Chapter 6 -- "A
centre at the point of intersection" 1953-1983
The Rev. Northcote Burke had impressed the
congregation of Christ Church Cathedral as a speaker at Lenten noontime
services in 1951. Even more impressive was the length to which he had gone to
arrive on time for his week of preaching. He had come by train from Tronto,
where he was the rector of Christ Church, Deer Park. Exhausted, the
curly-haired clergyman rushed into the church vestry five minutes before the
Monday service. His train had been delayed for hours at Agassiz, so he hitched
a ride down the Fraser River on a tugboat.
A native of Kingston, Burke had basically all
the qualifications the church committee searching for a successor to Swanson
could desire: excellent preaching ability; military service as a naval chaplain
during the Second World War; experience in radio broadcasting at St. John's,
Ottawa, where he had created a Warriors' Chapel; active membership in the
Ottawa Kiwanis Club. All he lacked was a Wycliffe College theological education
-- he had gone instead to Wycliffe's rival, Trinity College, Toronto. His style
was friendly and informal. "My name is Burke," he announced to Christ
Church's radio audience in his first broadcast. "I hope we'll get to be
friends for days to come."
Installed as Dean and Rector in May, 1953,
Burke had definite ideas about what sort of place a cathedral should be. The
building needed repair, and the new dean used the opportunity to put a touch of
colour into the place. Walls were tinted blue. A glass screen and doors were
constructed to create a proper narthex. A blue carpet was donated by the
Women's Parochial Association. Red tile was installed, as were altar frontals
and candlesticks, coloured burses and veils. The drama club performed "Murder
in the Cathedral" in a building that was beginning to take on a brighter
atmosphere.
In keeping with the redecoration of Christ
Church, the new dean introduced changes in Liturgy. Burke was much influenced
by the "Parish and People" movement of the past two decades in
England. He quickly introduced a 9:30 a.m. family service. One of the few
regrets his predecessor had at Christ Church was that the Sunday school had not
grown. The new service was designed to incorporate children in the worship. The
older ones were even invited to receive communion with their parents. "The
children are remarkably good and no one bothers if a little voice is raised in
protest at a restriction, or another clambers on all fours down the aisle. It
is a wonder we don't have more more interruption," the dean told visitors.
Burke felt strongly that the Holy Communion should form the centre of parish
worship, and at this new morning service there was communion every Sunday. In
1957 a small portable altar was given, anonymously, with a frontal to match the
one on the large altar, and set above the chancel steps. Physically, the
Eucharist became the centre of worship. All, even children, could see what was
happening, because the celebrant stood behind the holy table.
"Burke was very courageous," said his
successor, the Rev. Herbert O'Driscoll. "He was an innovator when it was
costly to innovate." There were stormy meetings of the church committee.
There was even some loud grumbling at the back of the church when the hymn traditionally
sung before the communion prayers was dropped. That hymn had allowed members of
the congregation to exit before taking bread and wine. Under Burke, taking
communion was expected. In October, 1954, no less than the people's warden,
J.S.C. Moffitt, resigned. The immediate cause was concern over finances, but
Moffitt and other members of the congregation were unhappy with all the
changes. Moffitt complained in his letter of resignation that he had been
subjected to an "embarrassing insult from Dean Burke at the Holy Table
during the Holy Communion service" -- exactly what happened was not
described. The church committee held an emergency session. It voted confidence
in the dean for his activities at the Cathedral. It then tried but failed to
reconcile the dean and the warden.
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Choir boys with the Rev. Grahame B. Baker, |
New Cathedral organizations reflected the era
of the baby boom. A cathedral "Couples Club" was formed in the spring
of 1954 of newly marrieds who met in members' homes to talk about subjects such
as interior decorating, child psychology, and "How to be happy though
married." Children aged 8 to 15 formed a junior children's choir. Ties to
England were continued in the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey
Francis Fisher, in 1954. The Cathedral invited the premier of British Columbia,
W.A.C. Bennett, to present the Archbishop with six semi-precious garnet stones
for his primatial cross. It is likely the stones had been chosen and polished
by the dean, who was an amateur lapidary. His Grace, was impressed by the
Social Credit premier, then only two years in office: "If all premiers
were like you, they would be a very fine lot." That same year Prince
Philip, in Vancouver for the Empire Games, read the lesson at a special
service.
