Looking gingerly upward, the Rev. Sharon Salomons prepares to go up in a aerial bucket provided by the Mission Fire Department to bless solar panels installed on the roof of All Saints' in Mission. (Margaret Peake photos)

All Saints Anglican Church in Mission is now the first church in Canada to have photovoltaic solar panels on its roof.

With local and provincial officials present, the panels were blessed by the Rev. Sharon Salomons, rector, from the top of a ladder provided by the Mission Fire Department on Sunday, June 10.

The panels will supplement the church’s electricity needs. They were obtained through a “Green Energy” grant from VanCity and the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. They provided funds for six environmental projects to the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.

The parish’s environmental steward Brenna Maag said, “We are really excited to have the panels because they are a concrete action in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and they act as a symbol to all of us that change is happening.” 

All Saints’ was not the only diocesan parish to have a solar panel installed and blessed this spring. The Rev. Michael Batten blessed a panel that will heat water at St. David’s in Vancouver. St. David’s panel is not quite so high as the one in Mission so Batten was able to bless it from a ladder.

The Rev. Michael Batten blesses solar panels designed to heat water at St. David's, Vancouver, also provided by a "Green Energy" grant from VanCity and the Real Estate Foundation of BC.