The Area Commander with the Salvation Army says the organization’s rumoured demise in Quesnel is not true.
Major Neil Wilkinson says the Salvation Army is not closing, although one service that they provide has been changed.
“There is no secret that all churches right across Canada and probably North America are struggling to find clergy, people to run churches and just like every other sector where employment and recruitment are becoming a challenge, it’s the same thing in the Salvation Army. The officer that we had stationed here, Lieutenant Tamara Randlesome, has been reassigned to a different ministry unit in the province and that was simply because we don’t have enough people to run all of our churches. So the spiritual Sunday service that the Salvation Army was doing has changed. We don’t have clergy to provide spiritual leadership to the congregation that is meeting in Quesnel.”
Wilkinson says they were averaging 10 to 12 people at those services and he says they are weighing their options on how they can support those individuals.
He says there is no change to the social supports that they provide.
“We are still actively providing food bank support, we are still actively providing hot meal support, and we are still actively providing volunteer opportunities, and we are still actively providing referral services for the people that are accessing the Salvation Army, so I am pleased to say that there is no need for panic.”
Wilkinson says there is a chance that the Sunday service could come back.