It was a 2014 midwinter Sunday at Montreal West Presbyterian Church. The sanctuary was satisfyingly nearly full. Worshippers represented numerous demographics. A young woman led prayer and told the children a story. The Ghanaian student minister preached a rousing sermon that he admitted might have strayed from staid Presbyterian tradition. A 20-voice Cameroonian drum-accompanied male choir rocked an African hymn. Aeternal, a local gospel group, sang in the service and stuck around for post-service encores, then everyone gathered for food and fellowship and to welcome visitors from a Montreal community centre.
What a difference a decade has made! In 2004, Montreal West was facing closure. This historic landmark founded in 1891 in the city’s “garden suburb” had seen Sunday attendance shrink to about 15. Today, Montreal West counts some 140 members and adherents, many of them English-speaking Cameroonians from nearby suburbs of Lasalle and Lachine, who have made the congregation one of the fastest growing in the presbytery. What made the difference?
Maybe it was luck. Or coincidence. Or God’s gentle, guiding hand.
“We made a link with Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre,” recalls Ruth Darling, chair of the church’s CASE (Communications and Special Events) Committee “and that turned out to be the single mission that changed everything.”
Tyndale, founded by Presbyterians in 1927 and long since joined by Anglican churches, is in the central Montreal district known as Little Burgundy, long an immigrants’ landing zone. Generations ago it was the Irish and survivors of the underground railroad; today’s newcomers arrive from Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.
The link between the church and Tyndale was with Rosie Segee, a former banker who had changed career paths to develop adult programs at the centre. Rosie’s sister provided care to Ruth’s sister, and the two became friends. Montreal West soon created CASE and began lending a hand—cooking and caring at the centre’s after-school and vocational training programs, and developing a series of annual events for the community, including BBQs, corn roasts, and such special celebrations as a Martin Luther King, Jr. service and jazz concert.
Sampson Afoakwah, the student minister from Presbyterian College, had been serving almost full-time for several months, a successful challenge he credits, with a laugh, to his time-management skills. He was called to serve Montreal West and ordained in September 2014.
“When we host Tyndale at Montreal West, they tell us that they feel as if they’re coming home,” he reported. “It’s a fine and effective outreach program of our church.”
The young woman leading prayer was Jen de Combe, Tyndale’s then-executive director. (De Combe recently said goodbye to Tyndale, taking a position as associate secretary for Canadian Ministries at the PCC’s national offices in Toronto. Her successor at Tyndale is Liz Falko). Chatting with Montreal West Board Chair Howard Davidson, they agree on one thing.
“It’s a friendship of equals,” says Howard. “We complement each other very nicely. We’ve learned from each other about little things like public relations and larger things like erasing barriers between people.”
Jen underlined the thought Christians have always understood.
“This is what the living gospel looks like.”
