November 6, 2011

1150 Mount Seymour Road

St. Pius X Catholic Church
North Vancouver, B.C.

St. Pius X Catholic church started as a mission of St. Edmund's Catholic Church (See Blog Post  6/26/11) in 1944.  It was started to serve the sizable Catholic population revealed in the census report of Deep Cove, the most western section of the District of North Vancouver.  The first mass was offered in a storage room, then across the street at the Deep Cove Community Hall.

"In 1960 six acres of land were purchased near the intersection of Mount Seymour Parkway and Mount Seymour Rd.," up the mountain and west of the community of Deep Cove.  "In 1961 a multi-purpose facility, including a pastor's residence (at the left end of the building in the photo below) and a hall seating six hundred, was built." (REF.) This building is now the gymnasium for the 1997 St. Pius X School. The caretaker's living quarters and the music room were added on to the front of the building. (Photo bottom photo.)

In 1981 part of the original property was sold and in 1984 a new church was built at 1150 Mt. Seymour Rd. (See top photo.) The sanctuary of the new church is partially lit by the banks of windows lining the sides of the wood grid ceiling and supported by simple grey concrete pillars. Outside the pillars are additional galleries of pews.The double arch of the apse is also sided by smaller matching pillars.  The acoustics of the sanctuary magnify even a single voice.  "A Sanctuary of the Holy Eucharist "including a relic of the cross and two life-size angel adoring the Eucharist" was blessed in 2001." (REF) It is placed to the left of the chancel.

Sanctuary

                   A Sanctuary of the Holy Eucharist "including a relic of the cross
                and two life-size angel adoring the Eucharist" was blessed in 2001."

The rear of the church is also inspiring. On the back wall of the balcony exposed organ pipes are centered under the red cross on a sunny yellow glass circular window. The cross in a circle is repeated in the clear glass of the doors between the nave and the foyer.  More light is let into the nave through the glass grid of the back wall.

Rear Wall of the Nave

As can be seen in the top photo a baptismal apse was built to the left of the foyer.  Light from the rectangular windows accents the angles of the walls and shines on the marble baptismal font placed in the center.

                                                                   Baptismal Font

In the year 2011 a Social Hall was added to the back of the hall between the rectory and the church.  The Social Hall includes a kitchen and meeting rooms.

"St. Pius X School began in 1996 in a trailer as an annex of Holly Trinity School; (Located on  Lonsdale Ave. in the City of North Vancouver.) it moved into a new building a year later." (REF) The Elementary School teaches students from Kindergarten to Grade 7.

                                                       St. Pius X Catholic School

                                      The original 1961 Multi-Purpose Building
                                                  (Now used as a gymnasium)
                (With living space and music room addition added to the front)

The St. Pius X Catholic Church complex now consists of the church, the rectory, the hall between with a social hall, the school, and gymnasium/music room/living quarters. 

Copied from the St. Pius X Parish October 2, 2011 Sunday Bulletin

(Rectory to the right, Social Hall between Rectory and

Church, Church on the left.) 

Photos: Taken in 2011 by SW.

                 Black and white year 2004 photos are available at the North 

                 Vancouver

                 Archives in the "Demolition and Construction" series by SW.

Reference:Traditions of Faith and Service, Archdiocese of

                      Vancouver 1908-2008.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_X

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Prayer

God, be with the persecuted Christians through out the world. Amen (SW.)