Assessing our losses ...

This week we've had two things happen that have begun moving us to a more full appreciation of what it is that we've lost ...

The first was the composing and sharing of what will be the Victims' Impact statement that we will submit to the Courts as they determine what to do with the three suspects connected to our Fire. I penned the first draft and passed it around over the last week for people to edit, change and add to. This morning I sent a second revised and lengthened version. It was helpful to have other eyes read over the words that will, on behalf of all of us, tell the Courts how we've been impacted by the cowardly and callous act that robbed us of our sanctuary and our building.

There is very little about our life as a Church today that isn't impacted by the fire. Even gathering to worship involves the physical movement of boxes of books, supplies and many other items that we simply had sitting in our worship space. Now we have to run through a "check list" and make sure everything is there ...

Then on Thursday we gathered in community to say farewell to one of our saints (in the fullest sense of the word), who had died over the weekend. We've gathered to hold funerals, but this one had an added poignency. Muriel and her husband Ed had been long time members of the Choir, and were instrumental in helping make happen, the purchase of the new Organ in 2002. One of my strongest memories of the afternoon the new Allen organ arrive was seeing Ed standing with tears in his eyes saying "It's beautiful ..." and "it's been a long time coming ..." Both of them enjoyed and savoured the good music offered by our Choir and by our organist/choir director Eleanor.

Regretably, today all that remains of the exquisite organ that graced our sanctuary with sound for such a short period of time, is a small battered brass plaque that we scavenged from the debris left after the fire ... we WILL get a new organ, but we will never replace what we've lost !!

As we said our farewells to Muriel we, the congregation, the choir and those gathered all knew that Muriel was an important part of the community that continues to grieve the loss of our building. Muriel's service should have been held in our Sanctuary, and it should have resounded with a choir and music and an organ that were part of her legacy to our church and community. But because of the thoughtless action of cowards lurking in the dark, such possibilities lie only in the realm of "woulda, shoulda, and coulda's"

We named the loss on paper ... then we lived the loss in community. As we said Good bye to one of our saints, we also said good bye to many things that were once central to our lives and our worship ... And that was perhaps the hardest thing of all ...

In the face of it though, we continue to affirm:
L'chaim,