Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians: Chapter 41, Part Seven. by Dave jaffe.

  A Happy Couple in a Sometimes Conflicted Church. Part Seven.
    


    The Unitarian Church in Vancouver as pointed out in the last two parts had many clever and talented people in its congregation. Yet this didn't always prevent arguments from breaking out from time to time.
     In the early 21st century, Tilda Sweet and Barry Look stayed on the sidelines as another controversy erupted, shortly after Steven Epperson took over as the church's new minister  Epperson was a bearded intellectual who was a former Mormon from Salt Lake City. "Be fruitful and multiply," the Bible said and Epperson and his wife had followed this injunction. They had five children.
    Epperson finally calmed the troubled waters of the church and led it very successfully for many years afterwards. He was still there in 2016. Phillip Hewett had been retired since the 1990's yet he remained a presence in the church. Of course the Unitarian church didn't please all people. "It's just a club," former member Jennifer Wade said about it. Wade was a founder of Amnesty International in B.C. She wanted the church to bring justice as she saw it to the wider world. After many years at the church Wade left the place in the early 21st century.
    Other people dropped out too along the way including Evelyn Riley and Margaret Wilkins. Whatever their disappointments with the place they didn't speak about them. So this church didn't please everybody. Yet it did do important things. It did help the poor by sponsoring refugees and running a weekly food bank. It remained a liberal religion at a time when most other churches were conservative. It also brought happiness and spiritual happiness to many people in Metro Vancouver. Tilda Sweets and Garry Look still enjoy it there. So do many others.
      "Religions endure," said Rodger Garbutt a former social science teacher and talented visual artist. The Unitarian religion is close to 500 years old. This time frame is dwarfed by other religions like Hinduism which is 5,000 years old and Judaism which has been around for over 3,000 years. Catholicism has been around for over two millennia.
     When the Unitarian came to the corner of 49th and Oak Street in the late 1950's, the Social Credit Party ruled the roost in British Columbia and the Union Nationale ran the province of Quebec. Both political parties have vanished. Strong Canadian presences like Eaton's department stores and Simpson Sears are now defunct. Other signposts have also vanished. Yet the Unitarian church is still there. It's a success story and has carved out for itself an important place in Vancouver.