They're Not Making Christianity Better; They're Just Making Rock And Roll Worse

Abbotsford, British Columbia.

I've actually spent quite a lot of time in that sometimes quaint, but mostly God-foresaken little city. I mean, really -- the City of Abbotsford was created in much the same way as Mississauga or Cambridge -- by joining together some pretty cool smaller villages into a much bigger fake city. And I swear that along one of the main arteries (which intersects what the locals call Five Corners, an intersection that ... wait for it ... gives you five choices of where to go), the City of Abbotsford seems like one long strip mall extending pretty much from the old village of Matsqui through the old village of Abbotsford to the old village of Clearbrook.

Well, an unfortunate incident befell the townspeople over the weekend.

It seems that at the Central Heights Mennonite Church, just on the Sumas side of the TransCanada exit #90 on MacCallum Road (I've driven past it many, many times), about 1200 people, mostly teenagers, were gathered in communion to listen to the Christian Rock stylings of "Starfield," a faith-based ensemble originally from Winnipeg. The crowd danced, they bopped, and -- in a peculiar John Milton inspired moment -- they fell through the floor, landing about three metres below in the concrete basement. About 60 people fell through the floor. Luckily mostly all of the injuries were relatively minor (with but a few exceptions).

This must have been a frightening incident for those who witnessed it, and not just a little foreboding for those who viewed their congregational fellowship as "a force against which the gates of hell cannot prevail" (a phrase appearing proudly on the home page of the Church's website).

While there was some speculation among reporters that the area in front of the stage where the floor collapsed was being used as a "mosh pit," this crazy notion was immediately dispelled by one of the security guards who chimed back "We're a Mennonite Church here -- we don't mosh."

Indeed.