While bringing Christ Church up-to-date, Burke
by no means wanted to cut Christ Church off from its history. The seventieth
anniversary of the church was celebrated in grand style at a Founder's Day
service on Oct. 18, 1959. A plaque above the entrance to the nave was unveiled
by Ida Jean McGaffin, daughter of H.J. Cambie, who had married the church's
acting rector, C.S. McGaffin, 42 years earlier. Archdeacon Cecil Swanson of St.
Paul's, Toronto, returned to preach the sermon. Nails in the form of a cross
from the bombed-out Coventry Cathedral were placed near the high altar. On
Armistice Day, 1962, the War Memorial tablet was rededicated with new wording
to include the Second World War, and a perpetual light placed in the side
chapel to commemorate those who died in the cause of peace. A new wooden pulpit
replaced one of stone.
Vancouver too was changing. By the start of the
Fifties, the suburbs were growing far faster than the city. The West End, the
Cathedral's own neighbourhood, in the Sixties changed from an area of wooden
homes and a few brick apartments, to an area of towering high-rises. The new
residents -- many transient, a number of single-parent families, great numbers
of the elderly -- provided a vast opportunity for ministry. Attempting to meet
the challenge, the church budget was increased; but the Cathedral's resources
had dimnished. Some foretaste of financial problems to come was seen in the
1958 Every Member Canvass. While the roll contained 1,140 names, over 600 on
the list either could not be located or would not pledge. Over $54,000 was
raised, but the campaign fell short of its goal by $25,000. "This pretty
well washes out our plans for substantially increasing our apportionment for
missions in Canada and outside, together with the proposed Building Extension
Fund," wrote people's warden George C. Bradley.
During his last year at Christ Church, Burke
was in poor health. A few days after a memorial service for Captain James
Vancouver, at which Lieutenant Governor George R. Pearkes and Mayor Thomas J.
Campbell read lessons, Northcote Burke suffered a heart attack. He died ten
days later, on May 29, 1968. His accomplishment had been to widen the role of
Christ Church Cathedral and develop a new identity. No longer could it chiefly
rely on the support of people who came to Christ Church because of emotional ties
to the Old Country. The net had to be cast wider. On the Sunday leaflet, the
claim was made that this was "The friendliest Church in the West,"
adding, "if you find it so, tell others; if you don't, tell us."
* * *
After the often stormy innovations of Northcote
Burke, the leadership of the cathedral might have wished for a less
controversial successor. "To those of you who might fear a young man
rushing in with sweeping changes, be comforted," wrote a member of the
canonical committee that had just selected a new rector for Christ Church
Cathedral in June, 1968. "He projects a mature wisdom far beyond his
years. He listens well. His answers are thoughtful and very articulate. He
rejects change for the sake of change." But, it could have been added, the
Rev. T. Herbert O'Driscoll was one who would never shy from change if that was
what he thought was needed. And radical change is exactly what he was soon to
advocate.
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The Very Rev. Herbert O'Driscoll, 10th rector and fifth dean, 1968-1982 |
O'Driscoll, like his predecessor Robert
Renison, was a native of Ireland, he had received his theological training at
Trinity College, Dublin, before coming to Canada in 1954 to become assistant
priest at Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa. Later he served three years in the
Canadian Navy, and at two other Ottawa churches, including St. John the
Evangelist, where a few years earlier Northcote Burke had introduced liturgical
reform. Poet and prolific writer, O'Driscoll wrote half a dozen books of
meditations during his tenure at the Cathedral. Two were collections of his
daily talks under the heading of "One Man's Journal" that were heard
on radio station CHQM in Vancouver beginning in 1976; by 1980 he had written
over one thousand scripts. Two of his hymns were included in the 1971 joint
Anglican and United Churches' hymnbook. It was in the pulpit, though, that
O'Driscoll excelled. He was sought after speaker throughout Canada and North
America -- at times to the bemusement of the congregation, who often questioned
where was "Herbie" (as he was universally called). A predecessor,
Cecil Swanson, who sometimes disagreed with what he did, in 1977 called him
"possibly the finest preacher in our Canadian Church today."
