West Richmond Gospel Hall, Richmond, BC

[edit] History

Some of the South Main Street Assembly brethren were very active in gospel outreach and one of these efforts eventually resulted in an assembly being formed in west Richmond in 1959. The assembly grew large, had an active gospel outreach, and built and occupied the large West Richmond Gospel Hall.

When the William McCullough family, then in fellowship at Michigan Heights Gospel Hall in Powell River, north of Vancouver, moved in the 1960s to Terrace, not far from the southern edge of Alaska, only one lady of assembly background lived in the town. The McCulloughs began a Sunday School in their home for about a year, then when numbers increased, moved it to a nearby school. The Dick Vantol family came in 1966 from West Richmond Gospel Hall in the Vancouver area.

The construction of Terrace Gospel Hall began in 1966, and the first assembly meeting took place there in April 1967. Thomas Hay, John Abernathy, William McCullough, and Dick Vantol were those who initiated the assembly. In 1968, Melvin Reid and family joined the assembly and shared in the responsibilities. Thomas Hay and John Abernathy held Gospel meetings in a school in Terrace in 1967, helped by William Funston of the West Richmond assembly. William McCullough and Dick Vantol have shared leadership. At its largest, the assembly had 32 in fellowship and 75 in the Sunday School. Since then, the Reids and Vantols returned to Vancouver and others were transferred out. Terrace Gospel Hall today has about 30 people.