The Calgary Vietnamese Alliance Church has been targeted by arsonists, destroying a part of the building envelope and damaging the entire sanctuary.
The Alliance Church congregation is largely made up of Southeast Asian refugees.
Fire crews were on scene to extinguish the blaze late Sunday evening and remained on scene to speak with the pastor of the church.
“We are refugees with no means. We escaped from Vietnam to come here to get more freedom, to live and we think it was a good country - and now it happened to our church,” Pastor Thai Nguyen told me after I arrived at the church early Monday morning.
“Maybe it is not safe to be here in Canada compared to Vietnam,” he added.
When I asked him what he thought had happened, he flatly stated that “somebody burned the church, because it is not only our church both many others too.”
The Calgary Police recently put out a statement saying that nearly a dozen churches were targeted on Canada Day, however they added that “we must never forget residential schools are a part of our legacy that destroyed the lives of so many.”
The Alliance Church gathered in person for the first time on Sunday since the pandemic closed them down. After the terrorist attack, they will be forced to return to online worship.
