‘Hope is what keeps us going’

To step into Holy Trinity Anglican Church is to step back in time.

The arched doorways. The gorgeous stained-glass windows. The marble and stone columns. The dark wood pews. The pipe organ, which still sings along with a small but mighty choir.

It’s the kind of church that would be heavily photographed by tourists if it were in Europe. The kind of church that makes people murmur “they just don’t make ’em like this anymore” in reverent tones.

It’s the last Sunday before Christmas, and 72 people are here for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. O Come, O Come Emmanuel reverberates through the nave, which is decorated with poinsettias and twinkling white lights. One can’t help but think of how many times this carol has been sung in this room, about how many voices have risen up together on this, the Advent of Love.

This church, located at 256 Smith St. in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, is part of the tapestry of this city and, at 140 years old, is almost as old as the city itself. It’s an architectural gem, one of two pre-1890 Anglican churches that remain in Winnipeg and one of its finest examples of Victorian-era Gothic revival style.

It also needs a Christmas miracle. In the spring, Holy Trinity made headlines: “140-year-old downtown Winnipeg church on brink of collapse,” read one. The church is in dire need of structural repairs, and likely will have to be sold.

But Rev. Naboth Manzongo does not believe this will be Holy Trinity’s last Christmas — “despite what has gone out where people think that the building is falling apart tomorrow,” he says. “I’m not that complacent to say, ‘Oh no. It’s not.’ There are things that need repairing and, maybe, a total redevelopment of the whole thing.”

The fate of the church is currently up in the air.

“We can’t really say, ‘This is the status, we are going with this architect and this proposal, and it will cost exactly this much money, and this is the timeline,’ because we just haven’t been able to make any decisions,” says Sandra Bender, the people’s warden and music ministry co-ordinator at the church.

It’s a slow process requiring a lot of thought and consultation, she says. As of now, there are no plans for demolition, and it’s not yet on the market for sale.

And while the congregation has shrunk over the decades, “It’s still very much a thing — we’ve already talked about what we would need in a rental space,” Bender says. “There would still be a group of people that would need to then find another space to worship.”

The church, designed by Charles H. Wheeler, is a designated National Historic Site of Canada and a protected historical building in Winnipeg.

But white it’s important that these historic buildings be maintained, says Cindy Tugwell, executive director at Heritage Winnipeg, there must be thought as to how they can be sustained. And in the case of our stock of historic churches, that might mean reinvention.

“If you look at Augustine Commons, West End Commons, City Church that built the adjacent high rise in the property they had initially — they’re all looking to diversify, so not just being an original church that was built,” she says.

“And churches are finding this all over Canada that reinventing themselves means, in my opinion, how can they be more of an asset and important to the community as a whole?”

Holy Trinity is already doing some of that community work.

“Our soup kitchen, Downtown Neighborhood Lunch, is a separate entity now,” Bender says. “It started off as a missionary outreach project. It’s now a secular, separate entity, but it still is based out of this building, and there’s enormous need for food downtown.

“We have tenants in the basement called the Emmanuel Mission that do a lot of work with the displaced Sudanese community that have landed here.”

They’ve also hosted concert series and community events — including, for this holiday season, a Community Carol Sing on Dec. 23 — and have rented out some of its green space for Winnipeg Jets White Out Parties.

“It’s a struggle that all churches have, is to not be enclosed, mysterious spaces that no one on the outside has any idea of,” Bender says. “And to be a thriving part of the downtown community is part of what we’re actively working more and more toward.”

Those efforts are reflected in the changing demographics of the congregation, which includes newcomers to Canada, downtown residents and younger folks — including Mackie Steele. The 26-year-old joined the church two years ago and sings in the choir.

“I really like the bones of this building,” Steele says. “If this building is the bones, then we are the flesh and the breath. You can really hear it in the acoustics, in the singing that we do, especially when you’re up in the choral stand.”

But there’s another reason Holy Trinity is so special that has nothing to do with its architecture or acoustics.

“As a queer person and a member of the congregation, this is one of the few churches in Winnipeg that I can feel like my faith and my general personhood are not at odds with each other,” Steele says. “And so, having the ability to just be in a space and be Christian and queer, and it’s not an either-or, is very heartening.”

Church is a physical place, but it’s also a community. And to that end, Manzongo is hopeful for the future of Holy Trinity.

“Christmas is all about hope, peace, joy and love, and that’s what Christ is bringing to us,” Manzongo says. “So, what can Christ tell Holy Trinity? What can Christ tell the City of Winnipeg and the downtown community? That we continue to hope in Him. And like the archbishop whom I envy, Desmond Tutu, says, ‘We are prisoners of hope.’ Hope is what keeps us going.

“And for me, that’s what I always tell the people. That, yes, the situation may look dire, and we may think that any time we may not be here. But what I think is we are the continued presence of Christ within this part of the city. And so, if we are that, then Christ will make a way.”

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

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Jen Zoratti
Columnist

Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.

Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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