Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians: Chapter 41, part three.

      A Happy Couple in A Sometimes Conflicted Church; Part Three.


    More upheavals lay ahead of the Unitarian church in Vancouver in the 1970's onward. One good thing that happened was the founding of the environmental organization 'Greenpeace' in the church's basement. Very few churches back then would have allowed such a gathering of environmentalists in their place of worship, let alone found an organization to fight for environmental issues.
    Yet then came two problems. One was a male minister who ended up sleeping with a number of Unitarian women. He was fired when someone uncovered his exploits. Another dispute arose in the 1980's that was harder to solve. By now in the 1980's, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States of America. His aggressive rearmament program provoked anti-U.S. demonstrations across parts of western Europe and North America. Protestors stood foursquare against Reagan's plans to plant Cruise missiles and Stealth bombers in the heart of Europe. These new weapons of course were aimed at the then-Soviet Union.
     In the Vancouver church several women from the pro-peace group 'The Voice of Women' came out in favour of the protestors. They urged the church to support the anti-Cruise missile and anti-Stealth bomber marchers. "They're just a bunch of old Commie women," someone said contemptuously about these older females.Yet the women were right to point out that U.S. president Ronald Reagan was dangerously raising tensions again and renewing the Cold War.
     Still, quite a few people in the church didn't agree with the women's politics. "The Unitarian Church is socially progressive," says Barbara Taylor, who with her husband John, ran quite a few prize winning Bread and Breakfast hotels. "Yet the church isn't economically progressive." In other word, Unitarians are all in favour of gay or lesbian ministers, same sex marriages and a woman's right to choose. The controversies that roiled the United Church  of Canada in the 1980's, about gay ministers for example, never happened in the Unitarian church. Unitarians quickly accepted gay and lesbian ministers and same sex marriages, some of which were performed at the church.
     Yet many Unitarians at the church don't support making trade unions stronger, raising the minimum wage and governments taking a stronger role in the economy. Also many Unitarians were quite hostile to the Soviet Union. Tilda Sweet supported the Voice of Women on the issue of  opposing Stealth bombers and Cruise missiles. Barry Look sided with Ronald Reagan.
     In the end after much debate, the church took part in the huge anti-war demos that took place in Vancouver in the early 1980's. Yet it took some arguments for this to happen before the Unitarians joined the demonstrations. By now, the Unitarian Church stood out a  beacon of liberalism among Vancouver churches. It invited into its church  speakers like Murray Dobbin , Linda McQuaig  and the fiery Canadian nationalist Maud Barlow all of whom were definitely on the left, and often to the left of many Unitarians. It married same sex couples. It also married people and performed memorial services for those who had no religion. "They do things we can't do," a member of  another church not  far from the Unitarian Church said later. This was true.