United Church of Canada Mission and Service
Sydenham Street United Church:
2025 09 28 Minute for Outreach
First United Church in Vancouver has been located at 320 East Hastings since 1892. Its neighbourhood, known as the Downtown Eastside, has for decades had the highest concentration of sexual assault, the highest density of drug offences, and the highest density of robbery in Vancouver. The area experiences Canada’s highest rate of death from encounters with the police.
This is the environment in which the Church, to quote its Mission Statement, seeks “to nurture each person’s spirit through ministry, housing, advocacy, and community service. The mission reflects the church’s commitment to providing dignity, belonging, and justice to the residents of the Downtown Eastside.” It is “driven…to seek a just society by addressing the intersecting challenges of extreme poverty, historical and personal trauma, mental illness, and oppression.”
I’ve spoken previously of the valiant Christian outreach of First United. At this time I want to share the encouraging news that its new building, constructed on the existing site is soon to be opened. In the place of the old structure a multi-storey purpose-built space contains four floors dedicated to community amenities and health and social justice programs operated by First United. Above this are seven floors of below-market housing, providing 103 studio and one-bedroom units specifically for Indigenous Peoples. This will be operated by the Lu-ma Native Housing Society, recognizing that 40 percent of those living in the neighbourhood self-identify as indigenous.
One of the numerous services offered by First United, “Food First,” has gone mobile during the several years of construction. It delivers over 250 lunchtime meals daily Monday through Friday from a roaming food truck. A commercial kitchen will feed the hungry in a dining room in the new building.
Matthew chapter 25 records Jesus’s spoken words: “The truth is, every time you did this for the least of my sisters and brothers, you did it for me.” (The Inclusive Bible)
2025 04 27 Minute for Mission
As summer approaches, it is appropriate to introduce you to Rainbow Camp, which has since 2012 been offering opportunities to 2SLGBTQI+ youth by “fostering safe and inclusive spaces where they can connect, grow and thrive.” Campers from ages 12 to 17, in addition to learning camping skills and having time outside in nature choose from program streams including education and activism, artistic endeavours, and active outdoors activity. The Camp offers one and two week programs; the latter give more experienced campers the opportunity to prepare for more responsible roles through learning leadership skills.
Rainbow Camp, near Sault Ste. Marie, was founded by the Welcome Friend Association, which was created with the support of local churches to build a bridge to the local LGBTQ community. Its reach now extends throughout the province; those living at a distance from the Camp are encouraged to apply and informed that bursaries are available to help cover transportation costs.
Appreciation for the contribution which the Camp has made to empowering participating youth “to embrace their identities and build resilience” has included its co-founders receiving a Governor General’s award for “exceptional deeds that bring honour to our country.” Your contributions to M and S, which supports the Camp are important in facilitating its work.
Peter Goheen
2025 02 23 Minute for Mission
This morning I want to mention a significant effort to address the erasure of Indigenous culture in Canada with the support of “Mission and Service.” Murray Sinclair, educated in public schools, describes in his book, Who We Are, the system’s attitude to Indigenous society in these words: “Everything up until I was in high school was all about: You’ve got to give up trying to be an Indian. Because it no longer has any validity; you don’t have any culture. You don’t have any language.” ( 68) The United Church in the past has been one of the institutions in Canada contributing to normalizing such judgments; now it actively engages in a process of reconciliation.
Mission and Service is supporting two projects designed to preserve Indigenous cultures through language revitalization. With the Haida people of northern British Columbia it is partnering with 9 of the few people fluent in the language to keep it alive: elders teach students words, phrases and songs and make the lessons available online. In the Central Canadian Arctic where fewer than 600 people can speak the Inuinnaqtun language it works with the Heritage Society of Cambridge Bay to offer language immersion sessions.
