Around Town: Smoke on the Mountain, lost church, Merton books, Hineni House

“A hilarious bluegrass musical full of songs and stories that will set your toes tapping and your heart soaring.” That is what Pacific Theatre is promising in Smoke on the Mountain, and I don’t doubt there will be a ready audience when it opens October 9.

Here is Pacific Theatre’s description of the production:

Join the Singing Sanders Family as they end a five-year hiatus to bring their newfangled bluegrass sound to North Carolina’s Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

It’s 1938, and while the Great Depression is on its way out, the residents of Mount Pleasant are still feeling its sting: the pickle plant that makes everything in town smell like vinegar has begun massive layoffs and the church is so poor that its own pastor, known only as Pastor Oglethorp, has a part-time job. Still, Pastor Oglethorp is determined to bring his congregation into the modern era, first by installing an electric light bulb, and second by introducing his flock to a new kind of worship: bluegrass gospel music.

Damon Calderwood (left), Caitriona Murphy, Matthew Simmons, Gordon Roberts, Mack Gordon. Photo by Damon Calderwood.

Apparently there will be plenty of old favourites – Rock of Ages, I’ll Fly Away – along with many less well known. The Guide to Musical Theatre said of an earlier version:

The story is an extremely well rendered one. Rather than just a concert of old-time Christian hymns, Smoke on the Mountain is truly a musical. The characters are well developed and realistic, there is sufficient back story and the dialogue is never trite.

Smoke on the Mountain is actually a guest production by the Midnight Theatre Collective, though some of the actors (Mack Gordon and Kaitlin Williams at least) are regulars with PT as well. Performances run until November 1.

Douglas Park’s lost church

The congregation of Douglas Park United Church (top) and the neglected building today.

There aren’t too many church buildings around that I don’t know about (having kept an eye on them since the 1980s), but I found one this week. Admittedly, it’s been pretty well disguised, but it’s an interesting case.

Responding to an article on Church for Vancouver called Vancouver’s lost churches, Paul Phillips of EDG Homes Inc. (“an innovative residential design practice based in the Cambie neighborhood of Vancouver”) said:

Very interesting article and sad to see all these historical buildings lost. I am currently involved with trying to save the original Douglas Park United Church (1927). It later transferred to the local Baptist congregation in 1939 which stayed until 1952 when it transferred to Rosicrucians.

The building was offered for sale last year and unfortunately no faith group came forward so I have contracted to purchase it and restore the original exterior and convert to townhouses. Although it will not be available for community space, the building will be preserved and honoured for the community.

There were a lot of green ‘Take a Stand’ t-shirts at the open house.

I wish Phillips well. Green-shirted neighbours were out in force to oppose the project at an open house September 29 at Chown Memorial and Chinese United Church. The church is at 19th Avenue and Cambie Street, just a few blocks northwest of the property under scrutiny, which is at 809 West 23rd Avenue (at Willow Street), south of Douglas Park.

Two supporters of the Douglas Park Neighbours Association, clad in green ‘Take a Stand’ t-shirts, handed me a two-pager which detailed reasons supporting their main purpose:

We are a community of residents working together to maintain the quality of life in the beautiful Douglas Park neighbourhood, by safeguarding against the erosion of its special character and RS-5 residential integrity through incongruous development and over-densification.

The old church building at 809 East 23rd Avenue.

They are opposed to “spot rezoning” at 23rd and Willow, or anywhere else in the Douglas Park area.

A recent Georgia Straight article gave more detail about the project:

EDG Homes Inc. plans to reuse and extend the former house of worship at 809 West 23rd Avenue for six strata-titled homes, four of which will have basement units for rental.

Heritage consultant Donald Luxton is working with the developer to convert the structure, built in 1927 as the home of the Oak Street United Church. . . .

This ‘Take a Stand’ sign is kitty corner to the property in question.

The planned redevelopment of the former West 23rd Avenue place of worship is a heritage project that will restore its original appearance.

“The building doesn’t look like much right now, so I know people have questioned why you would do this as a heritage project,” Luxton said. “But I think once you see the plan, you get a sense that we’re returning it back to a much more appropriate appearance on the exterior that reflects its original design intention.” . . .

“There’s a trend that has been happening that church buildings are coming up for other uses, and this one hasn’t really been used as a United Church in a very, very long time,” Luxton told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

Paul Phillips is hoping to restore the former church building.

Paul Phillips of EDG Homes Inc. is hoping to restore the former church building.

Phillips is keen to see his project succeed, noting that it would be a more creative use of the land than simply tearing the old church building down and plunking two new houses on two 33 foot lots. He says there is no reason, in theory, that the building could not again be used as a church – and he would even be willing to consider selling to a church under the right circumstances.

He believes the original church usage should allow any purchaser to avoid the kind of parking requirements that the city requires of churches when they seek to use a property for a new purpose. However, city officials at the open house were dubious about that. As well, one can only imagine how many green-shirted neighbours would turn out to oppose any such novelty, even if it were really a return to the property’s original purpose.

Two new Merton books

Two local men are offering new books about Thomas Merton. Retired Anglican priest and SFU professor Donald Grayston will host a book launch event at Our Town Cafe on the corner of Kingsway and Broadway October 3.

Grayston’s book is Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon: The Camaldoli Correspondence. Ron Dart (the other author, see below), had this to say about the book:

The honeymoon phase of the spiritual journey often begins with much hope and many possibilities, but the time comes, when the deeper journey of transformation must be faced. Often such a place of transformation begins and ends by being grounded and rooted in a specific place and community – for Merton, of course, it was the monastery of Gethsemani. . . .

Merton had reached a place at Gethsemani after being there for 10 years in which the glow and charm was gone – he was restless with the place. The 36 letters (most extant) that Grayston includes in the book deal with Merton’s letters to and responses from different actors in this noonday demon drama. Don does a superb job of setting the dilemma and issue within a classical context and Merton’s living through his own version of boredom, restlessness and an idealized other place. . . .

For the full review go here.

Dart himself has written about Merton, but also about C.S. Lewis. He makes this point about the two of them, and his book:

Many are the C.S. Lewis and Inklings keeners who have delved deeply into such lore and legends, but such a clan often know little of Thomas Merton. Many are those who have heeded and heard well the contemplative insights of Merton, but such a tribe is thin when it comes to their read of Lewis and the Inklings.

White Gulls and Wild Birds brings together 12 authors (some elders and seasoned and other gifted and emerging) who have pondered, in some depth and detail, in a personal and confessional manner, the way Lewis, the Inklings and Merton have impacted their lives and faith journey.

Go here for a comment on the book by Brad Jersak.

Speaking of ‘Inklings keeners,’ the Inklings Institute of Canada, based at Trinity Western, will stray just a little bit from their core themes to host a Tea Party for Alice in Wonderland’s 150th Anniversary October 15.

Hineni House

Hineni House offers a warm, spiritual community atmosphere.

St. Margaret’s Cedar Cottage Anglican Church has created an intentional community. Hineni House community director Anita Fonseca says it is “for Vancouver folk who seek the space, time and guidance for discernment in a space that aims to be both life-giving and affordable.”

Applicants do not need to be Anglicans or Christians. All five members will have their own room, and they will be able to continue with their school or job on their own time. The $700 a month cost covers rent, internet, cable, all programming, spiritual direction, counselling and two retreats a year. The program starts November 1.

Hineni House is at 3888 Dumfries Street, northeast of Kingsway and Knight Street. For more information visit hinenihouse.org or email [email protected]

Sep 2015

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