  We report the discovery of a Lyman alpha emitting galaxy at z = 6.518. The
single line was found in the 43 square arcmin VLT/FORS field by slitless
spectroscopy limited to the atmospheric window at 9100 A (sampling Lya at 6.4 <
z < 6.6). Its counterpart is undetected in a deep I band image and the line has
an asymmetric appearance in a deeper follow-up spectrum. There are no plausible
line identifications except for Lya with a flux of 1.9x10^-17 erg/s/cm2 and
rest frame equivalent width > 80 A. The lower limit to the star formation rate
density at z = 6.5 derived from our complete sample is 5x10^-4
M_sol/year/Mpc^3, consistent with measurements in the Subaru Deep Field and
Hubble Ultra Deep Field but approximately ten times higher than in the Large
Area Lyman Alpha survey. This Lya emitter is among the very small sample of
highest redshift galaxies known.
