At the north end of Kensington Market, St. Stephen-in-the-Fields sits across the street from a fire station. Trucks regularly scream, making the 148-year-old Anglican church seem peaceful by comparison. Lately, it is anything but. The parish owes the Anglican diocese about $400,000, and on September 30 it is facing eviction from the building that has been its home for a century and a half. Jeff Nowers, a doctoral student at U of T, has been a member of the congregation for four years.
“We basically just walked in off the street, my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, and I,” says Jeff Nowers. “It’s kind of a church on the margins…a lot of interesting programs, a lot of multicultural dynamics.” Nowers chairs the advisory committee and volunteers at the church’s breakfast program.
It’s not easy running a church downtown. Congregations are small, but the social services that churches can provide are more important than ever.
St. Stephen’s is no stranger to those services. In 1962, it founded St. Stephen’s Community House. The House now provides daycare, employment services, and language classes. Luckily, because it became independent in 1974, it is not threatened by the current conflict.
After creating the Community House, the church continued with its own programs, supported by Archbishop Finlay, who designated the church as an “urban mission.” It is the only church offering services in three languages (English, French, and Spanish) in an area with a considerable community of new Hispanic immigrants, and serves almost 7,000 meals a year to homeless people.
“Because they wanted this mission, they were going to pay the priest’s salary,” says Martha Cunningham, another U of T doctoral student coordinating much of the effort to save St. Stephen’s. But in 2004, Archbishop Finlay retired.
“This had been a project that he supported,” says Cunningham. “And when he left the new people didn’t support it.” The new administration told the parish that they had to pay back eight years of the priest’s salary – in one year.
“We put together a financial plan,” says Cunningham. “The premise, though, was that nobody could come up with $400,000 in a year.” They asked for fifteen years. But the diocese had another solution-take back the building. After September 30, the parish would still exist, with no debt and some extra money, but it would not have a building. The diocese says that it would help the church rebuild itself in another form.
“We really think that without the congregation the building is without a soul,” says Rory ‘Gus’ Sinclair, chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association. He isn’t the only one who feels strongly about the building, which was built by architect Thomas Fuller before he designed the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa.
“It has become an effort from all sorts of people in this community, of different religions, coming together,” says Rosario Marchese, the area’s MPP. The church has been the site of countless meetings and fundraisers, and a petition has been circulated. Last night, a benefit concert was held featuring Daniel Lanois, Michael Ondaatje, and several other Canadian luminaries. Marchese recently met with the bishop on the church’s behalf. Cunningham thinks that the diocese’s position may be changing.
“I think the only reason is that the public pressure is just enormous,” she says. “The community is behind us so vibrantly.” But September 30 is approaching, and the diocese has not retracted its ultimatum. If the congregation is evicted, no one is sure what will happen to the building.
“I haven’t even contemplated what might happen to this church,” says Marchese. “Most of our efforts have been devoted to making sure we save the church in this form. I really do believe we will succeed.” In the meantime, Jeff Nowers is feeling disillusioned.
“Are poor people entitled to worship in a nice building?” he says. “Or is that just for rich people, you know, because they can afford it?”
