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.
Wednesday, 9 August 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe: :Chapter 41. Part Six.
A Happy Couple in s Sometimes Conflicted Church. By Dave Jaffe. Part Six.
The Unitarian Church of Vancouver didn't only attract talented musicians and visual artists. One of Canada's well known novelists, Margaret Laurence came to this church in the 1960's. Later she returned to Ontario.
The church also had among its members some very clever people. "David Donaldson is a brilliant economist ," Jennifer Wade said about Donaldson. This was true. Donaldson taught for many years at UBC. Then there was John Smith, a tall talented mathematician who worked with mathematically challenged youngsters at the B.C. Institute of Technology. A married couple, Merva and Wally Cottle both taught histology or the science of tissues at UBC.
Wally Cottle was a scrapper who told the minister Sydney Morris, "I'm going to get rid of you." And he did. Another clever teacher was Joyce Griffiths who had many children. "I don't bring them all together at one time," she once confessed. "If they all get together, they usually end up arguing." Griffiths had a Master of Science in physics and taught for many years at the B.C. Institute of Technology.
Randy Mackinnon had a Masters of Arts in the social sciences. This ambitious man from Alberta found a true outlet for his talents by setting up philosopher's cafes at the Unitarian Church on Friday nights. They proved to be very popular. "This church meets all my needs," Mackinnon said as his philosopher's cafes were in full swing.
The Unitarian Church of Vancouver didn't only attract talented musicians and visual artists. One of Canada's well known novelists, Margaret Laurence came to this church in the 1960's. Later she returned to Ontario.
The church also had among its members some very clever people. "David Donaldson is a brilliant economist ," Jennifer Wade said about Donaldson. This was true. Donaldson taught for many years at UBC. Then there was John Smith, a tall talented mathematician who worked with mathematically challenged youngsters at the B.C. Institute of Technology. A married couple, Merva and Wally Cottle both taught histology or the science of tissues at UBC.
Wally Cottle was a scrapper who told the minister Sydney Morris, "I'm going to get rid of you." And he did. Another clever teacher was Joyce Griffiths who had many children. "I don't bring them all together at one time," she once confessed. "If they all get together, they usually end up arguing." Griffiths had a Master of Science in physics and taught for many years at the B.C. Institute of Technology.
Randy Mackinnon had a Masters of Arts in the social sciences. This ambitious man from Alberta found a true outlet for his talents by setting up philosopher's cafes at the Unitarian Church on Friday nights. They proved to be very popular. "This church meets all my needs," Mackinnon said as his philosopher's cafes were in full swing.
Tuesday, 8 August 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Poltics of Some Canadisn by Dave Jaffe: A Happy Couple in a Sometsimes Conflicted Church.
Chapter 41. Part Five by Dave Jaffe
Like any other organization the Unitarian Church of Vancouver was a hierarchy. At the top of the pyramid stood women like Patience Towler, Dorothy Goresky, Evelyn Riley and Art Hughes. Towler was a sometimes stern police type who kept troublemakers in line or got them out of the church. She came from England and showed up at the church in the 1970's. In the 21st century she went back to England.
Evelyn Riley was a thin elegant woman who had a great love for opera. Dorothy Goresky had been a medical doctor from at least the 1950's to the 1990's. This was a rare accomplishment in an age when women were routinely kept out of lucrative male-dominated professions. She was a skilled bureaucratic practitioner who kept the church functioning efficiently.
Art Hughes was a tall military veteran who was always collecting money from many organizations. He always defended the Canadian military against any critics. "I don't trust him," said one woman who at one time invited Hughes into her house. Yet this was a minority opinion in the church. After he passed away, Hughes received a glowing obituary in the 'Globe and Mail'.
The Unitarian Church attracted some very talented people. The Saskatchewan born Harold Douglas Brown played classical music on most Sunday mornings at the beginning of the church service. This is the way many newcomers and longtime members of the congregation were welcomed to the church. The Boston-born Jeanni Corsi was another talented musician who often played the piano at Unitarian services. She not only played music. She also composed songs and operas. The tall Elliott Dainow took over Harold Brown's job of playing music every Sunday, when Harold Brown retired in the 1990's.