In common with many downtown churches in
Canada, finances at Christ Church Cathedral were deteriorating. While new
demands for ministry were growing, the congregation that had to support the
church's work was not. In 1967, expenses outran revenues by $10,000; in 1968,
the deficit rose to an alarming $25,000; in 1969, the deficit was cut back, but
only to $19,000. A reserve built up from large bequests kept the Cathedral
solvent, but the new dean and the church committee knew this the money would
eventually run out. Coupled with the financial problem was a desire by the dean
to redesign the church to open up the Cathedral to the city. Three months after
arriving, O'Driscoll proposed replacing the cathedral's stone wall on Georgia
Street with glass "to visually and physically attract the man in the
street." When that proved impossible, creation of a mini-park around the
building was explored early in 1969. That led to a full scale planning
committee which came up with the rather startling suggestion that the
Cathedral's site might be redeveloped. The proposal was to use the Cathedral's
most valuable asset, its land and building, worth at least two million dollars,
to establish a fiscally sound, continuing ministry.
The February, 1971, vestry meeting voted 189 to
136 to authorize the church committee to prepare plans. Vancouver architect
Arthur Erickson was engaged. By July he had produced a stunning concept: the
86-year-old church building would be torn down, replaced with a new,
contemporary cathedral, built below ground underneat a high cross sculpture on
the corner of Georgia and Burrard.
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Arthur Erickson's design for a new Cathedral Complex, 1971. (William Bros. Photographers Ltd., Vancouver) |
Behind the cathedral would stand an office
tower, reflecting the cross in its mirrored glass. To finance all this, the
church committee proposed that the Cathedral sign a 99-year lease with a
developer, Laing Construction. This British-owned firm build the office tower
and receive its revenues. In turn, Laing would build the underground cathedral,
worth a million dollars, and promise to pay the congregation at least $100,000
annually. The operating deficit would be more than provided for, with enough
addition money for "more seminars and forums, programmes to meet people's
social needs (especially in the West End), possibly a youth hostel and drop-in
centre, a day care centre for downtown working mothers, additional professional
staff to guide us -- the possibilities are endless," the church
committee's promotional brochure enthused. (One candidate for additional staff
lined up privately by O'Driscoll was the Rev. Jim Cruickshank, director of
Sorrento Centre in the Diocese of Kootenay.) When the proposal was unveiled by
a Vancouver Sun reporter in November, controversy erupted of a sort the
Anglican church in Vancouver had never seen before or since.
Both the dean and the church committee were
surprised that redevelopment was supported by a majority within the
congregation, and opposed by large numbers of the public. They expected the
opposite pattern. There was some opposition from the congregation. A former
head sidesman resigned, and a former people's warden, Ken Martin, refused to
sit on a church committee whose majority was decidedly in favor of redevelopment.
A businessman parishioner wrote people's warden Conrad Guelke that he was not
going "to be dragged kicking and screaming" as redevelopment
proceeded. "Is it any wonder that institutional religion is considered
totally irrelevant and indeed ridiculous to the point of absurdity in a lost
and dying world." Guelke replied that being dragged along kicking and
screaming "is hardly a fair way of describing a majority vote." A
West Vancouver parishioner, quoted a letter to a Toronto newspaper (regarding
another demolition): "By the time the various devotees of the cult of
industrial progress and profit...have finished their work we shall have only a
few accidental reminders of the history of our fathers that helps make us what
we are today."
An anonymous "Concerned Congregation of
Christ Church Cathedral" sprang up and claimed to have the names of six
hundred Anglicans who objected to redevelopment. Argued the group in a leaflet:
"Christ Church Cathedral itself is an endowment, provided by the pioneers
of this City who acquired the land and built the Church and provided it as a
place of worship for Anglicans and others in the City... If the ministry cannot
function in the present Cathedral, it certainly cannot function in the proposed
new Church." Former deans Armitage and Swanson expressed their opposition.
Later O'Driscoll suggested that to many of the
opponents of redevelopment, the Cathedral had become "the symbol of an old
Anglo Vancouver which was threatened. And by God, they said, we were not going
to let that happen, even through we no longer worshipped there." The
decision of those who did worship at the Cathedral was a strong vote for
redevelopment. At a special Vestry meeting on May 1, 1972, redevelopment was
approved 282 to 109 -- or 72 per cent, higher than the 58 per cent who had
earlier approved the preparation of plans. The Diocesan Council later that
month endorsed the Cathedral Vestry's decision 24 to 4, "in a belief that
this proposed project will enable the Cathedral to exercise a more effective and
contemporary ministry in downtown Vancouver." Archbishop Somerville the
next month issued a pastoral letter to be read throughout the diocese: "We
do not feel that we have sacrificed spiritual values on the altar of mammon.
