Its previous congregation of more than 25 years may have moved out, but the distinctive red brick First Metropolitan church on Quadra Street will continue to host new spiritual communities.
On Dec. 3, a morning service in the century-old heritage building, formerly home to the First Metropolitan United Church, will be held in Spanish, as part of a community called Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe — the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
It’s led by Rev. Dimas Canjura, who started a Spanish-speaking service out of St. Peter’s off Quadra Street more than a decade ago.
Canjura said there has been no similar service in the capital region since he moved on to serve as rector at Holy Trinity church in Sooke.
“The Spanish[-speaking] community is growing up here in Victoria, and they need a space for their beliefs,” he said.
Rev. Rob Crosby-Shearer of Abbey Church, a joint United/Anglican congregation that has been meeting in the Quadra Street church building for the last 18 months, said he’s keen to see more diverse ecumenical communities using the space.
“The United Church is a big enough tent that this could be a place of welcome for some pretty diverse expressions of Christian faith,” he said.
Eventually, there could be a number of different denominations in various languages meeting there and coming together for shared services on days such as Christmas Eve and Good Friday, Crosby-Shearer said.
“One of the things that’s happening in the United Church right now is a real emphasis on intercultural ministry,” he said, adding that the United Church has been considering establishing a new congregation in North Park for that purpose. “This is a very strong Filipino neighbourhood.”
Treena Duncan, executive minister of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council of the United Church of Canada, has said that there will be “a period of discernment” before the United Church decides it next move for the aging building.
Crosby-Shearer said that the council, which oversees the building, has expressed a desire to preserve the structure. “If we develop this into condos, we’ve just lost a venue for worship and for arts, which I think are amenities for the neighbourhood.”
In the past year, the building has played host to a jazz music fundraiser for Syrian refugees, folk concerts, and even a techno DJ rave, he said.
“We want to do our best to hold onto it, but obviously these spaces are expensive to run,” he said, adding that it would take a consortium of like-minded partners. “What it’ll look like long-term, I think it’s too early to tell.”
The building on Quadra Street, which has municipal heritage designation, was built in 1914 for Victoria’s First Presbyterian Church, an Irish Presbyterian congregation that later joined the United Church of Canada.
It cost about $130,000 — the equivalent of about $3.4 million today — and was designed by architect John C. M. Keith, who also had a hand in drawing up plans for the Royal Jubilee hospital, as well as many other churches built in the city at the time.
The plans called for a space large enough to seat 1,300, a state-of-the-art gymnasium and a pool, with various social rooms, according to a story in the Victoria Daily Times from that time.
Over the years, the church came under the ownership of the United Church of Canada, survived a fire, and underwent several renovations and additions, which saw seating shrink to about 700 and the pool disappear under the pews.
Some of the other historic churches in the area — at least four were built in or before 1913 — have been converted for cultural or residential purposes. The century-old Metropolitan United Church at Pandora and Quadra has housed the Victoria Conservatory of Music since 1999.
First Congregational Church across the street on Quadra was built in 1913 and converted to a condominium complex in the mid 2000s, about 30 years after the Baptist congregation moved out, according to the Victoria Heritage Foundation.
The parish hall of St. John the Divine, located at the corner of Quadra Street and Mason Street, is now the Pacific Opera’s Baumann Centre, but still hosts a 200-strong Anglican congregation.
The First Metropolitan United Church, which held its final service in the building on Nov. 21, merged with Broad View United Church and is now holding services under the Broad View name at the former St. Aidan’s United Church off Cedar Hill Cross road.
