Around Town: Pacific Theatre, Santa Ono rejected, Multicultural Worship . . .

Pacific Theatre made a significant announcement June 3 to its “circle of friends, donors, artists, patrons and supporters” – a group which is broad indeed.

It began:

We write to you today at a crossroads in our company’s history.

After more than 30 years in our beloved alley-style theatre, located in the historic Chalmers Heritage Building, Pacific Theatre has made the difficult decision to leave our long-time home and to pause programming at the end of December 2025.

While we cherish our relationship with the Holy Trinity Anglican Church – who own and operate the Chalmers Heritage Building – the venue is not currently viable for our long-term, sustainable operations.

The building requires a major structural upgrade (estimated at more than $500,000) alongside water ingress remediation. In addition, the intimate size of the theatre, coupled with restrictions around the number of permitted performances per week, has hampered PT’s ability to increase revenue in what has been a challenging recovery period following the pandemic.

The announcement continued:

In the fall of 2025 we will produce a smaller, scaled-down season at our venue. After our exit in January 2026, the PT leadership and its Board of Directors will engage in internal strategic planning. . . .

Stay tuned for an announcement on ticket sales for our 2025 season – featuring a film screening + panel discussion, a mainstage production, and our cherished annual holiday event, Christmas Presence – in the weeks to come.

Go here for the full announcement.

Stir, a local arts and culture publication, interviewed board chair Lilac Bosma on the day of the announcement.

Here is a portion:

Santa Ono rejected

Though Santa Ono is no long ‘around town,’ he was for years one of our best known Christian citizens.

As I wrote in the fall of 2022:

Santa Ono will step down as President and Vice Chancellor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) October 13. Following six years at UBC, he will take up his new role as President at the University of Michigan the very next day.

He and his wife Wendy Yip have been very active, and well respected around the campus and city, but also in the church.

Thus is is unfortunate to see that he has been caught up in American culture wars in a situation that has been widely covered.

CityNews Vancouver, for example, reported June 3 that his potential move from the University of Michigan to the University of Florida has been blocked:

Longtime academic Santa Ono was rejected Tuesday for the University of Florida presidency by the state university system board amid sharp criticism from political conservatives about his past support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and other initiatives they view as unacceptable liberal ideology.

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s universities, voted 10-6 against Ono, who was most recently president of the University of Michigan. The University of Florida Board of Trustees had voted unanimously in May to approve Ono as the school’s 14th president, and it is unprecedented for the governors to reverse such an action.

Ono’s proposed contract included a number of ideological requirements, such as how well he stopped programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. He was to cooperate with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office of Government Efficiency — similar to the office created by President Donald Trump — and appoint other university officials and deans who are “firmly aligned” with Florida’s approach. . . .

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Ono said he supported DEI initiatives at first because they aim was “equal opportunity and fairness for every student.”

“But over time, I saw how DEI became something else — more about ideology, division and bureaucracy, not student success,” Ono wrote, adding that he eventually limited DEI offices at Michigan. “I believe in Florida’s vision for higher education.”

DeSantis, a Republican who has pushed reforms in higher education to eliminate what he calls “woke” policies such as DEI, did not take a public stand on Ono but did say at a recent news conference that some of his statements made the governor “cringe.”

Go here for the full article

Ono’s ties to Vancouver go back a long way. He was born in Vancouver and his father taught at UBC. The family moved to Baltimore and he studied and worked in several location before returning to Vancouver to lead UBC.

He retains good connections with this area, having recently returned to deliver the commencement address for Trinity Western University’s graduating class April 26.

Multicultural Worship Night

New Westminster Christian Reformed Church will host its annual Multicultural Worship Night on Pentecost Sunday (June 8).

The congregation, which shares its building with House for All Nations, and My Beloved Church, says the gathering “works toward building relationships amongst Christians of diverse ethnic backgrounds.”

They say:

Join us as we witness a beautiful depiction of Revelation 7, where people from all nations, tribes, and languages come together to worship God. Multicultural Worship Night works toward building relationships amongst Christians of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. Michael Goheen (Professor of Missional Theology at Calvin Theological Seminary; Director of Theological Education, Missional Training Center) as our guest speaker.

To learn more about Dr. Goheen, visit his website.

I have written briefly about Goheen’s books here, here and here.

People from other congregations (or none) are warmly welcomed as well. Contact office@nwcrc.ca with any questions.

New Westminster CRC is, oddly, located in Burnaby, at 8255 – 13th Avenue, a couple of blocks west of Cumberland Street.

Events & Jobs

Events are listed below, but there is also an Events page and a Jobs page on the Church for Vancouver site.