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By Jim Coggins
CHURCHES in the City of Vancouver will be able to provide social services without seeking a permit to do so, under a motion presented to city council April 1. But the situation at Tenth Avenue Alliance Church, which has spent the past few years fighting for its right to minister to the poor without applying for the extra permit, is still not resolved, say activists close to the situation.
The motion was presented by Councillor B.C. Lee on behalf of Mayor Sam Sullivan. It acknowledges that "provision of services to marginalized people is a service customarily provided by faith communities" and that, when offered in a worship facility, "these services . . . will not require special land use permits, other than those required to ensure adequate fire and life safety provisions."
Ken Shigematsu, senior pastor of Tenth Avenue, said in a news release that he was "grateful" the city had apparently accepted the church's argument that social ministry -- such as soup kitchens and homeless shelters -- is an inherent part of the work that churches do.
"Older than the church itself, there has been a sacred mission to care for the poor," said Shigematsu. "I am grateful that Mayor Sullivan has recognized this fact, that when churches are unencumbered by unnecessary outside regulations, we have the freedom to best serve the whole community."
Mardi Dolfo-Smith, senior associate pastor of Tenth Avenue, told CC.com the church was "very happy" the principle of church social ministry had been accepted. However, she said the mayor's motion has not totally resolved the issue as far as that church is concerned.
The issue surfaced a few years ago when Tenth Avenue applied for a building permit to expand its building and was told by city planning staff that it would also have to apply for a social services use permit for the food and overnight shelter programs it had been running for a decade. Some neighbours objected to the programs on the grounds that they brought crime into the neighbourhood.
Tenth Avenue received conditional approval for the permit some time ago, but the church has not yet met all the conditions and finalized the process. The church would rather not have to get the permit, but the city's Planning Department would like the church to continue with the process since it is already started.
Negotiations are continuing and the church "will decide with the city how to move forward" -- hopefully fairly soon, said Dolfo-Smith.
Larger issue
The issue made national headlines when Bill Chu, a member of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, learned of the problem and formed a group called Faith Communities Called to Solidarity with the Poor (FCCSP). Chu said he was not just concerned about the Tenth Avenue situation but about the precedent that could be set for other churches.
At a press conference last August, FCCSP argued that social ministry is an integral part of churches' mandate and that churches should not be required to apply for a separate permit for this work. The FCCSP was concerned that the definition of churches as primarily worshipping rather than serving bodies would change the nature of the church. It was also concerned that the extra red tape would discourage churches from undertaking social ministries. Besides a broad range of Christians, the FCCSP included Muslim, Jewish and Sikh representatives.
The issue gained national media attention because of the principle involved and the concern that this might set a precedent for other municipalities to also restrict churches' ministries.
After the news conference, the issue became tangled in municipal political wrangling.
In September, Councillor Raymond Louie introduced a motion that the FCCSP be allowed to address council on the issue. However, the majority Non-Partisan Association (NPA) members on council amended the motion to ask city staff to first talk to the FCCSP and write a report before the matter came to council. Those meetings led to what Chu described as a "breakthrough" on March 7 -- the details of which now form the essence of Sullivan's motion.
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However, at a news conference March 31, Chu derided Sullivan's motion, first announced at an informal news conference on Good Friday, as a "photo op" for the mayor's re-election campaign. He suggested the mayor was just trying to take credit for a breakthrough achieved by city staff.
However, David Hurford, the mayor's media relations officer, said that without the NPA-amended motion last fall, there would have been no meetings between city staff and the faith communities and hence no agreement.
The Mayor respects the political process, said Hurford, and there is no guarantee his motion will pass when council votes on it May 15 -- though the NPA does have a slim majority on council and some other councillors have expressed support for the FCCSP.
Ongoing Discussions
Mary Clare Zak, director of social planning, led the city staff delegation in the meetings with the faith communities and said the mayor's resolution "supports what we're doing." She added that the staff want to broaden the discussion and consult additional representatives of faith communities. (Interested parties should e-mail Anne Kloppenborg).
The staff will develop and seek comments on an "administrative bulletin" which, when eventually approved by council, would be used to guide staff decisions, said Zak. This bulletin would be more detailed than the mayor's motion, which deals with the issue in principle -- and it would recognize that religious groups have provided social services for centuries and would allow churches to offer social services as an "ancillary use" of their buildings "as long as it is not disruptive to their communities." City staff would also monitor the issue for several years.
In the meantime, Dolfo-Smith said Tenth Avenue's ministries have continued as before.
The backdrop of the whole issue, said Chu, is "the stark reality of the city's exploding homeless population." The FCCSP is not just concerned with churches' "freedom to serve the poor" but also "the poor's right to a just and compassionate civic government," he added.
On March 31, in addition to a petition signed by 2,623 people defending churches' right to do social ministry, the FCCSP presented "four concrete requests" for city council to consider in addressing homelessness. They include measures to protect current housing for the poor, as well as the building of 3,200 new social housing units.
Zak said that "given the rates of poverty in Vancouver," the City was relying on all its partners -- businesses, social agencies and churches -- to solve the problems.
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