Dear Editor,
I am submitting this letter in response to ‘Guilty to an extent…’, pg. 7 Dec. 10, ECA Review.
I also am a Christian but I would like to humbly come at this from a different perspective.
I am puzzled and dismayed that Mr. Hamelin, as a Christian, is very critical and perhaps disillusioned by the church but without digressing from the main point of his letter which is to condemn Christians who are standing by their rights to worship, I would like to offer support for opening of churches.
The church’s foundation was built on charity, love and acceptance as taught by Christ.
You will find such organizations such as the Salvation Army, the Mustard Seed, the Bread Basket, Samaritans Purse and many other Christian-based organizations as well as our own local churches, who practice their faith found in Christ’s teachings of providing for the poor and down trodden.
To really experience God’s love we were taught by Christ “not to forsake the meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching”.
When churches are abiding by all the rules of social distancing, masks, and all the necessary rules of safety and still are not allowed to congregate this has the appearance of being an arbitrary attack.
If we can still fill the stores with people coming and going, passing one another here and there, visiting in the aisles and on the streets but closing churches, this is obviously lacking in consistency.
People are not dying in the streets from COVID but there are many who are from isolation, depression and addictions.
Christians themselves are not immune to the social ills of society and also rely on the spiritual support of the church community especially in these very trying times.
It is disconcerting to see governments mandating who we can have in our homes, discouraging families from seeing each other, and closing churches. All based on a virus that has a 99 per cent survival rate.
This is an attack on the very social fabric of society when you take away people’s support systems like the church and family.
We are so focussed on caring for our physical bodies without realizing the importance of our spiritual bodies.
There is no getting away from the tragedy of COVID. There is no getting away from the tragedy of many diseases and death in general.
Death is a part of living. I maintain that this is not the time to close our churches.
“Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with them.”
May God fill you with the hope and love that is found in His Son Jesus and where there is true victory over death.
Alana Stefanik
Big Valley, Alta.
