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LETTER: Feelings about HRC site have Biblical roots, reader says

Reader suggests installing a cross at the site to 'acknowledge the abuses and sufferings. (It would) also show Jesus cared for every grief, every tear'
HRC file photo
The Huronia Regional Centre has been closed for years. It is located on Memorial Avenue across from the OPP General Headquarters.

OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor. This letter is in reference to recent stories and letters about the future of the Huronia Regional Centre site. Readers are invited to submit letters to the editor to: [email protected]
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I see some folk want: (1) to tear down the buildings that were Huronia Regional Centre (HRC); and/or (2) to stop their being used as residential facilities ever again.

I wonder, do they know these thoughts come from the Bible?

In the book of Ezra (NIV), is a decree of 519 B.C., made by Darius, the ruling Persian emperor. One of only a few passages written in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew. He orders the completion of the "temple of God" in Jerusalem.

He wanted the Jews to "pray for the well-being of the king and his sons." (Ezra 6:10b)

To make sure this would be done, the king set a penalty:

"Furthermore, I decree that if anyone changes this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And for this crime his house is to be made a pile of rubble." (Ezra 6:11)

That is where this idea comes from.

But God is different! On Good Friday, we see Jesus, who had never sinned, nailed to a wooden cross, in our place, bearing all our sins, so that we may be forgiven, and not get what we actually deserve for what we have done.

I did a blessing at a ceremony at the HRC cemetery a few years ago. It is a beautiful setting. Yet I understand people's feelings.

Maybe it would be good to install a very large cross in that cemetery. This would acknowledge the abuses and sufferings. But also show Jesus cared for every grief, every tear. And He still does.

Ralph Wood (HRC volunteer chaplain) 
Orillia
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