Yesterday evening I went for another event of the Historic Festival. A lecture on the German contribution to the Canadian “Cultural Mosaic” in St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, which was, well, different than I expected. Firstly, there were about 30 people and three of them (including me) where younger than 60 or 70 years old. Secondly, I had expected this to be a German church, which is not entirely wrong. It was built in 1904 as the German Lutheran church and an annexing building is called "Rehwinkel" after one of the early pastors. (Here would be the relevant article of the Edmonton Real Estate Weekly.) but already in the 1930s they had services in German as well as in English, and by the 1980s (I think 1983 they said) the German attendance had become so weak that they completely stopped it.

Having coffee and cake after the lecture I was talking to some of those people and out of mere interest asked whether there is still a church with German services. Their first answer was always a surprised: "No I don't think so!" as if that was a very strange question. At second thought they told me two which might have - one of them I passed on my way back, and it was an Anglican church. German Anglicans? Sounds paradox, but then, there was also this Catholic Austrian guy who attended a lecture in a German Lutheran church. Whatever.

St. Peter is located in 96 Street and when cycling along I just looked left and right and there were churches everywhere. About 6 or 7 within a distance of maybe 500 metres to 1 kilometre, and of course all different denominations. I would have loved to take a picture of each of them but when going there I was in a hurry (a bit late as always) and when returning home there wasn't enough light anymore. But I hope to do that another time. After going to downtown twice this week I thought I should just grab my bike from time to time and explore the area.. Yesterday I also thought, if I was here for two years or so it might be a worthwhile experiment to go to church every week, each time attending service in another church. That could be an interesting spiritual and cultural experience! (Others open beer bottles, I do this..)

As for now I've just tried to find out whether there would be a Catholic service in German and found one at the webpage of the Catholic archdiocese of Edmonton. In view of that I have to correct what I've just said: If I was seeking perfection in the aforementioned experiment(i.e. attend service in each church of each domination) I would either have to stay here fore a decade or attend service every day. Because there are already 40 Catholic churches in the city!

In Edmonton I could attend mass in
27 English (or undeclared)
2 French (St. Anne, St. Joachim)
2 Polish (Holy Rosary, Our Lady Queen of Poland)
1 Chinese (Mary Help of Christians)
1 Croatian (Nativity of Mary)
1 German (St. Boniface)
1 Hungarian (St. Emeric)
1 Italian (St. Maria Goretti)
1 Korean (St. Jung Ha Sang)
1 Portuguese (Our Lady of Fatima)
1 Spanish (Our Lady of Guadalupe)
1 Vietnamese (Queen of Martyrs)
church(es).

This one looks interesting as well: Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples seems to combine Catholic faith with the native's symbols and traditions. I'm definitely going to visit the building, whether I'd dare to attend a service I don't know..

My name day yesterday was a tiring working day – but eased by a couple of pleasant incidents: David took me by surprise when showing up with a yummy brownie (and with singing best wishes – very courageous, to do that in my presence!) Afterwards David I booked a flight and hotel – we’ll be going to Vancouver for an extended weekend in mid-August. And finally after work “Happy Joachim Day” chocolate and peanuts from Lilla welcomed me in the office. I didn’t have dinner with anyone though, and didn’t even try to because I preferred to spend the evening on a cemetery. No kidding!

The Historic Festival offered a guided walking tour through Edmonton Cemetery, the city’s oldest public cemetery. It was great, foremost due to the interpreter’s skills to tell the stories in an interesting way. I’m very quickly annoyed if history guides sacrifice facts to entertainment and limit their lectures to shallow stories and slippery details. This interpreter, however, was the perfect mixture of extensive fact knowledge, an independent reflection on history. (“When looking at people’s lives, always bear in mind the context, the time they lived in.” “Learning from history is a good idea, judging history is a bad idea.”) Because of that professional attitude and the lively delivery I didn’t perceive the sometimes saucy comments as misplaced. It seemed he really enjoyed his job and was enthusiastic about the things he was telling us.

I have to admit if we had an exam today about the cemetery I would perform very poorly in regard to facts. I hardly remember any name, date and would mix up who did what. Yet by heaving heard about some of the early leading Edmontonians (“those rich, white guys” as he liked to call them) I got interesting insights into the state and development of this city in the last two and first two decades after the turn of the (19th) century. I won’t go into detail but just that much: To imagine life around here in the 1880s is difficult. It must have been pretty much like the Colorado Springs of Dr. Quinn. A bunch of houses in the middle of nowhere. No railway, no telegraph, no newspaper. Just imagine: It’s nearly the 20th century and here they would get news (or olds in fact) from the events in the outside world maybe three months later after they happened! This is such a weird thought if you look at this modern city today.

But now to the name section of name day: On Sunday in McKay Avenue archive and museum I came across a view of Edmonton from 1912. And guess what was situated in immediate vicinity of that school: “St. Joachim’s Roman Catholic school”! That, I did not expect at all. I was wondering whether the building still existed so I googled it. Only a few results, so I reckon it was pulled down for the downtown expansion. However, I discovered another appearance of my saint in Edmonton: St. Joachim Church. As an article in the Real Estate Weekly states, “Eglise Catholique St. Joachim is considered the mother church of all other Catholic churches in Edmonton“. Before the present church was constructed in 1898/99 already three buildings of that name had been in use – the first one dating back to the 1850s. < image "0812-Joachim-Church" deleted > And now guess which building we passed yesterday on our way home by pure accident? As it was already late we didn’t go inside. Another time. But I doubt I’ll attend mass there as it is in French. Actually I’m very surprised. I might have expected a German St. Joachim’s church or a Spanish San Joaquin – but French? Is that used as a French name? I wonder how they pronounce it. The cemetery interpreter, shortly mentioning that parish (and obviously not knowing either the German or Spanish pronunciation of the saint) said “Joadshem” – if I hadn’t known which parish he meant I wouldn’t have recognised my name! Maybe I could undertake a survey in the area around the church and ask people how they call it. Or I could visit the parish priest..