The Gloria Dei Annual General Meeting is scheduled for March 16, following the morning worship Service.  Please bring a plate of finger food to share for a light lunch snack before our meeting. 

The Annual General Meeting will consider the following: 

1. To review and accept the Financial Report for 2024
2. To review and approve the Parish Budget for 2025
3. To review and accept committee reports for 2024
4. To elect Council members and Chair of the ­­­­­Church Council for 2025.

Last Sunday, we heard the gospel story of how Jesus spent forty days praying and fasting in the wilderness.  Inspired by Jesus, our spiritual ancestors in the early church sought to emulate his spiritual discipline. By AD 325, church authorities had formalized this period of prayer and fasting into the six week observance of Lent. The emphasis was not on individuals choosing what they would give up for Lent, but on the community experiencing Lent together. The whole community practiced a strict fast, only eating one meal a day after 3PM with no fish, meat or dairy. The solemnity and the rituals associated with Lent or the Great Fast as it was called, were seen as a way to unify believers in anticipation of the Resurrection.  

Over the centuries, the strictness of the fast began to relax and the communal observance—where a community fasted together—slowly faded. In their place new practices emerged - such as the idea that individual believers pick “something to give up” for Lent - and this has remained a fixture of Lent down to our own day. 

Nonetheless, Lent is more than about fasting. It is about discovering ourselves and our relationship with God. If we reduce Lent to a superficial exercise like giving up sweets for Lent, we may lose a few pounds but what difference does it make to our spiritual well-being? If we are going to give up something for Lent, teacher Maggie Dawn suggests we might consider giving up our caricatures and misperceptions about God which are not based in the truth of who God really is. 

Lent is also more than an individual practice of piety. It’s about growing together, united in our purpose to draw nearer to God. Although we are children of the Reformation which promoted a personal faith and the independent interpretation of Scripture, we are still members one of another,  and need each other to grow into the fullness of faith. 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes about how God has equipped each of us with various gifts for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4: 8-18). We need each other, he writes, until “all of us come to the unity of the faith and maturity,” until we come, as he puts it, “to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” 

Paul also talks about speaking the truth in love. This has most often been applied to situations of conflict, where hard truths sometimes need to be said. But could not “speaking the truth in love,” also be about sharing our experiences of God with one another?  Could it not also include sharing the blessings we receive from the beauty of creation or from members of the human family - our neighbors, friends and even strangers we meet while out walking or picking up groceries?

As your pastor, I have asked myself, “how can we as the community of faith at Gloria Dei, journey through Lent together and not simply as individuals?”  I respect that the challenges of aging, night driving and schedules make it difficult for most members to participate in a traditional weekly Bible study or Lenten service of prayer. Are there other means I wondered, that would enable us to hear and learn from one another, on how God is speaking to us in our Lenten journey?

Listening to a video series by Maggie Dawn, I learned how a church in New Zealand created a Community Lent Book. The pastor brought several journals and invited members of the congregation to take away the journal for a few days and then pass it on to someone else. While they had the journal they could write down their thoughts, a prayer, a bible verse or copy out a poem that was speaking to them. [I would expand that list to also include a drawing—for those who prefer to draw rather than write—or a few lines about an encounter in Creation or with another person that you experienced as a token of God’s guiding love]. Then, every Sunday the journals were brought back to church and placed on a table and everyone was invited to read through them. In this way, individual members' experiences of Lent were interwoven together with that of others to form a community Lenten spiritual collage or tapestry. 

Inspired by the New Zealand congregation, three journals were distributed to Gloria Dei members on the first Sunday in Lent. They will be coming back this Sunday and going out again.  Perhaps, these journals will help us to think of Lent as a season in which God wants us to reflect on what we are willing to receive rather than on what we are willing to give up. 

What graces and gifts are being offered to us through one another as the the Body of Christ, as we walk with Jesus to Jerusalem? 

"Prayer is at the heart of Christian spirituality. The scriptures invite us to pray without ceasing." Join us for this 4 week group study as we delve into the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. We will be using the chapter on the Our Father in revised and expanded  book, Praying the Catechism as our guide. The book was authored by Rev. Don Johnson and revised  in 2021 by Bishop Susan Johnson with updated language and fresh examples and questions for us to ponder. 

We will meet for about one hour on 4 consecutive Sundays after the morning worship service. Lunch will be provided.  

A grief-filled journey toward hope

Grief touches every corner of our lives — not just in moments of death but in quiet farewells, conflict, and lost health. Grieving Change and Loss invites you to embrace the wilderness of loss and rediscover the horizon of hope offered by Christ’s resurrection.

Grief is universal yet deeply individual. In Grieving Change and Loss, you’ll find a compassionate companion that acknowledges the complexity of emotions while anchoring you in God’s promise of new life. This devotional isn’t just for those mourning a death — it’s for anyone navigating loss, longing for healing, and searching for meaning amid pain.

