Pentecost and Confirmation 2025 followed by Reception
Last updated on June 14th, 2025
We congratulate Ben Wienecke and Nickolas Grammenz who were confirmed at our Martin Luther Church on Sunday June 8, 2025. All four of the young people who completed Confirmation classes with Pastor Nkanyiso Kingdom Maphumulo over the past year had a special role in the service. We thank Church Council President Jocelyn Sommerfeld for addressing the confirmands and congregation, Tanya Zielke for helping Vicar Alice Rothgordt with a blessing, Annette Rowles for preparing Holy Communion, our church choir under the direction of Linda Marcinkus for performing, Peter Schweiger on our tech team for recording the service, and everyone who participated in the service and reception.
The service on Pentecost Sunday was also the last that Pastor Nkanyiso Kingdom Maphumulo led at our Martin Luther Church before returning to his family in South Africa later this week. We wish him well!
Watch the Pentecost 2025 worship service with Confirmation on our YouTube Channel (https://youtu.be/2sxJqXSqA0Y, 35.52 minutes). As well, a medley of songs on the Holy Spirit in English (https://youtu.be/E-ppDuCHdrY, 2.18 minutes) and a medley of songs in German for Konfirmation (https://youtu.be/_PPchjGr3Ns, 2.44 minutes) sung by the Church Choir.
Photo Gallery Confirmation:
Photo Gallery Reception:
May 23, 2025 – Celebrate Pentecost and Confirmation with us on Sunday, June 8th, at 11:00 a.m.; a bilingual German-English service with Holy Communion and church choir.
Pastor Nkanyiso Kingdom Maphumulo has been leading confirmation classes for our four confirmands since October 2024 and will be conducting the confirmation of Ben Wienecke and Nickolas Grammenz. We thank Alex Boettcher and Tanya Zielke for supporting the monthly classes, which took place Saturday evenings at the church.
Our other two confirmands, Katharina Tiefenbach und Torben Kschischo, will be baptized in Germany at the end of June 2025 and will be confirmed at our Martin Luther Church at a later date. We will bless them in the Pentecost service as they continue their journey to Confirmation. Vicar Alice Rothgordt will give the blessing.
After the service, there will be luncheon reception in our backyard.
Please bring a German or Canadian dish and join us for a potluck reception outside in our backyard (weather permitting).
If you are able to help with setting up and taking down the tables and cleanup, please contact the church office at office@martinluther.ca
Many may still remember their own confirmation as an exercise in memorization: the 10 Commandments, Psalm 23, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer…. Of course, dealing with the basics of the Protestant faith is still part of it – but, nowadays we teach in a form that suits the young people, their language and their world. The emphasis is on finding answers to the questions that young people ask – who is God for me? How can I believe? What does the Christian tradition of over 2000 years have to do with my life?
These are the topics they covered this year: Introduction (November 2024), Christmas Play (December 2024), What do Christians believe? (Jan 11, 2025), Faith (Feb 8, 2025), Prayer (March 22, 2025) and worship (April 13, 2025). Vicar Alice Rothgordt led the talk on Sacraments (May 8, 2025), where she offered a Lutheran perspective of the Holy Sacrament.
We hope that this Lutheran travel kit will be of help for these youths and their families on their exciting step to their adulthood as a part of the church and the world.