Along with these talented pianists , many other gifted people came to the church to perform. Carol Davis sang some beautiful music as one of the lead singers in the Unitarian choirs. Davis was a very fine singer who at one time tried unsuccessfully to get a job with the Vancouver Opera. Still, she had a great voice and the Unitarian choirs performed some fine music. "The choirs kept the church together through some very difficult times," said former choir director Sally Novinger.
A fine actress Susan Chapple appeared at many Unitarian services. So too did another talented actor namely Joy Coghill and her also very competent actor and daughter Debra Thorne.
Not only actors flocked to the church. So too did visual artists. A wonderful artist named Don Slade often had shows at the church. Margaret Wilkins was another talented visual artist who painted beautiful abstract works. As some of these people mentioned got older, new younger persons came along. Meanwhile many brilliant academics came to the church also.
Like any other organization the Unitarian Church of Vancouver was a hierarchy. At the top of the pyramid stood women like Patience Towler, Dorothy Goresky, Evelyn Riley and Art Hughes. Towler was a sometimes stern police type who kept troublemakers in line or got them out of the church. She came from England and showed up at the church in the 1970's. In the 21st century she went back to England.
Evelyn Riley was a thin elegant woman who had a great love for opera. Dorothy Goresky had been a medical doctor from at least the 1950's to the 1990's. This was a rare accomplishment in an age when women were routinely kept out of lucrative male-dominated professions. She was a skilled bureaucratic practitioner who kept the church functioning efficiently.
Art Hughes was a tall military veteran who was always collecting money from many organizations. He always defended the Canadian military against any critics. "I don't trust him," said one woman who at one time invited Hughes into her house. Yet this was a minority opinion in the church. After he passed away, Hughes received a glowing obituary in the 'Globe and Mail'.
The Unitarian Church attracted some very talented people. The Saskatchewan born Harold Douglas Brown played classical music on most Sunday mornings at the beginning of the church service. This is the way many newcomers and longtime members of the congregation were welcomed to the church. The Boston-born Jeanni Corsi was another talented musician who often played the piano at Unitarian services. She not only played music. She also composed songs and operas. The tall Elliott Dainow took over Harold Brown's job of playing music every Sunday, when Harold Brown retired in the 1990's.
Along with these talented pianists , many other gifted people came to the church to perform. Carol Davis sang some beautiful music as one of the lead singers in the Unitarian choirs. Davis was a very fine singer who at one time tried unsuccessfully to get a job with the Vancouver Opera. Still, she had a great voice and the Unitarian choirs performed some fine music. "The choirs kept the church together through some very difficult times," said former choir director Sally Novinger.
A fine actress Susan Chapple appeared at many Unitarian services. So too did another talented actor namely Joy Coghill and her also very competent actor and daughter Debra Thorne.
Not only actors flocked to the church. So too did visual artists. A wonderful artist named Don Slade often had shows at the church. Margaret Wilkins was another talented visual artist who painted beautiful abstract works. As some of these people mentioned got older, new younger persons came along. Meanwhile many brilliant academics came to the church also.
Saturday, 5 August 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians: Chapter 41. Part Four.
A Happy Couple in A Sometimes Conflicted Church. Part Four.
As the Unitarian church progressed into the 1990's, the surrounding neighbourhood changed its character. Many Asian Canadians, who were Chinese in origin, bought up many of the nearby houses. Some of these new and old Canadians worshipped at Buddhist temples. Others flocked to the evangelical and Anglican churches. Most of these churches preached an unyielding conservatism.
Filipino newcomers meanwhile ended up in Catholic churches that had little time for women needing abortions or same sex couples. "We're just not wanted in this church," one gay man whose partner was HIV positive said about one Catholic church he used to go to. The Unitarian church welcomed many gay and lesbian people and contrasted sharply with other more conservative places of worship.
The Unitarian church was at times also a haven for people with personal problems. "People come here who have problems," said Merva Cottle, a histologist or tissue expert, who taught at UBC's Faculty of Medicine. "Sometimes they solutions to their problems here and sometimes they don't. If they don't ,they often leave."
A number of disturbed men showed up at the church from time to time and then left. One man who arrived in the 1980's, used to look obsessively at well dressed women who had dark or brown hair. He walked past one woman's house quite a few times. Then he wrote a letter of apology to the woman. He then wrote a memoir of his time in the church and then left.
