St. Paul's Anglican Church (Vancouver)

Last updated
St Paul's Anglican Church
LocationVancouver, British Columbia
CountryCanada
Denomination Anglican Church of Canada
Administration
Deanery Kingsway
Archdeaconry Burrard
Diocese New Westminster
Province Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and the Yukon
Clergy
Archbishop The Most Rev'd Melissa Skelton, Archbishop of New Westminster
Rector The Rev'd Philip Cochrane
St. Paul's West-End Anglican Church St. Paul's Anglican Episcopal Church.JPG
St. Paul's West-End Anglican Church

St. Paul's Anglican Church (established 1889) serves the south-west downtown peninsula of Vancouver, British Columbia, alongside Christ Church Cathedral (established 1888) serving the north-east. Both parishes separated from St. James (established 1881), the first Anglican Church in Granville, as Vancouver was then known. [1]

Contents

Early history

The first church building was located at the centre of the parish, but in 1898 it was placed on skids and moved north-west, away from railway yards and closer to where most parishioners lived. In 1905 it was replaced by a larger church, and the old church became the parish hall. The new church included a pipe organ, Opus 264 by Casavant Frères of Québec, said to be the first to be constructed west of the Rockies. [2]

The old church was replaced by a new parish hall and a rectory in 1911. The rectory was re-located to allow the hall to be extended in 1929. The site at the corner of Jervis Street and Pendrell Street had assumed its present configuration, [3] except for a wheelchair ramp added in 2002. [4]

The parish thrived, serving a large and relatively prosperous middle-class membership. It adopted a traditional Anglican Sunday liturgical pattern of Holy Communion, Morning Prayer and Evensong, supported by educational and social activities like Ladies’ and Men’s Guilds, scouts and guides and youth groups.

The mid-thirties depression presented financial difficulties but optimism revived after the Second World War.

In 1973, while Joe Ellis (1960–1973) was rector, the Pendrellis, a high-rise apartment building for accommodating seniors at subsidised rents, was built on parish property. [5]

Two rectors – Adam de Pencier (1908–1910) and Godfrey Gower (1944–1951) – went on to become Bishop of New Westminster. [6]

Post-1980 changes

As the centennial of the parish approached the eleventh rector, Harold McSherry (1973 - 1984), retired. In the search for his successor, a profile was prepared describing how the character of the West End of Vancouver had changed significantly since the parish had been established. [7] The situation was summarised thus:

"In the 1950s, developers began pulling down the old family houses of the West End to make room for apartment buildings. The composition of the population changed with the changes in residential housing and the population density increased to become one of the highest in Canada. Old-style families were replaced by single-parent families, who were joined by previously unknown (or, at least, unrecognized) residents like gays and lesbians and unmarried couples living together. For most of these persons St Paul’s was perceived as irrelevant, if not invisible, and to some as passively or actively hostile." [8]

When David Crawley (1985–1990) was appointed rector, he set in process significant reforms of liturgical practices and pastoral ministries. Foremost of all, he initiated a ministry to members of the LGBT community, [9] many of whom were at that time facing the challenges of the AIDS crisis.

As the AIDS crisis receded, Crawley’s successor, Neil Gray (1991–2003), set about consolidating the positive response received from the LGBT community by advocating at the 1998 synod of the Diocese of New Westminster for permission to bless covenanted same-sex relationships. The initiative achieved the immediate success of a favourable vote, but it was not sufficiently favourable to win the consent of Bishop Michael Ingham. Permission was sought again in 2001, with an even more favourable outcome, leading in 2002 to episcopal consent. The result had repercussions throughout the international Anglican Communion.

In 2004, the then assistant priest, Dale Yardy, officiated at the first Blessing of a Covenanted Union of a same-sex couple in St Paul's. [10]

St Paul's played a major role in the re-introduction of labyrinth walking as a meditative technique. In 1997, under the direction of the then assistant priest, April Stanley, a full-scale replica of the medieval labyrinth found at Chartres Cathedral in France was painted on the floor of the parish hall to become the first permanent indoor labyrinth in Canada. [11]

In 1995, St Paul's Advocacy Office was established to provide support and information for people facing problems associated with government benefits, tenancy disputes, immigration, and the like. [12]

As parish ministries were evolving, so also were liturgical practices. At the principal Sunday morning service, the Eucharist gradually displaced Morning Prayer which was used for the last time in 1995.

