This blog post has details on the Drop-In Centre’s move to their new home.

CTV has an article about the recent fire, with video:

Fire at St. James United Church causes limited damage

St. James United Church suffered some damage at the back of the building early Monday after a fire in the main room of the Saint-James Drop-In Centre for street people. The Centre is regularly closed on the weekend and had been empty since 5 pm Friday. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire is being investigated and repairs are planned. The church and its offices will be closed to the public for the week. Worship will occur in the sanctuary as scheduled on Sunday morning.

The organ, which has been undergoing repairs since last May, has now been returned to the sanctuary.

The restored instrument was used in worship for the first time at the end of the service on Sunday February 9th and has been used ever since. The Rodgers electronic instrument was dismantled and removed after serving us well for several months.

It’s official. Our pastor, Rev. Arlen Bonnar, is one of nine nominees for the position of Moderator of the United Church of Canada. The next moderator of Canada’s largest Protestant denomination will be chosen at a meeting of the national church’s General Council in Ottawa in August. Rev. Bonnar was nominated by the Montreal Presbytery of the United Church of Canada at a meeting last week and is the only candidate for the position from Quebec.

Our heritage organ was heard for the last time in its unrepaired state on Sunday May 8th after which Orgues Létourneau dismantled it for its first major restoration since 1938. Here is a sample of what the instrument sounded like from the May 8th, 2011, podcast before being taken apart.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The album below shows how the church looked when the crew from Létourneau was dismantling the organ. To enlarge a picture, simply click on it. It is planned to have the restored original instrument ready for Christmas 2011. Until then a modern, electronic instrument by Rodgers Instruments — a Rodgers Trillium Masterpiece Opus 2017 digital organ — is in the sanctuary temporarily.

Photos by Jean-Louis Marcoux.

At a press conference held today, St. James United Church in Montreal announced that it has received a $410,400 grant under an agreement with the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec.
(more…)

Montreal, February 2, 2011

An $850,000 grant has been awarded to St. James United Church in Montreal under an agreement reached between the Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women and the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec.

St. James United Church has stood on Sainte-Catherine Street West in Montreal since 1889. In addition to its religious and community functions, the church has responsibilities as a prominent religious heritage building, having been classified an historic monument by the Quebec government in 1980 and a national historic site by the government of Canada in 1996. Moreover, the church is located in a distinguished heritage sector between Phillips Square and Jeanne-Mance Street.

The $850,000 grant will be used to repair the main roof, reinforce the roof structure and install a complete fire alarm system. “We are very proud to support the restoration of this exceptional religious heritage building in Montreal, and we commend the leadership of St. James United Church,” affirms Christine St-Pierre, Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women.

Over the last decade, St. James United Church has carried out nearly $10 million in conservation work, $5 million of this under the recent tripartite infrastructure program and the Religious Heritage Restoration Program administered by the Fondation du patrimoine religieux du Québec. The new grant from the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec will be used to implement the first stage of a new three-year church restoration plan presented by the trustees at an estimated cost of more than $7 million.

Contributions from the Ministry of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women and the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec will be matched by funding from the federal government and other sources, while several private and public partners are supporting the church in its efforts to raise sufficient capital to complete renovation work on the building. Finally, it should be mentioned that restoration work on the church organ will begin in the spring of 2011 thanks to the support of the Conseil du Patrimoine religieux.

Information: Allen R. Fuller, Trustee of St. James United Church responsible for managing conservation and restoration work on the church. (514) 288-9245

By Paula Kline and Rick Goldman

Montreal — Our two organizations — The Montreal City Mission of the United Church of Canada and the Committee to Aid Refugees — have wide experience in immigration issues in Canada. In fact the Mission has been active in the field for a century and the Committee is a non-governmental organization formed to defend the rights of refugees. Together, we have extensive and specialized knowledge of the facts. And we have been startled by four myths that have appeared frequently in reports about the arrival of hundreds of Tamil refugee claimants on a ship that recently reached the west coast of Canada.

Myth #1: “Canada is overflowing with refugees”
Wrong! While Canada can be proud of the number of refugees it accepts each year, we are not the most generous nation, even on a per capita basis, among wealthy countries. For one thing, few refugees can hope to make it to Canada given current travel restrictions. And even in terms of boat arrivals, Canada is by no means a prime destination. Although the arrival of nearly 500 refugees at one time on the MV Sea Sun may seem like a large number, Australia reported 2,900 refugee claimants arriving by boat last year. Many much poorer countries offer sanctuary to far more refugees than Canada, since they are located much closer to the refugee-producing countries.
In fact, the present Canadian government has been working to reduce dramatically the overall number of refugee claimants arriving here. As a result of measures introduced last summer, Canada is likely to receive about 10,000 fewer refugee claimants in 2010 than in 2009 – a drop equivalent to 20 MV Sea Suns. By way of illustration, the Montreal City Mission has already had to close two of its three shelters for newly-arrived claimants.

