Making Space – A Kolbe Times Interview

A church that is a vibrant, welcoming place of community connection – that’s the vision of the parishioners of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Calgary.

Situated in the “Beltline” district immediately southwest of Calgary’s downtown, St. Stephen’s has a history of being active in civic issues such as homelessness. The arts have also long been an avenue of public engagement for St. Stephen’s. Their annual, very popular Art Show recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

But St. Stephen’s has now taken its foray into the arts one step further, by renovating their worship space with theatre lighting, a state-of-the-art sound system, additional stage space and flexible seating to accommodate live performances.  The acoustics are among the best in the city, making it a very popular performance venue. In addition, they constructed individual studio spaces in their parish hall, which is now home to a dozen visual artists. Contaré Children’s Choir and The Calgary Instrumental Society have also made St. Stephen’s their home for rehearsal space and performances.

 

Kolbe Times recently talked to Rev. Brian E. Pearson, Rector at St. Stephen’s, about how the vision is becoming a reality.

Kolbe Times: St. Stephen’s Church plays a lively part in Calgary’s arts scene.  Tell us how that came about.

Rev. Pearson: It was all part of the re-visioning that we did when we realized we had to do some renovations.  About 12 years ago, we found ourselves with the problem of having a big aging building that was not only costing us more than we could keep up with – there’s four distinct buildings on the property – but things were also routinely breaking down.  We were also increasingly aware that buildings were not very inviting and welcoming. If you weren’t a member here, and had no reason to be inside, it was like a fortress.  We decided that these two problems were actually an opportunity.  We could have tried to raise money to fix the boiler one more time, and then raise more money to fix the roof one more time, but we started thinking about re-purposing the whole facility so that instead of it being an impediment to our ministry and our presence in the community, in fact it could become a way to connect with the community.

At first we thought about using some of the building space for housing. We actually spent five years exploring that possibility.  But then we realized that the truth is, we love the arts.  We had been doing all sorts of things in that area – not only performing arts but also our annual art show.  So if that’s already the passion we have, why not follow our passion?  Do the stuff you love to do.  

Arts is a natural connection for us as a congregation.  A number of years ago one of our parishioners who is an actress, and also does voice acting in commercials, got together with a friend and came up with the idea of Radio Nights that they’d do with their actor friends at St. Stephen’s.  They would “read” their parts in a drama, like readers’ theatre.  It was wonderful – as engaging as a full theatrical production. They did it for about five years and it got quite popular.  The acting community loved it, and the people who came to watch and listen hated to miss a performance.  That was before we started the renovations, but it was like a no-brainer for us to continue in the same vein. We asked ourselves, “Look how well it’s being received!   Why wouldn’t we just continue what we’re doing…but with a better space?”  

So that was the process that got us thinking about developing St. Stephen’s as a place for the arts.  We put together a committee and we said, “Let’s dream.” Our first plan would have cost 4.5 million dollars – we were dreaming big!  But we realized that probably wasn’t feasible so then we thought we could probably raise 1.5 million. So we said, “Okay…so what can we do with that?”  

We realized that at some point we are going to have to gut the parish hall and redo it – the boiler is almost 100 years old and the hall itself was built in the early 1920s.  So we put in temporary studio spaces in the hall, which we now rent out to artists, and each studio space has a door they can lock. Then we focused on the church itself and made it into a really great performing space.

Kolbe Times: Was there a turning point in the journey for you and your parishioners?

Rev. Pearson: The dramatic piece that was a big turning point was what happened with the pews.  I had said early on that if we’re going to do this we’ve got to ‘lose the pews’.  The space is not flexible with pews.  It means you are committed to always having people looking forward and receiving, as opposed to any kind of circular or semi-circular arrangement where there’s a sense of God here in the midst of us.  Our committee started an education program to show our parishioners what churches with chairs look like – with a slide show that showed a wide variety of churches from around the world that have used chairs very tastefully. Then we had a big congregational meeting to decide on the plan and its budget.  We’d been giving our parishioners lots of information in the meantime about what we were thinking about. At the meeting, people raised questions about the budget, the timing, things like that, and I’m waiting for the issue of the pews.  I’m thinking, “C’mon…bring it on…I’m ready.”  But it wasn’t a concern – and the whole 1.5 million dollar project was passed unanimously. That’s practically unheard of!   The whole process felt Spirit-led, and I normally hesitate to use words like that. But this certainly felt like that.  It felt like something bigger than us.

