Happy Birthday Wishes! 

We extend our warmest birthday wishes to all those celebrating their birthdays in November

May God bless you with good health, joy, and peace throughout the coming year. May His love, grace, and guidance be with you each day, and may you continue to experience His abundant blessings in your life.

The following members are celebrating their birthdays in November:

7 – Gaire MacLean

14 – Maureen Junck

15 – Hermann Adler

28 – Viktoriya Zamyatina

Banners and Bishops, organ pipes and a trumpet, acolytes, pastors and people--all gathered under the cross to celebrate 65 years of ministry and mission on the North Shore.

It was a wonderful day of giving thanks for God's faithfulness through the decades, re-connecting with old friends and sharing stories: stories that brought us here, stories of how God met us here in times of trouble or sorrow, and stories of joy and laughter. A particularly poignant moment for me was the recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the Squamish language by elder and Deacon Rennie Nahanee. It was a reminder that long before the story of Gloria Dei began, the forests waters and shorelines held the stories of Indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands, and that the Creator has walked with them on their journeys, too.

Our Festival Eucharist and luncheon gave us a wonderful opportunity to give thanks for all that has brought us to this present day. But as Bishop Kathy highlighted in her sermon, this milestone in our congregation's journey is not only a time to look backward but also a time to look ahead and ask: where is God leading us now?   This is a question I am inviting all of us to bring prayerfully before God in the coming weeks and months.   It is not a question to be pondered only by the pastor or Church Council but by all who consider Gloria Dei their spiritual home.   

And as we bring the question before God, et us ask it with curiosity expectancy and hope. As we do, may we remember Bishop Kathy's  encouragement to continue to engage in ministry and living out our baptismal call to:

Keep listening, keep opening doors, keep learning and graciously inviting others to do so, too. Keep listening to Indigenous voices and to those whose stories the church has not always heard. Keep setting up tables where there is always room for one more. And keep bravely venturing out into the community beyond these walls. The One who has been building this spiritual house for 65 years is not finished yet.

More pics when you click on the "Read More" button

 

On-site Flu/COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic

We are pleased to offer our on-site Flu and COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic again this year!

Following last year's clinic, we will once again be hosting a vaccination clinic at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church on Sunday, November 1, immediately following worship.

The clinic will take place in the Conference Room.

No registration is required! Simply stop by after the service if you would like to receive your vaccination.

Please see the attached poster for more details.

We hope you'll take advantage of this convenient opportunity to stay healthy and protected this season!

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. 

Anniversary Greetings from Our Ismaili Neighbours

What a lovely surprise!

As we celebrated Gloria Dei Lutheran Church's 65th Anniversary last Sunday, our wonderful neighbours at the Ismaili Jamatkhana presented us with a beautiful vase and a heartfelt congratulatory card.

The vase with its unique design comes to us from the Aga Kahn Museum Shop and is handcrafted by 5th generation ceramic craftspeople located in Izmire, Turkey. It takes inspiration from the Permanent Collections at the Aga Khan Museum

We are truly grateful for their thoughtful gift and warm wishes.

It is a blessing to have such wonderful neighbours, and we deeply appreciate the friendship and goodwill we share.

Thank you to our friends at the Ismaili Jamatkhana for making our 65th Anniversary celebration even more special!