Myth # 2: “The Tamil claimants are “queue jumpers” ”
Wrong! There is no real “queue” for immigrating to Canada, except for very highly-skilled, university-educated candidates. Unless some of the ship’s passengers are in that rarefied category, they had no prospect of ever immigrating to Canada — no matter how long they waited
The expression infers that the Tamil claimants are lying when they say they are in danger in Sri Lanka. In other words, it pre-judges their refugee claims, despite continued problems of serious human rights abuse in Sri Lanka documented by Amnesty International and other credible sources. Labelling them as “disguised economic migrants” also flies in the face of the very high acceptance rate of Sri Lankan claimants by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board (91% in 2009).
The Tamils’ only real alternative was to flee instead to a poor neighbouring country (see Myth #1). This could mean waiting for years or decades in squalid refugee camps with the hope of eventual resettlement to Canada or another country — more of a lottery than an “immigration queue”. Who among us would choose that option for ourselves or our children?

Myth #3: “Once they’re here, they have all the same rights as Canadians”
Wrong! To Canada’s credit, refugee claimants do have certain rights and are not left destitute as in some other (even wealthy) countries. They have the right to basic medical care – and doesn’t it make sense that we quickly identify and treat any communicable diseases? If they pass their medical exam, they can receive a work permit. Those of us who work with refugee claimants know that most find employment quickly, often accepting sub-standard conditions and pay to get that first job.
Until then, they can receive welfare. They do not, however, have access to a wide range of benefits available to Canadians, including child tax benefits (even if they are working and paying taxes) subsidized daycare, provincial healthcare and subsidized post-secondary education. So, while Canada is not unfair to refugee claimants, neither do they benefit from the limousine service some commentators evoke.

Myth # 4: “The Tamil claimants are part of a human trafficking ring”
Wrong! Some commentators use the terms “human trafficking” and “human smuggling” interchangeably. However, trafficking involves the use of abduction, fraud or threats as a means of coercing persons to travel, generally for the purposes of sexual or other exploitation in the country of destination. Human trafficking is indeed a heinous crime but does not appear to be the motivation behind this ship’s voyage. Labelling the Tamil claimants as part of a human trafficking ring can only serve to promote unjustified fears.
Human smuggling, on the other hand, is the simple transport of persons to Canada through non-legal channels. That is what the organizers of this voyage appear to be up to. Many Canadians would no doubt consider this as justified, if, after a proper examination, it is shown to have saved people from death or torture. Nonetheless, Canadian law does provide for very serious punishment of persons involved in human smuggling. Anyone accused of having illegally transported 10 or more persons to Canada faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000,000.

In the case of the MV Sun Sea, the exorbitant fees allegedly charged ($50,000 per person) may well be viewed as an aggravating factor and could lead the government to seek the most severe penalties possible against the organizers. That should not, however, in any way discredit the refugee claims of the Tamil passengers. They are the victims in this story.

Paula Kline is director of the Montreal City Mission and Rick Goldman is coordinator of the Montreal-based Committee to Aid Refugees.

By Mike Milne, The United Church Observer, May 2010

Montreal — Not even a church considered one of the finest examples of neo-Gothic architcture in the country has avoided a brush with the scandal over charges of widespread corruption in Quebec`s construction industry.

Last year Paul Sauvé, the president of a now-bankrupt construction company, told police that the province’s construction industry was rife with bid-rigging, extortion and bribery, much of it linked to organized crime.

Sauvé was the same contractor who oversaw a $6.1-million project to restore the facade of Montreal`s St. James United. After being hidden by storefronts for nearly 80 years, the restored facade was unveiled in 2006.

In his complaint to police, Sauvé said that he was the victim of attempts by the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang to muscle in on masonry companies and use them to launder money. It turned out that one of the gang’s leaders worked on the St. James renovation project, Sauvé said. A warrant has been issued for the biker’s
arrest on corruption charges. He is also being sought on murder and
drug-trafficking charges.

The police probe into corruption continues to widen but so far St. James has ‘not had any inquiries at all’ from investigators, says Rev. Arlen Bonnar, though he doesn’t doubt the biker connection to the project. ‘If (Sauvé) is saying it, then it probably was there.’