Vandals hit church with graffiti

Offensive graffiti that was spray-painted onto a heritage city church’s doors this week is getting a “loving and forgiving” response from the congregation.

The gold-coloured graffiti — with vulgar language and the numbers “666” — was written on a side entrance doors of the Hamilton Christian Fellowship Church on Strathcona Avenue North likely on Tuesday night, said Lisa Cowling, one of the church pastors.

Calls about it came in to Cowling on Wednesday morning from people attending a prayer meeting at the church.

“I saw it last night (Wednesday). My heart just sunk,” she said.

However, the church has decided to respond with “love and forgiveness.”

The double wooden doors, on the Tom Street side of the church, have been covered by a large white canvas with a pastoral scene drawing.

People are invited to write a blessing, words of peace or a loving message on the canvas “to counter the spirit of what was written,” says Cowling.

Some of the messages already written on it include “Love always wins over hate” and “Jesus loves Hamilton.”

The church is also inviting the community to hear from a congregation member and high school tolerance educator on Sunday. The speaker, Ian Jones, was coincidentally scheduled to speak on the topic before the graffiti incident.

The congregation reported the incident to police “just in case there’s other incidents or other things that they know are going on and connected,” Cowling said.

The message in the graffiti shook the church’s neighbours, she added.

The large and historic wooden doors were restored six years ago and had another refinishing last year. The congregation is now looking into what work needs to be done to get rid of the graffiti.

This is the first time the church has been hit with graffiti, Cowling said.