Upgrades will help nonprofits, people with mobility issues
By Tom Vogt, Columbian
Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: December 15, 2014, 4:00pm
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Brian Epp, left, uses a tablet to communicate with John Meyer of Camas at the regional ALS Association support group's Christmas potluck Wednesday at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Vancouver. The church was remodeled to make it more accessible -- a benefit to aging parishioners but also a way to welcome a wider range of community groups.Photo Gallery
Since 1825, the path of Washington’s first Episcopal church has been influenced by a global trading empire, the U.S. Army and a devastating fire.
The congregation has worshipped in four churches over the last 150 years, starting with an old schoolhouse it purchased in 1857 near Fort Vancouver.
And a few days ago, the newest turn at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was reflected in a holiday potluck. Thanks to a recent renovation, the regional ALS Association support group met at St. Luke’s for the first time.
The remodeling project increased access to the church and adjoining facilities, which were built on several step-up/step-down levels. The upgrades, which include a wheelchair-friendly lift, will be a big assist to St. Luke’s parish members with mobility issues.
“We have a half-dozen members who use walkers and wheelchairs,” said Bob Hiltz, parish construction coordinator. That number figures to increase, since “the parish has an aging congregation,” Hiltz said.
But the church also plays a wider community role. About 20 nonprofit organizations and support groups meet there regularly. The ALS Association supports people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their families. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.
In looking for meeting places, “A lift is essential,” said Karen Galloway, care services director for the ALS Association’s Oregon and Southwest Washington chapter.
“A lot of our folks use devices to keep them mobile.”
They include Art Lothrop of Vancouver, who rode up the lift with his 3-year-old granddaughter on his lap, then piloted his wheelchair into the parish hall for Wednesday’s Christmas potluck.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Lothrop said. “Not enough room to do the tango, but that’s not what it’s for.”
Before the lift was installed, getting together after church services for coffee might require taking the long way around. People in wheelchairs would have to go out the main entrance, go through the parking lot to the back door of the parish hall, and come in through the kitchen.
Hiltz said the remodel represents a long-standing tradition at St. Luke’s: “When the church burned down, the parish rebounded and rebuilt to meet the needs of the day.”
According to a chronology written by parish historian Pat Lawless, the roots of St. Luke’s go back to 1825, when Hudson’s Bay Company officials conducted Anglican services at Fort Vancouver. The Hudson’s Bay Company assigned an Anglican chaplain to Fort Vancouver from 1836-38.
In the early 1850s, the U.S. Army sent Episcopal chaplains to Fort Vancouver, and their ministry eventually spread to the growing community around the Army post. In his parish history, Lawless cites 1853 as the year St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was founded.
The Vancouver congregation bought an old schoolhouse just west of the fort in 1857 and converted it into a church. On May 27, 1860, St. Luke’s was the first Episcopal church consecrated in Washington Territory. People at that service included U.S. Army officers stationed at Fort Vancouver who within a year would be on opposing sides of the Civil War.
The parish was incorporated in 1868. Work started in 1871 on a new church, built with local cedar, at Eighth and C streets, where City Center 12 theater is today. The cedar structure caught fire on Dec. 6, 1931, and burned to the ground. (A faulty heater was blamed.)
The parish rebuilt at its present location, 426 E. Fourth Plain Blvd., and dedicated the sanctuary building — aligned north and south —on Dec. 12, 1932.
Part of that structure was folded into a new, expanded church that was built in 1959; the bigger sanctuary, to accommodate a growing congregation, was redesigned to its current east-west orientation.
About 200 families comprise the congregation; average Sunday attendance is about 200. Part of the old north-south sanctuary was preserved and now is a chapel that seats about 60 people.
Discussion of improving the church’s disability access started about 10 years ago, Hiltz said. A fundraising campaign generated about $500,000 in donations and pledges.
With the completion of the remodel, more groups might be looking to use the parish’s meeting spaces. And some of the groups currently meeting at St. Luke’s might see a few more members show up.
Before access was improved, some of the 12-step groups had members who weren’t able to negotiate the steps, Hiltz said. “They would not come, or they would find another chapter.”
But the people who meet at St. Luke’s are part of their recovery process, Hiltz noted: “That’s their support network.”
