I have had my eye on this property for a number of years with frequent visits to no avail. This house sits on a busy road in the southern area of the Hamilton mountain and I always enjoy telling the story of the house to unsuspecting people as we drive by.
From the mid 1990's to late 2000's this unassuming building was the home of Dr. David Galston and his religious following "The Church of the Eternal United Springs". This was a small enough operation that it was run out of Galston's living room - a place which came to be known as a "religious centre of learning" The congregation was known as being very liberal, advocating unconditional sharing and acceptance regardless of creed, orientation, or opinions. Dr. Galston, who is currently the ecunemical chaplain at Brock University, encouraged an examination of the richly diverse mosaic of belief systems across the world. In seeking for like minded thinkers, Dr. Galston called for those who, "dedicate their lives to finding answers to questions - and questions to answers. It was in the house pictured here that events were hosted such as "Being Muslim For a Day" where around 50 people expressed solidarity with Muslims suffering the war in Afghanistan.
The left leaning nature of the Church of the Eternal United Springs has led some people to talk about the following as some kind of cult led by a dubious leader behind closed doors. However, as excitingly nefarious this may be (and I would like nothing more then to confirm it) I have not found any official resources that even hint at something as such - although these references are mostly religious website that chamption Dr. Galston. I also did my research by consulting the Hamilton Archives at the central library branch where I was able to reference a few articles from the Hamilton Spectator. If I recall, the news of the Church's closing was a major article.
Myself and one other person found ourselves inside this very recently. The house was in very good conditions with only some evidence of decay. Most of such from the elements. I had no tripod, and there was virtually no light inside so every picture is taken with flash. As such these pictures dont offer much in term of artistic value - but instead allow interesting insight into the activities of the building.
"My ministry has been about watching the church die. The great struggle is to figure out what's going to be born" - Rev. Dr. David Galston
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This is my first post hope you enjoy, I had a lot of fun writing it. I have been urbexing a few years now but never been active on uer.
References:
https://www.religi...-in-hamilton-22277 http://www.raheelr...hatsnew.htm#musoim https://brocku.ca/.../chaplains/galston http://haltonpres....uman-face-of-jesus