On behalf of the Danish Lutheran Church, I welcome you to our community. My name is Pastor Carsten Mølgaard Hansen, and I am the 13th Danish pastor serving the congregation of the church.

Since the 1920s there has been a Danish Church in Vancouver. The church was founded by and for Danish immigrants but as time has passed, we now serve all who are interested in our way of serving God. Also, nowadays most of our activities are in English making it possible for children and grandchildren, spouses, and friends of Danish immigrants (who don’t speak Danish) to participate in our activities. Our church is in Burnaby on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples.

Regarding our way of serving God, we are a Lutheran church who work together with the Danish Church Abroad / Danish Seamen’s Church (DSUK). We follow the order of service of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark (Folkekirken), uses its hymnbook (in a Danish and in a translated version) and we are supervised by a Danish bishop and the dean of DSUK (Danish Church Abroad / Danish Seamen’s Church). We work together with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as well. We do not get funding or donations from Denmark but are proudly run on donations. The Danish order of service that we use is famous for its extensive use of hymns and its recognizable wording.

In recent years, two out of the six Danish churches in Canada have closed due to a shrinking congregation. This is a natural development for immigrant churches. In Vancouver we believe that there will be a continued demand for a Danish church community. Instead of immigrants though, the congregation will change to consist of descendants, expats, students, and people with interest in Scandinavian culture. The board of the church wants to embrace this development by working together with all the people showing interest in the church making sure that we offer services and activities that appeal to this new generation of the congregation. Please do not hesitate in contacting us if you have any suggestions for future activities, and please check out our webpage to see if any of our existing activities might be of interest to you.

We look forward to welcoming you into our community.