ELFEC is offering a grant of up to $200 per attendee ELCIC congregations to support youths that are attending CLAY 2023. ELFEC hopes that the $200 per attendee will at least partially assist in meeting any financial commitment needed to attend and/or register for CLAY 2023: Ashes & Embers in August 2023 in Waterloo, Ontario. Click here for more information.
Bishop’s Spiritual Retreats 2023
” The Midnight Guide to the Bible
Not your usual Bible Study: examining the scriptures through murder, sex, money, mistakes, #MeToo and real estate.”
Retreat Presenter: Rev Dr. Matthew Anderson
Rostered Leaders Retreat – February 5-8, 2023
Atlantic Pastors Retreat – Februay 12-15
Lay Retreat – March 24 – 26, 2023
In Praise of Music
Martin Luther once wrote, “The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them …. In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits…”
Over the course of this pandemic, I, like many of you, have taken the opportunity to experience a lot of the online worship experiences that our congregations have been offering. It’s been wonderful and I am so grateful for everyone who has worked so hard to make these services available to us. Of particular note, for me, has been the wonderful musical creativity that I have experienced, often by individuals and groups whose gifts for leading worship were newly discovered or newly utilized!
I don’t know about you, but when I have sung or experienced others singing or performing beautiful music at church, I feel as if I have worshipped. Conversely, it is difficult to feel that I have truly worshipped when our music is weak, doleful, and uninspired. Indeed, as highly as I regard the importance of the spoken Word in worship, I must admit that the sung Word has a much greater capacity to help me worship.
We live in an age that is blessed with an abundance of tremendously rich musical and liturgical resources representing all styles and genres. We have settings for every possible combination of instrumentation. Our musical menu includes a wealth of riches that transcend this time and space. How truly blessed we are!
But if music is so vital a part of our collective worship experience, why is so little support and attention given to ensuring a strong, healthy music programme in many of our parishes? Many of our church musicians are poorly compensated, poorly trained and inadequately supported. They do the best they can with what they’ve got but have the capacity to do so much more if only they were supported in doing so.
Does your congregation regularly review your church musician’s compensation schedule? Do you provide funding for ongoing training and continuing education? Do you provide adequate and well maintained instruments; or an annual budget for the purchase of new music resources? Do you provide opportunities for kids with musical gifts to share those gifts in worship? If you do – way to go! If not, why not?
I’ll give the last – albeit harsh – word, again, to Dr. Luther.
“A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.” So there!
Schützfest 350 Canada
Heinrich Schütz, (1585-1672), the greatest Lutheran musician before J.S. Bach is commemorated in the Lutheran calendar on July 26, along with J.S. Bach and George Frederick Handel. The 350th anniversary of Schütz’s death (November 6, 1672) has sparked a mini-renaissance of Schütz’s music around the world and in Canada. Read more about the cross-Canada offerings here: https://schuetzfest350.ca/
Schütz’s vast musical legacy is almost exclusively sacred choral music and includes settings of many psalms, other scripture, the first German requiem, and exquisite settings of the Christmas and Easter stories. Schütz lived and composed during the Thirty Years War and several outbreaks of the plague. Many of the 350th anniversary concerts are making the connection with war and the pandemic in our time.
In the Eastern Synod there are several Schützfest 350 events in Southwestern Ontario on the November 4-6 weekend and in Toronto on the November 11-13 weekend.
Schütz’s requiem, or Musikalische Exequien is the centrepiece of concerts by the Nota Bene Players and Singers and the U of T Theatre of Early Music in Dundas, Waterloo, Hanover, and Toronto. Other concerts in Toronto feature Jonathon Adams, the first Indigenous artist-in-residence at the U of T Faculty of Music, Capella Intima, the Gallery Players of Niagara and the Toronto Chamber Choir.
A reconstructed Lutheran service from Schütz’s time as Kapellmeister in Dresden will take place at St. George’s Lutheran Church, Toronto, 11:00 am, Sunday, Nov 13, with members of the U of T Schola Cantorum performing sacred music by Schütz within the liturgy. Free-will offering. This service will be livestreamed on the St. George’s Lutheran Church YouTube channel, and the link will be posted on https://schuetzfest350.ca/ and on https://www.st-georges-lutheran.com/
To purchase tickets or a Toronto Schützfest 350 festival pass please visit: https://schuetzfest350.ca/concerts
Picture Something You Cannot See
Over 85 years ago, Finnish immigrants to Timmins and first generation families gathered to formalize St. John’s Lutheran as a faith community. Over the decades, the church was a bustling center of activity as each Sunday they gathered for worship, taught the children about their faith, held language classes in both English and Finnish, hosted many suppers, provided pulla bread for the community and were involved in outreach to the local hospital and other areas of need. They were energetic in sharing their culture with the wider community around them and were willing to be part of cultural events in the city of Timmins.
