Visit the  Small Ritual Coffee website for events and hours of operation!

History of the Project

From April to December 2008, The Church at Southpoint began to re-imagine our church life in a Third Place context. Together, we explored the feasibility and attainability of a unique coffee house as a hub for life and faith and a centre for the expressive arts.

We applied for a grant from the Trinity Opportunity Fund (within our tribe of churches) and received the grant in December! In January, 2009 we began putting the pieces together to make this thing a reality.

Small Ritual Coffee Society is a non-profit, social enterprise located in the South Surrey/White Rock area. Our focus is: to promote ethically sourced premium coffee; to foster community interaction; and to provide a venue for local artists (music, word, visual). In this way, we hope to create a true ‘third place’.

‘Third Places’ are neither home nor workplace, but somewhere in between. They are places to meet, socialize, relax, hang out, and work away from the office. They are places to eat and drink without pressure to consume or move on. The ‘third place’ is epitomized by the modern coffee house.

Third places then are ‘hubs’ of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in our day is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to our current societal and spiritual needs.

Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist from Florida, coined the term and suggests these hallmarks of a true “third place”:

1. Relatively inexpensive food and drink is critical
2. Must be highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance)
3. Must involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there
4. Must be welcoming and comfortable

As a community hub and ‘third place’ Small Ritual will be more than just another coffee shop. It will be a place to serve, enjoy, express and act.