The members of St. Margaret's Tamil Anglican Church are proud and indeed very happy to celebrate today the growth of this church for over a decade since its founding.

Many of us here do not know the origins of our church, the trials and difficulties it faced and how it overcame those challenges. We do have members who have been attending the church from its inception. But they may also not be able to recollect its beginnings. And so, the wardens felt that it would be appropriate to reminisce on its history and requested me to say a few words.

It is well known that large members of Tamils came to Canada from Ceylon due to the ethnic conflict in that country. The nineteen eighties witnessed this influx. For the Tamils, religion, language and culture have been their firm foundation. Tamils always sought a place to worship and a school to educate themselves and their children wherever they lived and in whatever country they lived.

Among the Tamils here, the Christians belonged to various denominations in Sri Lanka. However, perhaps due to the bond of common ethnicity, they were keen to worship together as a community. As Tamils, we wished to conduct our services in Tamil. Also, we wanted to conduct our worship in our own cultural setting as we did in Sri Lanka! This inevitably meant that we must have a Tamil priest who knows our language, culture and religious practices.