 
IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

A History of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Toronto

David Greig

Foreword by Harold J. Nahabedian

Introduction by Eugene R. Fairweather

THE CHURCH OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE

TORONTO

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 1990 by David Greig

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of

the author, and may not be redistributed or used for commercial purposes _without the prior written permission of the publisher._

The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene

477 Manning Avenue

Toronto, Ontario Canada M6G 1E8

(416) 531-7955

http://www.stmarymagdalene.ca

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Greig, David, 1960–

In the fullness of time

ISBN 978-09694346-3-4 (ebook) 978-0-9694346-2-7 (bound) ISBN 978-0-9694346-1-0 (pbk.)

1. Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto, Ont.) - History.

2. Anglo-Catholicism. I. Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto, Ont.).

II. Title.

BX5617.T6C481990a 283'.7l3541 C90-093719-X

Acknowledgements

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge those who have provided photographs and other illustrative material for use in this book. Specific credits accompany individual items and for legal purposes are considered to be part of the copyright page. All items not so designated are the possession of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Toronto.

The cover illustration is derived from a banner, "The Tree of Life" (1983), designed and executed by Connie Jefferess and Diane Robinson, owned by The Church of St. James Westminster, London, Ontario, and used with their kind permission.

The wind blows where it wills

You hear the sound of it

But you do not know where it comes

Or where it is going.

John 3:8
Table of Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: The Meaning of SMM

CHAPTER ONE Building the Church

A Growing City, A Growing Church

The Mother Church, Saint Matthias

From Mission to Parish

Stages of Construction

Raising Money

The Completed Church

CHAPTER TWO Completing the Church

Finishing the Interior

Crisis

The Closing of Saint Mary Magdalene's?

Recovery and Renewal

Redecorating

The Consecration of the Church

CHAPTER THREE Liturgy and Worship

Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals

Anglo-Catholicism at Saint Mary Magdalene's

Father Hiscocks at Saint Mary Magdalene's

Early Innovations

The Ritualist Controversy of 1922

Later Innovations

Anglo-Catholicism and the Laity

A Counter-Reformation?

CHAPTER FOUR Sing Praise

The Early Days of the Choir

Healey Willan Arrives

Expanding the Repertoire

Willan Around the Church

The Dean of Canadian Composers

CHAPTER FIVE Parish Life

The Neighbourhood—The Community?

A Sea of Inactivity

Parish Organizations

Anglo-Catholicism and Parish Life Christian Socialism

The Decline of the Neighbourhood Church

CHAPTER SIX Modern Times

Years of Growth

Years of Difficulty

The Liturgical Movement

Celebrating Tradition

Coming to Terms

Saint Mary Magdalene's at 100

APPENDICES

A: Church Attendance Graphs

B: Clergy in Charge of Saint Mary Magdalene's

C: Wardens of Saint Mary Magdalene's

NOTE ON SOURCES
FOREWORD

While the history of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Toronto, is unique, it also follows a course similar to many other Catholic parishes in the Anglican Communion. Commitment, disobedience, sacrifice, conflict, faithfulness, adversity and struggle were all part of the story as Anglicans of decided Catholic persuasion attempted to gain acceptance within the Communion for their theological and liturgical position, while trying to persuade fellow Anglicans that the Catholic understanding of the Faith is more truly Anglican than is the Protestant stance.

Anglicans have carved out a unique theological, ecclesiological, and even liturgical position in western Christianity. Many people including Anglicans find this uniqueness difficult to accept but it is my belief that Christ's re-united Church of the future will have some of that diversity which the present Anglican Communion comprehends. This must be so if the Church is to encompass Christians of different theological positions, as seems an inevitable consequence of human limitations as well as human intelligence and free will. If there is anything that has been learned from the last sixty years of church history it is that as members of Christ's family we can live with, understand, acknowledge and even accept differing theological positions, while engaging in the common work of Christ's Church of worshipping God, administering the sacraments, evangelizing the uncommitted or unbeliever, and serving all those who are in need.

