And now, for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, here’s something completely different.

This is Central Presbyterian Church. It doesn’t look like much of a church, does it? But that’s what I love about it.

The congregation has been active in the West End for more than 90 years and about a decade ago, they were coming to the realization that they were land rich, cash poor. Something had to be done with the aging building they’d been in for more than 35 years. It wasn’t by any stretch a heritage building — I would describe it as more of a concrete bunker, built in the Brutalist style that was in vogue at the time.

Central Presbyterian could have sold off their lot to a developer, but the congregation decided instead to go through the rezoning and development process themselves. This 23-storey building, completed in 2018, is the result.

There are retail and community spaces on the ground floor. Above that is a 300-seat sanctuary, a 50-seat chapel, other multi-purposes spaces, and a commercial kitchen. The tower consists of three floors of social housing and 15 floors of market rental housing. The income from those rental units funded the construction and now funds the social housing.

Several church communities in addition to Central Presbyterian worship in this building. There is also a daycare run by the YMCA.

All of that adds up to a congregation that takes its role as a community church quite literally.

For today, the Second Sunday of Lent, here is a photo of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, a small neighbourhood church in the heart of Vancouver’s West End. This parish first held services in 1889 in a building in what is now Yaletown. In 1898, that building was moved on skids to its current location to be much closer to where its parishioners lived. In 1905, a new, larger church was built in the Gothic Revival style, but out of wood instead of stone.

In 1973, the parish built an apartment high-rise for seniors on land they owned next door to the church. The income earned from this building, the Pendrellis, has become instrumental to funding the various ministries of St. Paul’s.

I love walking past this little wooden church in the heart of my neighbourhood. The building on the outside looks pretty much as it did in 1905. Standing on the church steps amidst those close-set trees, you could shut your eyes and imagine yourself in a rural country setting, but instead, you are in the heart of one of Canada’s densest neighbourhoods, surrounded by condo towers and apartment buildings, one block off the main commercial strip of Davie Village.

Just imagine being a witness to the transformation of that neighourhood, from home to Vancouver’s elite living in large mansions, to the bustling, diverse community it is today.

If only the walls of St. Paul’s could talk.