May 17, 2021

Hon. Premier Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1

cc. Teresa J. Armstrong (MPP for London—Fanshawe)

Dear Premier Ford:

Subject: Reopening of Churches, Southdale Bible Chapel, London, Ontario

On behalf of our church (Southdale Bible Chapel, London, Ontario), we would like to express our thanks for your ongoing efforts in protecting the health of the people of Ontario and for your response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We can only imagine the pressure you are under as you attempt to balance the needs of the people of Ontario, in terms of our collective physical, emotional, economic, and spiritual needs. We pray for Godly wisdom for you and your team as you navigate through this crisis.

As you consider next steps after the lockdown, we would plead on behalf of our church, and churches like us, who have been unable to meet for most of the past 15 months. Like many churches, we have used virtual church services and electronic means to try to encourage, teach and support each other, but this falls short of God’s intent for the church. We can not fully meet God’s design for the church under the current restrictions, nor past restrictions. We fear the short term and long-term impact on our church members who have been deprived of fellowship, spiritual and emotional support for so long.

As the province begins to reopen in the coming weeks, we would ask that you allow churches to open to 50% of capacity. This would allow us to make important steps toward meeting the needs of our church members and most importantly fulfilling God’s expectations of the church and us as church leaders. As we have demonstrated in the past, we commit to implementation of all public safety measures including, but not limited to, masks and distancing.

Again, we express our sincere thanks for your efforts and will continue to pray for wisdom in working through this crisis.

Yours sincerely,

Leadership of Southdale Bible Chapel