Around Town: United Church housing, song for Sedins, Village Church site . . .

Four United Church congregations will soon host affordable housing as a result of an agreement with the provincial government.

Four church properties will undergo major redevelopment as a result of an agreement between the United Church and the provincial government to create more affordable housing.

At a news conference April 13, Premier John Horgan announced that the provincial government will work with.the BC Conference of the United Church of Canada to build more than 400 new affordable rental homes for individuals, families and seniors.

The process will begin this June at Como Lake United Church in Coquitlam, where 75 units will be built for people with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000. The other churches involved are Lakeview Multicultural United in Vancouver, Brighouse United in Richmond and Brechin United in Nanaimo.

The provincial government made the announcement as part of its new HousingHub initiative (which is overseen by BC Housing). A news release stated:

The hub will work with private land owners, developers, non-profits, faith-based groups, Indigenous organizations, and federal and local governments, to locate, use or repurpose land in communities where affordability is an issue. . . .

“The United Church in BC has more property than we need,” said Terry Harrison, property resource team lead, BC Conference of the United Church of Canada.

“We must use these valuable assets wisely, in ways that will help congregations develop new and sustainable models of ministry while, at the same time, providing a practical benefit to the wider community. Working families and individuals need affordable, quality, purpose-built rental housing, and our partnership with the HousingHub will help us to leverage select church properties to do just that.”

An article in the Vancouver Sun said:

Terry Harrison . . . said aging infrastructure and shrinking congregations have led the church to look for ways to redevelop its properties.

“We had to do something innovative to try to figure out how to re-purpose properties,” Harrison said. “Our faith teaches us to serve those in need, and here and now, one of the greatest needs is affordable housing for middle-income families.”

The church developed a plan to leverage its prime real estate in places like Metro Vancouver to support development in locations with lower-valued land, like in Nanaimo, she said.

The plan will allow the church to upgrade and take care of its facilities while also providing a benefit to the community with affordable housing, Harrison explained.

“While it’s imperative that we use these assets for the United Church, we must also provide practical benefits for the wider community. That’s sort of our yin-yang.

A Building Re-purposing Project report on the Como Lake United Church website answered the questions, ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘Why are we doing this?,’ saying “New reasons have emerged over time”:

• Sustainability of people and resources
• Vision for a renewed congregation
• Housing that fills a community need
• To leave a legacy of faith and vision and church space
• To pioneer a new initiative
• To benefit the wider church
• To connect in community and answer God’s call

The United Church’s property resource team – which includes Harrison and executive secretary Doug Goodwin – says:

The team is available upon request to work with Presbyteries, congregations and other ministries to re-purpose property assets into financial assets to serve new forms of congregational life now and for generations to come.

Apart from the affordable housing projects discussed above, the team is working on three market projects, in Burnaby, Vancouver and White Rock:

BC Conference has partnered with two different Market Developers, who are redeveloping three congregational properties in BC. Each site will feature brand new multi-purpose church space. Two projects will feature strata condos, and the other features a community care facility.

• Jubilee United Church – Project Update Aug 2017
• Oakridge United Church – Project Update – Feb 2018
• Peninsula United Church – Project Overview March 2018

Go here for a detailed overview of the property resource team’s work.

Tuneful tribute to departing Sedins

Clayton Imoo, whose day job is associate director for the Ministries and Outreach Office of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, published a song in honour of the Sedins April 14. He said:

Enjoy our tribute to Henrik and Daniel Sedin, inspired by Coldplay’s hit song ‘Fix You.’ Vocals by the amazing Marie Hui; I always feel so blessed to collab with her. As well, I was thrilled to once again work with my brother Jason – he helped write the lyrics, he performed some of the music and he produced the track.

The Vancouver Canucks shared the video on Twitter April 16. This is not the first time that Imoo – whose Twitter handle is @CanuckClay – has shown his devotion to the team (and the Seattle Seahawks) on video. Check out his popular YouTube channel here.

Village Church site approved

Village Church has taken another step forward in its plan for a permanent home. From the Village Church Facebook page, April 10:

We are excited to announce that last night Surrey City Council gave their final approval for our Village 2021 building project! We are so grateful for every person who gave to this project so far and we can’t wait to see how God moves next!

I noted March 8 that Village Church had reached the financial target it had set for itself.

Village Church has reached its ambitious goal of raising $10 million between last September and the end of February, in order to purchase land for a new ministry centre.

The property is located on the southeast corner of 56 Ave (Highway 10) and 148 Street in Surrey – adjacent to the building where its current leased Ministry Centre is located. The property is approximately six acres in size.

Village Church began in 2009 and now holds nine services in three locations in Surrey and Langley (and one in Calgary).

An April 12 article by Amy Reid in the Surrey-Now Leader said of the proposal to build a large worship centre and 36 townhouses:

After Monday’s lengthy hearing – which saw impassioned pleas from supporters and opponents of the project – council voted to let the proposal move ahead. But the green light was on the condition that a good neighbour agreement and traffic mitigation strategy be completed, along with a reworking of the Highway 10 and 148th Street intersection to improve safety and sight lines.

The church will discuss the project further at its annual general meeting April 26. In the meantime, a glance at their Facebook page shows they are not fixated on land acquisition. There is lots of life in the congregation, without any land or building – on the 12th they raised $30,000 for the families of the Humboldt Broncos, and on the 13th a crowd watched 25 people being baptized at the White Rock Pier (that’s 1,250 since the church began in 2010). Stay tuned . . .