Redeemer Lutheran Church, Toronto

Movie Night and Conversation

10/7/2019

Part of our series in "Finding Life in Grief, Death, and Dying"
Screening of Grief Walker
followed by a brief conversation
Friday October 11 - 7:00 PM at Redeemer Lutheran, Toronto
Popcorn and Soft Drinks Provided

Griefwalker is a National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film, directed by Tim Wilson. It is a lyrical, poetic portrait of Stephen Jenkinson’s work with dying people. Filmed over a twelve year period, Griefwalker shows Jenkinson in teaching sessions with doctors and nurses, in counselling sessions with dying people and their families, and in meditative and often frank exchanges with the film’s director while paddling a birch bark canoe about the origins and consequences of his ideas for how we live and die. See the trailer below:

Spirit Songs - The Music & Words of Nick Cave

9/25/2019

Spirit Songs is back!
Redeemer Lutheran Church is pleased to present the next in its series exploring and celebrating the spiritual content of popular song on Saturday, October 26th with Spirit Songs: The Music and Words of Nick Cave. Over more than 40 years of creative life, Cave has fearlessly addressed questions and themes at the heart of what it means to be human including love, death/murder and God/the divine; not necessarily in that order. His work has taken on even greater depth in the wake of the tragic accidental death of one of his teenage sons in 2015 as Cave addressed his coping with this tragedy.
This program will combine performances of key works from Cave's musical catalogue along with excerpts from his writings including readings from "The Red Hand Files", thoughtful, often pastoral, answers Cave has provided to fan questions on a wide range of subjects.
Contributors to this show include:
·      Jon Brooks - Brooks’ music is polyphonic in sound, word, and influence. His performances are emotionally intense raids on the inexplicable human heart. Brooks’ 7 albums are thematic obsessions over paradox, love, fear, religion, war, PTSD, technology, grief, animal justice, murder, ecology, esoteria, and the stars - his essential message: we are loved.;
·      Laurel MacDonald - a singer and a musician who works at intersections of traditional folk music and contemporary music technology;
·      Mitch Girio - a composer, producer and engineer. Mitch has placed songs on tv/ film projects such as Gotham, Single Parents and Brightburn and recently completed production work on a new album by José Contreras' (By Divine Right);
·      Vivienne Wilder - a singer, writer/poet, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist whose musical work has been described as “literature punk”, “prairie punk”, and “jazz punk”;
·      John Paul Kleiner - a singer/songwriter trading in melodic, guitar-based melancholy.
Tickets are only $25 and are available here.

First event of our Death and Dying series

9/19/2019

A bit about Pam in her own words:
I received my MA in Theology (Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy) and my Master of Divinity degree from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2016. I am enrolled in doctoral studies in Martin Luther University College's PhD in Human Relationships program, field of Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy.
Prior to arriving at Luther, I completed a certificate in Thanatology (study of death and needs associated with dying) at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and the Advanced Hospice Palliative Care Education (AHPCE)/SWO Hospice Palliative Care Education.
Since 2011, I have been an active member of the Family Services Perth-Huron hospice program where I have journeyed with many of the dying and their families at end of life, and am a volunteer on-call spiritual care provider with Grand River Hospital’s spiritual care department.
I am a solitary practising Wiccan and an active member of the interfaith community at Martin Luther University College (formerly Waterloo Lutheran Seminary). I am affiliated with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC), Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA). I am a member of the Waterloo-Wellington LHIN’s spiritual care working group, and the communications officer for the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care’s Southwest Ontario Region executive committee.

Death and Dying series - Fall 2019

9/19/2019

Multiculturalism Free Community Picnic

6/21/2019

Tickets available at Eventbrite.

Pride Celebration of God's Diversity Worship Service

6/7/2019

Rainbow flag flying for Pride month

6/6/2019

“You are the light of the world.

You don’t build a city on a hill, then try to hide it, do you?

You don’t light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket, do you?

No, you set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, your light must shine before others so that they may see your good acts and give praise to your Abba God in heaven.”

Matthew 5: 14-16

Five years ago, on June 8, 2014 Redeemer voted unanimously to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation and made a public commitment to welcome, include and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people.

Last week for doors open we raised the Pride flag placing it front and center above our front door.  We intend to keep it there for the month of June since June is celebrated as Pride month around the world.   2019 also marks 50 years since the stonewall riots, often identified as the beginning of the Pride movement.

Some might wonder why a faith community would want to make such a bold statement.  Some might feel that our congregation is already welcoming to all people; what difference could having such an explicit statement of welcome make?

Well the truth is that when people see we have gone through a time of discernment to specifically welcome LGBTQIA+ people and other people groups, they know we are a community that is skilled at welcoming with specific intention, living as the Body of Christ together. That is the kind of good news the world is wanting to hear!

Sadly, LGBTQIA+ people continue to experience exclusion and harm from people supposedly acting in the name of Christianity. Even churches that declare “All are welcome” often demonstrate to LGBTQIA+ individuals and families that the welcome does not include them. For this reason, the invitation to LGBTQIA+ people must be explicit that the welcome is intended to include them.

We will hold a special Pride themed worship service on June 16.  Let your light shine and not only tell your neighbours and friends about it, invite them to join us.

Happy Pride!

Doors Open Toronto

6/6/2019

Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help us open our doors to our curious neighbours!

Toronto’s Redeemer Lutheran Church Welcomes Pastor Steve Hoffard

3/25/2019

West Toronto-High Park: Redeemer Lutheran Church is delighted to welcome Pastor Steve Hoffard as full-time minister to their congregation and community. Pastor Steve will be working from the church sanctuary and office at 1691 Bloor Street West, near the Keele Subway Station.

“This begins an exciting new chapter for our church which has been living in the High Park-Roncesvalles-Junction neighbourhood for over seventy years,” said Klaus Uhlig, Chair of Redeemer’s Church Council. “Pastor Steve is joining us to continue our journey of faith and community outreach, providing a wide range of important talents to our congregation that will enable our work to become ever stronger and available to all.”
A graduate of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Pastor Steve was ordained in 2012 and became the minister at St. Mark’s, Kingston, Ontario until his arrival now at Redeemer. Pastor Steve is on THE CHURCH COUNCIL ON JUSTICE AND CORRECTIONS as the treasurer and representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and is the Vice-Chair Person of the Board of Governor’s for MARTIN LUTHER UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. He is a proud member of PROCLAIM, a growing professional community for LGBTQ+ Lutheran-rostered ministers and seminarians.

“Joining Redeemer as well as moving to Toronto brings many changes to my life which definitely have been guided by the Holy Spirit,” said Pastor Steve Hoffard. “I am both humbled and excited about the opportunity to serve this incredibly caring congregation, to worship together, and to contribute to our collective work ahead.”

Organized in the 1930s and after many years meeting in various West End buildings, Redeemer Lutheran Church built a church home in 1947 at the corner of Bloor Street West & Indian Road and has been an important heartbeat in the community for worship and outreach since then. Redeemer provides church land for the Garden Party, a community-based giving garden that grows crops of vegetables for sharing with local food banks. The congregation contributes to local and international support programs, provides space for neighbourhood support groups to meet, houses a small and growing child care program, and helps out weekly with the city-wide Out-of-the-Cold program. The church has partnered with other faith communities in Toronto’s west end to privately sponsor two refugee families and offers a weekly meditation group and youth group.

“With Pastor Steve’s arrival, we now have the capacity to do even more,” said Uhlig. “We look forward to introducing Pastor Steve to our neighbours and community and welcoming everyone to join our work ahead.”

Community Evening Prayer - Thursday April 4, 2019