Eden United Church

Gather, Grow and Go!

In 1819 Samuel Switzer, along with several Wesleyan Methodist families from Tipperary, Ireland, settled on land which is the traditional territory of the Mississauga’s of the New Credit, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat First Nations and is now located in the area of Derry Rd and Winston Churchill Boulevard.    These Irish pioneers valued education and by 1823 had built a small log schoolhouse on Samuel Switzer’s farm. Soon after, Switzer sold, for five pounds an acre, part of his land in order that a church and cemetery be built. In 1824, the Methodist families established a congregation and gathered to worship in their homes becoming part of the Methodist Circuit of Saddlebag Preachers. The first worship service in the small, wood-framed “Switzer’s Church” was held in 1824.

The growing community officially known as Lisgar named for Sir John Young Lisgar, the Governor General of Canada in 1871, was unofficially called “Switzer’s Corners”.

In time, the Switzer’s Church building became too small and was replaced in 1868 by a larger red-brick church built on the north side of Derry Road directly opposite the cemetery, on a parcel of land donated by Isaac Waite. The February 2, 1869 opening worship service of the new brick church was renamed Eden, because of the rich farmland in the area.

In 1908 the church was ravaged by fire that was said to have been started by an overturned candle. It was repaired and reopened in 1910. In 1923, the church was partially destroyed, this time by a cyclone, and was again restored by members of the congregation. Following the Church Union in 1925 Eden was officially named Eden United Church.

For several reasons, the Congregation decided to move from the old, red-brick church on Derry Road to the Meadowvale West Church Campus sharing space with Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian congregations. The final worship service in the old church was held Good Friday, April 4, 1980. At the end of the service the people gathered-up the Bible, and the communion elements and processed to the new location while singing the hymn “One More Step Along the World I Go”. Fittingly, the first worship service at the Church Campus was Easter Sunday, May 6, 1980.

In time, Eden United Church outgrew its Church Campus location. In August 1986, the congregation relocated its worship services to the Meadowvale Secondary School’s cafetorium while waiting for a new church to be built on the northwest corner of Winston Churchill Boulevard and Battleford Road.

The first worship service at the newly consecrated Eden United Church took place August 27, 1989 following a congregational procession from the “old to the new”.

The red-bricked historical church built in 1868 was demolished in August, 1980. The pioneer cemetery remains and is now cared for by the City of Mississauga. The family names of the interred were recorded by the Halton-Peel Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

Today the only reminders of Switzer’s Corners are Eden Cemetery, a street named Lisgar and pioneering family names such as Switzer, Mason, Sparling, May, Waite, Cordingley. We remember and honour the pioneering spirit and stories of these and others who gathered, grew and went out into the world to establish our community.

Eden United Church celebrated its 175^th anniversary in 1999 and looks forward to celebrating 200 years of Christian mission and community service in 2024.