Necessary Roughness

I got the privilege to attend both the German and the English services at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Calgary, AB. St. Matthew’s is a member of the Lutheran Church-Canada, which is in fellowship with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Both services were led by Pr. Markus Zeuch, who speaks German, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Pr. Zeuch is from Brazil.

Portion of German order of service

The Gesangbuch surprised me; there’s no music to go with the hymns. The old-world typography was another challenge. The two orders of service were in the back of the hymnal. Some parts of the service were similar musically to LSB Divine Service 3/TLH p.15, such as the Sanctus, the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Agnus Dei. Unlike LSB, the German hymnal doesn’t write out the “Vaterunser” (the Lord’s Prayer) in the order of service; I had to find that elsewhere. The Apostles’ Creed is used instead of the Nicene Creed, which we normally use in our services of Holy Communion.

If you visit the Google+ album, you’ll see a picture of the organ, which is known throughout town as “The Beast.” Jenny Jordan, all I was told was that it had a tracker action.

I also attended the English service afterwards, Divine Service 3 out of LSB.