KANSAS CITY: The dream, since 1970, of Sikhs residing in Midwest region came true when a beautiful Gurdwara was declared Open to worship some time ago. Constructed under the auspices of Kansas City based Midwest Sikh Association the Gurdwara building coasted nearly 300,000 dollars Out of which 95,000 dollars was a loan.
Bhai Jiwan Singh Ji performed ground breaking ceremony in November 1986 and since then Sikhs in the region have participated in the true sense of Kar Sewa. A symbol of Sikh architecture the gurdwara, will serve the religious, cultural and social needs of Sikhs residing in the Midwest states.
About 2,500 Sikhs live in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Dakotas. Most of them. are concentrated in Kansas City and Des Moines areas. The Sikhs started living in the Midwest in 1970’s but because of lack of industry and farm related jobs, their number is not substantial.
The Gurdwara is situated on picturesque 6834 Pflum Street in Shawnee Suburb. According to outgoing president of Midwest Sikh Association, S. Darshan Singh Sarai, some items like Nishan Sahib and permanent sign of Gurdwara Midwest Sikh Association needed to be completed as yet.
Besides being active in various religious activities the local Sikhs are also busy explaining about Sikhism to local Americans. “Sikhism is new to America but is quite new to Midwest,” says Arvinderpal Singh secretary to Midwest Sikh Association. “Other people need to have better understanding about Sikhism.” In pursuance with this, along with other goals, members of “Centre For Religious Studies,” headed by Mr. Vern Barnette have been invited to participate in Sikh services on March 11th.
The local Sikhs have also participated in various interfaith meetings, where they had the chance to explain about Sikhism. “Sikhs image has been unjustifiable tarnished by vested interests,” feels Dr. Kirpal Singh, a respected Sikh physician from Creston Iowa, “and it became the responsibility of every Sikhs to explain to their American brothers about their culture and heritage.” Participation in local churches will allay some of misgivings about Sikhism. Dr,. Singh has been quite active lately in Unitarian Church activities. Unitanaian Church preaches universal brotherhood and equality for everybody which is an essence of Sikhism. Mid-west Sikh Association of Kansas City held elections at which the following persons were declared elected by the Election Committee duly constituted by the Sangat as per Bylaws. Harbhajan S. Hundal President Avtar S. SachdevV. President Jaswinder Singh Sidhu Secretary Amarjit Singh Treasurer Sant Singh Chawla Member Karnail Singh Dulkoo Darshan Singh Sagai
This is very creditable that every time the office bearers have been selected unanimously for the last few years.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 3, 1989
