The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1979, Side 9

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
7
ICELANDIC CHRISTMAS SERVICES
CONTINUE IN SEATTLE
by Eric H. Sigmar
The Rev. Eric H. Sigmar
As far as I know there are only two places
on the North American continent where
Icelandic worship services are still con-
ducted at Christmas — in Winnipeg, Man-
itoba, and Seattle, Washington! Since Dr.
V. J. Eylands’ retirement as pastor of First
Lutheran Church, Winnipeg, Icelandic
Christmas worship services have been led
there by the Rev. Ingthor Isfeld.
In Seattle, we have the unique situation of
having four pastors of Icelandic descent in
the area— the Revs. Kolbeinn Simundsson,
Erling Olafson, Harald Sigmar, and Eric
Sigmar. Accordingly, there’s no problem in
arranging for an Icelandic service sometime
during the Christmas season. Usually the
service is held on the Sunday between
Christmas Day and Ne.w Year’s Day. Last
year’s service was attended by over 75 per-
sons in the Calvary Lutheran Church of the
Ballard area of Seattle. Over one-third of
Calvary’s members are still of Icelandic
descent. In its early history the congregation
was called “Hallgrim’s sofnudur”.
The annual service is co-sponsored by
Calvary Church, the Eining Ladies Aid of
Seattle, and the Icelandic Club of Seattle. At
last year’s service pastor Olafson, now re-
tired in Seattle, and who served for many
years as Superintendent of Schools in Aber-
deen, Washington, read the Scripture les-
sons. Pastor Harald Sigmar, Senior Pastor
of Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church,
Seattle, conducted the liturgy, and Pastor
Eric Sigmar, Senior Minister of Messiah
Lutheran Church, Auburn, Washington,
preached the sermon. Pastor Simundsson,
who celebrated his 90th birthday this year,
was not able to attend. In years past he has
frequently participated in these Icelandic
services either as the preacher or liturgist. A
15-voice choir, led by Tani Bjornson, sang
the full liturgical responses of the service.
Svava Sigmar, and Dr. Edward Palmason
sang Icelandic solos. Organist was Kathryn
Arason Bjornson, a former organist of the
Vikur Church, in Mountain, North Dakota.
Following the service, coffee and refresh-
ments were served by the ladies of the
church, and the Eining Ladies Aid.
Several years ago there was special ex-
citement at the Christmas service as it was
being televised by the Scandinavian de-
partment of the University of Washington.
Portions of that service have been shown on
many television stations in various parts of
our country and, indeed, also in Scandina-
via. This summer at our Icelandic Club’s
17th of June banquet I visited with a former
Seattle resident, Gudridur Bergvinsson,
now Mrs. Bernhard Franzem of Gothen-
berg, Sweden. She excitedly told me — “I
saw you on television in Gothenberg last