Newspaper – Jamaican Observer Link to Article

CALGARY, Canada — For most of the week, an aura of quietness prevails at Ogden House Seniors, a building situated on 69 Avenue in Calgary Southeast.

Here, a typical weekday features 60 or so seniors — people aged 50 and over — congregating at the ‘house’ to avail themselves of the services on offer and participate in activities that range from a ‘physically demanding’ game of table tennis to ‘move and mingle’ exercise routines in the building’s hall.

But one can expect the scenes and sounds in the hall to change at 11:00 am each Sunday, with a chorus of voices pummelling heaven in mostly distinct Jamaican accents. For the past year, the 60-square-foot hall has been the home of the six-year old Southeast Hope of Assembly, the brainchild of 55-year-old businessman Aaron Russell, a Clarendon native who spent much of his younger years pulling people to dancehall sessions across Canada as a promoter and at the controls of a sound system he owned and operated.

For Pastor Russell, who migrated to Canada in 1980, the non-denominational, non-judgemental Southeast Hope Assembly is a major accomplishment on a long journey back to the fold.