A contemporary-language Eucharistic rite was used for the first time in 1981 and the Book of Common Prayer rite was used for the last time in 2014.

Gray's successor, Markus Dünzkofer (2004–2012), made regular use of a nave altar for celebrating Eucharist. [13]

In 1982, the Eucharist was first celebrated in St Paul's by a woman priest, Barbara Blakely. Following the appointment of several women as assistant priests, Jessica Schaap (2013–2017) became the first woman rector. [14]

Related Research Articles

Mass (liturgy) type of worship service within many Christian denomination

Mass is the main eucharistic liturgical service in many forms of Western Christianity. The term Mass is commonly used in the Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church, as well as in Anglican, Methodist, Western Rite Orthodox, and Old Catholic churches.

Anglican Use particular liturgical rite of the Roman Catholic Church

The Anglican Use is an officially approved form of liturgy used by former members of the Anglican Communion who joined the Catholic Church while wishing to maintain the treasures of the Anglican tradition.

St Bartholomew-the-Less Church in City of London

St Bartholomew the Less was an Anglican parish in the City of London and the church of St Bartholomew's Hospital within the ancient hospital precincts. Since 1 June 2015 it has been a chapel of ease in the Parish of Great St Bartholomew, formed out of its parish and that of its neighbour St Bartholomew the Great

Anglican church music music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy

Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a cappella or accompanied by an organ.

Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. Although the term liturgy is used to mean public worship in general, the Byzantine Rite uses the term "Divine Liturgy" to denote the Eucharistic service.

Church tabernacle A locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is stored.

A tabernacle is a fixed, locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is "reserved" (stored). A less obvious container for the same purpose, set into a wall, is called an aumbry.

The Pastoral Provision, in the context of the Catholic Church in the United States, is a set of practices and norms by which bishops are authorized to provide spiritual care for Roman Catholics coming from the Anglican tradition, by establishing parishes for them and ordaining priests from among them. The Pastoral Provision still provides a way for individuals to become priests in territorial dioceses, even though Anglicanorum Coetibus was declared which led to the establishment of Personal Ordinariates, another mechanism for former Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

Anglican Missal

The Anglican Missal is a liturgical book used liturgically by some Anglo-Catholics and other High Church Anglicans as a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer.

St. Bartholomews Anglican Church (Toronto) Church

St Bartholomew's Anglican Church is a parish of the Diocese of Toronto in the Anglican Church of Canada. It is a ministry in collaboration with the Cathedral Church of St. James. Located in the Regent Park area of Toronto, the congregation operates several outreach programmes. It is an Anglo-Catholic parish maintaining 'Full Catholic Privileges'.

Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto) Church

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene is a parish of the Anglican Church of Canada located in Toronto. It is famous for its association with composer Healey Willan, who was organist and choir-master for well over four decades. The current rector is Father David Harrison, who became rector on June 1, 2010. In 2013, SMM celebrated its 125th anniversary.

The Liturgical Movement began as a 19th-century movement of scholarship for the reform of worship within the Roman Catholic Church. It has developed over the last century and a half and has affected many other Christian churches, including the Church of England and other churches of the Anglican Communion, and some Protestant churches. A similar reform in the Church of England and Anglican Communion, known as the Oxford Movement, began to change theology and liturgy in the United Kingdom and United States in the mid-nineteenth century. The Liturgical Movement has been one of the major influences on the process of the Ecumenical Movement, in favor of reversing the divisions which began at the Reformation.

Anglican Church of Melanesia

The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), also known as the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Church of Melanesia (COM), is a church of the Anglican Communion and includes nine dioceses in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The newly enthroned and installed primate and Archbishop of Melanesia is George Takeli. He succeeds the retired archbishop David Vunagi, who left office on 6 September 2015.

