Some century-old churches on P.E.I. are renovating to become more accessible, which includes updates to accommodate many different kinds of needs.

Zion Presbyterian Church in Charlottetown recently installed an accessible lift to take people between all three of its floors, making the entire building accessible.

“It’s just been wonderful,” said Ken Heckbert, Zion Presbyterian Church chair of the board of trustees.

Now with the new lift, he said it is gratifying to know there are no physical barriers preventing people from attending.

Prior to the renovation, Heckbert said there were many events, such as potlucks and gatherings in the basement, that a lot of people were not able to get to.

For the project, the congregation received $125,000 from the federal government, $30,000 from the National Presbyterian Church in Canada, raising the remaining $130,000 themselves.

“As a church, we should be welcoming and accessible to everybody and now that we have the lift, I feel that we’re getting a lot closer to that.”

The church is also looking at adding more accessible washrooms and converting a space downstairs into a general purpose room.

Other churches throughout the city are also taking steps to make spaces more accessible.

At the Kirk of St. James in Charlottetown, some of the pews have been removed to make more space for those who use walkers or wheelchairs.

“I think it’s about being a welcoming space in a world that is getting increasingly anxious with all that’s going on. Having community where you can go and you can feel safe and you can feel loved and you can feel like you can move about with the access that you need is incredibly important,” said Reverend Amanda Henderson-Bolton.

Services are also streamed online, making it possible to be involved in the church even if in-person attendance is not an option.

Next on the list, work is underway to make the bathrooms accessible and gender-neutral.

“It’s a commitment because we feel like it’s important for people to be in this space,” she said.

Old structures harder to renovate

However, renovating a 147-year-old church can be challenging.

“We have this beautiful space, but we also want it to be accessible. And that also means kind of working within the parameters of what we have,” Henderson-Bolton said.

“Figuring out how we do things with limited space and what that looks like can be really challenging and really costly.”

There were similar problems when installing the lift at Zion Presbyterian Church.

“As you can imagine, finding a spot to put a lift in a church that’s 113 years old, it’s been a bit of a challenge, and then cutting holes through floors and opening up between floors, we had no idea what we were going to find,” said Heckbert.

Despite the challenges, Henderson-Bolton said it is worth it, and more updates are on the way to Kirk of St. James.

“We know that there’s always going to be more work to do and so it’s trying to be aware of those needs,” she said.