Church Of Our Lord - Eliza Harris Memorial Window

On Monday I posted a photo of the exterior of the Church Of Our Lord and promised some photos of the interior. Victoria has many hidden jewels and here is one, the stained glass window given in memory of Eliza Harris, wife of Victoria's first mayor, Thomas Harris. Eliza Harris was respected for her charitable works and her window depicts the biblical character Dorcas, who was well-known for clothing the poor. This window was donated in 1890 and a special opening in the Prayer Chapel was created for it.

Old Churches

Directly across Quadra Street from yesterday's photo is this large building, formerly the First Baptist Church. At some later point it was home to Nelson's Music and has now been transformed into trendy loft living spaces. The proximity of this former church to the large one featured yesterday reminds me that we are moving rapidly into a genuinely secular society. This has happened really within the last fifty years and I wonder how many of us think about the implications.

I am wondering, for instance, how people without any religious background develop personal moral codes. What's right and what's wrong used to be defined religiously, but for many people nowadays religion is no longer a valid way of defining morality. But what is the philosophy or ethical system that is replacing religion in our society? It doesn't seem to be explicitly codified anywhere but sort of patched together from rights-based pressure groups, media attitudes and the vague humanistic philosophies of psychologists and social workers, and I can't escape the feeling that we may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Aside from legal sanctions or religious beliefs, how do you decide what's right and what's wrong?