at 914 Eastern Ave. due to noise concerns from the neighbouring yoga studio, the community-based, arts-oriented Christian church is now finalizing the details to rent the venerable Fox Theatre at 2236 Queen St. E. for its Sunday morning services.
Head pastor Deon Malloy, a Toronto Community News advertising salesperson, saw the situation as a test of faith but always remained optimistic everything would work out in the end.
That positive attitude carried over to the members of his congregation who were initially upset by the news but took on the challenge as an opportunity.
"Overall the sense of togetherness and community came alive," Malloy said Wednesday afternoon, adding that not one single church member announced they'd be leaving the Center of Hope, an affiliate of the Alberta-based Victory Churches International.
"The fact is they were supportive. The church isn't a building, it's people."
Malloy, who booked the Fox for a children's movie event about a year ago, stopped in one day to chat with its co-owner, Andy Willick.
"There are a lot of churches all over North America that are actually going in to theatres. It's a good fit," Malloy said, adding they would save money now as they would only need to rent the space for a few hours each week.
"I would stay there as long as I can. It's great how God works things out."
The Fox is also able to provide some storage space for the church's sound system and equipment. Plans are also in the works to rent out the theatre for Saturday morning band practices.
Willick said the Fox, Canada's oldest independent running theatre, would also benefit from the arrangement.
"It seems like a pretty complimentary relationship and they can use the screen, as well, during their services," he said, explaining that they're working on hammering out an agreement to share some of the church's sound equipment so that they can book more concerts and music events.
"We've actually been working on expanding our programming lately."
Starting this month, the local movie house will host opera events. It also plans on having video games on the big screen by the end of April.
Everything worked out as a client who was using the space for monthly Sunday morning screenings agreed to move her event to Saturday mornings to accommodate the Center of Hope's rental.
A pastor for about 12 years now, Malloy said he did check out a few possible locations in the community.
The congregation's former home, St. John the Baptist Norway on Woodbine Avenue, even offered up its basement space in the event the Center of Hope was in a bind.
"That was very heartfelt," he said. "The support from the community was amazing. We had so many calls offering prayers and well-wishes."
Moving day for the local house of worship is tomorrow (March 21) while the first official service at the 250-seat theatre will be on Sunday, April 5, one week before Easter Sunday.
"Easter is symbolic of life. It's just too coincidental. We see the hand of God in it," said Malloy, who runs the church with his wife Melissa, a leadership team as well as a three-member board.
The church will still need to rent a storage space to hold all of its chairs, tables, kitchen supplies and appliances and children's items that were in its previous location.
Malloy admitted it's been a very stressful past few weeks but said everything worked "way better than we could have ever thought."