January 18, 2026, Second Sunday after Epiphany – 11:00 am Bilingual German-English Service led by Iris Schweiger & Karin Schemeit. We are going on a Red Dress Journey. During this service we will ask God for wisdom and healing as we invite our you to look, see, hear and read what you might not know.
It is difficult to know what you do not know. For many people who went through a Canadian school system, what you might have learned about the First Nations peoples was probably in history class. You likely learned of North American encounters with European settlers; how they were involved in various European conflicts that played out in North America; maybe notable leaders like Joseph Brant were mentioned; or a little bit about their way of life etc. But it was probably all taught as history. After that introduction, history classes tended to focus on how Europeans settled and developed the ‘empty land’ they ‘found’. It was as if the First Nations people had disappeared from Canada.
It is difficult to see that you do not see. A federal department was created to manage “Indian Affairs” so there was nothing that might have dealt with Indigenous issues at a municipal or provincial level; so nothing or very little would be in the news or talked about. This may have been one of the reasons why residential schools and references to MMIWG2S+ were not in the public mind. Who knew about them in the increasingly urban Canadian setting? The legacy of past practices is that Indigenous peoples became invisible within our wider society while their actual culture was misrepresented on television and in other media.
It is difficult to hear what you cannot hear. We are at a place now where we need to hear the stories of our Indigenous neighbours in a way we have not heard them before.
All are welcome to gather in the foyer after the service.
Can you help with coffee and cake hospitality? You can bring food (dessert, fruit tray, etc), supplies (coffee, tea, milk, cream) and/or help with set up, serving and clean up: washing dishes and wiping tables. Stacking and putting away chairs. Sign up to help with hospitality.
From home: Listen to our 15 minute German radio devotions which air every Sunday at 9:30 am live on CHLO Radio station AM 530 (a multilingual radio station broadcasting from Brampton, Ontario). Later archived as a podcast recording on our Radio Devotions webpage.
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Get to know Pastor Annika Klappert Cell: (416) 567-2487 Email: pastor@martinluther.ca
Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran Church
2379 Lake Shore Blvd West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M8V 1B7
Tel.: (416) 251-8293 office@martinluther.ca
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Martin Luther Church Toronto is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and partners with the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD).