The Meeting House Closes, Connected Sites Form New Collective

The Banner has a subscription to republish articles from Religion News Service. This story by Bob Smietana was published Sept. 4, 2024 on religionnews.com. It has been edited for length and Banner style.

Leaders of The Meeting House, a Toronto-area megachurch with multiple locations and once one of the largest congregations in Canada, has shut down its public ministry, becoming a consortium of smaller congregations.

“It is with sadness that we are required to bring the public-facing ministry of The Meeting House to an end as of Aug. 29,” says a statement posted on the church’s website. “Going forward, there will no longer be churches operating programs or doing ministry under the banner of The Meeting House.”

The statement also announced the Sept. 1 launch of “new missional church communities” in an initiative called the BIC Church Collective. The nine congregations will share weekly teaching and administrative support, according to the collective’s website. Each was a former satellite site of The Meeting House and like that now-closed ministry are part of the Be In Christ (formerly Brethren in Christ) denomination.

The launch of the new collective comes as The Meeting House congregants continue to reckon with the fallout from abuse allegations against its former longtime pastor, Bruxy Cavey. In late 2021, Cavey was accused of sexual misconduct and resigned a few months later. A church investigation later alleged that his conduct had been abusive. The Meeting House also disclosed that an investigation found 38 cases of reported misconduct involving four pastors at the church.

Though one of the criminal charges against Cavey was stayed in July of this year after a court determined his right to a speedy trial had been violated, The Meeting House’s liability insurer canceled its coverage.

After shutting down its in-person meetings in June, The Meeting House began livestreaming new sermons in August, according to The Walrus, a Canadian magazine that has tracked The Meeting House scandal. Then, on Sept. 1, the church’s livestreaming operation was rebranded as the BIC Church Collective.

“This is Day One of our new identity, this placeholder identity, as we walk in step with the Spirit into this new and somewhat unknown future,” Jimmy Rushton, who had been a teaching pastor at The Meeting House, said in introducing the streamed service.

RNS reached out to Jen McWilliams, pastor of the East Toronto BIC, and several other pastors listed on the BIC Church Collective website but received no response to email requests for comment.

Charles Mashinter, executive director of Be In Christ Church of Canada, said in an email: “While we are sad to see the ending of the ministry of The Meeting House, we are committed as a denominational family to continuing God’s work in the world both through the establishment of new BIC churches and the impact of existing BIC congregations.”

Mashinter said that the new BIC Church Collective was not a “rebranding of The Meeting House” and that the denomination is always working with groups that share their convictions “to see what new congregations might emerge.”

“Currently we are doing this with people in several former Meeting House locations, and exploring how they might work together in a collective ministry model,” he said.

The Meeting House will continue to collect donations to support the new BIC Church Collective, according to the church’s website.

In his 25 years of leadership, Cavey had grown The Meeting House, which was founded as Upper Oaks Community Church, into a congregation of more than 5,000 meetings in 19 satellite campuses and more than 200 home groups, according to The Walrus.

Cavey has admitted what he called moral failings but has denied committing any crime. “I don’t believe I failed legally,” he said in July after one of the charges against him was stayed.

The Meeting House still faces legal troubles despite the end of its public ministries. The church has been named in three lawsuits pertaining to abuse allegations against individuals other than Cavey.

c. 2024 Religion News Service