The Reverend Canon Alan Greene, an Anglican missionary on the Columbia Coast Mission ships, built the Church of His Presence in memory of his first wife on his property in Halfmoon Bay.
This building was erected more than 60 years ago and requires restoration work. It is a tangible reminder of a well-respected and loved resident of the Sunshine Coast who ministered many coastal communities for 48 years. He and his brother were the fourth generation of Anglican priests.
While studying at Toronto University and Wycliffe College, Greene spent the summers of 1911 to 1913 running the Columbia Coast Mission ship the Eirene. In 1914, he joined the Reverend John Antle on the Mission’s ship Columbia for the summer. He returned to Toronto where he was curate in St. Paul’s Anglican Church. In 1916, he became chaplain to the 123rd Battalion 10th Royal Grenadiers and later to the 125th Brantford Battalion, spending the last year of the First World War in Belgium, France and Germany.
Greene returned to the Columbia Coast Mission with his wife Gertrude in 1919 and they made their home on Quadra Island. From there, on the Mission ships Niakehewl and Rendezvous, Greene visited scores of logging camps, fishing settlements and First Nations villages from Pender Harbour to Seymour Inlet, under the direction of the remarkable Reverend John Antle, who had started the Columbia Coast Mission in 1905. John Antle retired in 1936 and Canon Greene, now superintendent, continued to establish churches, hospitals (St. Mary’s Hospital, Pender Harbour being one) and medical clinics along B.C.’s lower coast. At its height, the Columbia Coast Mission provided medical services to 15,000 people and its hospital ships regularly made 105 ports of call. For the next 23 years, Pender Harbour was his marine base while his wife and five children lived in Vancouver. While in Pender Harbour, Greene established a number of cottages specifically for senior citizens – the first on the Coast.
During his 48 years as marine missionary, Greene made many friends along B.C’s lower coast, ministering to old-timers, marrying couples, baptizing children and comforting those who had lost loved ones. When he retired in 1959, Greene received cheques from the people of Pender Harbour and the 125th Brantford battalion, enabling he and his wife to travel to Europe and visit a daughter in Nova Scotia where, sadly, his wife died. Returning to live in Halfmoon Bay, Canon Greene continued to minister to the residents of the Sunshine Coast. He made a series of CBC broadcasts of reminiscences and morning broadcasts to senior citizens, served on St. Mary’s (now Sechelt) Hospital Board, was chaplain to Branch 112 (Pender Harbour) of the Royal Canadian Legion and to the Boy Scouts (Sechelt). He chaired a committee that raised funds to build seniors housing in Sechelt – today’s Greenecourt; another tangible reminder and lasting legacy of Canon Greene. He died in 1972, age 83, leaving his second wife Dorothy, three daughters, two sons and many friends to mourn his passing.
