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Celebrating silence

For 25 years, The Listening Post has offered a quiet, welcoming, non-judgmental space near Main and Hastings

October 2, 2025

Outside, on Main Street and on the sidewalk, there is constant, often frenetic movement, as befits a place, metres away from an intersection often called “the beating heart of Vancouver.” 

Inside The Listening Post, at 382 Main St., the atmosphere is completely different. For the past 25 years, visitors have been invited into a peaceful oasis of whole-hearted welcome and quiet listening. 

The Listening Post also shares a daily practice of silent listening/meditation at 3 p.m. In cooperation with the Rivendell Retreat on Bowen Island, it also offers three subsidized, silent retreats on Bowen Island for low-income community members each year. The Rivendell Retreat is a stunning lodge and cabin. The silent retreats last five days and include meals and transportation. To find out more about these retreats, you can visit the Listening Post most weekday afternoons and talk to one of the volunteers.  

Listening. Welcome. Sanctuary. These are foundational to The Listening Post, which was founded on Main Street, in the Bruce Eriksen Place  Building by Kathi Bentall and Sister Lourrain LeMarre in the year 2000. 

The founders also envisioned a different sort of listening. A small but dedicated group of volunteers offer to listen to whatever burdens guests may bring, to listen with compassion and respect and without judgement.  

An important part of this listening is that the volunteers do not try to fix the problem. A notice by the door reminds guests that The Listening Post does not offer counselling or advocacy. 

I know, from my own journey through psychiatric healing, that people like me need to be listened to, without comment or judgement. Similarly, we need to be listeners, when appropriate. The Listening Post is there for people who want to learn to listen, or meditate or pray. 

Anonymity and privacy are core values, but The Listening Post volunteers are also there for people who want to be seen and want to be known. The World Health Organization has said that loneliness is as harmful to health as 15 cigarettes a day. As we age in the Downtown Eastside it is all the more important that we have opportunities for community. 

The Listening Post does not offer food or coffee (this is intentional), but they do offer human contact, conversation and fellowship — free from organized religion or membership requirements. 

The volunteers I spoke with carefully guarded this sense of neutrality, even to the point of not wanting Megaphone to publish their names. 

The exception in this case is Karen Thorpe, 80, who retired in June after 13 years of volunteer service at The Listening Post. Thorpe reached out to Megaphone for this story. She wants Megaphone readers to know that her volunteer work has been transformative during the years after her first retirement. 

The Listening Post will be marking their 25th anniversary with special elements during the Heart of the City Festival.  

For opportunities to stay at The Rivendell Retreat Centre, visit rivendellretreat.org.   

James Witwicki has been living in the Downtown Eastside for more than 14 years. He is a prolific writer and has been published numerous times in Voices of the Street and the magazine. James stays active in the community through his volunteer work at Strathcona Vineyard Church and works as a copy editor for Megaphone magazine as part of The Shift peer newsroom. 

Published in Megaphone magazine on October 3, 2025