Above the Georgia and Burrard corner will stand a Cross. Beneath that Cross
will be a beautiful, contemporary church, protected by its site from traffic
sound, continuing ancient Christian symbols and adequate in size for its
present and foreseeable future life." Primate Edward Scott spoke for the
leadership of the national church and endorsed redevelopment . "I thought
that it would have been terribly creative," Scott said afterward.
The final decision, however, belonged to the
political leaders of the province and city. Premier W.A.C. Bennett thought of
Christ Church Cathedral in the midst of Vancouver skyscrapers as similar to
Trinity Church, New York, on Wall Street. "Tears came to his eyes as he
encouraged me to do what I could to save it," recalled Grace McCarthy,
then a minister without portfolio in the Social Credit government of the day.
Public meetings were organized. An attempt was made by such luminaries as J.V.
Clyne, former judge and businessman, to raise an endowment fund of $500,000 to
make demolition unnecessary. The critical body turned out to be the Vancouver
city council. Council had tipped its hand in February, 1973, by asking the
provincial government to designate the building an "historic site."
On June 27, 1973, after a lengthy public hearing, council formally voted 8 to 3
to withhold a development permit, and thus killed the project. Hugh Crisp
Fuller, a parishioner and president of the "Save Christ Church Cathedral
Committee" called the vote "the answer to a thousand prayers."
O'Driscoll called it a "failure of imagination."
The fight took its toll, and bitter feelings
remained. Three years later the Cathedral refused an offer from the city's
Heritage Advisory Commission to put a blue and white enamel plaque on the
building. Wrote O'Driscoll: "If a building is to become a Heritage
Building then we might ask, `whose Heritage'?" Churches are in the
business of ministry, he argued, and many "may find themselves enjoying a
`Heritage' distinction which they did not wish and about which they were not
adequately consulted..." Christ Church Cathedral might struggle to find
its mission in the Vancouver of the Seventies, but one role it rejected was
becoming a museum.
In the end, through, the efforts of O'Driscoll
and the congregation were were rewarded. After years of negotiation an
agreement was signed in May, 1979, in which the Cathedral sold its development
rights to Daon Development Corp., successor to Laing Construction. Daon had
purchased most of the remainder of the city block on which the Cathedral sits.
In the agreement the Cathedral agreed to keep its present size for 104 years --
save for possibly building a bell tower. In return, the Vancouver City Council
allowed Daon to increase the size of an office tower it planned to build. For
this benefit, Daon paid Christ Church Cathedral $660,000 before and during
construction, and committed itself to annual payments beginning at $225,000.
These would rise to $300,000 per year in 2003, and increase every twenty years
until the agreement ended in 2083. It was a great deal more money than the
original redevelopment project would have brought. Construction on the Daon
building, Park Place, began in 1981.
Looking back 15 years later, O'Driscoll was not
unhappy that the project had failed. The design of the underground cathedral had
a steeply sloping floor which would have been "disastrous for anybody
elderly. The design of that was unrealistic in terms of a space for people to
worship. And I think in that sense we were preserved from a real disaster...
The Cathedral has got the best of both worlds, I think. It is allowed to embody
a very ancient tradition, in that it itself is ancient but its shape is
ancient, and it is able to carry on that element of timelessness in the heart
of the city. But it is enabled to have the viability to do it, to do it
well."
The redevelopment controversy was the most
dramatic event of the early years of O'Driscoll's tenure, but a great deal more
was happening at Christ Church Cathedral. More traditional activities
continued: the Chi Rho fellowship studied the Bible, a Fall Tea with proceeds
going to missionary work was held, girls from Crofton House and boys from St.
George's private school came for services. At the same time pre-teens were
lectured on drugs by a member of the Vancouver Police Department, a debate was
held on Biafra, and a large outdoor sign was erected at Georgia and Burrard,
one of the busiest intersections in the city. Messages were posted weekly. The
sign which attracted much attention -- and some criticism that is was not
suitable for a Cathedral. The Rev. Ian Grant, associate rector, responding to a
suggestion from the youth group, introduced girls as servers at the Family
Eucharist, after obtaining the Archbishop's permission. "They continue to
fulfill this function with grace and I am glad to see them involved in what was
unnecessarily a male monopoly." Citing many of these examples in the 1969
report, O'Driscoll described the situation as a "duality" between the
traditional and contemporary. "Can this duality be continued? I think so.
