St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church

St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church is an affirming church located in the downtown core of the city of Vancouver. Part of the United Church of Canada, it welcomed its first congregation in 1933. Renowned for its architecture and art, the church underwent a major restoration beginning in 2019. It holds three services every week, including the long-standing jazz vespers.

The origins of St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church begins with the establishment of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in the Greater Vancouver area. In the present-day city of Vancouver, on 30 July 1863, the Reverend Ebeneezer Robson, a Methodist minister from New Westminster, held the first preaching service of any kind at Stamp's (Hastings) Mill to a group of six men. A Methodist church was built in 1875 on Water Street for the Indigenous workers at the mill. It was destroyed in the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886. The church (called the Methodist Hall) was rebuilt. The congregation then attended the Homer Street Church, built in 1889, located at the corner of Homer and Dunsmuir Streets. It was followed by the Wesley Methodist Church, erected in 1901, and situated at Georgia and Burrard Streets. Meanwhile, the local Presbyterian Church had its beginnings along the Fraser River south of Vancouver. The Reverend Robert Jamieson travelled upriver as far as Fort Langley, and established a church on Sea Island, in the river's estuary. Subsequently, the Reverend T. G. Thompson began services in Vancouver, and a Presbyterian church was built on Oppenheimer (now Cordova) Street. This building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1886, and another church was built on the same street. This in turn was replaced by a church located at the corner of Hastings and Gore Streets. A growing need led to the construction of a second and more expansive building to the west, St. Andrew's Presbyterian, opened in 1890 and located at Georgia and Richards Streets. The amalgamation of the two churches derived from the creation of the United Church of Canada in 1925, whereby a union was formed amongst the Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and Local Union churches. Looking ahead to this union, a committee was struck in 1924 to explore a merger of Wesley Methodist Church and St. Andrew's Presbyterian. In 1927, an affirmative vote on the union took place, and the first joint congregational meeting occurred in 1929. Funds were raised from the sale of Wesley Methodist church, and St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church was built on the corner of Burrard and Nelson Streets. It was dedicated on 26 May 1933 to overflowing crowds. The first minister was the Right Reverend Bishop Willard Brewing.

The church was designed by the firm of Twizel & Twizel. With the exception of the terra cotta, materials were sourced locally from British Columbia. It was constructed using granite from Nelson Island and stone from Haddington Island. The church has a late 14th-century Gothic Revival tower, and is laid out in a cruciform shape. The interior has a vaulted timber roof. St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church has the most diverse array of stained glass windows of any church in Vancouver. The first window installed was commissioned in 1935 by the Prime Minister of Canada, R. B. Bennett, in memory of his sister, Evelyn Bennett Coates. The artist chosen was Duncan Dearle, of London's William Morris & Company. Dearle designed the window above the altar, The Sermon on the Mount, and went on to produce ten other windows for the church. In 1969, St. Andrew's-Wesley commissioned French stained glass artist Gabriel Loire for the east window, the inspiration drawn from Mark 16:15, "Go Ye into all the World." It is saturated with the colour blue, harkening back to medieval artists. In addition, Loire fashioned six panels illustrat

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