The Lutheran Church and Canadian Culture HAVE CHOSEN as my theme for this Inaugural address, "The Lutheran Church and Canadian Culture". In so doing I realized anew that environment exercises a far-reaching influence upon the Church. This seems almost self-evident. But I was also led to consider that the Church influences its environment. This influence is not always evident. We should be able to find this influence in answer to questions like these: Has the Lutheran Church influenced Canada's national life? Has she through her whole attitude and her members enriched Canadian artistic life. What contributions has she made to economic development in Canada? What has she done and what is she doing for the Canadian population through education? Has she helped to build a good Canadian citizenship? Through a positive influence in these matters a Church contributes to Canadian Culture. It has been and still is the custom in Canada to evaluate the contribution of an individual or a group of individuals to Canadian national life, to education, to the pursuits of literature, of art and of music--in short, the contribution to culture--largely on a racial basis. This is evident in the procedure of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Every census of Canada's population since 1871 with one exception (1890-91) has a rubric which records the racial origin of all inhabitants. From the Diary of the wife of the first Lieutenant Governor of Canada, Mrs. Simcoe, in the 18th century to Murray Gibbon's Canadian Mosaic in the 20th, the contribution of an individual or group of individuals is spoken of and primarily evaluated on a racial basis. Only on very rare occasions is a cultural contribution evaluated on a religious or confessional basis. It would be interesting to evaluate the contributions of the various Christian Denominations to Canadian Culture on a religious basis. However, this evening we shall have to confine ourselves to one of these Christian Communions, the Lutheran Church. Even this survey must of necessity be incomplete owing to the short time at our disposal. I: The Lutheran Church in Canada a Canadian Church In order to contribute to Canadian Culture, the Lutheran Church must be a Canadian Church. She is a Canadian Church because she has entered into Canadian History. As early as 1619 a Danish Lutheran Pastor, the Rev. Rasmus Jensen, set his foot on Canadian soil at Hudson Bay. He had been chaplain to Jens Munck and his men on their famous expedition in search of the northwest passage. All but three members of the expedition succumbed to the hardships