Showcasing culture and creating an area of openness for people is at the heart of a local church rooted in over 500 years of Danish tradition. For Knud and Doris Nielsen, long-standing members of the Danish Lutheran Church of Vancouver (DCV), the church is a source of pride reflecting the immigrant stories of Vancouver’s Danish community.

“Sometimes we are accused of being more Danish than the Danes are,” says Doris, “and I think sometimes we’re quite guilty of it, too.”

For more than eight decades, the church has provided local Danes with a tangible connection to their heritage.

Fulfilling community needs

From the 1950s to the early 1960s, Canada experienced a wave of young Danish immigrants looking to build new lives in what was seen as a land of opportunity. For these newcomers, like Knud in 1969, the church not only fulfilled a spiritual need; it also provided settlement services through housing support, employment guidance, and socialization opportunities.

“I said, ‘I just arrived from Calgary, can you help me find a place to stay for a couple of days till I can find an apartment?’” Knud recalls calling the Danish pastor from a phone booth. “And he said, ‘Come on over.’”

Other Danes, like Doris’ family who immigrated in 1958, were already connected to the church through their Danish social circles. The church works with the Danish Church Abroad / Danish Seamen’s Church (DSUK), and follows the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark’s order of service.

As for the selection of pastors, it is a shared obligation between the churches: Denmark hires the pastors and acts as their employer, while DCV provides input during the selection process. Knud notes that with the bishop being far away, they often look for an experienced pastor.

“[We also] look for someone who has a fair amount of knowledge in English,” adds Doris. “That sort of thing is not a problem today, but it certainly was years ago.”

Its current pastor – Carsten Hansen – started in 2022 and has taken on a more modern approach by expanding the congregation’s reach through podcasts and social media. Throughout the decades, as the congregation began to consist of younger Danish Canadians, the church has also transitioned into using more English in its programming, while retaining its Danish roots.

Preserving traditions

“We do Danish hymns, and it’s important to the first and second generation,” says Doris. “In the songs and hymns and so on, the culture comes out of that.”

The Danish Church’s Kom Sammen (Come Together) event.

During a time where international phone calls were expensive, the church was often their sole connection to a Danish community. Knud notes that this immigration trend has changed, as the Danish newcomers today are usually here for business and have access to online resources.

The core aspects of Danish culture – such as eating open-faced sandwiches at bazaars, having duck on Mortensaften (Nov. 10), and learning about mischievous elves – continue to be preserved by the church.

“You tell the children there’s a bad, black cat in that [barrel], so you have to hit it,” Doris shares of their Sunday tradition where children dress in Halloween-like costumes. “But he magically disappears the more you hit it, then the [barrel] drops apart and there’s candy inside.”

Following a relocation from East Vancouver to Burnaby, the current (built in 1984) church’s architecture also preserves tradition. A replica of the Danish Church, it includes classical Danish elements such as facing East-West and ships hanging from the ceiling.

It has also been the site of Danish royal visits – including one by the then crowned Princess Margrethe of Denmark in 1967 who delivered greetings from her parents.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the church,” Doris says. “It was just very, very special. Especially for some of these people who have left Denmark when they were in their 20s back in 1940.”

In recent years, other Canada-based Danish churches, such as the Granly Danish Church in Surrey, have shut their doors, struggling to maintain congregation numbers. Robert Taylor, president of the DCV, sees the church as a welcoming space for all.

“We’ll show them the Danish culture,” he says. “They can come and join us, and we’ll help where we can.”

For more information, see www.danishchurch.vancouver.bc.ca