“We need places that are open where you can get resources and where someone is going to pray for you.”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Ottawa has a Christian book store again. The Upper Room is unique, however, among stores and even Christian bookstores. Started by Calvary Ottawa, the Upper Room sells their products on a donation basis (not for-profit sales). While they have an evolving selection of used books, their main focus is premium Bibles.

“There was nowhere in Ottawa to buy a Bible other than Chapters,” says Andy Falleur, pastor of Calvary Ottawa. “There is nowhere you can go where there are Christians. I don’t think it should be like that.”

Falleur has several reasons why he feels Ottawa needs a Christian bookstore. For one, they are one of the few places Christians overlap.

“We see people from all kinds of different denominations and we get the crossover. That is an important space. It is good and healthy for the Christian community, as a whole. The other thing is that churches are always closed. We need places that are open where you can get resources and where someone is going to pray for you.”

“I get to watch people walking out with unique Bibles, so excited.”

This is especially true for new converts, Falleur says, adding that connecting with other Christians once a week is not enough to sustain people in recovery or from many other backgrounds. While churches are often closed on weekdays, Salem Storehouse and places like The Bible House offered much more than retail transactions. The Upper Room aims to fill that void.

In fact, right from their first sale, the Upper Room helped serve that mission. When COVID restrictions prevented One Way Ministries from hosting their annual book sale fundraiser, Falleur stepped in. One Way provided all their donated books to help Calvary launch the Upper Room. The Upper Room held a weekend sale as their official launch in late June and donated the money they raised (about $2,500) to The CODE.

“The CODE is a ministry to fatherless boys in the city,” says Gerry Organ, one of The CODE’s founders. “Many live in the poorer neighbourhoods. The CODE aims to save them from a lot of drug and crime opportunities.”

Organ was encouraged by the sale and to see the vision of the Upper Room, going forward, adding that it is a great, central location for such a ministry. Calvary rents an upstairs room from 4th Avenue Baptist, right at the corner with Bank Street. Yet, with the ease of Amazon, some might wonder why Calvary would sell Bibles.

“If someone wants a book, they can just take it, but if you give us $5 or $10 we will be in a better position to bless the rest of the community.”

“We decided to go with Bibles that are premium, not Bibles you would buy off Amazon,” says Sharon Weir, Calvary’s administrator. “Whether you are looking for the 1611 version of the King James Bible or a preaching version of the Christian Standard Bible, the Upper Room has you covered. I don’t know of a translation we do not currently have. We try to have a $10 all the way up to a $300 version of every translation.”

When you want a Bible to use for years or decades, Weir says you want to be able to handle it, look at the binding, and see the layout. Even for their most expensive Bibles, however, the Upper Room offers incredible prices. Each Bible has a retail price and a suggested donation amount, often about 20 percent below retail value.

“I get to watch people walking out [with unique Bibles] so excited,” Weir adds. “We also have a lot of used Bibles that we give away.”

Through their connections with Christian book wholesalers, the Upper Room is happy to order new books for clients, and at discounted prices. They also still have 1,000s of used books and more used books added regularly. Their suggested donation for used books is $5 for paperbacks and $10 for hardcovers. All the money raised goes toward increasing their stock and range of premium Bibles. Still, the prices are not fixed.

“If someone wants a book, they can just take it, but if you give us $5 or $10 we will be in a better position to bless the rest of the community,” says Falleur. “We are not a bookstore, we are a church with some resources that we are making available to the wider Christian community. We are just getting going, but it’s been a joy talking to people, praying for them, and in some cases having them pray for me.”