Parishes like this one have been largely successful in winning the war for the acceptance of Catholic theology and practice within the Anglican Communion and this very success has brought the movement largely to a halt. Since so many Anglicans accept the legitimacy of Catholic liturgy and theology, parishes like Saint Mary Magdalene's are stumped as to the future of the Catholic movement. Some have retreated to fixed positions of reaction against modern liturgies and the ordination of women as priests and bishops, while others have dissolved into a liberalism that no longer regards any tradition or rule as of any binding importance on Christians today.

The difficult position surely is one that Anglicans have long held, even before the Oxford Movement. Christians have the responsibility as individuals, and as a Christian community to decide issues by looking to the traditions of the early Church, the teachings of the Church Fathers as well as to Holy Writ.

Then they take into account the age and society in which they live, making as good a decision as humanly possible on any given issue, confident in the guidance of God the Holy Spirit, not only in the making of the decision, but also in the correction in time of a mistaken decision. Surely the Oxford Movement is the prime example to our age of a part of the work of God the Holy Spirit in correcting the theology and direction of a whole Christian community in God's good time.

If there is any agenda now for the Catholics within the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, is it not the same as that set for it sixty-five years ago by the Right Reverend Frank Weston, Bishop of Zanzibar, speaking at the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in London, England: "...You have your Mass, you have your altars, you have begun to get your tabernacles. Now go out into the highways and hedges, and look for Jesus in the ragged and the naked, in the oppressed and the sweated, in those who have lost hope, and in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus in them; and, when you have found Him, gird yourself with His towel of fellowship and wash His feet in the person of his brethren."

If St Mary Magdalene's second century is about anything, surely this agenda must be an important part of it.

The Reverend Harold J. Nahabedian

Rector

Saint Mary Magdalene's Rectory, Toronto

The Feast of the Epiphany, 1990
PREFACE

Anniversaries always cause one to reminisce, and the hundredth anniversary of a church one loves is a natural time to reflect on its history. That is the origin of this book.

This is not, however, the first time someone has given some thought to a parish history. Without the foresight of the founding rector of Saint Mary Magdalene's, the Reverend Charles Darling, any account of the early days of SMM would be sparse indeed. As Darling explained in one of the parish registers in 1920,

As there has been no Parochial History compiled of the first Thirty years of the Parish, I have pasted into the following pages certain cuttings, which may be of interest to posterity, and written down certain statistics, and other information, as to Benefactions and Gifts made to S.M.M. during my term of office.

I do so also in case that some day a History of the Parish may be written, and some of the information I have given, be found useful.

Agnes Darling, his wife, was also historically minded. As president of the Women's Auxiliary for many years, she used to give an address at their annual meetings to review their activities and outline their goals. She saved her handwritten copy of most of these speeches, which as she noted "form quite a little history of the Branch & may be useful for reference in the future". Charles and Agnes Darling were both proud of their role in the founding of Saint Mary Magdalene's, and it is a pleasure now to be able to record their contributions.

More recently, when SMM was consecrated in 1948, it was decided to produce an illustrated booklet of our history. A committee was appointed but stopped work after collecting a brief and somewhat inaccurate set of notes. Even by that point, it would seem, the collective memory of the parish was growing weak, and time has only served to weaken it further. Slowly, we became a church that revelled in her traditions, but with little knowledge of where those traditions had come from. The idea of recovering our past through a parish history book was picked up again as our centennial in 1988–89 approached, first by the Reverend Alexander Heron and then by the Reverend Harold Nahabedian. About four years ago I was asked to see what could be done, and I began to occupy my spare time reading documents and piecing together our story.

I was happy to do it. As a member of SMM since birth, I have a great love for the church and for the people who make it their spiritual home. Our history is also an important one. As an innovator in Anglican liturgy and worship, as a teacher of countless clergy and laypeople who have since fanned out across Canada, as the nurturing mother of Healey Willan whose liturgical music is now performed worldwide, Saint Mary Magdalene's has had a profound influence on the life of the Anglican Church.