Then came the time when we had to actually pull the pews out and cut them, and put them up for sale.  So we took these 12-foot long oak pews, and made smaller benches out of them.  There is something emotional about cutting into a pew with a circular saw, let me tell you. It was not easy. And we needed to have them all cleared out by a certain date, for the renovations. But people heard about these pews for sale, through a little piece we did on CBC TV about it, and through word of mouth, and anyways they all sold by the deadline. We made $48,000 from the sale, and there was a new, stronger fellowship that emerged among us through that difficult task.

The whole journey has been transformational for us a congregation. Of course the next question was, “Will the wider community care about our plans? Will musicians want to use this space?” There was certainly no guarantee.  The first year was slow because of course many groups have to plan their concert schedules a year or so in advance, but it really picked up in the second year, and each year it’s gotten busier.  Now, there’s hardly a weekend when there isn’t at least one concert or event going on in this space. Classical musicians and choirs have started recording here, because the acoustics are so great.

It all felt like a miracle – and that’s another word that I don’t use lightly. We raised 1.5 million dollars.  We’re in no debt.  There were a few government grants that we managed to get, but most of that was raised from our parishioners who really got with the vision – and we’re not a huge parish.  

Kolbe Times: With all the people coming to St. Stephen’s to participate in arts events, do you see this as an opportunity to get people thinking about “church” in a new way?

Rev. Pearson: I kept saying that I don’t want this to be a sneaky way of doing evangelism – get people in for a show and then hit them with the Gospel. That’s just not who we are.  We would rather have people in and out of the building such that this becomes part of their community life, and relationships just naturally start to develop.

I used to volunteer for a Christian organization called Young Life, and their motto back then was “Winning the Right to Be Heard”.  That’s never left me. In other words, you don’t preach the gospel without a relationship.  The relationship makes it substantial – otherwise its just words. We win the right to share our faith by exposing our lives to others, and to whatever extent we are disciples, let that be seen.  Let it not just be words.

The theology behind what we did was all about creating common space that we can offer for the community’s use, and as we meet with people and build relationships, we make ourselves known. It’s witness.

Kolbe Times:  It seems that hospitality is something you value highly here at St. Stephen’s.  Would you agree?

Rev. Pearson: Very much so.  We intentionally want to be hospitable.  Our motto at St. Stephen’s is “Be Real; Belong; Believe It”. That’s how we articulate hospitality – you can be who you are here. Our congregation is a lovely mixed bag – from judges to street people.   

The element of Jesus’ earthly ministry that I see being re-created here is that nobody escaped His notice. He was attentive to children, to those who were hungry, to those who were like sheep without a shepherd.  If a church doesn’t have a lot of broken people in it, you’re doing something wrong.  If it’s all self-congratulatory, what’s the point? Together we’re broken, and together we’re whole.

This church has learned about practicing hospitality through the years. “Inn from the Cold” is an emergency shelter program for homeless families that started here at St. Stephen’s in 1997, two years before I arrived. There was excitement about it, but there was also fear.  The parishioners weren’t sure what opening the church doors to street people was going to be like. But what happened was that pretty soon their guests weren’t just “street people” – they were Brian and Shelley and Gordon; people whose stories our parishioners came to know. The stereotypes dissolved. That experience has been such a blessing and a great lesson to the folks here. It was like having a risk rewarded a hundredfold.  

Kolbe Times:  You are also involved in the arts personally, as a musician and singer/songwriter, and as an author with two published books. From your own experience, how do the arts enrich our lives?

Rev. Pearson: I’ve been thinking about that in a new way lately.  All religious traditions, beneath our words and our creeds, often experience the divine through the arts.  At that level there’s no distinction between Christian or Jew or Buddhist or anyone.  When you think of the monastic tradition with its deep, sonorous, flowing music, and buildings that were designed to carry the sound, the actual words begin to matter less. The experience gets into our souls.

You could almost say that the arts are like a subterranean water system that joins us all together in our common humanity. They take us to a place beneath our “head” level, in a way that profoundly reminds us to stop sweating the small stuff.

When I was a songwriter, in the early days, I was writing with the agenda of  “winning people for Christ.” But now my songwriting has become a place where my personal faith journey can emerge. One of the songs that I wrote recently is about something in the Scriptures that I’ve been reflecting on. I don’t think that Jesus was saying that He came to earth just to get us to heaven.  He was saying that the Kingdom of God is here, now, in our midst, within us.

My own personal creativity – writing stories and songs – allows me to wrestle with ideas like that.  So in my art, you get me.  And if that has a ring of authenticity about it, then that’s my witness.  So in other words, just be who you are, and be willing to share that.

Visit www.ststephenscalgary.org