From Traditional Music to Rock at St. Mary’s, Kerrisdale

Over 150 youth and young adults gathered at St. Mary’s Kerrisdale recently to watch a concert by “Lotus Child”, an up-and-coming rock band with a following in the high schools of Vancouver’s west side.

The show was a fundraiser for a youth mission to El Salvador being planned for next August.

The night started out with the crowd filing into a church illuminated only by candlelight, and the show began with Tom Dobrzanski, singer and songwriter for the group, playing the pipe organ and filling the space with the sounds of the traditional church service. 

When the lights came up and the electric guitars and drums started to play, we were aware that this was not going to be your typical church function.  Soon the beat of the drums, sounds of guitars, and rhythmic harmonies of the vocals of this incredible band were filling the church.

Before long the young people were grooving and dancing in the aisles.  It was a great night, with smiles and beaming faces all around.  The Spirit was truly present and God was dancing with us.

The concert was the brainchild of Mary Day, the mother of one of the band members and a parishioner at St. Mary’s, who allows the band to rehearse in her basement in exchange for one concert a year. 

She donated her concert to St. Mary’s as a fundraiser for the youth ministry.  With over 150 young people gathered to celebrate and enjoy the concert in the sacred space of St. Mary’s church – and over $1000 raised to support a youth mission to El Salvador – the event was a huge success. 

There were many who attended and were in awe not only of the beauty of the space for the concert, but that the church would sponsor such an event.