inSPIREd Sunday

July 2017 - Toronto On

I recently learned that this church had a labyrinth and was open Monday to Friday from noon to 3 PM.

There are three churches in this area.
St. Michael's Cathedral Catholic 
Metropolitan United Church - outside. Today I am going inside.
St. James Anglican Cathedral
St. James Anglican Cathedral second visit

The trio of similarly designed churches are a striking Christian witness immediately adjacent to Canada's financial hub.
Metropolitan United Church is currently under renovations outside so this photo is from a few years ago.

In 1922, a 22-bell, 17-ton carillon was installed in the tower with money donated by Chester Massey.

The congregation, originally Methodist, was founded in 1818. It was originally housed in a small chapel on King Street West (now site of Commerce Court North).


There is a plaque on the Commerce Court building.

In 1833 a larger structure was completed on Adelaide Street and it moved to its present location in 1872 when the building was dedicated as the Metropolitan Wesleyan Methodist Church.

In 1925 the Methodist Church of Canada merged with the Presbyterians and Congregationalists to form the United Church of Canada. Metropolitan then acquired its current name. In 1928 the church was almost destroyed by fire, but it was quickly rebuilt keeping the same design with the help of the Methodist Massey family, of Massey-Ferguson fame.




Many of the windows are dedicated in memory of a family member or friend who has been a living milestone in the work and life of Metropolitan United. The scheme of the windows for the nave, prepared by Robert McCausland, depict on the west wall the “Miracles of Jesus", while the east wall depicts “Scenes from the Life of Christ".

I found the following at the Lusitania Resource website.

 image credit: Paul Latimer/Halifax Evening Mail, 11 May 1915. Alfred Clarke, 55, owned A. R. Clarke and Co. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which made leather linings, vests, and moccasins. He was a British subject, married, and had a son and daughter. On the last voyage of the Lusitania, his ticket was 13105 and he stayed in cabin D-3. On the day of the disaster, Clarke "was on the top deck about 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon when [he] suddenly heard a crash and splinters flew around." He tried to get down to his D deck cabin, but was couldn't at the time because of all the people coming up the stairs. He watched the crew ready the lifeboats and decided to try again for his lifejacket in his cabin. Clarke finally made it and he found it "utterly dark." When he closed the door, it was stuck due to the angle of the ship. He finally escaped and made it back on deck. he had failed to get a belt until a man gave him one on deck. Clarke encountered a tablemate from the dining saloon and encouraged him to get into one of the last lifeboats. The man refused and Clarke jumped into one of the boats. No sooner did he do that, the ship went down and he found himself in the water. He was picked up by a collapsible that was helmed by Charles Lauriat. The Wanderer (Peel 12) came to pick up the thirty-three on the raft. Alfred Russell Clarke died in a hosptial in London, England on 20 June 1915.

In the chancel is a labyrinth based on the famous labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral.

Metropolitan’s Casavant Organ is not only the largest pipe organ in Canada, it’s an instrument used every day at the church, by visiting organists and by students from the University of Toronto. But time and use have taken their toll: the 75+ year-old-organ is wearing out.

inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!  Sundays in my City  My Sunday Photo

May 2017 - Toronto ON

We saw this church during Doors Open last weekend. The archivist I spoke to seemed to think the name Norway was because there were a lot of Norwegian people living in the area at the time. But when I looked at the names of the first rectors they didn't strike me as Norwegian nor did most of the names on the graves in the cemetery. 

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As we entered.

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Wikipedia provided this information which seemed to make more sense.

St. John the Baptist Norway Anglican Church was founded in 1853. Despite the use of the name "Norway", neither the church nor the cemetery has any connection to the country of Norway or to Norwegian immigrants to Canada; both were established to serve the small community of Norway, Ontario, then a considerable distance from the city of Toronto. The town itself was named after the Norway pine trees native to the area and was amalgamated into Toronto in 1908.

Meetings first began in 1850 and, with the establishment of the parish in 1853, a small wooden schoolhouse was moved here and used as a church. The bell was installed and the church and cemetery consecrated by Bishop Strachan in 1855. Many United Empire Loyalists and other early settlers are buried here. St. John’s founded a number of parishes in East Toronto.


Distinctive features include some of Toronto’s finest McCausland stained glass windows.

Robert McCausland Limited is the oldest stained glass company in the Western Hemisphere. RML is also the longest, continuously owned family company in Canada. Founded in 1856 by Joseph McCausland, an Irish immigrant, the firm has survived five generations.

The Steinway grand piano, retired from Hamilton Place, is on long-term loan from Donald Horsburgh.

The Coat of Arms was found near the location of an old toll gate near Lee Avenue.

The Casavant organ with its three keyboard console was built in the late 1920s and is used to lead the music for worship.

Casavant Frères is a prominent organ building Canadian company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building pipe organs since 1879.

I was told by of the guides that this window is based on The Sistine Madonna, one of Raphael's most famous works. The painting takes its name from the church of San Sisto in Piacenza and Raphael painted it as the altarpiece for that church in 1513-1514. The piece was purchased in 1754 by King Augustus III of Saxony for his collection in Dresden. In Germany the painting was very influential, sparking debate on the questions of art and religion.

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Down in the basement there was more memorabilia.

Considering the many times we have driven by this church and cemetery we had no idea of the sheer size!



The land for the cemetery was donated by landowner Charles Coxwell Small. Originally three acres, the cemetery now covers about 35. Over the decades there have been almost 80,000 interments, and over 50,000 gravestones now stand in the cemetery. While attached to an Anglican church, the cemetery is non- denominational.




The cemetery is perched on a large sandy hill which was once one of the large dunes formed by Glacial Lake Iroquois. The sand from this hill was used extensively by the Toronto brickworks, and is thus found in many of the city's older buildings.

This girl was practicing.

Click here for a funny sign.