As we prepare to celebrate Gloria Dei’s 65th anniversary, it’s worth pausing to think about all the singing that has filled this church over the years—the voices that have risen in praise, prayer, joy, sorrow, and hope. And our singing is part of an even larger chorus: the voices of Christians around the world and across the centuries, reaching back to the earliest house churches.

Of course, not every voice has been—or is—beautiful. Have you ever sat beside someone who belts out a hymn enthusiastically, but decidedly off-key? Kurt Armstrong’s delightful poem reminds us that God may hear something very different from what our human ears hear. What matters is not the quality of the singing, but the heart that offers it—and when we sing, we are never singing alone. The saints and angels, and all the company of heaven, join their voices to ours.

Singing in Church

Tone-deaf melody wanderer,

tin fiddle tenor,

soprano like a bandsaw,

   rook’s croak smoker

hopping note to

note somewhere

beneath the staves,

   alto next to me, her voice like cake,

barrel of baritone bouncing 

   down the aisle,

serviceable tenor pounding

   his notes with a hammer,

a mother with a voice 

   pure enough to cut through

secret sins like a laser

   through thick corten steel:

   these and all the saints,

all the company of heaven,

   stirred with the long spoon

of centuries, waves of song deep

   enough to carry, cover, hold

even raspy, reluctant me.

~ Kurt Armstrong is a writer, home-repair contractor, 

and lay minister at Saint Margaret's Anglican Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

His poem, "Singing in Church," was first published in The Courier and reprinted here with permission. 

His newest book, Repair and Remain (New Leaf Press), is a vulnerable, honest account of fatherhood, faith, fear, and love, and comes out this fall. 

Also, check out "When and Why we Sing" published in the September/October issue of the Beacon. You will find it on page 7. 

 

 

As we celebrate 65 years of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, we have been reflecting on the many things that have given our congregation its distinctive character and welcomed generations of people through our doors.

One of those treasures is quite literally our doors.

Our beautiful carved entrance doors, featuring the archangels Michael and Gabriel, have welcomed worshippers, visitors, families, community groups and friends into Gloria Dei for many years. Over time, however, they had become badly weathered and were in need of restoration and refinishing.

We are delighted that this important work has now been undertaken, giving these remarkable doors new life. On Sunday, October 18, we will gather for a special service of re-dedication, giving thanks for these restored doors and for all that they represent in the life of Gloria Dei.

An Anniversary Gift

As part of our 65th Anniversary celebration, we invite you to consider making a special anniversary gift toward the restoration of our doors.

A generous member of our congregation has made it possible for the restoration to proceed by covering a significant portion of the cost. We now invite others who would like to participate to help offset that expense and, together, celebrate and preserve this beautiful part of our church.

Whether your anniversary gift is large or small, each gift is a way of saying:

“I am grateful for Gloria Dei, and I want to help preserve what makes this place special.”

If you would like to contribute, please designate your gift

“65th Anniversary – Archangel Doors.”

We hope you will join us on October 18 for the re-dedication of the doors and, as you enter Gloria Dei through them, see them not only as works of art, but as a reminder of the many people who have entered here before us—and of all those whom we hope to welcome in the years ahead.

Thank you for helping us celebrate 65 years by caring for this special part of our Gloria Dei story.

I joined the Tsawwassen First Nation Walk for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.  It was good to see so many from South Delta joining the Tsawwassen community members - a show of solidarity "to protect the truth and stand with survivors after the reprehensible show of hate and intimidation by the white supremacist Second Sons on the lands of the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops last Sunday.

About halfway through the walk, we heard mutliple ambulance sirens, and helicopters overhead. A few minutes later a police officer who had been escorting the walk, informed us that there had been a serious incident and we were instructed to turn around and return the same we we had come rather than proceed on the route which would have taken us direclty into the scene of the accident. As we know now, two Tsawwassen Nation elders were killed when a driver lost control of their vehicle.  They were waiting for the walkers to arrive, to welcome them to a cerermony when three new house posts would be unveiled at one the entrances to the mall. Upon returning home, I kept thinking about the shock and the trauma endured by the families and, indeed, the whole community on a day already so heavy with sorrow as our prime minsiter said.   Here is the prayer I wrote.  Perhaps it can help you, too as you pray for healing and comfort to come to the community. 

