Church Arson times two ...

Today the news came that the RCMP have pressed charges for a second Church fire against one of the suspects in our Church fire ... Sadly, we are the second fire ...

When I served as Chair of Assiniboine Presbytery, the congregation of Brandon Hills United Church, a few short kilometres south of Brandon, awoke on Sunday morning to find their historic and designated heritage building aflame. By dawn it was a smouldering ruin, nothing remaining but the bell that had fallen from the steeple and the stairs that lead to no where.

I remember arrving on site that afternoon and watching as the bell was carted away ... it was horrible.

Now two years later, I find myself facing a gaping hole and a set of stairs that lead to no where.

And today we learn that one of the suspects is also the suspect in the Brandon Hills fire and in the destruction of tombstones in some rural cemeteries ...

I was told that he has a hatred of the Church ...

It's sad. I understand why people have issues with organized religion. I have issues with the very body in which I live and breath and have my being as minister. There are days (more then I can count) wherein I too hate the Church.

BUT, an action like burning down a historic church building doesn't hurt the CHURCH. Instead actions like this hurt the women who have spent decades pouring tea, serving sandwiches and caring for one another ... it hurts the little kids who go to nursery school and now want to know WHY? ... it hurts the generations of people who have marked life's transitions through weddings, baptisms and funerals ... it hurts then people who look to the building for a place to meet and be community ... it hurts the town in which it stands ...

Today we are hurting ... but thankfully, today we are beginning to journey back from the abyss.

I feel nothing but pity for the three who would so foolishly do this ... I feel only sorrow for three people who have been so wounded by organized religion that they would entertain even for a moment the notion that this would settle some score ...

I hope they get help, and I hope one day they grasp the enormity of their actions and in the process have an encounter with the holiness that lives and breaths and moves in places like Brandon Hills and Minnedosa where people care for one another and care about one another.

Today is a wake up call to people of all faiths - we need to be about living out the Gospel rather then focusing on the dogmas and the nonsense that wounds people and leads them to consider actions like those we've endured this past week in Minnedosa ...

On the positive side, today has been a day of accomplishments:
- at 7:45 am, while still in my pjs, I answered the door and was greeted by someone who said - "I have seven boxes from the post office ..." (We don't have home delivery in Minnedosa) - our 100 copies of Voices United had arrived ...
- Wilf met with the Insurance folks ... not sure what transpired, but with Wilf we're in good hands ...
- in the office we found a guest book from 1991 that had the names of the people who attended the 90th anniversary of the building ... it was dedicated to the saints who had come before us, and will be used to celebrate the saints that remain ...
- our computer, phone, fax and internet connections are all up and running ...
- we met with the folks from St Alphonse Catholic Church and made plans and arrangements for our Sunday services and congregational happenings ...
- we met as a worship committee and planned the next few weeks of worship services up to and including Easter...
- a sister church outside of Winnipeg emailed just as I was about to place an order from a supply company for a baptismal font ... the folks at Oak Bank offered us a Baptismal Font that was in need of a good home ... and a good home we shall offer it ...
- after taking our kids to piano lessons in Brandon, we went out for supper and had several people (total strangers who had been watching tv) express to me their care and sympathies for the people in Minnedosa ...
- then when we arrived home, I found in a door a small gift from the good folks from the 10 000 Villages store in Brandon, with it was a note, a donation and a replacement of the tiny terra cotta piggy bank we used to use for our penny drives ...
- tonight as I am writing this, the phone rang and an offer for two hand made collection plates was offered and accepted. The plates are in memory of one of predecessors ...

Today, in the face of the brutal unfolding of details involving our fire and that of Brandon Hills, I've repeatedly confronted the profound goodness of people.

Today has reminded me that even though some people are capable of horrible, hateful and hurtful actions, others - the vast majority, are profoundly loving and caring individuals ...

I grieve for our building, but I grieve for the hurt that could cause people to act in such a horrid way ... thankfully though, we are people of the resurrection - people of the light and though it may try, the darkness WILL NEVER triumph ...

dayenu,

rev. shawn