These projects, among others supporting indigenous self-determination within and outside the United Church, illustrate a reconceptualization of the nature and purpose of its outreach ministries. It endorsed, in 2018, the Indigenous Church’s announcement that it no longer wished to be in a relationship of Mission with the Church. The United Church responded that it “no longer views Indigenous people as requiring ‘mission work,’” and recognized that “Indigenous spirituality, leadership, and participation are vital to the church’s life.” Your contributions to M and S support the goal of preserving Indigenous culture through language education.
Peter G. Goheen
2025 02 09 Minute for Seeking Justice
In preparation for our next congregational meeting on Feb 23, we are looking at ways in which we live out the principles of our mission statement which is:
“As an Affirming congregation within the United Church of Canada: Sydenham Street United Church seeks to follow in the way of Jesus, seeking justice and nurturing inclusive community”.
Last week Ian Malcolm discussed ways in which we work on nurturing inclusive community. How do we seek justice? We see examples of injustice everywhere around us, and trying to “seek justice” can seem overwhelming.
What do we do? These are just a few examples.
- We educate ourselves – through Catherine’s sermons, with Minutes for Mission, our weekly newsletters, and lunch and learn speakers. We join JTRAG (the joint Truth and Reconciliation Action Group) or we borrow a book by an indigenous author from JTRAGs library.
- We support our Food Voucher program, which provides grocery store vouchers, and also warm clothing and a listening ear to disadvantaged members of our local community.
- Our front lawn garden provides food for Martha’s Table.
- We provide space 2 evenings a week for the Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program, which pairs Queen’s University students with children in need of help with literacy and social skills.
- We have participated in the Interfaith Refugee Partnership sponsoring numerous individuals and families.
- We provide space in our building for self help groups, and for the Embassy Café, which is a low cost, welcoming, alcohol-free, music venue and café.
- We are generous with financial support of the United Church’s Mission and Service Fund which in turn supports national and international programs.
- We express our views to our elected representatives, on issues such as a Universal Guaranteed Income, and on providing services for the homeless.
- And we offer our prayers each week as a congregation, and individually, for all those suffering from injustice.
Barb Parker
2024 11 24 Minute for Mission
The Sydenham Street congregation has always been generous in support of the Mission and Service Fund of the United Church of Canada, commonly known as M&S. Donations to M&S can be made directly or noted on envelope or PAR givings. The M&S Fund supports many programs both nationally and internationally.
Typically, international outreach is done in partnership with local organizations. One of these partners is the Association of Economic and Social Development Santa Marta (ADES) in El Salvador. This organization has launched a transformative agroecology project, bringing hope to rural farmers. This initiative is centred at the Dora Alicia Sorto School Farm. Here, rural families—primarily led by women—learn sustainable farming practices that recycle nutrients into the soil, protect biodiversity, and reduce production costs.Thanks to funding from the Mission and Service Fund, this project can equip farmers with training, technical expertise, and native seeds, all while promoting environmental stewardship and gender equality. In a region affected by increasing droughts and disrupted agricultural patterns, these new methods help farmers adapt and thrive.
By contributing to this project, you are not just providing food; you are also empowering families to grow more, sustain their land, and secure their futures. Thank you for supporting projects like this through Mission and Service. Your gift ensures that others can look forward to a better future.
Barb Parker
2024 Christmas Basket Campaign
We still call it the Christmas basket campaign even though it has been 5 years since we packed and delivered Baskets. In 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic, we were forced to switch from baskets to gift cards to supported families in our community struggling to purchase food at Christmas. The gift cards were very popular with the families we support as it allowed them to make food purchases that better suited their individual dietary needs. The value of the gift card varied with the size of the families and last year we provided food gift cards to 42 families at a total cost of $3,500. The cost of this important outreach program was fully funded through generous donations by members of Sydenham Street United Church. If you would like to support this year’s campaign there are special envelopes at the welcome table or you can donate through e transfer to givings@sydenhamstreet.ca . Just be sure to mark your donation for Christmas Baskets. THANK YOU
Kirby Ruthven
2024 05 26 Minute for Outreach
I’m returning this morning to update the story of the outstanding outreach ministry of First United Church, Vancouver, located in the Downtown Eastside on Hastings East, described as Canada’s worst street for its social and economic deprivation, its crime and mental illness. It is also a place where 40% of the population self-identifies as indigenous. In the words of Lauren Sanders, Indigenous Spiritual Care Chaplain, “First lives, works and resides between the excruciating pain and the deep love.”
