Last weekend, the Meeting House, once one of Canada’s largest megachurches, announced it was closing. “Going forward, there will no longer be churches operating programs or doing ministry under the banner of The Meeting House,” the church posted on its website.
The news comes after over a year and a half of reporting by contributing writer for The Walrus Rachel Browne, who wrote a series of articles for the magazine investigating the church’s troubled past and uncertain future. In February 2023, we published a major investigation into the history of allegations and convictions of sexual abuse and misconduct by former pastors at the church, including allegations against its former lead pastor, Bruxy Cavey.
Earlier this year, we published an exclusive report into a series of multi-million-dollar civil lawsuits that had been filed against the Meeting House alleging breach of duty of care by the institution that “created the risk of sexual assault that led to and allowed” church leaders “to sexually assault” the complainants.
Then, this summer, we reported on how the Meeting House had paused its services after being denied “Abuse Liability” and “Employment Practices Liability” coverage by the church’s insurance provider. “After an exhaustive search, most other insurers have declined to offer us this coverage,” the church wrote. When The Walrus contacted a representative for the church in August with a simple question asking if this meant an end to in-person church services, the representative wrote, “Not exactly,” and noted “a hopeful new chapter in September.”
That new chapter, the announcement noted last weekend, meant a confirmation that the Meeting House banner is coming down and in-person services are ceasing—but also a rebranding of sorts: the launch of “missional church communities” across Ontario under the name BIC Church Collective.
For our reporting on the Meeting House, The Walrus was nominated for a National Magazine Award and a Religion News Association Excellence in Religion Reporting Award—and won a gold at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards and a Wilbur Award from the US-based Religion Communicators Council.
Read all our reporting here:
• The Meeting House: Inside a Megachurch Scandal
• Exclusive: The Meeting House Megachurch Faces New Lawsuits
• “They Dug Their Own Grave”: End Times for the Meeting House?
