On Saturday morning, Alberta Health Services (AHS) seized Pastor Tim Stephens’ Fairview Baptist Church for refusing to cede their God-given right to worship together.
Pastor Tim only learned his church was closed when the media called him to ask about the locks on his doors and the police presence at his church.
Did police tip-off the mainstream media? It’s hard to know for sure, but the quick response does suggest that the media has an inside track on when lockdown enforcement will take place.
By Sunday, Pastor Tim secured a secret location to hold his worship service, where he expects to continue gathering for the foreseeable future.
I spoke to Pastor Tim to get his reaction about being locked out from his church and how he plans to proceed.
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It has been sixteen months, and the courts are still dragging their feet deciding on the constitutionality of these health measures, leaving Pastor Tim dismayed by the lack of recourse available to him to contest the closure of his church.
He’s also frustrated by how swiftly the people in power can change the rules to benefit themselves and further their political aims.
We saw that with our own eyes when Premier Jason Kenney chose to ignore his lockdown rules to host a white cloth dinner party for his UCP friends at the Sky Palace in Edmonton. Or when the lockdown restrictions were lifted for yesterday’s politically opportunistic vigil in London, Ontario.
This situation has tested the faith of Pastor Tim’s congregants, but it has not been diminished.
In fact, his flock has grown almost weekly in lockstep with the government’s tightening of their lockdown enforcement.
Yours truly,
Adam Soos