This 2025 Lenten devotional was born out of personal experiences of grief, shared by authors Dr. Bobby Hulme-Lippert, Rev. Ginna Bairby and OutlookEditor/Publisher Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott. Together, they reflect on how grief manifests in countless ways: the loss of loved ones, friendships, health, innocence, and even the natural world. In a society fragmented by division and loss, grief is a constant companion. Lent, with its 40-day journey to the cross, becomes a sacred space to hold and explore this somber mix of emotions. Each daily reflection, beginning with Ash Wednesday and culminating on Easter Sunday, combines personal reflection, Scripture and prayer.

You can access the devotional online by clicking HERE . There will also be a limited number of print copies at church on  Sunday.

The Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) invites us a Lenten journey of reflection, action and hope.  Beginning March 1, a new reflection will be posted on their website and Facebook page. Each week will focus on different theme  - Hunger, Safety, Well-Being, Identity, Loss, Community, Nature, and Faith. 

• •  Reflect on what it means to be “crushed in spirit.”

• • Further Reflection questions:
    • Why is it important to acknowledge and express our struggles rather than suppress them? What helps us open up about our pain, and what makes it difficult to do so?
    • How do we tend to cope when we feel overwhelmed, anxious, or brokenhearted? In what ways do we experience God’s presence during difficult times? How can we create space for that presence in moments of distress?
    • In what ways can we embody God’s nearness for others who are struggling with their mental health?
•  

Reach out. Send a message, make a call, sit beside someone who needs support. Not to fix, not to solve—just to be there.

For further reflection:

• Explore mental health on a global scale—how do factors like conflict, displacement, and trauma impact well-being?
  • Read Helping Children Cope with Trauma to learn how Ukrainian children are navigating the emotional toll of war and displacement.

You can follow the weekly themed reflections and dig deeper by visiting the CLWR PAGE HERE

• What important things should we protect, save, and use wisely?
• What is one question you would like to ask about how our BC Synod works?
• What are 1-2 creative ideas you have for working together across congregations and geographies 
•  

• Please respond before March 14th.

   You can access the survey here.

  https://form.jotform.com/250606950172050
  
  We would like to get input from as many people in the BC Synod as possible so please send this along to your church email list to invite their participation. The survey responses will guide our conversation on Saturday. 
  
  Thank you for your prayers, and for joining us in this work. 

Join us every Saturday for 8 weeks (except May 17)  to practice conversational English in a safe, relaxed and friendly environment. 

On April 12 we will have some fun decorating Easter Eggs with natural dyes.  And on May 30 we will celebrate the end of our time together with a potuluck lunch or BBQ depending on the weather. 

• Improve speaking and listening skills
• Boost self-confidence
• Meet new friends 
• Ask questions
• Share stories 

The group is best suited to beginner and intermediate level speakers.

We look forward to seeing you there!

For inquiries email to Pastor Vida - pastor@gloriadei.ca

Understanding Christian Nationalism, Practicing Christian Community

LTS: Storasli Lecture on March 26

Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS) will be holding a Storasli lecture online titled "Understanding Christian Nationalism, Practicing Christian Community" on March 26 at 4:00 p.m. (PST time). This lecture will focus on the degree to which Christian nationalism has upset the U.S. political and ecclesial landscape for the past several years. Now Canadians are witnessing its emergence north of the border in unsettling ways. The lecturer for this event is The Rev. Cody J. Sanders, PhD. 

Please send an email to the church for the link - office@gloriadei.ca

This lecture will help participants understand the contours of Christian nationalism and its diffuse aims and orientations. Building upon an ability to recognize Christian nationalist thought and activity when it arises, the lecture will also lead participants into analyzing its relationship to the ways that community is cultivated and how we might embody relational practices that curtail the lure and influence of Christian nationalism in our communities as we practice the ways of Jesus. 

Rev. Sanders is Associate Professor of Congregational and Community Care Leadership at Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Prior to Luther, he served as a parish pastor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a higher education chaplain at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published several books including, Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk (Lexington, 2020), Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead (Fortress, 2023), and Spiritual Care First Aid: An All-Hands Approach for Church and Community (Fortress, 2025). 

Join us for our third annual Easter Egg Decorating Workshop. 

This year we will try something new - dying eggs with natural dyes produced with onion skins and patterns using parsley, cilantro and other soft leaved herbs or plant leaves. 

Save your onion skins - (both yellow and red) to bring to the workshop along with 3-4 raw eggs. We will also use old pantyhose nylons to wrap the eggs in. 

You can read more about the process at Olga's Kitchen - https://www.olgainthekitchen.com/natural-easter-eggs/#