Tri-lingual German Lutheran pastor will be new dean of Quebec cathedral

Rev. Christian Schreiner, a pastor in the Lutheran Church in Germany, will be ordained into the priesthood in the Anglican Church of Canada this month and will begin his new ministry in the diocese of Quebec – as rector of Quebec and dean of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, in Quebec City.

He is the first Lutheran to serve as dean of a Canadian Anglican cathedral. Mr. Schreiner is not new to the diocese, having served as associate pastor at the cathedral during an ecumenical internship in 2002 to 2004; he was also “pastor-in-charge” for four months while the dean of the cathedral was on sabbatical leave. Mr. Schreiner’s new posting is also “a real homecoming” for his wife, Esperanza, whose family lives in Quebec.

“This is a dream come true. The cathedral parish (my wife and I often say ‘cathedral family’) is such a beautiful, warm and welcoming community,” said Mr. Schreiner in an e-mail to the Anglican Journal.

He explained that he must first be ordained into the Anglican Church of Canada since the Lutheran Church of Bavaria is not in full communion with it. He said, however, that this would not mean that he was replacing his Lutheran ordination. “My upcoming ordination (would be) regarded as an extension to my existing ordination,” he said.

Mr. Schreiner, who speaks German, French and English, was formerly pastor at the Evangelical Kreuzkirche in Kolbermoor, Germany, a parish with 2,500 members.

“Ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue have always been very important to me,” said Mr. Schreiner. In 2005, he and Esperanza, a Roman Catholic, were married in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity by a friend in the diocese, Rev. Bruce Myers.

He found “a second spiritual home” in the Anglican church when he went on a one-month internship at the German Evangelical Church of Thessaloniki/Greece. After two-and-a-half years of curacy in Munich, he left for an internship in the diocese of Quebec.

A youth leader at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Baldham in Bavaria, Germany, from 1988 to 2000, Mr. Schreiner later became a church sexton (custodian responsible for church buildings), a job he held for six years.