The church takes its name from Martin Luther, who once upon a time thought that the Roman Catholic Church was a load of bunk and nailed a summary of his grievances to the church door. Many people agreed and his ideas influenced the development of Christianity. Posters count!
The Lutheran Church
We strolled in the local Lutheran hideout around 11 in the morning. Greeted by a elderly lady, we were quickly informed that this was to be the traditional service and that the contemporary service - marketed to the younger generations - was actually at 9. After explaining that we thought the traditional services were more interesting, she let us pass.
The church was rather small and simple, yet had a very interesting layout as the congregation were organized in somewhat of a semicircle around the speaker. They had an organ in the center with a cross and skylight above it. Pretty cool, pretty cool.
The service began with the priest/pastor introducing the bishop from the area. Who knew the Lutherans had bishops? In any case, it seemed that white/green robes and large staffs were in style.
The congregation then sang a song, then did a bit of a chant, The bishop came up and talked to everybody about a bunch of things, something about a movie made by an Italian director depicting Jesus that he thought was pretty cool. He may have mentioned his wife, which makes me think that the only guys not allowed to marry are pawns of the Vatican.
In any case, the service continued with the Hymn of the Day, which also had lyrics in Spanish. Since our singing sucked anyhow, we sung the Spanish lyrics. There was a lot of Senor's. Everything else was a beyond our Spanish pronounciation abilities.
After Senor Gonzales and I finished attempting to sing words we couldn't speak, the congregation recited the Apostles' Creed. The church included the line "He descended into hell" which was fairly new to us, as it does seem a little weird that Jesus would have spent a few days lingering about in Lucifer's lounge. Anyways, on with the story.
The priest/pastor then announced that the church building was going to be used as a polling station in the upcoming election and that we ought to be grateful that we have the ability to vote. Didn't try to coerce the congregation into voting a certain way at all though.
Then came communion. But different than all the other churches that we have visted to date. They busted out a loaf of real bread while people looking for a piece of it lined up around the organ. Members giving the communion came around, broke off chunks of bread and gave it to each person as a buddy followed with the chalice of wine. The bread was a lot more appealing than what was offered at other churches. No crappy crackers!
Inevitably we sang and prayed a little more, then the service was over - in just under and hour! Record time! It sure felt like an eternity though, as most of the hour was either singing or praying. It was enjoyable though. No screwing around, just get the message across then wrap up. Quick and to the point.
As we exited the hall, an old lady stopped Buddy Gonzales, then turned to me and exclaimed, "Doesn't he look like my nephew in Edmonton?"
It had to be the most confusing question anybody had ever asked. "He sure does!" I replied.
After escaping Gonzales' long lost aunt, we made it to the after-service coffee. Coffee seems to be the main staple of Christianity.
We ended up talking to one of the pastor/priest people. After asking him a billion questions about the Lutheran church, he basically summed up all the differences in views regarding two things - "wine and women".
Also discussed was the recent fuss about gay marriage (can't remember how it came up, but oh well) and how it fueled discussion and outlined ways such debates ought to be handled in the future. He explained that the church decided that its membership was to be inclusive and gay marriage was to be accepted. He finished with a shrug and "But I don't know if thats what you guys are looking for".
It was a subtle cue to let him know if we were shopping for places to marry us. It was fair - it's a safe bet that two guys rolling around town looking at churches are likely to be either gay or crazy.
Christie's Carriage House Pub
When the church crawl plan was drawn up, included were plans to visit a different pub after every church.
This plan was changed to be a different pub every once in a while, as churches seem keen to feed us and finances are tight.
But on this particular day we managed to visit Christie's Carriage House Pub. It was pretty wicked, awesome seats, fireplace and tons of beer on tap.
We bought a pitcher of Crannog Ales' "Back Hand of God Stout" as it was a Sunday. It was a very good dark beer that looked a lot like a big jug of coffee. It's also brewed in the Shuswap, which is very cool.
Overall, the Lutheran church gets points for being extremely quick and close to a decent pub. Check it out.