Back in
Norway, many of Kirsti’s and Arthur’s successors today will think back on a
person whose energetic and self-consuming service earned her a big place in the
hearts of many people. The church staff and their families enjoyed, in
succession, her local knowledge about the city and the Norwegians living there,
but also her hospitality and traditional meals: Soup and chocolate! When new
co-workers arrived, Kirsti was clever at showing them confidence and
collaboration, even if she was probably both anxious and reluctant.
While
Arthur left his footprints in the hearts of many seafarers with his quiet and
at times “mystical” manner (his asserted Indian background causing considerable
curiosity among the sailors), the rest of the activity of the Church was the
work of Kirsti! Her ability to ask for gifts from ships sailing up the St.
Lawrence River and transforming them into delicious meals and cozy gatherings
at the church on Dorchester Street, are almost legendary. It has been said that
while he was the Pastor, she was the Church! When Arthur had to end his service
for health reasons in 1967, Kirsti kept up her deaconal work – both for her
husband until his death in 1976, as well as for the many people that she saw
needed support and assistance to cope with their lives. Late or early; she was
on her feet on hospital visits and housecalls, sitting for hours on bus and
metro to move around among her countrymen living in the city and its suburbs.
Kirsti
knew how to draw the many Norwegian students staying in Montreal in the ‘50’s
to church, and effectively and authoritatively, she put them to work for the
best interests of the church and the Norwegian sailors. She rarely took “No”
for an answer, and would often express herself in a manner that seemed strict
or harsh . But her heart of gold and love for the Lord prompted her
indefatigable efforts. Not for her own gain, but for the seamen’s church
serving people in their everyday life.
Many people can witness the crowded stairways in the Dorchester
parsonage as Kirsti and Arthur invited sailors and residents, and so many
people turned out. Born in the USA, Kirsti grew up at Svanøy, near Florø – the
pearl of the West coast! She trained as a registered nurse, and worked as
parish nurse in Vadsø near North Cape when she met Arthur. They were married in
1940, lived, due to the war, for some time in Tromsø, and
took part in the rebuilding of the new church in the Lapp center of Kautokeino
before heading for Canada end Montreal. Everywhere, Kirsti collected her
experiences in her mind, and retold the stories for enthusiastic listeners at
the gatherings in the seamen’s church. Therefore, listening to her stories was
always interesting: Never without an important issue: our responsibility for
each other and a challenge to serve. And never without afterwards practicing
what she preached. The most important part of her visitor service was probably all the visits that nobody else
knew of: She did not keep statistics, and she did not ask any superior
permission to go visiting: she just visited the needy simply because she felt a
calling from her Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
When the
church moved to Bellerive St. in Montreal East, the distance became long. But
Kirsti attended faithfully, at services and on other visits several times a
week. Her awareness for who was in need of special attention or concern, was an
important asset for the church staff. However, first and foremost, Kirsti was
very distinct that she represented the church and her Master even when she went
on her own behalf. This service continued even after the Seamen’s Mission
withdrew from Montreal, and Kirsti continued her work out of St..Ansgar’s while
making great efforts in keeping up the visits from the Seamen’s Church pastor
in New York. This way, she has contributed to the continuation of Norwegian services
in Montreal on a regular basis – until this day….
In 1985,
Kirsti Svanoe Styker was honored with the St. Olav’s medal for extraordinary services for Norway
abroad. For her, this became an important satisfaction after having struggled
for years to obtain Norwegian retirement benefits. Through all her working
years, Kirsti had been a “volunteer”, and therefore had to rely on benevolence
from the authorities in the country she left behind, in order to serve its
people when calling on ports in a foreign land! She never stopped loving her
home country and her dear Svanøy, which was talked about with the kind of love
that must have contributed to the glowing enthusiasm that characterized
Kirsti’s life.
To
Kirsti, it was a severe blow to lose the Norwegian church in Montreal. She
understood and accepted this, because she realized what had happened in the
maritime industry and Norwegian establishments, but she could never reconcile
herself with the fact that her life’s achievement in Canada was closing. We are
grateful for her faithful loyalty and creative contributions for a solution,
and that she found her new spiritual home at St. Ansgar’s. We are also grateful
for the support of her four children
(Gunnhild, William, Roy and Ellen) who have been there for her in a time of
heavy burden, and for members of the Norwegian community whose contributions
have eased Kirsti’s pain the last months of her life. First and last, we wish
to thank Kirsti Styker for her contribution and her sacrifice through all these
years in Canada. We ask for God’s blessing over the remembrance of Kirsti
Styker, and make the words of the apostle Paul and expression of her great
effort:
I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, I have kept the faith.
And now the prize of Victory is waiting for me…. (2.Tim 4,7-8)
Kjell Bertel Nyland Harald Daasvand
Secretary General Former pastor
The Norwegian Seamen’s Mssion Montreal