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Although our church home is the Orillia Christian Church (OCC), I have been in several of the other churches in town, either for worship services, or weddings , baptisms or, celebrations. For a while when our children were very small, we attended Bethel Baptist Church (though we are not Baptists) because they had a good Sunday School program, and used to have a group for youth (Pioneer Girls) that our kids liked. A number of the churches offer meeting or banquet rooms available for rent, and some offer catering for smaller affairs. Many offer family events through the year, and these are often opened to the general public to attend. One doesn't have to be a member to attend most of the special events (some may be ticketed events, or by donation, or entirely free). Most have programs geared to youth, and Sunday School for small children, as well as nurseries for the little tots.
Looking through the list of available churches or worship places, I'd say that most denominations appear to be well covered. You may also find the "House Church" in Orillia, though I don't have a list of these. The two I knew of no longer exist. These simply are smaller groups of worshippers who meet in someone's home, rather than a dedicated church building, but to be honest, many of these aren't publicized and if they aren't, it's difficult to find except by word of mouth.
| St. Andrews Presbyterian Church 99 Peter STreet North St. Mark's Presbyterian Church 429 Jamieson Drive St. James' Anglican Church 58 Peter Street North St. Athanasius' Anglican Church 10 Westmount Drive North St. David's Anglican-Lutheran Church 133 James Street East First Baptist Church 265 Coldwater Road West Bethel Baptist Church 300 Coldwater Rd. W Orillia Baptist Church 50 Douglas St. St. Pauls United Church 62 Peter St. N. Westmount United Church 23 Westmount Dr. South Forest Home United Church 165 15th Line North Regent Park United Church 175 Oxford Street Salvation Army Orillia Citadel 157 Coldwater Rd West First Christian Reformed Church of Orillia 50 Fittons Road West Christian Fellowship Chapel Mennonite Brethren 1296 Cambrian Rd. Orillia Star of Hope Spiritualist Church 56 West Street North (T.I.E. Club) |
Orillia Community Church Non-Denominational 64 Colborne Street East Connexus Community Church 865 Westridge Boulevard (in the Galaxy Theatre) Simcoside Lifepointe Church 113 Simcoe Street Jubilee Celebration Centre Evangelical Non-Denominational 201 Woodside Drive (Highwayman Inn) Orillia Alliance Church 81 Fredrick Street Calvary Pentecostal Church 375 Westmount Dr. No. Hillside Bible Chapel New Testament Assembly 195 Atlantis Dr. Orillia Dominion Gospel Hall Gospel Assembly 38 Andrew Street South Church On the Hill Free Methodist Church 96 Quinn Ave. Guardian Angels Roman Catholic Church 115 West Street North St. Columbkille's Parish (Roman Catholic) 4993 Hwy 12 (Uptergrove) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 10 Skyline Drive Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses 519 Laclie Street (705) 326-0644 Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Meeting House 231 Westmount Drive South Also see: Orillia District Association of Churches |
Other Places of Worship
Synagogues
To my knowledge, there currently are not any synagogues in Orillia. The nearest I can find is in Barrie. If anyone knows of one that's closer than the Barrie, please feel free to let me know.
Mosques
There are doesn't appear to be any mosques in Orillia, either. There is a fairly recent Mosque near Oro-Medonte (just outside of Orillia) called the Maryam Mosque. It's just a few minutes travel from Orillia.
And for those who don't mind the travel a list of nearby Mosques in other areas can be found here.
Most of Orillia's oldest church buildings are quite beautiful on the inside, with old polished or carved woodwork and wonderful stained glass windows. If I had to choose just one for beauty, I think it might be St. James' Anglican Church. The windows are gorgeous, the woodwork is beautiful, and the chapel is warm and welcoming. St. James' also has a lot of different rooms inside - the interior contains much more space than one would guess by looking at the outside of the building. Although I've attended several weddings at St. James', I've also seen a couple of their "meeting rooms" (which might also be Sunday School rooms). There is a very large basement hall used for a multitude of things, and at the backside of the building is a rather hidden little shop maintained by the parishoners. The St. James' Thrift Shop. It is only open on specific days of the week, The shop is tiny, and the stairs down to it from outside are quite narrow, but my daughter and I often run into the shop when they have their special sale days (usually $2 for whatever you can fit into a plastic grocery sack they give you). We've managed to get some great buys on clothing and shoes here. You just have to look through what's on display at the time. Some are older styles, but some are current. Most things are in reasonable to new shape.Because St. James' is located right in the middle of the downtown core, it's very difficult to miss. It sits directly across the road from the Orillia Post Office on Peter Street. It also backs onto one of the municipal parking lots, and the third side opens onto Westmount Street, across the road from St. Paul's United Church (or St. Paul's Center). They participate in many community events, and offer many musical events that are very worth attending (some are ticketed). They have luncheons and coffee hours as well.
My own home church (OCC) is located in a modern building in downtown Orillia. One can walk through an alleyway from Mississaga Street to reach the rear entrance to the church (just a few feet really), or you can reach the front of the church from Colborne Street. This building used to be the multi-plex theatre in downtown Orillia. The building is accessible, and has meeting rooms, and chapel/theatre, and numerous other offerings. Compared to the older churches in town, the Orillia Community Church is a newer offering. Oh, not brand new, but newer.
It's history began back in 1999 (I think) with a small group of people meeting in a home. It didn't take long before they needed a little larger area, and moved out to the Rugby Hall. Rugby Hall is a small, very old "hall" - somewhat like a tiny community center. That's about the time we began attending the church. In a fairly short time, we outgrew the Rugby Hall and rented some of the meeting facilities at the Highwayman Inn - several rooms were needed to house the chapel area, and Sunday school and nursery. We were pretty comfortable at the Highwayman Inn, but when a fire broke out at the Highwayman (we were, thankfully, not in attendance at that time) it pretty much destroyed the entire downstairs area which we had been renting. We had to find a new place for church.
It was around this time that the Orillia Christian School had finished the construction on a new gymnasium which (unlike many school gymnasiums) had an entrance directly from the outside. Although the parking areas weren't finished (therefore, very muddy area when it rained), the inside of the gym was large enough to hold us, AND it had a stage. We didn't use that for regular services, but did for special events (like the Christmas and Easter pageants, or musical festivities). We were there for quite a number of years, but during that time were debating on whether or not to build our own facilities.
This was the little old church building out at Mitchell Square. It was a lovely little building, but the distance was quite far for everyone - which probably wouldn't deter most of us, but the building was also too small for regular services. And the Pastor at that time, already had a lovely home in town. The house was rented out, and the church was used for special services, for weddings, for baptisms and other events (like church bbqs).In the end the properties were sold, and OCC eventually bought the cine-plex and began renovations to turn it into "our church". Today, it's still a growing church and is indeed, in the middle of it all in downtown Orillia.