But I happen to think that any parish's history is important. Every parish makes a valuable contribution to the community in which it takes root. Every parish contributes in some way to the life of the wider church; It is fair to say that studies of the wider church, both historical and sociological, have been hampered by the lack of a firm grasp of what was really going on in the parishes. I hope this book will in some small way help to address this deficiency.

I do not present a day-by-day account of the doings of SMM. The documents would not permit it, and it would not be desirable in any case. Rather, the book concentrates on two periods: the first twenty years of the parish under the Reverend Charles Darling, which saw the building of the church and the gathering of the congregation; and the decade of the 1920's under Darling's vicar, the Reverend Henry Griffin Hiscocks, who with Healey Willan revolutionized our liturgical and musical traditions. Each of these stands as a creative, formative period in the history of Saint Mary Magdalene's.

There is a third focus. It takes up less space in the book, but it is the most important for us to think about. That is the contemporary period at SMM. Over the past 30 years we have had to re-evaluate and renew our traditions in the wake of changes in the church at large. This period is still unfinished, and so is difficult to analyze. Not that one can easily see the meaning, in Christian terms, of earlier periods, but at least they are much more of a closed book. The world that created SMM 100 years ago, or that sustained it as recently as 30 years ago, has in large part ceased to exist. Some may regret it, others will be delighted, but we all must come to terms with it.

The material is divided according to subject, and to a certain extent each chapter is a self-contained unit. Running through all the chapters are a small number of themes—the creation of an anglo-catholic parish, the challenge of adapting to change both in the past and in the present, the problem of fulfilling one's dreams with only a little money—that I hope will bring some unity to the work. Above all, I have tried to write a book that could claim some integrity as a work of history. This has meant not only researching our own story thoroughly, but also placing that story in the context of what was happening in Toronto and in the Anglican Church at large. It has meant eschewing fanciful or romanticized recreations of the past, and being honest about our failings and limitations.

I've heard it said that Chinese scholars, to gratify their audience and keep themselves humble, used to leave mistakes in their work for their readers to discover. You will find many such opportunities here, but they are not, I'm afraid, deliberate. No doubt as I or others continue to delve into our past, our understanding of it will be sharpened and corrected. In the meantime I would like to thank my editors, Prudence Tracy, Professor William Blissett and Father Harold Nahabedian, for their advice, their encouragement and their comments on my manuscript. They are not responsible for the interpretations set out, nor for any errors of fact that I have inadvertently allowed to creep in.

Let me thank also Father Eugene Fairweather, who let me interview him for two hours in a hot room and yet still agreed to write the Introduction. Garry Lovatt spent long hours overseeing the production of this work, and we enjoyed many lively conversations along the way. Garry also served as editor, along with Julie Kretchman, and I am grateful to everyone I have pestered for information or assistance of some sort. Finally, I would like to thank all the people of SMM for their love and support over many years, and for the confidence they have shown me in entrusting the parish history to my care. I hope they will not be disappointed.

D.G.

Toronto

Feast of the Epiphany, 1990
INTRODUCTION The Meaning of SMM

David Greig has produced a learned and perceptive history of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Toronto. In fact, I doubt that any Canadian parish has been better served by its historian. The author has brought high standards of scholarly research and interpretation to his task, and the outcome is most impressive.

But why should anyone take the time and trouble to read it? After all, many excellent examples of historical writing about Canada can be found in any good bookstore. Even though this is a fine study, how can David Greig hope to find interested readers beyond the present or former membership of a small Toronto parish?

To my mind, the answer lies in the distinctive role of SMM in the life and worship of the Anglican Church of Canada. Indeed, it would hardly be too bold to call that role unique. If this particular parish had never been invented, important aspects of our church's modern history would have been significantly different.

