Worshipers at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt have moved their services to the parish hall after it was discovered that the church walls were leaning outward and it was not safe to meet there.
Scaffolding has been erected in the church and work has begun to strengthen the roof support and fix the walls.
“The walls are not in plumb – that’s how we started the investigation,” Rev. Clarence Li said.
The church services were moved in July, immediately after it was discovered that the space was not safe. Minor repair work was being done in the church when tradespeople discovered the much more significant issue.
“That led us to bring in an engineer and after measurements he confirmed that both walls of the church were out of plumb and in some places the wall is out from top to bottom, up to five inches,” Li said.
“The engineer noticed that the whole roof, which is quite a heavy roof, was only supported by one tie rod. He found it strange that [the tie rod] was installed so high up on such a big roof and he wondered if the roof was properly supported through all these years.”
The design issue may have existed for 32 years, since the church was constructed, Li added.
“It’s probably not more dangerous than a year ago … but now that we are aware, and this is a place of public assembly, we stopped using the sanctuary space for services and community choir,” he said.
The parish hall where the congregation meets is a much smaller space. And, because other community groups use the hall for activities such as tai chi and ballet, the worship space is set up and torn down every Sunday.
Li said a group of volunteers has mobilized to assist in the setup and teardown of the parish hall, to accommodate the 80 or so worshipers who attend Sunday service.
“I’m so touched by the community response,” he said. “We’ve received offers from other churches inviting us to worship in their space. We’ve received requests from musicians who want to put together a fundraising concert to help us.”
Li said they haven’t acted on any of the offers yet. “We’re still trying to figure out the scale of this project, and a timeline for remediation.”
Spani Developments is overseeing the remediation work and deacon Bruce Morris is acting as project manager for the church.
“The initial engineering report suggests the roof has sagged at the ridgeline and that sagging has forced the walls out,” Morris said.
The repairs will be done in two stages. “The first stage is to raise the roof ridgeline and put it back to where it should be and pulling the walls in,” he said.
Temporary buttresses will be constructed on either side of the sanctuary and Morris said it is hoped to have the first stage of the work completed by November.
He warned that the temporary fix could be unsightly. “Parts of it will be ugly but that will encourage us to get cracking” on the next stage of the remediation.
Li agreed that the temporary fix will not be esthetically pleasing.
“It will be ugly. People love our sacred space because we have clear sight lines of the trees through our windows and the beauty of nature is brought in. The temporary fix will destroy the ambience,” Li said.
“A long-term fix may be more complicated,” he added, saying it would include consultation with the church users, a redesign of the building to make the structure safe and a lot of fundraising.
“We will need a lot of help to repair our home,” he said.
“There’s a bit of irony in that the church has been a big supporter in housing the homeless; we have been the home for emergency shelter for the last five years, and this summer we discovered that we are homeless ourselves.”
On the positive side, he said, the situation may help the congregation to understand the plight of the homeless a little better.
