First United Church, DTES, Vancouver, "Church without Pews"

I was in the downtown east side, shivering in my jacket and sweater togue and scarf,  looking at the people lying on the street  in the below zero cold today .Some are brain injured. Some are schizophrenic.  Some are addicted. Some are just lost with nowhere to go. Mental illness and Addiction are diseases. Homelessness isn’t a glorious life plan  It’s not a career choice.   I wondered if we would have a similar attitude if people who had had strokes and heart disease were lying on the sidewalk.
The song, “Streets of London” came to mind. It could be called ‘Streets of Vancouver.”
Though I’ve long worked in the area I’d never before entered First United Church.   There’s usually a lot of people standing around it. It obviously provides a lot of service, spiritual and social.  A safe place in the city. A good place, like Carnegie.  Salvation Army.  Union Gospel.   Places where people can rest.  The DTES is not an easy life for most. Only the drug dealers and predators fair well.
At First United I was surprised to see beds in the church. Passing it hundreds of times I’d always thought it was a church with pews and altar.   It’s now a shelter for 40 men and 25 women. Dormitories for months with pets allowed.  A strange assortment. No pews.  The sanctuary an open area with tables and comfortable chairs.  Coffee and breakfast are served at different times.
 I heard about Rev. Jim Hatherly before I saw him.  Staff and clients I was chatting with sang his praises. A lovely lady there was called a ‘listener’ .  I liked that. So many people end up in the DTES after they’d been silenced one too many times.
Rev. Jim Hatherly happened along as we were talking . He was  delightful in person.  Handsome, casually dressed, calm, attentive, caring. He has a great smile.   “This is the sanctuary still,” he said.  It looked more like a university coffee room meeting place, some asleep on the chairs, others reading, a few talking quietly in a corner.  It did feel like a sanctuary.  It truly was a sanctuary. We were also standing on  sanctified space.
 “When the temperature dropped a few years back we took 300  people off the streets,” he said.   The fire department had come by after that.  They’d  had to comply with safety measures. “They were concerned about fire hazards.”  I gathered that’s when the pews began to depart.
It was moving to be here. To see what Christians,  goodly godly folk were doing.
“We still have the chapel but the pews are gone in there too.” he smiled. I’d told him that though I’d passed by many times I’d never come in. I just always thought the church would  have pews..
“I was married here,” he shared. “This sanctuary is still used for services.” He’d worked in street ministry years past.  It turned out too,  he'd lived in Winnipeg.  He’d  worked at Deer Lodge Hospital..  We both had studied with Dr. Carl Ridd, United Church Minister and University of Winnipeg Professor.”He was one of my most important inspirations.”  Rev. Hatherly shared. He’d been that for me too.   University of Winnipeg was where I studied before teaching medicine at University of Manitoba.
“The former minister here  was my inspiration too”, he said.  Then we both spoke lovingly of our first greatest inspirations, our Christian mothers.
When he'd told me he’d worked at Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg, I’d told him how my mother had been so well cared for there at the end. . I’d been especially impressed  by an Ethiopian Coptic Nurse. Because of her I’d become interested in the  Coptic Church.  I'd wanted to Ethiopia or Egypt  ever since.  I  might well  soon, before more Coptic Churches are destroyed and Coptic Christians killed and persecuted.
We chatted then about denominations,  the often silly things that divided people and  Christians. While I’m Anglican today, I once was United and know the The United Church of Canada has always been the most inclusive and welcoming of Christian churches.  Good works though, like those being done here, are what brings  us all together.  
 It was a wonderful visit.  Especially considering the season.
There was a peaceful feeling in the presence of Rev. Jim Hatherly.  A bit like the feeling I had meeting Bishop Tutu. The selflessness and hands on caring of godly men and women of action:  a joy to know.   I was uplifted by my visit to First United Church.
It’s so sexy for the  jetsetter  sort who are giving millions of dollars to celebrity causes.  Meanwhile  here in the core of the city,  Rev. Jim Hatherly and others like him humbly do the daily heavy lifting, the hewing wood and carrying water.  I left good just to be there..
At St. Barnabus Anglican Church we’d lit the first Advent Candle this week. It stands for Hope. First United is that light of hope here in the DTES.  I could see that just the heat in the building, running water and indoor plumbing were such a gift for the people of the street.   Not only that ‘listener’s and inspiration.
I thought of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
I had to get back to the Dr. Horvath’s Docside  clinic where the patients would  be lining up.