To the editor:
I am reading Sharron J. Simpson’s book describing the history of Kelowna. It is an excellent read, opening the eyes of the reader to what took place in the founding of the Okanagan Valley and our great city.
Once again, as I have learned from studying the history of our great nation Canada, the important role the church played in the development of our nation. In Kelowna, just to mention a few, we have the Father Pandosy Mission, The Anglican Church on Sutherland which just celebrated its centennial, the First United Church on Bernard, and the Benvoulin Presbyterian Church site on Benvoulin. A place of worship was a vital part in the establishing of our community as it was in other Canadian towns that the early pioneers built.
I have the privilege of volunteering at the Kelowna General Hospital. I was impressed to learn that the building has in its heart a place of worship, a Chapel.
Somewhere back in time individuals saw the important role that our spiritual wellbeing plays in our physical healing and they designed a place for patients or their friends and family to spend time alone with their God or come together on Sunday afternoons for a time of corporate worship.
We are blessed to live in a country where the founders of Confederation noted their desire that God would rule from sea to sea. In Psalm 72:8 we find their motto for Canada: “He will rule from sea to sea.”
I love the third stanza of O Canada, the words in the way I remember them from my time in school: “Ruler Supreme who hears our humble prayer, hold our Dominion in thy loving care, help us to find oh God in thee a lasting rich reward as we ever stand on guard for thee.”
Visiting the Chapel in KGH I noted the glaring absence of a cross. A chapel without a cross? How could that be? I learned that a number of years ago the cross was removed from the Chapel because some found it offensive.
That took me back a number of years ago when the Lord’s Prayer and the reading of the Bible were removed from our public school classrooms because someone may find it offensive.
My question: How long will it be before the Chapel will be seen as offensive to a few and its doors are closed?
In review of our past, my question is this: How long will we allow a minority to continue to erode the biblical principles that our nation was founded upon?
We are in the Easter season, a time to reflect on the cross and all that it symbolizes in our free nation, Canada.
Fellow Canadians, may God find us faithful in standing on guard for Him.
Jake Thiessen,
Kelowna
