Gloria Dei Lutheran

March 22, 2009 11:00 am
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 637 Buckingham Rd. Winnipeg
Pastor Lanny Knutson

Another pick out of the hat turned out to be a really nice service. Nestled in the heart of Charleswood, Gloria Dei is an older-looking building from the outside that turns out to look a bit like a high school gymnasium on the inside. It was the first church I can remember being wider than it is long.

I was welcomed warmly as I took my place among the 100-some congregation members. There were a lot of middle-aged and elderly people around, though the youth and kids were ably represented as well.

After a few announcements the service began. It followed standard format, opening prayer, opening song, reading etc. There was a lot of music in this service, which I loved, sung in parts, which I loved too. There was a lot of page-turning, as one book had all the readings and hymns in it. No wonder it had the fancy ribbon placemarkers. One of the scripture readers identified himself as a guest reader from a nearby United church, which I thought was pretty neat.

Probably my singular complaint about the service would be that the sound system sucked the big one. Not to mention the acoustics, like the decor, were like a concrete gymnasium. A workable problem, but as Pastor Knutson took the podium it became evident that this would be a hard sermon to follow. He had a habit of talking really fast, though at his age (and assumed level of experience) it seemed strange that this would be out of nerves.

The sermon revolved around a parallel idea to that of Rev. Cam Hamoline at the Center for Conscious Living a couple of weeks ago, this time in that we often go to great lengths to hide the things that we may be embarrassed or ashamed of when we should accept everything we are as people and put everything out on the table before God. At some point he started quoting John 3:16 and I got a bit confused, but Pastor Knutson ended strong with a call to understand ourselves so that we can better serve others.

After the requisite prayers and communion (accompanied by no less than four hymns) the service ended. Despite the crappy sound I found it to be a very warm, comforting service and I left feeling refreshed. I shook six hands on my way out, as all those who'd served up onstage lined up to chat. Neat.

http://www.mnosynod.org/gloriadei.html