St. James' Anglican Church (Saint James Parish of Vancouver, BC) is a unique church building in the Diocese of New Westminster of the

Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...

located at the north-east corner of East Cordova Street (formerly Offenheimer Street) and Gore Avenue in the

City of Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in what is now its east Downtown and Strathcona neighbourhoods containing the

Downtown Eastside The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homele ...

district (originally Japantown). The original building was completed in the spring of 1881 on Alexander Street (west of Main Street) in the Town of Granville (aka Gastown), Burrard Inlet to the north west of the present site and was sponsored by Captain James Raymur, the manager of

Hastings Mill Hastings Mill was a sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet and was the first commercial operation around which the settlement that would become Vancouver developed in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1865 by Edward Stamp, the sawmill oper ...

. Granville was renamed Vancouver and the town was incorporated as a city on April 6, 1886. This building burned down in the

Great Vancouver Fire The Great Vancouver Fire destroyed most of the newly incorporated city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on June 13, 1886. It started as two land clearing fires to the west of the city. The first fire was further away from the city and wa ...

of June 13, 1886. The heat of the fire melted the

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

into a puddle that was eventually put on display at the

Museum of Vancouver The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) (formerly the Vancouver Museum and prior to that the Centennial Museum) is a civic history museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. The MOV is the largest civic museum in Canada and the oldest museum ...

. The present (and third) church building was designed by

Adrian Gilbert Scott Adrian Gilbert Scott (6 August 1882 – 23 April 1963) was an English ecclesiastical architect. Early life Scott was the grandson of Sir Gilbert Scott ( George Gilbert Scott), son of George Gilbert Scott, Jr. (founder of Watts & Company in ...

who later designed the Church of St. Mary and St. Joseph, Poplar, London, England which has architectural similarities. The building is the second to be built at this location on land (east of Main Street) donated by the Canadian Pacific Railway after the fire. Its design is a combination of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

Byzantine Revival Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Ortho ...

, and

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The walls are made of reinforced

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

, while the roof is made of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

. The building was constructed between 1935 and 1937 and consecrated in 1938. St. James was the first

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish in Vancouver, formerly Granville (aka Gastown), until the establishment of Christ Church (

local church Local church may refer to: * Church, a congregation meeting in a particular location * Local churches (affiliation), a Christian group founded by Watchman Nee * Parish church, a local church united with other parishes under a bishop or presbyter * C ...

), a daughter church, in 1888 that in 1929 became Christ Church Cathedral - the Diocese's second cathedral. Another daughter church, St. Paul's Anglican Church, was established in 1889, and later became a separate parish and is located in the city's West End. The worship tradition is Anglo-Catholic. Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are said daily. Said (Low) Mass is celebrated daily except Saturdays. A Solemn (High) or Sung Mass is sung every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. The

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of St James Parish of Vancouver is The Venerable (Father) Kevin Hunt, Archdeacon of Burrard. Andrew Campbell is the Rector's

Warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

. The other Wardens are Peggy Smyth and Leah Postman. In addition to the Rector and Wardens, the other voting members of the Parish's Board of Trustees are its Lay Delegates to Synod: Jenny Johnson, Pamela McDonald, Ross Hornby, and, its Non-Voting Trustees, the Secretary, Linda Adams, and the Treasurer, Reece Wrightman. The Parish Council usually meets quarterly and is chaired by Louisa Farrell and its secretary is Reece Wrightman. The Parish Vestry meets annually or more often as needed. The Vestry Clerk is Linda Adams.

References

External links

*
Processional Hymn "Lift High the Cross"

Recessional Hymn "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones" - arr. PJ Janson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint James Anglican Church, Vancouver 1881 establishments in British Columbia 20th-century Anglican church buildings in Canada Adrian Gilbert Scott buildings Anglican church buildings in Vancouver Anglo-Catholic church buildings in Canada Art Deco architecture in Canada Burned buildings and structures in Canada Neo-Byzantine architecture Churches in Vancouver Gothic Revival architecture in Vancouver Rebuilt churches in Canada Churches completed in 1937 Romanesque Revival church buildings in Canada