Oldest Congregation In BC Gives Up
- From: gregpcarr@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:12:08 GMT
Church mission work to go on after congregation disbands
Historic First United on Downtown Eastside dates from 1885
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, June 23, 2007
Tomorrow, the congregation of First United Church will gather for the last
time to hear an evening Sunday sermon.
If recent history holds true, it won't be a large gathering. The
congregation has shrunk to 30 or 40 members, and most of them are elderly.
Afterwards, the congregation will officially disband.
Churches everywhere face declining numbers, but the end of First United's
congregation is something exceptional, something historic in the life of
this city. It is a small ending marking something greater.
For one thing, the church, at the corner of Gore and East Hastings, has a
history longer than the city itself. Sunday's sermon will be the end of 122
years of continual worship.
The congregation can trace its origin back to May 1885, when the first
worshippers gathered at the Hastings Mill schoolhouse to hear sermons.
Vancouver's incorporation as a city was still a year away.
But it was that growing city -- or, more precisely, the growing despair at
the city's core -- that finally overwhelmed the congregation.
"Anecdotally," said Rev. Philip Cable, "what I hear is that, 15 years ago,
there was enough of a community in the Downtown Eastside that people were
willing to come down to the neighbourhood in the evening."
(In many ways the social work of the church contributed to this. It is an
evening drop in center for prostitutes, child molesters and other graffiti
was tagged on the structure, crack heads smoked drugs in front of the
building and dealers sold it. Shanks were sometimes carried openly inside
the building and threats and profane language frequently heard inside. Known
criminals lurked by the main doors providing unofficial security. Fights
over free yogurt were known to occur and at times the stressed out
volunteers were even known to refer to the ppl inside as animals. The
mentally ill while often harmless were distressing to see.)
Then came the drug epidemic, AIDS and a growing population of homeless and
mentally ill. First United was at the epicentre of it all. For the
increasingly elderly parishioners, it was a gauntlet they grew tired of
running.
"What I hear from the remnants of the congregation is, 'No, we just don't
want to be here after dark,' " Cable said.
There is a sad irony to this. Throughout its history, First United has
thrown itself into its mission work. Its congregation was regarded as among
the most liberal and enlightened in Canada.
(oddly they campaigned for a boycott of bottled water that turned out to be
a Godsend during the tainted water problem that happened last year and
bothered the poor of the DTES the most.)
"What makes this an historic event," Cable said, "is that the congregation
has a national profile in the United Church because of the flagship nature
of the mission and the mission work."
It hired its first social worker in 1915. It ran soup lines in the Great
Depression. It pioneered ethnicity in its ministry. It was the first church
in the city to declare itself an "affirming congregation" -- one officially
welcoming those excluded from church life because of their sexual
orientation.
It established the country's first drop-in for female prostitutes. Its
clergy urged Vancouver police to work harder to solve the cases of the more
than 50 missing women in the area. Six years ago, when the government was
dragging its feet on the issue of opening a pilot drug injection site, First
United threatened to open its own to stem the rising numbers of overdose
deaths.
I'm sure the behaviour of the junkies scares ppl from coming into the
neighbourhood at night.)
It was the first to offer paralegal advocates to help the poor negotiate the
maze of government bureaucracies. It provides a safe-mail site where those
an assistance can pick up cheques and GST rebates without fear of being
robbed. It operates an emergency food bank and distributes free clothes and
toiletries. (It also runs a daily soup and bread line and provides showers.)
Most notably, as part of what it calls its "radical hospitality," it gives
sanctuary during weekdays to anyone who needs it, allowing the homeless and
hungry to sleep in the church's nave throughout the day.
A decade ago, 10 or 15 people might have done so. Now, it isn't uncommon to
see 80 or 90 people sleeping on pews or on the floor.
It's been that rising tide of poverty and desperation, coupled with an aging
demographic, that has meant the end of First United's congregation.
That doesn't mean it's the end of the church itself, Cable said. Its mission
work will go on, in the building, though with growing difficulty. The church
has faced sizable deficits for the last two years.
"It would be too strong a term to say the mission work is in jeopardy," he
said, "but the demands on it grow almost daily. So we need every bit of
support to keep that going."
There will be, too, weekday morning services at 8:45 a.m., though those are
usually attended only by a few staff, neighbours and volunteers.
"In the big picture of the decline that the United Church is experiencing,
to have the last congregation fully connected to mission work is a pretty
dramatic event. A concern would be, 'Is this a harbinger of what's to come?'
"
He was referring to the church in general, and when asked if he thought it
was a harbinger, Cable shrugged and said:
"I think the writing's been on the wall for a long time."
Meanwhile, God's work will still await in First United's pews. On Friday,
there were men and women sleeping in every one, lying two and three to a
bench. I counted 48 bodies. They rested their heads on rolled-up jackets or
on garbage bags full of clothes. The cloying smell of feet and body odour
wafted through the nave.
It was 10:30 a.m.
It was also Cable's last day at First United. He's leaving because the
church can no longer pay his salary.
You could argue he ran it into the ground and split.)
He'll be flying to Toronto to look for another congregation.
pmcmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or 604-605-2905
(The United Church recently spent ten million to recruit new members but the
overall numbers continue to decline.)
- -
Y
.
- Prev by Date: Laugh with Ahmed Deedat
- Next by Date: Re: Burn the Bible - State Your Hatred of Jesus
- Previous by thread: Laugh with Ahmed Deedat
- Next by thread: John 11:25,26
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
