United Church seeking to strengthen presence in Lower Don area
By Vivian Harrower
The fledgling Toronto Southeast Presbytery is continuing outreach efforts through two projects that have been under discussion for a number of years as the area undergoes massive change. The projects - both in the lower Don River area – are very different.
Despite the economic recession, construction is booming in downtown Toronto, particularly in the West Don area from Sherbourne Street to the Don River, and between Gerrard Street and Lake Ontario. A missioner or ‘church planter’ started work there in August. Tina Conlon, who fled the Philippines with her family in the early 1970s, has been active in community building and social justice work in a number of organizations. She has worked for FoodShare, Hunger Watch and for 10 years was the Canadian Programmer for Oxfam. Most recently she was Community Coordinator for Frontier College, which promotes literacy. Tina says she is excited by this position where she can bring her faith more intentionally into her work.
West Don Steering Group co-chair, the Rev. John Joseph Mastandrea of Metropolitan United Church, says 100,000 people will move into the area in the next 10 years. Tina’s job will be in developing a church community, which in turn will decide what ministry there will look like. “There’s a huge potential for ministry development that is outside the box, beyond (just) Sunday worship. (The area will hold) the largest socio-economically diverse population in Canada.” He adds that “the idea of being church planters is something we’re rediscovering (in the United Church), and it’s exciting that it’s happening right in Toronto.”
A large part of the redevelopment in the West Don area is in Regent Park. Phil Nazar of the Christian Resource Centre (CRC) says developers are creating a mix of 5400 public and market-price units, where Regent Park formerly had 2100 units for lower-income people. In addition, CRC will provide 87 units for “hard-to-house” clients such as people with mental health issues, and create a multi-purpose space.
Tina will work 30 hours a week on a one-year renewable contract out of an office at 583 Dundas Street East. She’ll go where people gather. “I’m looking at issues that bring people together – it doesn’t matter what the issues are. I’m interested in who’s there and who’s not there,” she says. Redevelopment and relocation have caused enormous stress to residents. Not all those relocated are choosing to return, so the rebuilt area will be an almost totally new community. But unlike gentrification, “no person will lose their housing.”
The East Don project, meanwhile, is dealing with a different problem - a surfeit of United Churches in the area bounded by the Don River on the west, O’Connor Drive, Victoria Park Avenue and the lake. “There are 11 United Churches serving 16,000 people who call themselves United Church,” says Teresa Burnett-Cole, staff in Toronto Southeast Presbytery. “That’s a lot of real estate for 16,000 people.” The ministers here have been in discussion about new models of church that go beyond the ‘one building, one minister’ model. In this ethnically diverse area, they are cooperating to avoid duplication of services. Riverdale United Church, for instance, has a HeadStart program operated by Metro Toronto that serves a population with 19 languages. Eastminster hosts Out of the Cold and Glen Rhodes has a food bank. Close to $400,000, has been earmarked to support the two Donlands projects. Much of it comes from funds in the WoodGreen Trust that was created when the former WoodGreen United Church on Queen Street East closed a few years ago.