First-Pilgrim United Church,
Hamilton, Ontario
We are an historic, downtown church with
significant and growing outreach, housing, and educational ministries in
Hamilton, Ontario, a city located at the south-western end of Lake
Ontario. Hamilton has a population of well over 500,000 (including such neighbouring amalgamated communities as Stoney Creek, Waterdown, Ancaster,
and Dundas). The City Of Burlington is just minutes away. We're an hour
from Toronto.
About our Community
Nicknamed “Steel Town”, Hamilton’s largest employers have traditionally
included the steel manufacturers Stelco and Dofasco. Uncertainty and
change in this industrial sector have driven a need to diversify the
City’s economy. This has been occurring in such growth areas as automotive
parts, medical and health care, food processing, higher education and
advanced technology. The City’s downtown, with some architecturally and
historically interesting buildings, has suffered deterioration over the
past few decades. The area is now undergoing extensive, planned renewal,
although poverty remains a serious issue. Hamilton has many fine,
established neighbourhoods, and about 4000 acres of parkland and natural
areas in over 330 locations, not to mention part of the famous Bruce
Trail. As with many other places in Canada, rural areas near urban centres
are being both paved over and protected. Still, Hamilton has more
agricultural land within its boundaries than any other large city in the
country.
The City is linked to other major urban areas by various highways,
including the Queen Elizabeth Way and the 400 series; by bus and train
services, including GO service to Toronto; and by the John C. Munro
International Airport.
All sorts of usual urban facilities and services are available in this
ethnically diverse community: art galleries, waterfront parks, a wide
variety of restaurants, libraries, museums, malls, shops, book and antique
stores, hospitals, government offices, social services, churches, temples,
synagogues, mosques, sporting facilities, theatres, pubs, clubs,
orchestras, choirs, and festivals.
In addition to elementary, middle, and secondary schools, public, private,
and Catholic, three respected post-secondary institutions are located in
Hamilton. McMaster University is one of Canada’s best doctoral/medical
universities, with first-class facilities and faculties devoted to
research. It’s in the Westdale section of the City, minutes from downtown.
Located on what’s affectionately called “The Mountain”, Mohawk College has
faculties of Business and Applied Arts, Health Science and Human Services,
and Engineering Technology. Redeemer University College, in the Ancaster
area, is a fine and growing Christian school for undergraduates.
Hamilton’s health services include two well-known teaching-and-research
hospitals, affiliated with the faculties of Health Sciences at McMaster
University and Mohawk College. These
two hospitals have seven locations throughout the City, facilities which
offer progressive
treatment and care in many fields (e.g., orthopedic surgery, burns,
oncology, and neuroscience.) The Henderson Regional Cancer Centre on
Hamilton Mountain has expanded its physical plant and medical services,
and serves patients across Ontario. The Firestone Institute for
Respiratory Heath has also grown, as its parent hospital--St. Joseph’s,
situated downtown “Below the Brow” of the escarpment-- has undergone
significant expansion. A world-renowned Children’s Hospital is located in
the west end of the City, at Hamilton Health Sciences’ McMaster campus.
Hamilton has a rich sports tradition, including professional teams like
the hockey “Bulldogs” and the football “Tiger Cats,” and major amateur
sport events, such as North America’s oldest road race, “Around the Bay”.
There are two stadiums, and many arenas, community centres, and golf
courses.
Hamilton is well-known, of course, for its north-east end industrial area
and harbour; its poor neighbourhoods give the City a reputation as a
fairly depressed and depressing place, with poor air quality. But there’s
more to the urban environment than that. Also noteworthy are the
conservation areas (e.g., Cootes Paradise and the Dundas Valley), the
Royal Botanical Gardens, and the way the Niagara Escarpment provides the
city with so many beautiful wooded walking trails and dozens of
waterfalls.
Like our congregation, our local neighbourhood is diverse. Within walking
distance there are quite impoverished areas, with lots of “street people”
of all ages, rooming houses and women’s shelters and working class
families. The City’s poverty rate is higher than both the provincial and
national averages. Hamilton’s poverty rate is (with Toronto) tied for
“first place” of any city in Ontario. We’re in one of the most
economically distressed areas of any city in Canada. The national child
poverty rate is 1 in 6; Hamilton’s is much worse: 1 in 4. The need for
decent and affordable housing in the City is acute and growing. Thousands
are on waiting lists, and there’s an average of 450 new applicants for
social housing every month. Almost 1 in 4 of these applicants are homeless
families, often single-parent, with children. Of Hamilton’s 168 distinct
neighbourhoods, ours is one of four “key” ones designated by the
Neighbourhood Program of the Hamilton Community Foundation as presenting
“concentrated risks, issues, and special challenges”. There are also
nearby middle class homes and apartments, and some fairly affluent streets
as well. We see a lot of folks struggling with mental illness, depression,
anxiety, abuse, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, addictions,
fear...Dozens and dozens of such people come to our doors each week. Many
have become regular clients and friends, and some of these have become
members of our church.
About our Congregation
First-Pilgrim was formed by the union of
two historic churches--First Methodist (later First United) and Pilgrim
Church (Congregational), with the addition of two other congregations,
Central United and the German Evangelical Church. First-Pilgrim is an
inclusive and interestingly complex congregation-in-transition, whose
roots go back at least to a Methodist Meeting House made of logs in 1801
(we were Hamilton’s first “official” church, though we share history with
other area pastoral charges who were also part of the same preaching
circuit in the 1790s). For history buffs, Egerton Ryerson himself served
here as a young pastor in the early 1820s, before Hamilton was founded. A
book-length history of our congregation, by Ralph Pawson, tells our story
up to the mid-1990s, and is available on request for a donation of $5.00.
First-Pilgrim United is a diverse community
of faith when it comes to age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, theology,
physical health, psychiatric status, and educational, economic, and social
background. Most of our members have limited financial resources. Some
are, or have been homeless, or remain on the edge of homelessness. Many of
our most active volunteers live on old age and/or disability pensions, or
other forms of social assistance. Half of our membership of about 180 are
quite elderly and they are no longer able to attend Sunday worship. We
care about our future and have actively reached out to young families.
We’ve begun attracting new and younger members in the past several years;
most need support and care and are not able to assist our ministries
through volunteering or offerings. For a small church, we are unusually
active and varied in our ministries.
First-Pilgrim has a Church School, youth group, two UCW units, a Quilting
group. and all the usual committees (we use a Church Council model of
organization). A group meets for silent intercessory prayer every Sunday
morning before the service. We have weekly and Lenten Bible studies,
special workshops (e.g., pastoral care, ageing and spirituality, ethics at
the end of life) and groups that have met to discuss theology, films,
books, and current issues (e.g., same-sex marriage, historical origins of
the Jesus movement, Lord of the Rings, Million Dollar Baby, The
Da Vinci Code). We are committed to the ministry of Christian
development and education for ministry. We’ve had numerous pastoral
interns and field education students, both at the church and at First
Place, over the years.
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