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It was our wedding day near Bordeaux. The flowers from Notre-Dame de Paris were the most beautiful of all those we had received. The father of the bride (my “beau-pere”) had previously served as finance director at Notre Dame and his friend, the Bishop, had sent along this gesture of congratulations. As groom, I was far from the Parisian expectation: a half-Indian, half-Scottish Canadian Anglican Priest. This cathedral knew that times were changing and somehow, my story was touched by the ancient stones that we now see charred on the banks of the Seine.

For Canadians like me, the story of Notre Dame invites us in, even from a distance. In the social media, we are all grasping to say “I know that place, and I care!” We recognize this French landmark specifically, but also through its echo in the steeples and wooden roofs across Canada. We know that we should grieve Notre Dame, but do we know why?

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Canada’s colonial history tells of Europeans arriving with their economics, culture and faith in varied waves of battle and blessing. For better or for worse, migrants came with blueprints for rebuilding the places of worship they knew. Even as the European Reformation lamented the Roman Empire’s abuse of religious power, the Puritans and pioneers now exported this old conflict and began a new one, within a complex and often-tragic narrative with Canada’s first peoples. The church buildings themselves — now built in Fredericton, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Victoria — were literal carbon copies of London, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris.