Saskatoon church cancels worship and asks for supplies

For the first time ever, Mark Kleiner will not have anyone inside his church on Sunday.

Kleiner is a pastor at Christ Church Anglican in Saskatoon. He cancelled all events there including Sunday worship because of COVID-19.

"It's going to be a lot quieter," Kleiner said laughing. "I'm not aware of it ever having been done ... maybe back in the Spanish Flu days."

Kleiner said he still put together a sermon and that he was trying to find alternative ways like an online live-stream to reach his church members.

"I've talked to a couple members who I will be dropping off — not conversing with — a printed sermon and some other worship resources into their mailboxes. Where we're all kind of in this new cultural moment together and it's a lot of uncertainty. At the same time, how do we pull together in a responsible way? We can't physically come together, that's not prudent right now, but we certainly can communicate that concern and compassion in different ways."

Taking from the rich, giving to the poor

Hoarding supplies is something a lot of people are talking about right now.

Things like toiler paper have been flying off shelves at Saskatchewan stores. To deal with that, Kleiner said Christ Church Anglican is now trying to help with something they're calling Project Robin Hood.

"Project Robin Hood is an attempt to repatriate some of those hoarded items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer, but also like canned goods, non-perishables," he said. "We're just basically asking people if you've got a big hoard of this stuff to give some back."

All of the supplies collected will be given to people in the most need.

"We're talking about our most vulnerable residents of our community. And I've actually already been on the phone twice this morning with people who are concerned. And we're giving people an opportunity to be generous and to kind of listen to our better angels through all this." 

People can find out how to help on the Christ Church Anglican Saskatoon Facebook page.