Montreal school shooting brings faith-based response

Christians in and around Dawson College struggle to grieve and care

Joel Coppieters
Quebec Correspondent
quebec@christianweek.org

MONTREAL, QC—As Montreal recovers from another school shooting, many local Christians are trying to respond in Christ-like sympathy and care, even as they struggle with their own pain. They have been counted among the hundreds of Montrealers in professional and volunteer positions who have rallied around the Dawson College community.

As the uninjured students fled the building and darted into the surrounding streets bustling with lunchtime traffic, they found refuge in the doorways of neighbouring apartment buildings, shops and office buildings. Some found an open door at the nearby Heart of the City Cafe, a ministry through which Evangel Church normally feeds the homeless and needy, but which it will open to Dawson students and staff for the coming weeks.

“Since the shooting occurred in the cafeteria atrium, it will be difficult for many students to return there,” the centre’s director says. “As the students return to the college this week, we will continue to offer free food and a quiet respite place to talk and share.”

As the outpouring of emotion and support from the community expressed itself in flowers, teddy bears and cards left by the gates of the College, several Christians used Scripture to communicate their care. Local churches have responded in a variety of ways.

While the funeral for Anastasia De Sousa was held at Our Lady Czestochowa Church on Tuesday September 19, an informal memorial service was also held the previous Saturday at a local evangelical church.

Amazing grace

Jeremy Bagot, whose father pastors the Faith Ministries Church in Montreal’s Petite Patrie borough, was a close friend of Anastasia’s. He gathered some musicians and friends to read poetry, pray and reflect. Many students attended with their parents and were thankful for the opportunity to express and share their grief. Jeremy played “Amazing Grace” on the saxophone.

“We chose texts and poems that would help us to remember her,” says Jeremy. “As we chatted over the Internet she discovered I played the sax, but she had never heard me play. Now she has.”

Two Dawson students who helped administer first aid shared their experience at the funeral. The service held prayers for the families of Anastasia De Sousa, Kimveer Gill as well as for those marked by the events.

On Sunday, September 17 a number of Montreal churches included a variety of elements in response to the events of the previous week.

“Several members of our congregation were very directly involved, and so many others were connected with the events that we couldn’t just carry on as if nothing had happened,” says David Dawson, chair of the board of elders at Rosemount Bible Church. “We needed to stand with them and grieve with them.”

Like several other churches ministering to the countless students affected in Montreal, the Rosemount pastoral team has made arrangements for ongoing support and professional referrals.

A number of local churches took a less sympathetic approach and chose to use the events as an opportunity to score theological points about sin and human depravity. Among those reflecting at the Dawson College gates on Sunday afternoon were a number of students who had left morning church services disappointed by things they heard from the pulpit.

“Some of us have had harsh words for the swarm of media who are here to profit from the pain of this situation,” says one student. “It’s really disappointing that Christians can sink to the same level. The ‘product’ they’re trying to sell might well be Jesus, but their approach is anything but Christ-like. I was in no mood to get preached at today, and I doubt anyone else was either.”

As soon as the college administration announced plans for a massive united return of students at 12:41 p.m. on Monday, September 20 to symbolically take back the campus at the very moment when the rampage began, Christian groups began to coordinate their support measures.

Members of the Dawson College Inter Varsity group made plans for a morning of prayer at nearby Evangel Church where they were joined by Christian students from the IVCF groups on other campuses. Together they marched towards the campus to join the take back ceremony at noon.

IVCF staff workers from around Quebec, many of whom have pastoral and counselling training and experience have made themselves available to the college administration to support students as they return on Monday, and in the weeks ahead.