Beechwood Church sits nestled between a woodlot and a wheat field, yet the church comes alive many times in the week with activities that fill your soul with gladness. The setting is rural, located in the Municipality of North Middlesex. The settlement of Beechwood was named after a large number of beech trees in the neighbourhood. Now the area known as Beechwood contains the church, 2 houses, a barn and a grain elevator. Within a 20 kilometre radius are the hamlets and villages of Ailsa Craig, Nairn, Parkhill, and the town of Strathroy. The area population is made up of everything from farmers to accountants to nurses to office workers to labourers. Those who don’t farm travel to the surrounding villages, towns an for their livelihood. The skills and areas of expertise compliment each other well and the community is one of everyone knowing each other, and in a lot of cases, being related to one another.
Due to proximity to larger centres, a lot of our young people have moved away, leaving our church community comprised of a more mature population. We do have a very alive Church School, although
we welcome families with young children. Our worship is leaning towards the traditional, although we do appreciate the efforts of the young people who from time to time try a more contemporary and exuberant approach.
OUR HISTORY
The original St. Andrew’s congregation began meeting long ago in a log building in Nairn, built in the 1830’s. With changes of locations, and changes within its congregation it was decided to build a new church. In October 1871, a frame building was finished at the present site of the Beechwood Church and this is the date from which we mark the anniversary years of the congregation. Later in 1912, a building committee was formed to construct a good and solid brick church. The cornerstone was laid on July 1, 1913. On January 4,1914 Beechwood Church was completed and opened to the St. Andrew’s
congregation. It was written in our 100th anniversary year, “the essence of a Christian Church consists of human and spiritual values which cannot be numbered and weighed and measured. Its real history is written in the hearts and the lives of men and women in the community”. And so in 2011 we celebrate our 140th Anniversary; something we considered a proud achievement. Since 1947 we had been a 3 point charge with the churches of Knox, Centre Road and West Adelaide. The partnership we enjoyed changed in 2008. Even in the change from our former charge, we still hold dear the times of togetherness with our “sister churches”. As much as we honour the past, we realize that our life in Christ is now, and in the future, and in that hopefulness we find the courage to serve.