Creator God of all people, our griefs keep multiplying. On a day already so heavy with sorrow, our hearts break at the tragic deaths of two elders who were waiting to welcome their people and the wider community to a ceremony embodying cultural pride and hope for a brighter future. Spirit of comfort, wrap your angel wings around the people of Tsawwassen First Nation — elders, children, parents, aunts and uncles — who are in shock and reeling from this tragedy. Bring healing to their broken hearts. May they find strength in one another, and may they know that the wider community stands with them and is greater than the voices of hate. Guide the spirits of the departed safely home, and let their memory and wisdom continue to light the path for their Nation. May it be so.

Where were you in 1961? Some of us were young adults, starting new lives alone or with a family. Some of us were in high school. Some of us were in elementary school. Some of us were preschoolers. And of course some of us were not yet born. 

What was happening internationally in our world in 1961?

- East Germany began constructing the Berlin Wall
- John F. Kennedy became President of the USA
- The CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba failed to overthrow Fidel Castro
- President Kennedy established the Peace Corps to send American volunteers abroad for community and educational development
- The first Freedom Riders departed on interstate buses to challenge racial segregation in the American South
- Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, and American Alan Shepard later became the second
- The Apollo program was launched, to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade
- The Soviet Union detonated the largest hydrogen bomb in history
- American military involvement officially began in Vietnam
- Mattel introduced Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken
- IBM introduced the Selectric typewriter
- Top hit songs were: “Stand by Me”, “Blue Moon”, and “Runaway”
- Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Twist Again” fueled a dance craze (some of our backs are still recovering)
- TV shows premieres: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Defenders, Mister Ed, Ben Casey
- Top 10 TV shows: Wagon Train, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Hazel, Perry Mason, The Red Skelton Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Dr. Kildare, CandidCamera.

Next week we’ll take a flashback look to Canada and locally.

~ Compiled by Lois Grierson

In a time of deep polarization, how can Christians move beyond slogans and engage in the realities of Palestine and Israel with humility, compassion, and courage? Gloria Dei has partnered together with Lynn Valley United Church to explore this question. Come and take part in an eye-opening panel conversation exploring the complex intersection of faith, politics, history, justice, and peace. The event takes place on November 14 at 3:00pm, at Lynn Valley United Church, 3201 Mountain Highway North Vancouver. 

Doors open at 2:45pm and the event begins at 3:00pm. Click the button below to register today!

Come and join our panelists, Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Shadia Qubti, and Ron Dart for a thoughtful afternoon of listening and learning through honest conversation.

Learn more about the featured speakers below:

Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Ph.D. is Dean of the ALEPH Ordination Program, the Jewish Renewal Seminary. She currently teaches courses on the histories of Israel and Palestine, deep ecumenism, leadership, and modern Jewish environmental thought. Previously, she was Director of Inter-Religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology, where her teaching and community work brought Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Indigenous perspectives into conversation. An award-winning teacher of philosophy and religion, Rabbi Laura has written four books on philosophical reflection, spiritual practice, mysticism, and biblical ecology, including the recent Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals. She has also brought scholars together to create seven collaborative books, including Encountering the Other, Spirit of Reconciliation, Regional Conflicts and the Philosophy of Peace, and Multi-Religious Reflections on Friendship. A dual citizen of the US and Canada, Rabbi Laura lives in Vancouver with her husband, Charles, a musician and retired psychologist.

Shadia Qubti is a Palestinian-Christian born and raised in Nazareth who has worked in faith-based peacebuilding and advocacy initiatives through local and international organizations in Israel and Palestine for fifteen years. Her academic and public speaking interests focus on theological conversations between Palestinian Christian and North American Indigenous understandings of land, explored in her Masters thesis at Vancouver School of Theology. She seeks to develop a contextual decolonial approach through Palestinian land-based readings of biblical narratives, including recent work on the Nativity story and an upcoming exploration of Jesus at Gethsemane. As a Palestinian-Christian and member of a faith community, she grapples with theological responses amid genocide. She is particularly dedicated to amplifying the voices and perspectives of women and other marginalized communities, which led to the co-founding of the Women Behind the Wall podcast. She is currently working as the Community Engagement Animator at Trinity Grace United Church in Vancouver and serves as a Commissioner to the 45th General Council of the United Church of Canada.

Ron Dart taught in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at the University of Fraser Valley (British Columbia) for 33 years. Before joining UCFV, he was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s where he was the pointperson for a variety of states in the Middle East that were known as violators (in various ways and means) of elementary and fundamental human rights. He has published and edited more than forty books, including Canadian Christian Zionism: a Tangled Tale, and is a regular contributor to Clarion: Journal for Religion, Peace and Justice. Ron also teaches Classical Studies at a graduate level at St. Stephen’s University, and just finished instructing a 4-month class on Homer’s Odyssey. In his spare time, he is an avid mountaineer.