uOttawa Church Crawl sends students on scavenger hunt of local churches

Mary Haskett
Special to Spur Ottawa

Browsing information tables, students contemplate a variety of activities they can participate in during Frosh Week at the University of Ottawa. Among the tables, a scavenger hunt called the uOttawa Church Crawl always piques interest.

The uOttawa Church Crawl is an outreach organized on the Saturday after Labour Day by 28 collaborating churches and faith-based organizations.

“Each student is given a passport with a page dedicated to each of our participating churches,” explains Mark Whittall, pastor of St Alban’s Anglican Church. “On the page is some brief info about the church, contact info, and a question students have to answer when they visit the church as part of the crawl.”

When they answer the question their passport is stamped. At the end of the night, the team with the most stamps wins a prize.

“The uOttawa Church Crawl is an important part of our evangelism and an entry point into Christian discipleship,” Whittall adds.

The crawl started in the spring of 2013, when Sid Ypma, a chaplain at the University of Ottawa, called a meeting with a group of local pastors and ministry leaders. He excitedly shared his idea with the group and they enthusiastically embraced it, launching the first crawl the next fall.

“The church crawl was a really fun way to meet like-minded students interested in learning about Ottawa’s churches and different faiths,” says fourth-year journalism student Erica Howes. “There were Orthodox, United, Anglican, Catholic Churches, and more represented. They all generously provided snacks, shared experiences, and showed us around the church.”

This year’s event, the third annual uOttawa Church Crawl, was attended by 110 students.

“It was enlightening to see the huge turnout of students,” Howes says. “The event definitely tapped into what is often on students’ minds – meeting people and free food. I would recommend it for all students interested in learning about the city’s churches and wanting to meet a lot of great people.”

Another student, Jordan Sandrock, says, “The Church Crawl is a great way for students to find out what is available in the way of support, fellowship, and growing as a person of faith.”

One aspect of the crawl that makes it stand out is the incredible diversity of churches involved. The group has representatives of everything from the United Church to Baptists and from Pentecostals to Roman Catholics.

“The uOttawa Church Crawl sets the tone for the shared work the Christian Community does at the University of Ottawa,” Ypma stated.

He explains he places great value in the churches’ humility and shared identity of the gospel of Jesus. He adds, “To that end we have achieved something important in this venture.”