In response to a demand from a small group of St James' parishioners, a vacant lot was purchased and a daughter church was built in 1889.

[2] The church was located at the centre of the geographically-defined parish, but in 1898 it was placed on skids and moved north-west, away from railway yards in Yaletown and closer to where most parishioners lived in the West End.

Optimism, and finances, revived after the Second World War and the mortgage was ceremoniously burned in 1945.During the 1960s a plan to build a car park was frustrated by the City of Vancouver.

The first rector, Ernest Flewelling (1891 - 1894), was followed by Thomas Outerbridge and Henry Bowers, both briefly, and then by Harold Underhill (1896 - 1908) during whose incumbency the new church was built.

"[12]In 1985, David Crawley (1985–1990) was appointed rector, setting in process significant reforms of pastoral ministries (particularly the services offered by St Paul's to those who did not count themselves as its members) and liturgical practices (the rituals it used in its forms of worship).

He and his assistant priest, Neil Gray who became Crawley' successor (1991 - 2003), opened up the parish to the wider community and co-operated with other agencies like St Paul's Hospital[14] and AIDS Vancouver.

[15] In reflecting upon this experience, Crawley later wrote: "St Paul's had not so much found a mission as it had regained its soul"[16] As the AIDS crisis receded, Gray set about consolidating the positive response received from the LGBT community by advocating at the 1998 synod of the Diocese of New Westminster for permission to bless covenanted same-sex relationships.

and express our sadness and disquiet at their suffering, and hope that our actions in this part of the world may bring comfort and relief to those millions of people who look to the church for safety and support instead of judgement and condemnation.

"[17] In 1995, St Paul's Advocacy Office was established to provide support and information for people facing problems associated with government benefits, tenancy disputes, immigration, and the like.

From its inception, the program has been operated by a salaried director and volunteer associates (most of whom are not members of the parish), conducting as many as four thousand interviews in a year with clients from a wide area.

[20] In 2008, Gray's successor Markus Dünzkofer (2004 - 2012), together with several other parishioners, all acting as private individuals, incorporated the Our House West Coast Society which operated a residential drug-recovery program.

[23] Dünzkofer made decreasing use of the Book of Common Prayer at the principal Sunday morning service, cutting back to three times a year by 2013.

In 2014, when Dünzkofer's successor, Jessica Schaap (2013 – 2017), discontinued the early-morning Eucharistic celebration for lack of attendance, regular use of the Book of Common Prayer ceased completely.

[25] During this period, icons and votive candles were introduced into the church, and an aumbry was installed allowing for reservation of the consecrated Bread and Wine for use in administering Communion to sick parishioners.

Practices like Exchanging the Peace were introduced, together with ceremonies like Washing of Feet on Maundy Thursday, all of which increased the level of participation in the Eucharistic celebration by members of the congregation.

As the 1960s passed, membership fell (in step with those of all mainline churches in Canada) but became more diverse in terms of ethnic origin, maternal language, sexual orientation, gender identity, confessional upbringing, and social class.