When SMM was founded, nobody could have guessed what it would become. In 1888 an anglo-catholic enclave already existed in what is now the eastern part of Parkdale deanery. The parishes of Saint Matthias (our mother church) and Saint Thomas were already going concerns. The Sisterhood of Saint John the Divine had recently been established within the boundaries of Saint Matthias parish. Several members of the staff of Trinity College, then located on Queen Street West, gave considerable support to the Catholic revival in their neighbourhood. SMM was initially envisaged as an extension of this anglo-catholic enclave into a growing suburb — not as something new and different.

Any special hopes focussed on the new congregation had to do with its anticipated prosperity. What we now call the "West Annex" seemed very likely to become an upscale district. Even now, the impressive houses of Palmerston Boulevard remind us of disappointed expectations.

If SMM was to stand out at all, then, its expected claim to fame was financial. Those of us who have heard the early story and lived through the later reality may surely be forgiven for collapsing into raucous laughter at the thought. David Greig's meticulous account of the parish's passage through crisis after crisis has more than a little in common with a "Perils of Pauline" melodrama. That is just how things went, at any rate for several decades.

It seems almost miraculous that the plan for a church building — so crucial for SMM's future — should ever have been completed, even in a simplified form. Again and again the parish found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. As late as 1940 Archbishop Owen appointed a commission to consider the church's future (if any).

Yet two decades earlier something had happened which was to establish SMM's ongoing role in Canadian Anglicanism. That something was the appointment of Father Hiscocks as vicar, followed by his invitation to Healey Willan to become musical director. It was the Hiscocks–Willan partnership that pointed the parish towards its unique and fruitful destiny. Successive incumbents who have guided the parish towards financial solvency, as well as ongoing spiritual influence, have built on that heritage.

It is time to explain the importance of the Hiscocks-Willan alliance, which David Greig has rightly stressed. The basic clue is to be found in the diversity of the anglo-catholic movement. Let me comment on that diversity.

The Oxford Movement, commonly dated from 1833, was a manysided effort to renew the Church of England in recovering its fundamental catholic tradition. Its original emphasis was on supernatural revelation and ecclesiastical authority, rather than on liturgical usage. But inevitably it soon moved towards the renewal of worship: the basic corporate expression of faith.

Consequently, in Canada as elsewhere, anglo-catholicism speedily identified itself as a liturgical movement. Long neglected rubrics were honoured anew; long-forgotten practices were restored. Despite determined resistance, the face of Anglican worship entered a period of slow but sure change, which we are still experiencing.

The "ritualists", as they were popularly though inaccurately labelled, agreed on emphasizing certain symbols. The revival of altar lights, eucharistic vestments and incense — along with the early appearance of mitres at episcopal consecrations in Fredericton and Kingston — signified a wide-spread consensus. Nonetheless, I must add that certain seeds of liturgical disagreement had already been sown early in the Oxford Movement.

On the one hand, a weighty group — the majority of the Tractarian pioneers — appealed primarily to the Catholic nature of the received Anglican tradition, as embodied first and foremost in the Prayer Book. They opposed revision of that book, as likely to undermine their case for catholic revival. Their "ritualistic" offspring leaned heavily on the historic "Ornaments Rubric" as justifying a good deal of ceremonial elaboration. That policy could be summarized in the phrase, "the Prayer Book dressed up."

On the other hand, there were radicals in the Tractarian camp from early days. These rebels — Richard Hurrell Froude and William George Ward readily come to mind — held that Anglican renewal demanded a serious criticism of the insular tradition of the Church of England in the light supplied by the larger Catholic world. Their "ritualistic" heirs proved to be ready — indeed, eager — to interpolate a good deal of current Roman material into the Anglican rite. Eventually, in many cases, the Prayer Book was largely replaced by Roman texts.