" There's too much information in this work," a church member named Virginia said about the memoir. The memoir vanished down the memory hole. Yet Virginia soon left the church too. Another man showed up at the church with money problems. He was paid money by the church to officiate at some services. Yet then he went out into the larger world and clamed even more money from some other people. He also persuaded a church member who'd inherited money to buy him a car.
This man vanished from the church also after someone disagreed with what he was doing.
Some ministers ran into problems at the church and had to leave. Sydney Morris was a young Midwestern American minister who came to the church in the 1990's. She was forced out of her job after pressure from irate members. Another minister came but was also forced to leave. "Where's a Canadian minister?" one congregant asked. "They're all Americans coming up here." Another American minister showed up in the 1990's. Andy Backus was a tall American who had lived for some time in upstate New York. He put his Ph.D. after his name and this riled up some church members. The Vancouver Unitarians had many Ph.D's in their midst and most of these people didn't advertise their degrees. At last in 2002 the church got a permanent minister again, namely Steven Epperson, a bearded former Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah.
As the Unitarian church progressed into the 1990's, the surrounding neighbourhood changed its character. Many Asian Canadians, who were Chinese in origin, bought up many of the nearby houses. Some of these new and old Canadians worshipped at Buddhist temples. Others flocked to the evangelical and Anglican churches. Most of these churches preached an unyielding conservatism.
Filipino newcomers meanwhile ended up in Catholic churches that had little time for women needing abortions or same sex couples. "We're just not wanted in this church," one gay man whose partner was HIV positive said about one Catholic church he used to go to. The Unitarian church welcomed many gay and lesbian people and contrasted sharply with other more conservative places of worship.
The Unitarian church was at times also a haven for people with personal problems. "People come here who have problems," said Merva Cottle, a histologist or tissue expert, who taught at UBC's Faculty of Medicine. "Sometimes they solutions to their problems here and sometimes they don't. If they don't ,they often leave."
A number of disturbed men showed up at the church from time to time and then left. One man who arrived in the 1980's, used to look obsessively at well dressed women who had dark or brown hair. He walked past one woman's house quite a few times. Then he wrote a letter of apology to the woman. He then wrote a memoir of his time in the church and then left.
" There's too much information in this work," a church member named Virginia said about the memoir. The memoir vanished down the memory hole. Yet Virginia soon left the church too. Another man showed up at the church with money problems. He was paid money by the church to officiate at some services. Yet then he went out into the larger world and clamed even more money from some other people. He also persuaded a church member who'd inherited money to buy him a car.
This man vanished from the church also after someone disagreed with what he was doing.
Some ministers ran into problems at the church and had to leave. Sydney Morris was a young Midwestern American minister who came to the church in the 1990's. She was forced out of her job after pressure from irate members. Another minister came but was also forced to leave. "Where's a Canadian minister?" one congregant asked. "They're all Americans coming up here." Another American minister showed up in the 1990's. Andy Backus was a tall American who had lived for some time in upstate New York. He put his Ph.D. after his name and this riled up some church members. The Vancouver Unitarians had many Ph.D's in their midst and most of these people didn't advertise their degrees. At last in 2002 the church got a permanent minister again, namely Steven Epperson, a bearded former Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Friday, 4 August 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, 3 August 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe; Chapter 41, part two.
A Happy Couple in a Sometimes Conflicted Church: Part Two.
What is the Unitarian faith? Basically it was yet another religion that came out of the reformation in 16th century Europe. Unitarians believed back then that God, the Son and the Holy Ghost were all one being. This of course smacked of heresy to the Catholic and Orthodox churches back then. They attacked the church's doctrines and the Unitarians that worshipped there. Still, the Unitarians managed to survive in places like Transylvania in present day Romania. The Unitarian doctrines later trickled out to other parts of Europe.
In the early 19th century it came to Canada and spread westward. By the 1950's, most Unitarians were liberal believers. "Unitarians believe in the dignity of the individual," one clergyman said. Few Unitarian sermons contain references to Christ, the Holy Ghost or God for that matter. Nor do their hymns. No crosses grace the walls of any Unitarian church. And there are no stained glass windows in any Unitarian church either. "God is noted by its absence," says one Unitarian .
