Around Town: Refugee claimants, St. Herman's cupola, Catholic stories missed

More than 70,000 asylum seekers will be arriving in Canada this year.

Refugee protection claims have risen steadily over the past year, so this is a good time to learn how to participate in the process.

Fortunately there is a very timely way to find out from several ministries and churches which have been very active in the process – Refugee Claimants & Your Church: Discovering Transformative Ways to Welcome.

The three-hour gathering, followed by lunch, will take place the morning of February 11 at St. Andrew’s Hall on the UBC campus.

Here is what is on offer:

From its earliest days, the church has provided care and safety for people seeking refuge. This year, over 70,000 asylum seekers will arrive in Canada asking for refugee protection. Your church could be a vital lifeline of welcome with and for refugee claimants.

We are privileged in Metro Vancouver to have a number of organizations like Kinbrace, Journey Home, the Christian Reformed Church and Inasmuch that have been faithfully supporting asylum seekers for many years.

These organizations have learned a considerable amount about healthy engagement with people seeking refuge and have developed a host of best practices – they will all be participating.

At this hybrid gathering, engage and learn from people with lived refugee claimant experience, welcoming churches, and frontline communities.

In-person and online registration available.

Build your church’s knowledge and capacity to bear witness to the love of God among one of the world’s most vulnerable displaced groups.

Go to the CityGate Vancouver website to register.

St. Herman’s cupola

The cupola has now been placed on St. Herman’s new building. Image from video on their site.

Fr. Lawrence Farley has been the pastor of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church ever since it began in Langley in 1987. The community is a parish of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), a part of the Archdiocese of Canada.

The church has faced challenges as it has developed a new building for worship. Late last year, uncharacteristically, Fr. Lawrence sent out an appeal for funds. In a January 30 blog post he reported good progress, capped by a symbolic triumph:

Many people from around the world have kindly contributed to my parish of St. Herman of Alaska in Langley, BC, helping us and saving us from financial catastrophe as we struggled to build a new church temple on our property, striving to overcome many unforeseen obstacles and problems.

Fr. Lawrence Farley

Recently we reached another architectural milestone, in that we finally, after many, many delays, crowned the building with a large cupola.

The cupola weighed 6,000 pounds, the maximum that the large crane could lift – actually, perhaps a bit more than the crane could lift, so that we all prayed hard for the final cupola installation and blessed it with Holy Water on the Sunday prior to the installation.

When it finally sat atop the church, I felt a bit like Zerubbabel bringing the top stone of the Temple, and wanted to cry out with him, “Grace! Grace to it!” (Zechariah 4:7).

As a small token of gratitude I would like to share a video of the ongoing construction project, a series of images accompanied by the singing of our church choir (and also that of another men’s Byzantine choir, singing the tropar and kontakion of St. Herman). The link to the video can be accessed here. Bless you and thank you for everything!

A grand opening for the new church building will be held this summer.

Catholic stories missed

Paul Schratz, editor of The B.C. Catholic wrote January 26 on the topic ‘Here are the stories you would have missed.’

The article began:

In 2022, only a single Canadian newspaper reported on the fact there was a 260 per cent increase in anti-Catholic hate crimes from the previous year.

The same lone paper revealed B.C. hospital patients were being pressured by medical personnel to kill themselves with euthanasia.

And the same newspaper broke the news that a Canadian military panel was trying to ban some chaplains (Catholic) because of their religious beliefs.

He pointed to other stories found only in The B.C. Catholic, including:

The republishing of a B.C. writer’s out-of-print book about residential school survivors.
How pregnancy centres were being threatened with loss of tax status, and an inside look at the life-saving work they do.
The Archdiocese of Vancouver and a pride organization resolving a human rights dispute and beginning mutual dialogue.
The Archdiocese apologizing for its role in coerced adoptions.

Go here for the full article.

There is no doubt that the Christian community does not receive the amount of coverage it ought to, especially related to positive stories. However, I have pointed to many instances, over the years, in which CBC News, The Sun, Global TV, etc. have taken note of good works, so it can be worth reaching out to them.

Feb 2023

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Around Town: Refugee claimants, St. Herman’s cupola, Catholic stories missed

Feb 2023

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