Updated: Vandalism at King’s College Chapel

Chapel doors locked until cleanup is completed

Makeshift chapel in the Quad. Photo by Katrina Pyne.

Click here to check out a photo essay from Tuesday Night’s Compline service in the King’s quad.

Worshippers gather in a small blue tent in the King’s Quad. They’ve been locked out of the Chapel due to an act of vandalism that occurred Monday night. Since then, the King’s College Chapel has been quiet — no singing, praying, or worshipping — just empty.

The break and enter occurred Monday evening. Three fire extinguishers were emptied and worship items were “defaced and desecrated,” according to an email sent out by King’s Chaplain Gary Thorne.

Thorne says in the letter there is “no indication that the assault was motivated by misguided religious fervor, but rather by a more general attempt to destroy and vandalize.”

Thorne signed his letter with the words, “Let us bear one another burdens as becometh friends.”

The incident is supposed to have occurred between the hours of 11 p.m. Monday and 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. The initial estimate of the cleanup was $15,000.

For now, daily worship is being held in the King’s Theatrical Society’s “Pit” in the basement of the Chapel, as per the schedule posted on the bulletin board outside the Chaplain’s Office. The first use of the Pit will be for the 5 p.m. Thursday Solemn Eucharist on Oct. 6, with full choir. Daily offices for morning and evening prayers are being held in a small blue tent in the King’s College Quad.

Police were called to investigate Tuesday morning when the damages were first discovered. According to Const. Brian Palmeter, Halifax Regional Police spokesman, no arrests or charges have been laid. “The matter is ongoing,” says Palmeter. “We would ask anyone with information to call the police.”

Dean Nick Hatt says he has never seen such an act of vandalism since he has been at King’s. “It was a shock to a lot of people in the King’s community, certainly a shock to me.”

He says the space has been integral to the university, especially in the past year, due to a number of deaths on the faculty.

“It seems like an enigma to have a chapel on a secular university campus, but it’s a wonderful mark of inclusion and the way in which we as a community are able to bring people together from all kinds of constituencies.”

Hatt also organizes the campus patrol services, which were on duty and fully staffed during the incident.

“The patrol was very busy that night dealing with a lot of stuff on campus and they were so busy dealing with other stuff that it just happened,” he says.

As a result, Hatt is doubling the number of patrol officers on the Monday night shift.

How the break and enter occurred is still in question. Patrol services are supposed to lock the Chapel at midnight; however, Hatt speculates that the suspects came in through the front door of the Chapel.

In Photos: The Chapel Interior, Aftermath