Zion United Church in Liverpool has another potential buyer.

Stephanie Sereda hopes to transform the church into a year-round makers market and event space.

Sereda and her husband moved from Ontario to make Western Head their home in the fall.

She says the opportunity to take a decommissioned church into a community and cultural space is a dream come true.

“A big part of it was also things we would do for the community,” said Sereda. “Because I’m an events planner by nature I like to create opportunities for people to connect and engage.”

Sereda sees the church as a place where anything is possible.

“I think the part that appeals to me the most is it’s a flagship building in our community. It’s been around since the 1800s, it tells a story and I’d like to preserve as much of that story as possible in what we’re going to do with it.”

Sereda joins Xaver Varnus as the two potential suiters looking at the church, at this point.

Varnus wishes to move the pipe organ from Varnus Hall in Brooklyn, established in the former Pilgrim United Church, to the Zion United Church.

Moving the venue would allow him to increase capacity to 300 audience members.

The Zion United Church will be listed this week and all offers will be reviewed by the closure working group headed up by Ray Baker.

Baker says the working group will then present the offers to the congregation to vote on who will get to purchase the church.

“It’s not necessarily the offer that comes in with the greatest monetary value,” said Baker. “That is an important factor but more important is also what the future use of the church would be. We’d like it to continue to be an area where we support the community.”

Baker is pleased both expressions of interest in the church are community focussed, but says any recommendation made by the congregation about the sale will need to be approved by Regional Council 15 of the United Church in Halifax.

“If we have a good offer financially, and a good reason for selecting a particular buyer I’m pretty confident that they will approve it.”

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