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WINTER 2023
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PRESBYTERIAN
19
A Remarkable Constant
The new Vancouver Chinese Presby- terian Church building blessed for Christ’s call as of 2023.
By Jacqueline Cleland,
Pastoral Care and Outreach Coordinator, Oakridge Christian Ministry, part of the Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, B.C.
At a time when the CBC publishes articles with titles such as “9,000 Churches and Religious Spaces Will Close Over Next 10 Years” to “Majority of Canadians Say Church to Blame for Residential School Tragedies,” it can feel like now is the time when despair rings in our church halls instead of praise for God. In the church, we can see things changing in ways that we were not expect- ing. Yet, God works unexpectedly, especially here at Vancouver Chi- nese Presbyterian Church. This year, we are celebrating our new church and recognizing the jour- ney it took for us to get here.
The journey started in 1895 at the corner of Columbia and Pender. A seed was planted and missionaries had no idea if it would grow. This seed was the Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church, originally located in Chi- natown as a mission outreach to spread Christ’s love. The impor- tant thing to understand about the Chinese immigrant experience is that many first settling Chinese Canadian families were segregat- ed out of other neighbourhoods and community facilities, so the mission church was very impor- tant in not only bringing faith to a community but also bringing a community together. These mis- sionaries were looking to meet and provide for the spiritual, Sun- day school, kindergarten, and Chinese language school needs. This desire was the start of our mission outreach, focusing on spiritual and pastoral care.
In 1923, the Canadian Govern- ment passed the Chinese Exclu- sion Act—no person of Chinese origin was permitted to enter Canada.Therewasafearofmore people committing Asian hate, as was supported by law. These moves were intended to crush the souls of Chinese Canadians and could have been the end of the church; yet the Vancouver Chi- nese Presbyterian Church contin- ued to count on their remarkable constant, God.
In 1930, the first Chinese Pres- byterian church building in Van- couver was built on Keefer Street. Then, in 1964, a new Christian Education Wing was added to ac- commodate a Chinese language school and daycare, along with a preschool and Sunday school. In 1977, the congregation took responsibility for the sole support of its own minister and church services (according to Ada Con, church historian).
In the 1980s, the seed of God’s love bloomed in unex- pected ways. Parliament passed a motion recognizing “the con- tribution made to the Canadian mosaic and culture by the peo- ple of Chinese background.” To meet the growing needs of the congregation and community, the church decided to relocate out of Chinatown to the Oakridge area, to Cambie Street and 46th Avenue, thus expanding their im- pact on Vancouver’s society.
This impact continued to con- sider and address the congrega- tion’s and community’s needs. The church then expanded to con- tinue supporting the preschool, Chinese language school and on- going work in faith formation from worship to Sunday school.
As Covid turned our lives upside down, we at the church turned over the soil to a new building. This rebuild was largely motivated by a desire to expand church min- istry in a more welcoming way. This coincided with the City of Vancouver Cambie Corridor Plan Phase 1 (2010) & 2 (2011) with the development of the Canada Line. The church demolition began in January 2021 and construction was completed this spring 2023. The 40,000 square feet of the pro- ject have been divided between housing (20 rental units), commu- nity needs (such as daycares) and ministry spaces.
In this new building, we have the opportunity to reassess the needs of our congregation and of the community—which is chang- ing dramatically with the massive development at Oakridge Centre Mall, just one block north of the church on Cambie Street. We sit in between two SkyTrain sta- tions in the middle of the massive housing development, which is projected to have 25,000 more people by 2041. This is an ideal opportunity for our outreach as we lean strongly into the ideal of praising God, praying and work- ing to meet the pastoral needs of our community.
This desire to meet the com- munity’s needs has us leading
two Sunday worship services, one in English at 9:30 a.m., and one in Cantonese service at 11:15 a.m. Also, we have welcomed Oakridge Christian Ministry—a mission of the Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church that is look- ing specifically at how to support the Oakridge community—with the specific intention of connect- ing with our neighbours. To us, this is following Jesus’ call for the two most important command- ments: to worship God and love our neighbours as ourselves.
On the weekend of Thanksgiv- ing, our 128th Anniversary, the Moderator of the Presbytery of Westminster, the Rev. Dr. Ross Lockhart, knocked on the door of our new sanctuary three times and called out: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.” This praise was filled with songs of worship ringing through our church halls. We all came to- gether singing the processional song “Great is Thy Faithfulness” to remind ourselves that God is our remarkable and faithful con- stant in our journey, and “The Church’s One Foundation” to re- mind ourselves that our corner- stone of life is Christ, which is the true celebration.
As we counted our many bless- ings, the presbytery, congrega- tion and Pastor Morgan Wong re-dedicated and re-committed ourselves to being a home with a
purpose:
For the worship of God in prayer and praise;
For the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and exalted;
For the celebration of new life in baptism;
For the gift of grace received at the Table of our Lord;
For comfort to all who mourn; For strength to all who are tempted;
For light to all who seek the way; For the hallowing of marriage and family life;
For the teaching and guiding of the young;
For the perfecting of the saints; For the sharing of Christ with our neighbours;
For the increase of justice in our public life;
For the healing of the nations; The new building reminds us of
God working in unexpected ways. As part of our commitment to gratefully acknowledge the con- tinuum of giving and God’s pro- visions that will carry us forward and into the future, we partnered with the artist Jeanette Lee to give a glimpse into the story of how God had begun, and has con- tinued, to transform us and our church through the ages of time, space and people. To this end, we made a “church street,” where we can walk through black-and- white historical photographs, modern images, 2D and 3D arti-
facts, text, and other materials as we express the joy of our unique relationship with God. This is only Phase 1 of an ongoing project with plans in the next phase to continue to develop more histori- cal depth through panel QR codes on the visuals in a digital modern format for future use. We wish to celebrate our blessings by the creation of an archive of our his- tory through a potentially broader community outreach.
As we walk through this church street of our lives and through the generations of people who helped build our church, we pay hom- age not only to those who have served but also to our donors who helped us develop and sup- port our answer to Christ’s call. Our call also includes adopting overseas missions and sending out our members to meet the call beyond our walls in continuation of the great commission.
This year, we want to share our joy and encouragement with our siblings in Christ. God is a remarkable constant in our lives and has shown us growth and blessing through our love of our neighbours in good times and challenging times. When you hear of us, we want to encourage you not to think only of our building but to think of what God is build- ing in all of our churches. God is building in us all a chance to love, live and praise God, our one and true Remarkable Constant.
A Remarkable Constant: an art installation created and photographed by artist Jeanette Lee of the Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church’s history.
The Presbytery of Westminster, elders and board of managers of the Vancouver Chinese Presbyterian Church came together to dedicate the church to Christ’s work. PHOTO CREDIT: YING WAI YEONG