There will be a special agenda item regarding two former Japanese Canadian Anglican Mission churches presented at the opening of the afternoon session of the 109th Synod (Annual General Meeting) of the Diocese of New Westminster, Anglican Church of Canada on May 15, 2010. The presentation will focus on the selling of two Mission Churches by the Diocese of New Westminster; Church of the Ascension founded and built in 1935 in the Pennyfarthing neighbourhood near Granville Island and sold by the diocese in 1945, and Holy Cross founded in 1904 and located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and sold by the diocese in 1949.
Prior to the internment of Japanese Canadians by the Federal Government in 1942, there were approximately 1,500 Japanese Canadian Anglicans worshipping at these churches. The presentation will include a short documentary film entitled “Relinquished – Understanding, then Reconciliation” followed by acknowledgments and responses by diocesan leaders and a response from the Japanese Canadian-Vancouver Consultative Committee (JC-VCC).
The film offers an explanation of what happened and provides some context for understanding that the decisions to sell the churches by the Diocese of New Westminster without consultation with the community caused and continues to cause many people a lot of pain. Both the Diocese of New Westminster and the JC-VCC hopes that bringing this story to light may create an environment where reconciliation with the Japanese Canadian Anglicans affected by these events becomes possible. The film includes interview footage of members of the Japanese Canadian community telling their stories.
The first of the three images contained in this story is the Reverend Dr. Cyril Powles who was a Priest-in-mission sent by the Anglican Church in Eastern Canada to visit the west, June-September 1945. His mission was to attempt to dispel the racist and incorrect attitudes of many of the Anglicans of that era towards Japanese-Canadians.
The second image is Basil Izumi who attended Holy Cross Mission church as a young child and was interned in Slocan City with his family when the war broke out. Basil's father was sent to a road building work camp at Tete Jaune Cache, now known as the Yellowhead. The family went to Japan in 1946. Basil returned to Canada received an Education Degree from UBC and returned to the Japanese Canadian Anglican community. He has been a member of Holy Cross since the mid-1960s and is currently a Warden of that parish.
Image number three we see Project Manager the Venerable Stephen Rowe (Archdeacon of Fraser and Rector of Church of the Epiphany, Surrey) and filmmaker, Cliff Caprani (Delegate to Synod, St. Thomas, Vancouver) discussing editing strategies for the film.