Vancouver

From BrethrenPedia

[edit] History

The city of Vancouver was established soon after the Canadian Pacific Railway agreed to put its terminus in the area in 1884. The city grew rapidly in the 1890s during the Klondike Gold Rush.

In 1897, James Rae, then 25 years old and a son of John Rae Sr., an evangelist working in Manitoba and North Dakota, arrived in Vancouver to open a shoe store. He soon found other believers of like mind, and the small group formed an assembly in 1898. These included Harry Douglas, Alex Anderson, and William Woods and their wives, along with James Rae.

Others soon joined with the Vancouver Assembly, including James Rae’s wife who arrived from Winnipeg, Mr. Murchie, Mrs. Jess, Mrs. Miller, Mr. and Mrs Alex Matthews Jr., and Mr. John Currie. Messrs. Swain and Parnell came for a few months and stayed until a new assembly was formed in New Westminster on the southeast side of Greater Vancouver.

The original Vancouver Assembly met first in an upstairs room above Harvey’s store at Hastings Street and Westminster Road. Next they met on Cordova St. above a meat market; then in an upstairs room on Cordova Street near Cambie Street, and then later to an undertaker’s parlour on Granville Street.

People arrived in the city daily from England, Eastern Canada, and the Prairies. It was not unusual for several ‘Letters of Commendation’ to be read on Lord’s Day mornings, and the assembly grew rapidly. Soon, larger quarters were needed, and Mr. Muncie from the Victoria Gospel Hall built a large Seymour Street Gospel Hall for the believers, at 1181 Seymour Streeet, and this became the meeting place for many years. Most of the traveling Brethren evangelists of the day preached at the early Vancouver/Seymour Street Assembly.

The Seymour Street Gospel Hall moved in 1947 from its downtown location to a residential section about three miles west at Sixteenth and MacDonald and took the name 16th & MacDonald Gospel Hall. Since then it has become known as the Sixteenth Avenue Gospel Chapel. Others in early leadership, in addition to those mentioned above, were Gordon Budd, Stanley Budd, Harold Summers, Ronald Sellers, and Leslie Richmond. Since then, Geofferey Lloyd, William Cummings, Leslie Jones, Clem Aitken, Ernie Peters, Harold Diewert, Samuel Gilmour, Robert Shannon, Eric Peterson, Teus Kappers, Jim Hathaway, Jay Levielle, Harold Summers Jr., and Harold Budd have shared leadership of the assembly. Several have been commended to the Lord’s work. About 120 adults are in fellowship, with 40 children.

The assemblies in the Greater Vancouver area had increased to 36 by 1950. In that year, it was estimated that the inclusive membership of the approximately 60 ‘open’ assemblies in British Columbia was 5000.

Many assemblies in the Vancouver and Victoria areas have historically cooperated in a variety of areas such as summer camps, open-air meetings, senior citizen housing, Easter conferences, sports teams, parachurch organizations, and commendation of missionaries. Several assemblies had ‘Mary & Martha’ groups of women; like Martha, they would make and provide clothing for missionaries; like Mary, they would have Bible studies. The assemblies have commended a multitude of workers to locations throughout the world, as well as to local ministries.