The list of Finnish Pastors who served that community were many and they all brought their own character and vocational commitment. They led the congregation faithfully and with true zeal for Christ. However, following the trend of many church congregations, attendance eventually started to decline. Families got older, some moved away and other members reached the fullness of their time on earth. An amalgamation with St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Timmins brought new energy to the community in South Porcupine and for a period, the congregation was once again busy with community ministry.
In 2013, the congregation discerned that a full time pastor was no longer financially viable for them and so in 2014 they moved to part-time ministry as provided by an Anglican priest, the Rev. Patricia Dorland. They continued to meet and worship weekly and Finnish Pastors sponsored by the Suomi Conference and the Eastern Synod came throughout the year, offering Finnish language worship services and pastoral visiting as possible. This was greatly appreciated by the congregation, as worshipping in their language of the heart was very important.
Finally in 2019 it was decided that maintaining the building was no longer possible for the congregation and the process began to put the building up for sale. In June of 2020, the building was sold to Access Better Living (ABL). Since taking possession of the property, ABL has worked very hard to repurpose the space in order to provide three programs for their clients; The Respite Care program, the Adult Summit program, and the recently renamed Jr. Summit program (formerly Extend-A-Family). The two stained glass windows that were given in memory of congregational members were kept in place and are a beautiful focus for spiritual calm. A large mural, painted by the Porcupine Art Club, is a pastoral scene of mountains. This image is a visual affirming of the Center’s programming goal for their clients. This is ABL’s explanation for calling the new Centre, the Summit. “Life is all about learning. We are always learning new things, and facing new challenges. Here at The Summit, we encourage you to be a mountain climber, to set a goal and work hard to achieve it! You are unique and can do great things!” The opening of the Centre was on April 30th and in attending that celebration, it is very clear that The Summit is a wonderful re-imagining of the use of the building. Sometimes it is difficult to picture what we cannot see; to envision how God works in the community where we live. Change is difficult if we are afraid, if we do not trust God’s plan for his people and if our faith falters. We give thanks for The Summit and pray that all who enter will continue to receive the peace of Christ. God can do infinitely more than we could image. We could not have pictured this vision, but we believe God was at work!
At our recent congregational meeting it was decided that to be good stewards of the legacy left to us in the form of proceeds from the sale of the building, some funds could be used to support other ministries doing God’s work in the world. Therefore, the congregation approved donations to the local hospital children’s healthcare, the local food bank, a group that provides hot meals to those needing nourishment, The Eastern Synod general ministry fund, and a donation to Lutheran World Relief. We are very thankful to all the saints of St. John’s Lutheran who have gone before us and who had entrusted to our care their time, skills and resources. We hope that we have been faithful to God and to them.
St. John’s Lutheran Church congregation continues and is worshipping each Sunday at Kulta Koti, a senior’s residence, in a space that proves easy access and a whole new community to reach out to. We continue to be a faithful people who follow Christ. We continue to gather to praise, pray and listen to Holy Scripture. We come to Christ’s Table as people who have been saved by grace! Thanks be to God.
The Gift of Summer
“Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God you are very great. You are clothed with majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind, you make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers!” Ps. 104:1-4.
I love the summer. I particularly welcome the gift of a renewed appreciation for the wonders of creation. The created world comes alive for me in a special way as I visit a summer cottage, paddle a kayak or simply spend some time reading in the back garden. I experience a renewed appreciation of creation, and hopefully, a renewed appreciation of my own creatureliness!
We do not stand separate from creation. We are a part of is. As such, creation is not some superior entity to be worshipped, but rather a sibling, an expression of life with which we share kinship.
Just as one child in a family can have father’s nose and another mother’s eyes, so also can the different elements of creation reveal different aspects of our common parent. Different components of the created world reveal different characteristics of our common creator.
What does the magic of an evening sunset – no two exactly alike – tell us about our God’s creative impulses? What does the fury of a summer rainstorm tell us of God’s unbridled power and unpredictability? What do the various shapes, sizes, colours and textures of created things tell us of our God’s playful love of variety and diversity? What does a mother’s soothing caress tell us of God’s s inexhaustible capacity to love and to care?
As you enjoy the blessings of these special summer months, may you also experience a renewed appreciation for the wonders of the created world. May you experience a renewed delight in your own creatureliness and may you be blessed to catch a fleeting glimpse of the creator’s hands and face mirrored within the wonders of this beautiful season!
And may that blessing inspire and empower you to preserve, protect and safeguard the wellbeing of our common home.
Oh Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures! Ps. 104:24