I hope so. I know no other way to reach for life for God's Church. The
Cathedral is a spectrum of many attitudes. It contains evangelicals,
Anglo-Catholics, confirmed and unconfirmed, people grown in the faith, people
new to the faith. It has people who speak of conversion, people who speak of
concern, people who look for permanence and people impatient for change."
In 1970 Grant left to become rector of St.
Catherine's in North Vancouver, and O'Driscoll brought the Rev. Robert Pynn
from St. John the Evangelist in Ottawa in 1970 to serve as assistant. Pynn had
studied at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., and was
up-to-date on modern trends in the American church. He was especially
interested in establishing links with the city's artists. He and musician Ron
Minshall in November, 1970, organized a Sunday evening folk mass that drew a
large and enthusiastic young audience. These services continued for two years,
and folk-style music was incorporated into the Family Service. In September,
1973, many members of the congregation put on their winter coats early and
became motion picture extras for an evening. Christmas Eve scenes for the
Canadian Broadcasting Company production "I Heard the Owl Call My
Name" were filmed in the Cathedral. The event brought $1,100 to the
Cathedral treasury. In 1974 the musical "Godspell" was presented by a
professional troupe. A liturgical artist, Adrian Ross, joined the Cathedral
staff in 1975, later to be followed by Mary Jane Muir. In 1975, also, Patrick
Wedd, concert organist and composer, left St. Mary's, Kerrisdale, to become
Cathedral music director. He and the dean were to compose several contemporary
hymns.
Under the direction of the dean, assisted by
the Rev. James McCullum (Pynn's successor in 1978), the Cathedral continued as
a place of special events that often included individuals and groups not always
directly connected with the church. Special services included one involving
British Columbia Native Indian groups in 1976 during Habitat, a large conference
in Vancouver on urban issues sponsored by the United Nations. In 1979 a large
memorial service was held for former Premier W.A.C. Bennett. On October 26,
1980, an interfaith service was held to mark the visit of the Dalai Lama to
Vancouver, during which he asked people of all religions to unite for world
peace. In 1982 the Cathedral donated the use of its basement as a distribution
centre for the Vancouver Food Bank; up to 500 bags of groceries were handed out
on Wednesday mornings.
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| Bishop David Somerville with newly ordained priests Virginia Briant, Michael Deck, and Elspeth Alley. (Photo by The Province). |
Largely as a result of the redevelopment
controversy, the congregation became a close-knit community. On November 30,
1976, the Cathedral's own assistant, the Rev. Virginia Briant, and the Rev.
Elspeth Alley were in the first group of six women ordained priests of the Anglican
Church. The same day four other women were ordained in other Canadian cities.
The ordination ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral was not unopposed. The Rev.
James Penrice of St. David's, Vancouver, rose to present a formal statement of
opposition. Archbishop David Somerville and the gathering listened politely,
and proceeded. Virginia Briant had come to the Cathedral as a student intern
from the Vancouver School of Theology and three years before been ordained
deacon. She built up a pastoral program for the elderly and shut-ins, and led a
large healing ministry. By the time of the ceremony, most if not all the
congregation accepted the idea of a woman acting as a priest. In O'Driscoll's
words, the event "had become a personal party called Virginia's ordination...And
when your statutory sort of priest got up and made his protest...all he was
being seen as was a kind of `party pooper.'"
Throughout the 1970s, women continually assumed
a greater leadership role at Christ Church Cathedral. Cleta Herman, executive
director of the neighbouring Young Women's Christian Association, as a member
of the church committee in 1975 had seconded a motion urging General Synod that
year to authorize the ordination of women. The church committee of eight men
and seven women had passed the motion unanimously. After chairing the Cathedral
program committee for three year, Herman was elected people's warden in 1979,
the first woman to hold the post of warden. An informal policy was established
that men and women would share leadership equally. Five years later, when a man
won election as people's warden, the first female rector's warden was
appointed, Jean Mickelson.
In August, 1982, O'Driscoll resigned to become the first Canadian chosen as warden of the College of Preachers at the U.S. Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. He has since returned to Canada to become rector of Christ Church, Calgary. By the time he left, the Cathedral had become, in the words of a memorandum written in 1976 by Bob Pynn, "a centre at the point of intersection for the many persons, concerns, and needs which come and go. A centre has no fixed boundaries, no doctrinaire standards of exclusion or inclusion. The centre is a place of gathering together, of meeting, of forgiveness, of celebration and of sending forth. It is a place in which the love of God is encountered, increased, and `detonated' in and among persons and groups."