The Diocese of New Westminster real-estate company is selling some more of its properties. The most expensive is St. Mark’s in Kitilano which they are hoping will fetch almost $12M. The one-time Christian denomination claims the money will be used for Anglican ministry, code for the panting hot pursuit of the latest cultural fad to assail the fevered imagination of its trendy clerics.
According to the diocese, the congregations are physically “moving elsewhere”, in much the same way as the diocese has, in relation to Christianity, theologically moved elsewhere.
At the last General Synod that I was unfortunate enough to attend, I remember one aggrieved soul bewailing the fact that the synod was being held on land stolen from its original Indigenous residents. The diocese makes much of its efforts to reconcile with the First People. I see no mention of giving back the land occupied by these churches, though; $12M is a lot of money, after all.
From here:
St. Mark’s Anglican Church, a 100-year-old facility in Kitsilano, one of B.C.’s most upscale areas, is up for sale at the steep price of $11,998,000.
Rev. Richard Leggett said Anglican churches in the Vancouver area are moving elsewhere due to, in part, the steep cost of housing.
Other Anglican properties up for sale include St. Margaret of Scotland in Burnaby and St. Monica’s in Horseshoe Bay.
“Housing prices in Vancouver have grown so rapidly and so high that the grandchildren of the grandparents who built the church are no longer living nearby,” said Leggett.
Clearly the diocese and/or the ACoC will avoid the truth. They have abandoned any allegiance to our Lord and Saviour and worship the “god of political expediency”. The decline in attendance and/or members simply reflects this fact. Selling these buildings might well put a lot of money into their account but that will not do much for them when they come to meet our Maker.
That’s actually the Diocese of New Westminster, not DIocese of BC. I know it’s confusing.
Yes, thanks, it’s corrected now.
“Housing prices in Vancouver have grown so rapidly and so high that the grandchildren of the grandparents who built the church are no longer living nearby,” said Leggett.
What a pathetic excuse. Selling a church building and lands because the grandchildren of earlier Parishioners do not live in the area. Tell me, in how many communities do the grandchildren live where their grandparents also lived? The answer is obvious and it is none. The truth is extremely embarrassing, that being that these Congregations have declined in membership so much that they are no longer viable.
Rather than spreading the Word of God and Preaching the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the AcoC has opted for the ways of a fallen and secular world. The AcoC has lost its way and its purpose. It no longer serves God’s purpose and therefore is being ignored by people that are seeking God.
It’s a pathetic excuse indeed. Unless and until Vancouver becomes a barren wasteland with no residents, there are people you could evangelize. Westside Church is located in the same area and has grown like crazy. Oh, and it’s full of young people… someone’s grandkids, no doubt. You’re right, the liberal Anglicans can’t admit they are failures.
What is the building used for now? As a church. It’s full every Sunday morning for a service of Tenth Church (an Alliance church). So the diocese had to decide whether to keep the building as a church and charge suitable rent for that purpose or cash in on the Vancouver real estate boom.
That Sunday morning Tenth Church service at St. Mark’s is in addition to the two Sunday morning services Tenth Church holds at its main church in Mount Pleasant about ten minutes drive away AND the Saturday evening service it holds there AND the Sunday morning service held at a community centre in East Vancouver. People come from all over Vancouver to attend.
Tenth and its branches are hugely multinational and multicultural, so in a way it is helping to fulfill the great commission. Then there is the Westside Church mentioned earlier, and its branches in the Lower Mainland, and Coastal Church in the West End, and all its branches, and the ANiC congregation that is close to Tenth, etc.. I could go on but you get the message.
Someone should suggest to whichever of the Coast Salish bands that claim the apparently never-ceded land that it put a lien on the property. We don’t know the details of the sale yet. Maybe they have given it to the First Nations. Doesn’t sound like it though.
By the way, if the building is sold the Scout group and other community groups will have no place to go.
Further to my point that someone should suggest to the First Nations that they put a lien on the title to St. Mark’s, here is a statement in large letters right on the “locations” page of the Tenth Church website:
“We acknowledge that we live, work, and worship on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Tsleilwaututh, and Squamish Coast Salish Peoples.”
St. Mark’s Anglican? No mention of this at all last I looked. Would such a statement make the land harder to sell? Maybe such a statement is on a diocese website somewhere. I admit I have not looked, but I am waiting to see what accommodation the ACoC has made for the First Nations in its sale of this property.
In my opinion the thing to do would be for the denomination that is not being successful in filling the building to transfer over, or long-term lease, the church land and building to a denomination that is. If money and income are really important for the ACoC then the long term lease option could work. Again, I am waiting to see.