I should remark further that only a prejudiced controversialist could stigmatize these radical anglo-catholics as disloyal Anglicans. Their point was simply that, by definition, Anglicanism belongs within what we should now call an ecumenical context. To borrow a formula from a recent writer, they looked beyond the appeal to Anglican history to the Anglican appeal to history. Viewed from that standpoint, the English reformation was itself, in principle, a reformable episode in the Anglican tale. If the radicals queried and often disobeyed Anglican regulations, their rationale was that Anglican regulators themselves were oblivious to the demands of a larger vision.

Now let us return to SMM. Father Hiscocks obviously belonged to the second school of "ritualists". He looked beyond official Anglican usage to Roman models, in rite as well as in ceremony. When particular Anglican regulations got in his way, he seems to have paid little attention to them, unless episcopal pressure became too strong for him to resist — which apparently was not very often.

Without Hiscocks' vision and determination, SMM would at best have eked out a precarious existence as a "moderate" anglo-catholic parish, largely closed to ecclesiastical and liturgical values outside the Prayer Book tradition. As it was, our history turned out quite differently. Hiscocks' instinct for Catholic worship, complemented by Willan's musical learning and genius, placed our parish on the growing edge of liturgical change in the Canadian church.

From the viewpoint of infallible hindsight, which is so easy to assume, we can plausibly criticize Father Hiscocks and his mentors for treating post-Tridentine Roman practice as normative for the renewal of Anglican worship. It must be admitted that Hiscocks does not come across as a profound theologian or liturgical scholar. But in his time and place what better means of radical change could he have found than "romanizing"? Furthermore, we should recognize that he pointed, albeit unwittingly, to a future in which the Roman rite itself would be drastically reformed and SMM would adopt the reforms.

At this point, something more should be said about Dr. Willan. The value of his participation in the Hiscocks programme was incalculable. During forty-seven years he devoted infinite pains, as composer, arranger and conductor to the liturgical offering of the SMM choirs. Without his generous collaboration Father Hiscocks' ritual and ceremonial scheme would probably have been stillborn. With his help, SMM became a power in the land.

I doubt that Willan was ever as rigid on matters of liturgical detail as many have supposed. During my long association with him, I found him quite open to change. Certainly his musical mix of plainsong (some of it congregational), polyphonic masses and motets, and congregational hymns became a norm which no sensible priest would have tried to alter. (We still maintain it today.) But within that framework he managed to live comfortably with a considerable variety of eucharistic rites, including a discreetly adjusted version of the Canadian Prayer Book of 1962. He was always quite clear about the subordination of music to liturgy.

It remains indisputable that, in his liturgical composition and direction, he was always faithful to the ideals which he shared with Father Hiscocks. The character of his masses, motets and Holy Week music consistently reflected a profound awareness of the right relation between text and song in public worship. His musical example has therefore remained a major factor in the Hiscocks–Willan heritage of SMM.

My own involvement in that heritage effectively began in 1941, when I entered Trinity College as a divinity student. By that time I was already deeply committed to the Catholic revival. For some seven years I had been a frequent worshipper in the Church of Saint John the Evangelist, Montreal —Canada's pioneering "ritualistic" parish. In 1941 I was ready for SMM.

I could never speak too warmly about the role of Saint John the Evangelist in my Christian formation. It was there that I learned that Anglican worship could be splendidly and profoundly sacramental —something much richer than the stodgy dignity which most congregations seemed to regard as the acme of Anglicanism. Yet my encounter with SMM was to carry me a long step forward on my pilgrimage.

Our parish, with its austerely beautiful ceremonial and its lovely music, reinforced my conviction that corporate worship could—indeed, must—rise above the conventional Anglican style of the day. But beyond that, its example deepened my suspicion that "Prayer Book Catholicism" was an inadequate prescription for liturgical renewal. It became clearer to me that rite, as well as ceremony, must undergo a new reformation. That perception has stayed with me to this day, however much my view of the needed reforms may have changed in detail, as the liturgical movement has advanced.

