ARP NEWS UPDATE SPECIAL

CANADA – Hurricane Bill

Bill McKay, stated clerk of Canadian Presbytery, emails to report on Hurricane Bill in Eastern Canada: “We have two churches in Nova Scotia that would have been in peril if the hurricane had made landfall where originally expected. They are Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church in Halifax, NS and Grace Fellowship Church in Sydney Mines, NS.

“I spoke with Pastor John Shearouse in Halifax (Covenant Reformed Presbyterian) this morning and he informed me that they cancelled their Sunday services because the hurricane was expected to make landfall shortly after lunch yesterday. By God’s grace, the hurricane diverted to the south and travelled along the coast instead of directly hitting them. They suffered high winds and rain but no damage. He compared it to a hard winter storm but without the snow.

“Even with that diversion to the south, there was still a chance that the storm would hit Cape Breton Island where Grace Fellowship Church (Sydney Mines) is located but it appears they were also spared from the fiercest part of the storm (according to news reports). I have tried to contact Pastor Rick Barnes of Grace Fellowship without any success at this time, so any information I have is from regular news sources.

“The hurricane made landfall this morning on the southern coast of Newfoundland where they experienced very high, damaging winds, rain and strong tidal surges. It has since been downgraded to a “post tropical depression” and is now headed out to the northern Atlantic. We have no ARP churches in Newfoundland.”