“An online survey on religion released in March by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that the percentage of God-denying Canadians has doubled from six per cent of the population in the 1970s to 13 per cent now — with about one in four Canadians saying they’re inclined to reject religion.”

When the sad time came to say good-bye to her late husband, Marie Diane Dodd knew a traditional service in a church wasn’t the right fit.

So she arranged a ceremony at the family’s lakeside summer home outside Ottawa.

It featured John’s favourite memories and music, including a guitar riff by Jimi Hendrix.

There were happy photos from summer holidays and sentimental recollections from friends and his children about a life well lived, before it was tragically cut short by liver disease brought on by Hepatitis C.

What wasn’t part of the ceremony was any mention of God or religion.

Words of comfort

“I think John would have loved this because he wasn’t a religious man,” says Marie Diane Dodd.

“This was just the right fit for him. It was something he could feel comfortable with.”

Simon Parcher, an officiant with Humanist Canada, performed the service and says in an increasingly secular world, God is being pushed aside, even in death.

“We don’t tell people they’ll have life after they die in heaven, but we do tell them they will continue in memories, which they will,” says Parcher.

“There’s no father up in the sky taking care of things for us,” he adds. “We have to take care of ourselves.”

The words he chose during the service were designed to bring comfort, he says, but not to suggest there’s anything more beyond human existence.

Atheism’s rise in Canada

“Life exists in the time period between birth and death,” Parcher told those at the cottage that day.

“Life’s significance lies in the experiences and satisfactions in that span of time. Its permanence lies in the memories of those who knew us.”

Humanists in Ontario perform roughly 1,000 such ceremonies every year in Ontario. That’s just two per cent of funeral services in the province, but the number is growing quickly, Parcher says.

Indeed, an online survey on religion released in March by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that the percentage of God-denying Canadians has doubled from six per cent of the population in the 1970s to 13 per cent now — with about one in four Canadians saying they’re inclined to reject religion.

The CBC reached out to the Dodd family and several other Canadians as part of an in-depth look at the extent to which Canadians are keeping their faith.

Canadian churches facing uphill battle

The situation facing Susan Jack’s Anglican parish in Saint John, N. B., is representative of many Christian Protestant denominations across Canada.

“We have an aging congregation, people who gave money are dying and few people are coming to church,” says Jack,  standing next to the “For Sale” sign on the lawn of her beloved St.George’s-St.Jude’s Church.

At 193 years old, it is one of the oldest churches in Canada, but its days as a place of worship are numbered.

The $30,000-a-year heating costs simply made the building unaffordable.

So Jack says the ever-shrinking congregation is looking to reinvent itself.

The church has long served meals to the underprivileged on Sundays in Saint John, so Jack says the focus may shift to doing more such outreach work.

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