Ever since Father Brain invited me to become an honorary assistant at SMM in 1949,1 have served happily—though not without occasional stress—as a priest in this parish. Some of my good friends have repeatedly expressed surprise at my state of mind. I can only suggest, with respect, that they may not understand SMM as well as I do.

I must admit that I have not always approved of everything we were doing in our parish liturgy. But in my long experience the saving grace of SMM has been its capacity to learn and change. Surely it goes without saying that we have changed a good deal, liturgically and otherwise, during the forty years of my public association with this parish. Most obviously, much of the eucharistic ceremonial which we accepted as normal in 1949 has been set aside as inappropriate in the light of major developments in liturgical knowledge and practice.

I do not mean to idealize the congregation of SMM. We have certainly had our rough moments. But unlike many other "Catholic" parishes in Canada and elsewhere, we have somehow contrived to move forward consistently, without unmanageable conflict.

To help account for that steady advance I refer once again to the Hiscocks–Willan tradition of innovative liturgy. Once a congregation has outgrown the illusion that the Prayer Book rites are "incomparable", it cannot easily cling uncritically to any particular scheme of worship. Our heritage is essentially dynamic, not static.

An unfriendly critic has gone so far as to blame SMM for The Book of Alternative Services (1985). No doubt that is to give us more credit than we deserve. Yet there is indeed much in the BAS that was first introduced to Canadian Anglicans by our parish. And to speak more generally, we have stood for that critical attitude towards the older Anglican standards which encourages freedom in liturgical reconstruction.

When I joined the staff of SMM in 1949,1 did so, in part, out of a strong conviction that a theological teacher should maintain a pastoral base in parish life. But as my work for liturgical renewal has developed, I have found that chosen base even more valuable than I had anticipated. While some of my brothers and sisters in the parish have viewed my efforts, at best, with puzzled tolerance, I have been given both a friendly hearing for my ideas and a good deal of room in which to test them.

That has been conspicuously true in the area of children's participation in eucharistic worship —a cause which means more to me than I can easily say. There SMM is widely recognized across this country as a pioneer, and I deeply appreciate its openness. Currently, as I worship with my new community, at the Atlantic School of Theology, including a baby boy, sharing fully in our family eucharist, I look back with gratitude and fondness to my experience at SMM.

Over the years I have found myself called to devote a good deal of time and effort to another enterprise: the ecumenical movement. (Not that the quest for unity and work for liturgical reform are unrelated.) Here too I have found our parish a significant source of support for my work. That support, generous though never simply uncritical, has seemed to me to spring from the same open and experimental outlook which has made SMM such a bright liturgical light in our church.

I hope that my remarks, both historical and personal, will encourage some readers, at any rate, to give SMM its due as a remarkable parish—and to read about its history. It has been and is a great Christian and Anglican community. Thousands of us owe it more than we can ever repay.

Eugene R. Fairweather, Th.D., D.D., F.R.S.C.

Honorary Assistant

Professor Emeritus of Divinity, Trinity College, Toronto

[Return to TOC]

IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

British immigrants arriving in Toronto, ca. 1911. Some look excited, others a bit apprehensive, as they cross the "Bridge of Sighs" leading from Union Station.

JAMES COLLECTION, COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES.
CHAPTER ONE BUILDING THE CHURCH

People at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene like to be different. The church is very special to them, and they take pride in their unique history and traditions. Some of you, though not parishioners, may sense this uniqueness too. Perhaps you have visited SMM and have seen the colourful vestments or clouds of incense. Perhaps you have one of our choir's many records, so you are familiar with the graceful and truly sacred music that Healey Willan wrote for our use. Over the years, Saint Mary Magdalene's has developed a spirituality and style of worship that have given it a special place among Anglican churches in Canada. Not everyone has been comfortable with this fact. For some, Saint Mary Magdalene's had travelled beyond the pale of mainstream Anglicanism. Parishioners felt they were just being faithful to the Catholic heritage of the Anglican Church. In recent years, SMM has moved closer to the mainstream in some respects, while in other respects the Anglican Church at large has caught up to SMM. But the congregation is still happy to think of itself as unique.

