Local church appears to defy capacity limit

By medicinehatnews on April 4, 2021.

A church in Medicine Hat that is challenging pandemic restrictions in court appears to have held a full service on Easter Sunday despite a capacity limit put in by health officials and new calls for vigilance against COVID-19.

Heights Baptist Church on Division Avenue was one of two churches in Medicine Hat that advertised on social media that they would host their entire congregations on Sunday.

It’s not known how many people attended the gathering, which concluded at about 11:15 a.m.

Two members of the congregation who approached a News reporter on the site and would only identify themselves by their first names said the group was practising its faith, and a study of numbers in U.S.
states where measures had lifted proved they were acting safely.

Grace Family Reform Baptist Church, which posts no active address on its website, was also reportedly taking part, but it’s not known where such a service was held.

Police vehicles remained a block away from Heights Baptist building and there appeared to be no interactions between church-goers and authorities.

Controversy has swirled around the Grace Life Church in Parkland County, near Edmonton, after several months of high level of activity at services there, and an apparent lack of action from health officials.

Late last week, the two Medicine Hat area churches appeared on a list of churches planning to defy health orders, posted on the Liberty Coalition Canada website. That website states it is a partner of End the Lockdown Caucus.

That group, made up of legislators at various levels of government across Canada, came under fire this week when one of its founders, Ontario provincial parliament member Randy Hillier, posted a picture of
Adolph Hitler. He likened warnings of a “third wave” of the pandemic from health officials as the institution of a Third Reich.

That led Cypress Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes to announce he was disaffiliating from the group in a letter co-signed by Airdrie MLA Angela Pitts.

[Editor’s Note — This story has been edited to correct the location of the Grace Life Church to Parkland County, near Spruce Grove, Alta., and correct a minor spelling mistake.]

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