Peace Mennonite Church has acquired its own building after holding services at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave., since 1983. Anne Bailey, along with other church members, painted and cleaned this week at the building, the former Oddfellows Lodge, 615 Lincoln, in North Lawrence.

Last summer, members of Peace Mennonite Church were holding a candlelight vigil to remember those killed in Iraq.

On the other side of a partition inside Ecumenical Christian Ministries was some sort of social gathering.

“We were trying to have a solemn event talking about people dying in the war, and they were having a party on the other side of the wall,” says the church’s pastor, Joanna Harader.

It’s one of the many challenges faced by a church renting space in the building at 1204 Oread Ave.

Those challenges end Sunday, when Peace Mennonite has services in its own building for the first time in its 30-year history. Worship starts at 10:30 a.m.

The church recently purchased the former Oddfellows Lodge, 615 Lincoln, in North Lawrence. Members have been busy painting and doing minor remodeling work since the church took possession of the property June 5.

Harader says the church paid $120,000 for the property. Some of that came from a capital campaign that raised $50,000 a decade ago.

While the new building is barely large enough to hold the 45 people, Harader says it is surrounded by enough property to expand in the future.

She says, on a practical note, the new building allows the church to have events and provide community outreach – such as playing host to other meetings – without worrying about other groups’ schedules at ECM.

On a philosophical level, Harader says the new building will “help the church itself figure out more what our calling and our mission is.”

“When it comes down to it, and you think about all the money we put into rent, that could be going to missions or other projects,” Harader says. “It’s good stewardship to pour money into a mortgage rather than into rent.”

The new church facility has another big advantage this time of the year, too: It’s air-conditioned. ECM isn’t.