All roads lead to church
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..
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..
relationes - 2006/07/29 05:55