Last autumn, they demolished their church and in November 2024, work commenced on the foundations for the new building, purpose-designed better to meet current needs. The first four floors will be used by First United to continue and improve their outreach ministry. Above this will rise 7 floors of below-market housing, in partnership with the Lu’ma Native Housing Society, and will contain 103 studio and one-bedroom units. In the words of First United, “At the core is the mission, ministry, and call to social justice of the United Church of Canada.” It incorporates their commitment to Reconciliation as “our neighbours in need of a welcoming place to be, to find support, and to feel safe by providing sanctuary in the heart of our city.”
During the construction of their new building, the services available to their community continue: these include legal advocacy support involving 1400 cases last year; meal delivery, amounting to 100,000 meals in 2023; and a community help desk supporting wellness, dignity and information on housing , food banks and the like. A newly instituted lunch service is distributing 250 meals each day from Monday to Friday, feeding 350 people.
In Matthew Chapter 25 verse 45, Jesus instructs us: “The truth is, every time you did this to the least of my sisters and brothers, you did it for me.”
Peter Goheen
September 17 2023.
Chaplaincy is an ancient practice of outreach by the church which has touched many persons outside confessional boundaries. Modern practitioners include both clergy and lay persons who are most frequently encountered outside traditional religious institutions as they serve with the armed forces and in prisons, hospitals and post-secondary institutions. The United Church provides financial support for chaplaincies in all these organizations.
What is chaplaincy in our secularized society? In the words of the Chaplaincy Institute: “Chaplains witness, walk, wait, and celebrate.” Their role can be significant because, to quote another source: “Presence is precious…being present alongside others can hold tremendous powers and possibility.” Chaplains are committed to cooperation without compromise.
Many of us know Rev. James Graham; his current title at KGH is Spiritual Health Practitioner—chaplaincy has many names. He defines his role a “providing compassionate patient and family- centred care.”
And Rev. Catherine, our minister, was engaged in chaplaincy with the Canadian Armed Forces both before and for a brief period after she accepted the call to our congregation and to Faith United.
Peter G. Goheen
Gratitude
October 30, 2022
Let us listen to Angelo’s words of gratitude:
“When you’re out on the streets it’s cold and wet. You’re dirty. You wander…day and night just to keep warm. You feel you’re worthless, useless. You wouldn’t believe how you feel after a good hot meal, a shower, a pair of clean socks that are dry. It makes you like a complete human being again. It made me feel that there was someone out there that cared. We got off the streets mainly because of you guys.”
The ”guys” of whom Angelo spoke are the staff at First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. First United’s mission is “to seek a just society by nurturing each person’s spirit through ministry, housing, advocacy, and community service.” It provides its neighbours a welcoming place to be, to find support and to feel safe by providing sanctuary in the heart of the city. Among the services it offers are food: it served 71,600 meals in 2021; community help—essentials like the socks Angelo appreciated receiving; shelter—accommodation for up to 45 people each night in among the most barrier-free shelters in the city; and spiritual care.
In the Downtown East side 40% of the population is self-identifying indigenous, in contrast to 4% of the population in the wider city. In recognition of this now for the first time the community ministry team is fully comprised of indigenous leaders. The staff is lead by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation, now serving as the Moderator of the United Church of Canada.
Let us join Angelo in grateful thanks for the mission of outreach being undertaken at First United, Vancouver.
Peter G. Goheen
February 27 2022
In a modest yet significant way the Mission and Service work of the United Church is helping the Indigenous peoples of Guatemala to overcome some of the discrimination to which they have long been subjected. Among the human rights they cannot take for granted are the right to express their beliefs, to find good work, to have a safe place to live, to speak freely, to love whom they wish, and to meet their basic needs.