Every parish church is unique in its way, and yet all share in the wider life of the Body of Christ. All share too in the life of the communities in which they grow. In many respects, SMM has travelled the same road in its hundred year journey as many Toronto churches, Anglican and other. Opened in 1888 in what was then a new suburb in northwest Toronto, Saint Mary Magdalene's was one of a great number of churches built around that time in response to the city's growth. It was a relatively poor church, always at the mercy of downturns in the economic cycle. For this reason the church building was not completed until 1908. Even then it was completed with great difficulty, and because of the heavy debt incurred another 40 years were to pass before the building could be consecrated. Like many parishes established in the late nineteenth century, SMM was only able to clear its debts once the depression of the 1930's had passed. The journey was a long and difficult one, at times even a struggle to survive.

A Growing City, A Growing Church

Toronto in the late nineteenth century was growing by leaps and bounds. There may have been a general economic depression through much of the western world, but Toronto was entering a phase of rapid industrialization. Established industries like textiles and metallurgy were expanded and mechanized, while newer ones like machine-making, food processing and publishing took root. Between 1870 and 1901, manufacturing in Toronto grew by 425 percent in terms of the value of goods produced, and by 450 percent in terms of the number of workers employed. Equally striking was the growth in Toronto's population: it stood at less than 31,000 in 1851, at about 86,000 in 1880, and over 208,000 in 1901. True, part of this increase was due to the fact that the city was "annexing" outlying villages (Yorkville, for example, was annexed in 1883, Parkdale in 1889), but even that shows how much the intervening areas, once empty, were filling with homes. Most of this new population was of British extraction, either immigrants themselves or the children of recent immigrants. Many poorer people in Britain were coming to Canada in search of work and a better life, despite the attempts of _New and Old_ , an English Anglican monthly, to stop them: if Canada is the land of opportunity, it asked, "why is Toronto so overrun with tramps in winter?" Toronto was no paradise, but it is a measure of the city's economic success that it was able to support the growing population as well as it did.

Keeping up with this phenomenal growth was a major concern of the Church of England, which was the largest denomination in Toronto and claimed many of the city's leading families. When SMM was opened in 1888 as a mission of Saint Matthias, the Church of England in Toronto was in the midst of a building boom which occupied much of the second half of the nineteenth century. It had been trying to catch up since 1850, when there had been only five Anglican churches in Toronto to serve about 11,000 adherents. The rate of church building was generally good through the late nineteenth century, but it peaked in the 10 years from the mid-1880's to the mid-1890's. To accommodate the growth of the city, the deanery of Toronto was extended to include Chester and Norway to the east, York Mills to the north and Parkdale and Dovercourt to the west. There were 25 churches and missions within these borders in 1885, 39 in 1889 and 43 in 1895. In west Toronto alone, the late 1880's saw the opening of SMM, Saint Alban-the-Martyr (which until the 1930's was meant to be the cathedral for Toronto diocese), Saint Olave by the Lake and Saint Jude's (both missions of Saint Anne's), the Church of the Epiphany, Saint John's West Toronto and Saint Mary the Virgin. Other Anglican churches were expanded to make room for their growing congregations, among them Saint Matthew's and Saint Anne's. Just as active were the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists who between them opened more than 45 new places of worship in Toronto in the 1880's.

