Tag Archives: St. John the Divine

Celebrating the Day of the Dead in the Diocese of New Westminster

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Rather than celebrate All Souls’ Day, St. John the Divine, perhaps in recognition of the state of its diocese, is celebrating the Day of the Dead by singing and dancing to – what else – Grateful Dead songs:

What is the Day of the Dead, All Souls Day, “El dia de los Gospel and Grateful Dead Nov 2muertos” November 2? It is a holiday that celebrates friends and family members who have died. It is celebrated in Spain, Brazil and Mexico and in cultures around the world with festivals and parades, sugar skulls and marigolds and favourite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. It is the perfect occasion for St John’s to welcome the wider community to an evening of reflections by Pitman Potter, singing Grateful Dead songs with FOMO and friends, dancing together in spirit, and raising money for The Helping Hands Society.

The above description seeks to amalgamate the Day of the Dead and All Souls’ Day – yet another Anglican attempt at via media, I suppose. They are, however, quite different: All Souls Day is a commemoration of the faithful departed (surely there must be some in the diocese) while the Day of the Dead celebrations:

can be traced back to a precolumbian past. Catrinas_2Rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors had been observed by these civilizations perhaps for as long as 2,500–3,000 years. In the pre-Hispanic era skulls were commonly kept as trophies and displayed during the rituals to symbolize death and rebirth.

The festival that became the modern Day of the Dead fell in the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, about the beginning of August, and was celebrated for an entire month. The festivities were dedicated to the goddess known as the “Lady of the Dead”, corresponding to the modern Catrina.

Diocese of BC church becomes Taoist temple

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The diocese has been busy selling churches in order to replenish its dwindling coffers.

St. John the Divine is now a Taoist temple and in place of the altar is a painted dome representing general Guan-Gong who was deified and is worshipped by those who attend the temple.

So nothing much has changed.

From here:

What was once the St. John the Divine Anglican Church at 3426 Smith Ave. in west Burnaby was a tired-looking, A-framed structure with glass blocks next to the main entrance.

After renovations by the Chinese Taoism Kuan-Kung Association in Canada, which purchased the property in the fall of 2010, the building has been transformed. It retains the original structure but the front wall has been replaced with large panes of glass, with a natural-coloured wooden archway flanking the new entrance.

The property had sat vacant for over a year and the ultra-modern design was chosen after the association spoke with neighbours about what they wanted to see, said project manager Kevin Chen. The association wanted to put its own stamp on the building while recognizing its past as a Christian church by not completely changing the look of the structure.

Inside, where the altar once stood, a full-height elliptical dome has been added and a mural painted on it.

Now known as the Tian-Jin Temple, it is the first Taoist temple in Canada to worship Guan-Gong, an ancient general.

Correction: as a commenter pointed out, the church was in the Diocese of New Westminster, not the Diocese of B.C.