Anglican ministry

The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ. "...[I]t might be useful if Anglicans dropped the word minister when referring to the clergy...In our tradition, ordained persons are either bishops, priests, or deacons, and should be referred to as such."

St. Peters Cathedral (Charlottetown)

St. Peter's Cathedral, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, was founded in 1869 as a result of the influence of the Oxford Movement. Since that time, the parish has remained Anglo-Catholic in ethos and practice.

Christ Church St Laurence Church in City of Sydney. New South Wales, Australia

Christ Church St Laurence is a heritage-listed Anglican parish church building located at 812a-814 George Street in the central business district of the City of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The building is owned by the church and is part of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. The building and associated pipe organ were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The church is located near Central station.

Western Rite Orthodoxy, Western Orthodoxy, or Orthodox Western Rite are terms used to describe congregations that are within the autocephalous churches of the canonical Orthodox Christian Church. These congregations have been blessed to use western liturgical forms such as the ancient Gregorian Liturgy, the Sarum, the Mozarabic and Gallican Liturgies. Some congregations are also blessed to use what has become known simply as the English Liturgy, which is derived from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer; albeit, with some modification to the text to emphasize Orthodox theological teaching. The Western Rite that exists today has been heavily influenced by the life and work of Julian Joseph Overbeck.

Paul Frederick Bradshaw, FRHistS is a British Anglican priest, theologian, historian of liturgy, and academic. In addition to parish ministry, he taught at Chichester Theological College and Ripon College Cuddesdon. From 1985 to 2013, he was Professor of Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

Justus Mauritius Marcus was Regional Bishop of Saldanha Bay in the Diocese of Cape Town, 2002 to 2003, having served as Dean of Kimberley and Rector of St Cyprian's Cathedral from 1992 to 2002. He died from cancer, aged 48, on 1 December 2003. Marcus was predeceased by his first wife, Milly. His second wife and widow is Sarah Rowland Jones, a fellow priest who then fulfilled a research ministry in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa at the behest of two successive Archbishops of Cape Town before returning to Wales in late 2013.

Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is a personal ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church—a jurisdiction within the Church, the equivalent of a diocese, for priests and laypeople from an Anglican background, that enables them to retain elements of their Anglican patrimony after entering the Catholic Church. Its territory extends over the United States and Canada. Former Methodists and former members of communions of "Anglican heritage" such as the United Church of Canada are also included.

<i>Divine Worship: The Missal</i> missal for Anglican Use Catholics

Divine Worship: The Missal (DW:TM) is the liturgical book containing the instructions and texts for the celebration of Mass by the former Anglicans within the Roman Catholic Church in the three personal ordinariates of Great Britain, United States and Canada, and Australia. The rite contained in this missal is a variant of the Roman Rite eucharistic liturgy. It was approved for use beginning on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, 2015.

References

  1. ↑ Leslie Buck (2019), Peace be to the whole community: The story of St Paul's Anglican Church in the West End of Vancouver, Vancouver: Second City Print Solutions, ISBN   978-1-77136-761-5.
  2. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 15.
  3. ↑ Buck, op.cit., chapter 4.
  4. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 36.
  5. ↑ Buck, op.cit, page 31.
  6. ↑ https://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/diocesan-profile/our-history, accessed 19 April 2020.
  7. ↑ Parish Archives, Folder D11/2.1.
  8. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 50.
  9. ↑ David Crawley, "A Parish Transformed". In Charles Hefling (Ed), "Our Selves, Our Souls and Bodies". Cambridge, Mass: Cowley Publications.
  10. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 84.
  11. ↑ Buck, op.cit., chapter 14.
  12. ↑ Buck, op.cit., chapter 12.
  13. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 58.
  14. ↑ Buck, op.cit., page 45.

Coordinates: 49°17′00″N123°08′02″W / 49.28321°N 123.13385°W / 49.28321; -123.13385

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.