FEATURE
MARGINAL AT
DANGEROUS It’s 1966.
You’re standing in front of Canada’s Parliament building on a cold New Year’s Eve. You, and all the “important people” are there, ready to witness the lighting of the Centennial Flame celebrating Canada’s 100th birthday. What do you expect to hear? An opening prayer is read: “Grant thy blessing upon the joyous celebrations of our centennial year … that with the flame of freedom in our souls and light of knowledge in our eyes, we may magnify thy Name among men, one country serving Thee.” Snap back to 2019. Can you imagine such a prayer would be said at a such a high-profile public event today? Probably not. That was then. This is now. Though the prayer uttered wasn’t explicitly Christian — Jesus Christ isn’t mentioned — it was clearly a prayer that most Canadians of the day would have assumed to be addressed to the Christian God. That was because most Canadians then self-identified as Christian.
2 SEVEN MARCH / APRIL 2019
THE FALL OF THE CHURCH’S PLACE IN CANADIAN SOCIETY BY DAVID GURETZKI