Yet all of this freedom didn't always lead to harmony. "There's really no theology in Unitarianism," said Sally Novinger, a former choir director at the Vancouver church. "So there's plenty of disagreements." The first outbreak of dissent hit the church in the 1960's. If the 1950's was an age of innocence, the 1960's was an age of rebellion. Dozens of groups came out of the woodwork to claim a place in the sun.
Feminists, Quebec sovereigntists, anti-Vietnam war protestors, First nations, environmentalists, hippies and yippies, and gays and lesbians demanded social justice in Canada. Religions faced challenges too. "A cultural revolution was under way in the 1960's," writes the American socialist Michael Harrington. "It challenged moral certitudes and practices with the authority of centuries behind them." Organized mainstream religions, Harrington points out, declined in importance and many Eastern and pseudo religions sprung up. Casual sex, casual drugs, and casual dress became commonplace.
Cultural and political challenges surfaced in the Vancouver Unitarian church too. Many of its members tried L.S.D and marijuana which then as now were illegal. A few members left their wives or husbands to practice what they called back then "free love". At one Unitarian conference held in Canada in the late 1960's, American black power advocates demanded social justice and money as reparations for what they said were centuries of oppression of African-Americans.
As this age of dissent faded somewhat in the early 1970's, it left some scars behind. Yet the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, like most other churches survived. Tilda Sweet and Barry Look came here to the church in the 1970's, and stayed. At this time it had a congregation of about 600. It went into the 1970's on a firm footing. It still had a future ahead of it.
What is the Unitarian faith? Basically it was yet another religion that came out of the reformation in 16th century Europe. Unitarians believed back then that God, the Son and the Holy Ghost were all one being. This of course smacked of heresy to the Catholic and Orthodox churches back then. They attacked the church's doctrines and the Unitarians that worshipped there. Still, the Unitarians managed to survive in places like Transylvania in present day Romania. The Unitarian doctrines later trickled out to other parts of Europe.
In the early 19th century it came to Canada and spread westward. By the 1950's, most Unitarians were liberal believers. "Unitarians believe in the dignity of the individual," one clergyman said. Few Unitarian sermons contain references to Christ, the Holy Ghost or God for that matter. Nor do their hymns. No crosses grace the walls of any Unitarian church. And there are no stained glass windows in any Unitarian church either. "God is noted by its absence," says one Unitarian .
Yet all of this freedom didn't always lead to harmony. "There's really no theology in Unitarianism," said Sally Novinger, a former choir director at the Vancouver church. "So there's plenty of disagreements." The first outbreak of dissent hit the church in the 1960's. If the 1950's was an age of innocence, the 1960's was an age of rebellion. Dozens of groups came out of the woodwork to claim a place in the sun.
Feminists, Quebec sovereigntists, anti-Vietnam war protestors, First nations, environmentalists, hippies and yippies, and gays and lesbians demanded social justice in Canada. Religions faced challenges too. "A cultural revolution was under way in the 1960's," writes the American socialist Michael Harrington. "It challenged moral certitudes and practices with the authority of centuries behind them." Organized mainstream religions, Harrington points out, declined in importance and many Eastern and pseudo religions sprung up. Casual sex, casual drugs, and casual dress became commonplace.
Cultural and political challenges surfaced in the Vancouver Unitarian church too. Many of its members tried L.S.D and marijuana which then as now were illegal. A few members left their wives or husbands to practice what they called back then "free love". At one Unitarian conference held in Canada in the late 1960's, American black power advocates demanded social justice and money as reparations for what they said were centuries of oppression of African-Americans.
As this age of dissent faded somewhat in the early 1970's, it left some scars behind. Yet the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, like most other churches survived. Tilda Sweet and Barry Look came here to the church in the 1970's, and stayed. At this time it had a congregation of about 600. It went into the 1970's on a firm footing. It still had a future ahead of it.
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Right, Left and Centre: The Politcs of Some Canadians by Dave Jaffe. Chapter 41, part one.
A Happy Couple in A Sometimes Conflicted Church. Chapter 41, part one.
They looked like a happy couple and they were. He was a tall heavy set man from the state of Delaware. She was a short thin woman who grew up in Saskatchewan. They weren't on the same political page though. Tilda Sweet stood on the left politically speaking. Her father was a staunch New Democrat. So was she and all of her siblings. She taught English as a second language in the public school system.
