Church sale causing problems for Scarborough daycare.
St. Crispin's Daycare Centre located in the St. Crispin's Anglican Church is asking for more time to move so it doesn't have to close down after the sale of the church.
Staff photo/DAN PEARCE
In its eagerness to combine four south Scarborough churches into one, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto is inconveniencing another local institution, a daycare.
That, at least, is how employees and parents with children at St. Crispin's in Cliffside see it.
Church services at the red brick building on Craiglee Drive ceased this fall, and in July a letter informed the non-profit, parent-run daycare it would have to leave by Dec. 31.
Its management found a new home for the children at Highway Gospel Church on Midland Avenue, but municipal permits are taking longer than expected.
Several times, board members have asked the diocese for another month.
"They adamantly said no," daycare supervisor Debbie Humphreys said this week, "because they want to sell this place tenant-free."
The parents are aware an offer has been made for the property of the former St. Crispin's.
"The offer to purchase is conditional upon the purchaser conducting its due diligence, which includes various inspections and tests. This work is currently underway," Stuart Mann, a spokesperson for the diocese, said in a statement.
He would not explain why operating the daycare at St. Crispin's for a few more weeks would interfere with the sale.
Humphreys said members of the former church started the daycare in 1977.
"I'm surprised they would rather have it vacant than help us out," said Julie Leiper, a board member who added parents have been told the daycare, which has seven employees, will temporarily close Jan. 1 and be "kind of homeless for a while."
Humphreys said news of the church closing has already lowered daycare attendance from 62 to 35 children, about half of those filling subsidized spaces.
"We'll probably lose a lot of them" during the interrupted move, she added.
The daycare did receive good news this week about a city grant that will help expand some windows at Highway Gospel, work required to house a daycare there.
Services for area Anglicans continue at St. Giles on Kecala Road in Dorset Park, but after four congregations voted their agreement in June, that church too is slated to be closed and sold.
So is St. George, on St. Clair Avenue East, and the Church of the Epiphany on Kennedy Road.
Replacing all four will be a new, more modern church called Grace Church in Scarborough on the Church of the Epiphany property. The diocese has announced its construction, paid for through the property sales, will be completed in 2012.
"The new church will integrate and honour the important memorials, furnishings and liturgical traditions of the former churches while providing a place that is environmentally friendly and boldy proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord," Mann said in a message Wednesday.