By Lloyd Mackey

TWO YEARS have passed since the office of the newspaper you hold in your hands was set up in one of the heritage buildings which mark the four corners of Fernwood and Gladstone in Victoria.

Jeremy Mills, who takes care of Christian Info Society’s community relations and advertising on Vancouver Island, for Island Insight, BC Christian News and The Shepherd’s Guide, has taken note of some of the history of the Fernwood area, one of Victoria’s older neighbourhoods.

To acquaint readers with at least a bit of the history and current activity of Christian organizations and churches in the Fernwood neighbourhood, this writer, working with Mills and the Island Insight editorial committee, recounts these stories.

Miracle Centre

The Miracle Centre (TMC) feeds 100 or more of its neighbours every Thursday evening.

The church, started in 2001 by co-pastors Dan and Susan McLean, is housed in what was, for close to a century, Belmont United Church.

Their Sunday worship, Thursday feeding program and various other activities – such as a ministry school – actually operate out of the ‘new’ church, a sleek and compact structure built in the 1970s.

Belmont United was sold in 1999 as part of a program to consolidate or merge congregations from some of the city’s older United churches.

Susan McLean says TMC started an Alpha Course in 2003. That involved inviting people in for a meal, then talking about the Christian faith afterward.

A year or so later, she says, they “tweaked” the program a bit, to fit the church’s more charismatic approach – and also, she notes, to appeal to the kinds of people likely to turn up for dinner.  

That generally consists of “a mixture of families, elderly people living alone and a number of street people,” McLean observes.

A lot of credit for the success and efficiency of the program, she says, goes to a TMC member who has some business background – but went through some reverses a few years ago.

He has coordinated the work of a dozen or so volunteers, organized the cooking in the tiny church kitchen and arranged for a large number of the food donors – who keep the larder well stocked.

“And the food is good – real quality,” McLean exudes.

Once they eat, the people gather in the church hall to do some singing and to hear the gospel. And, in TMC parlance, that means both salvation and healing.

The response, McLean suggests, was moderate in the first few years. Then, when the businessman started to relate his faith testimony regularly to attendees, “there was a shift. He has earned his credentials, serving [them] the way he did, and they are receptive.”

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This past winter, some of the Thursday regulars began sleeping regularly in a sheltered area beside the church. Neighbours were not too happy, and let the church leadership know.

“We had to tell the people who slept there that they couldn’t do that anymore. After all, the people who live in the nearby homes need to be free from being disturbed,” she notes.

Nevertheless, the initially negative experience has given the church the opportunity to start building neighbourhood relations.

“Now, during prayer meeting,”McLean elaborates, “we will take a one-hour prayer walk along some of the nearby streets, praying for the neighbours and keeping an eye out for problems.”

The food comes from a number of sources: produce from Islands West, bread from Cobs and some other bakeries, and other items from the Salvation Army and The Mustard Seed.

A moose hunter provided some meat and someone else donated a cow from Alberta.

“The roast beef was appreciated,” McLean says.

Vic High Nursery

Victoria High School, and the modular building attached to the north side of its commodious building, looming above the Belfry Theatre (which faces the BC Christian News office), is another good Fernwood story.

The handsome near-century-old school is where the Cridge Centre for the Family’s Vic High Nursery is located.

The Cridge Centre is a long-established Christian-based agency located in the Hillside/Oaklands area, the next neighbourhood north of Fernwood.

Several years ago, the Cridge worked out an arrangement with Vic High to provide childcare for young mothers who wanted to continue their secondary school education after giving birth.

It was in line with Cridge’s strong family service philosophy, which had adapted to the times several decades ago – as the agency emerged from its former role as the Protestant Orphanage.

Notes the Cridge’s website statement with respect to the Vic High Nursery:

“This purpose-built daycare at Victoria High School is designed to provide high quality and loving care for the infants and toddlers of young parents attending Vic High or other schools in District #61.

“We offer practical support to the parents on their educational journey toward graduation. We also assist them in the development of positive parenting practices, relationships and life skills.

“Our long-term belief is that a strong and healthy family is essential to the child's and parents' well-being.”

May 2008