They comprise almost half the population of their country but because of systemic discrimination they have great difficulty accessing health care and education, and becoming financially stable. This is especially true for women. According to the Guatemala Conference of Evangelical Churches, 43 % of Indigenous women there are unable to read and write, compared to only 19 % of non-Indigenous women.
This is why the Mission and Service fund offers financial support to the Conference which provides human rights education as well as business and agricultural training skills for women farmers. If you read the statement in this week’s congregational letter via E-mail you will be introduced to Petrona, one of hundreds of women whose lives have been changed through this training. She is a member of a gardening group which receives seeds, tools, and agricultural training so she can grow her own crops. This means children in the community are healthier. “We don’t see malnourished kids anymore,” one of the members of her group declares.
Our gifts to M and S are making a lasting impact on the lives of Indigenous women and their families in Guatemala through the training offered by the Conference.
Peter G. Goheen
Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021
We understand the church’s mission to the world to be more than designating some of our wealth to express Christ’s compassion for those with whom we lack meaningful contact. We have an abiding commitment to help meet the needs of the marginalized and underprivileged in our own community. Members of our congregation dedicate their time, imagination, talent and money to help conquer hunger, to assist in the socializing and education of needy children among other initiatives. Of the garden in our front yard you will hear more when the planting season arrives. This morning I will speak of the food voucher program and the Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program.
Tuesday mornings four of our members: Barb Landon, Mary LeRoy, Marylil Megginson, and Kirby Ruthven, are at the church to meet people from the local community who come to request food vouchers they know we offer to the hungry. Some return at regular intervals, receiving continuing assistance, whereas others come for emergency help. The congregation’s annual preparation of Christmas baskets, coordinated with the Salvation Army, extends to these families and beyond.
The Helen Tufts Child Outreach Program brings children aged 6 to 12 to our church weekly for evening socialization and learning opportunities during the autumn, winter and early spring. Dr. Barbara Parker serves as the Coordinator, with students from Queen’s University volunteering as mentors for each student. Frontier College cooperates in the program by screening and training and helping to support the students throughout the season. Queen’s students have a long history of offering financial support to the program by voting to donate, on a voluntary basis, some of the fees they pay to support student engagement with the community.
In his book, Tatoos on the Heart, Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest in poor and gang-ridden central Los Angeles, suggests compassion may be understood as follows:
“The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place—with the outcast and those relegated to the margins.”
Peter G. Goheen
May 5, 2013
What is the meaning of “mission” today? The learned compilers of dictionaries at the Oxford University Press have chosen to define it as: “the action or an act of sending,” “a sending of being sent to perform some function or service.” That was in 1973. In 1998, it was “an important assignment carried out for political, religious, or commercial purposes” (New Oxford Dictionary of English).
The CEO of an American health care corporation, writing recently of the company’s response to Hurricane Sandy which devastated much of the American Eastern seaboard last autumn, noted the substantial aid in materiel and money which it donated to those affected in three states. He then commended “our people [employees] [who] were there in their own communities. Immediately and without hesitation, they were on the front lines of response and relief efforts wherever and however they could.
“It is this example of caring by individuals that inspires caring in the whole community, and reminds me of how firmly and fundamentally compassion is woven into the fabric of our culture.”
These words from a captain in industry directed to a secular readership would not be out of place in describing mission outreach undertaken by the Christian Church, even the United Church of Canada. What we would add to them would be a theological purpose or motive. For these words I will quote from another secular leader, President Obama, responding to the announcement of the election of Pope Francis. He commended the choice by writing that: “As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years–that in each other we see the face of God.”
Let us hope that we, through the outreach missions of our congregation, might also recognize the face of God in the dispossessed of Kingston and the wider world to whom we reach out.
Peter G. Goheen
Updated 2025 10 09