Barry Look was a civil engineer who worshipped free enterprise. "The market is the magic," U.S. President Ronald Reagan used to say. Barry Look agreed. He loved Ronald Reagan. This couple stayed together despite their political differences. They rarely fought with each other and they live in a comfortable home on Vancouver's west side which they bought before housing prices went through the roof.
Yet the church they went to was often divided on issues of politics and some theological points. And unlike Tilda Sweet and Barry Lord's view points, these differences sometimes swelled into open if nonviolent conflict. The church they went to for years was and is the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. It came to its present place on the city's west side in the late 1950's.
"It was an era of church building," one observer pointed out. It was also the first real age of mass affluence. For many Canadians, the 1950's, gave them their first taste of the good life. Millions of Canadians, new and old ones moved out to the suburbs. They bought, houses, cars and t.v. sets for the first time. They raised children, usually two or three of them and they were happy. Or so the history books tell us.
Of course there were millions of Canadians who weren't affluent. Yet even many of these people later went on to enjoy the good things of life. "The 1950's was an age of innocence," former premier Dave Barrett said. Groups like the First Nations, feminists, ands others weren't on the radar screen back then. They showed up later.
Still, to make the Unitarian Church of Vancouver really take off, you needed a strong take charge leader. Philip Hewitt was that man. He came out from England in the 1950's, a tall, angular graduate of Oxford university. . He breathed new life and ambitions into the then Unitarian congregation that worshipped in a small church near the corner of Granville and Tenth Avenue. He persuaded some Unitarians to take out mortgages on their homes and lend the money towards building a new church.
Vancouver, he noted was spreading out north, east and south and the church should move with the times. The Unitarians for the most part agreed. So on one Sunday in the late 1950's a new big Unitarian church with three buildings opened up on the north east corner of 49th Avenue and Oak Street.
"I was a bit worried," one Unitarian member recalls., "because I'd taken out a mortgage to help pay for the church property. Yet in the end it all worked out."
They looked like a happy couple and they were. He was a tall heavy set man from the state of Delaware. She was a short thin woman who grew up in Saskatchewan. They weren't on the same political page though. Tilda Sweet stood on the left politically speaking. Her father was a staunch New Democrat. So was she and all of her siblings. She taught English as a second language in the public school system.
Barry Look was a civil engineer who worshipped free enterprise. "The market is the magic," U.S. President Ronald Reagan used to say. Barry Look agreed. He loved Ronald Reagan. This couple stayed together despite their political differences. They rarely fought with each other and they live in a comfortable home on Vancouver's west side which they bought before housing prices went through the roof.
Yet the church they went to was often divided on issues of politics and some theological points. And unlike Tilda Sweet and Barry Lord's view points, these differences sometimes swelled into open if nonviolent conflict. The church they went to for years was and is the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. It came to its present place on the city's west side in the late 1950's.
"It was an era of church building," one observer pointed out. It was also the first real age of mass affluence. For many Canadians, the 1950's, gave them their first taste of the good life. Millions of Canadians, new and old ones moved out to the suburbs. They bought, houses, cars and t.v. sets for the first time. They raised children, usually two or three of them and they were happy. Or so the history books tell us.
Of course there were millions of Canadians who weren't affluent. Yet even many of these people later went on to enjoy the good things of life. "The 1950's was an age of innocence," former premier Dave Barrett said. Groups like the First Nations, feminists, ands others weren't on the radar screen back then. They showed up later.
Still, to make the Unitarian Church of Vancouver really take off, you needed a strong take charge leader. Philip Hewitt was that man. He came out from England in the 1950's, a tall, angular graduate of Oxford university. . He breathed new life and ambitions into the then Unitarian congregation that worshipped in a small church near the corner of Granville and Tenth Avenue. He persuaded some Unitarians to take out mortgages on their homes and lend the money towards building a new church.
Vancouver, he noted was spreading out north, east and south and the church should move with the times. The Unitarians for the most part agreed. So on one Sunday in the late 1950's a new big Unitarian church with three buildings opened up on the north east corner of 49th Avenue and Oak Street.
"I was a bit worried," one Unitarian member recalls., "because I'd taken out a mortgage to help pay for the church property. Yet in the end it all worked out."
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