The growth of Toronto was not the only reason for this explosion in church building. Canadian churches in the late nineteenth century, intent on spreading the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, had entered a pronounced missionary phase. While efforts were chiefly directed abroad, especially in the Far East, and to the native peoples and settlers in the Canadian northwest, the towns and cities of Canada's heartland were also seen as fertile missionary ground. This was partly due to the flood of newcomers, but also to the realization that many city-dwellers, new or old, had no active ties to any church. Rivalry between denominations was rampant. Christians of all sorts, urged on by their leaders, worked to claim these people for their own. Speaking to the diocesan synod of 1886, Archbishop Sweatman (1879-1909) neatly summed up the missionary efforts of the Church of England in Toronto in these words:

...there is now scarcely a Church in the city but has its one or even two Mission rooms or halls, its cottage meetings, its band of lay- helpers, as an auxiliary agency to carry on a truly evangelistic work amongst the masses, who would otherwise fall into the hands of some strange sect, if they did not remain in a state of uncared-for heathendom.

Among the "strange sects" he had in mind was undoubtedly the Salvation Army. Even though it had just arrived in Toronto in 1882, the Salvation Army was soon able to open its large "Number Two" station at the comer of Ulster and Lippincott Streets, just east of where Saint Mary Magdalene's was to be built. The "establishment" churches were sharply critical of the unconventional methods and theology of the Salvation Army, although it reached out to people they were unable or unwilling to reach themselves. For somewhat different reasons, the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church were also criticized by the mainline Protestant majority. It was not an especially tolerant age, but denominational rivalry did help build many churches.

The Mother Church, Saint Matthias

Saint Mary Magdalene's was founded as a mission of Saint Matthias. Saint Matthias is located on Bellwoods Avenue 1.5 kilometres south of SMM. Founded in 1873, Saint Matthias had itself been a mission of Saint John the Evangelist on Portland Street. Mission churches, the offshoots of existing congregations built in new or underserviced parts of the city, were the chief means of church expansion in the late nineteenth century. Such efforts were encouraged by the diocese, but they were conceived, led and financed by the mother church in question, when its parish had become too large both in numbers and in area. Normally the mission remained under the control of the mother church in its early years, until it was large enough and wealthy enough to be self-supporting.

Saint Matthias was a poor church in a poor district of the city. Many of the new English immigrants were unprepared for the Canadian winter, and a major activity at Saint Matthias was to collect and distribute fuel and warm clothing to the needy. A second major concern was its overcrowded church, a concern it shared with many other parishes. Saint Matthias was worse off than most others, however. The building it occupied, and still occupies, was relatively small. In fact it was originally meant to be the parish schoolhouse, the real church to be built later when more money became available. In 1885, the "New Church Committee" of the parish recommended building a completely new Saint Matthias to seat 800 to 1,000 people. The congregation, however, was reluctant to proceed while money was short and heavy debts remained on the existing structure. In the meantime the "schoolhouse" had to be enlarged, in 1883 and again in 1885; these additions helped to relieve the pressure, but were neither a permanent solution nor one that could be repeated indefinitely. Another possible solution was to draw off part of the existing congregation by establishing a mission in the neighbourhood opening up north of College Street and west of Bathurst. Establishing this mission was not seen as an alternative to building a new Saint Matthias—there was no reason both could not be done—but in fact the new Saint Matthias has not been built to this day. By diverting efforts and resources away from the project, the mission of Saint Mary Magdalene's likely contributed to this result.

People had been moving into the area north of College Street for some years. The first church in the district, College Street Presbyterian, was opened in 1873 at the corner of Bathurst and College. Also in that year the Primitive Methodists founded a church a little to the north at the corner of Bathurst and Lennox Streets. Almost directly across from it, the Roman Catholics built Saint Peter's in 1878. But on the whole, given a sluggish economy, the 1870's were poor years for building. Settlement of this "frontier" district remained sparse for some time, even along the major arteries that would define Saint Mary Magdalene's parish. In 1890, College Street was still largely vacant west of Bathurst Street, though it was well built up east of Bathurst. Bathurst was only partially filled in north of College to Bloor. Bloor Street held a few scattered homes west of Bathurst, in addition to lumber yards and a planing mill, although housing resumed further west. Among the smaller residential streets running between these major thoroughfares, only Clinton Street was at all built up between College and Bloor in 1890. East of Clinton, Manning Avenue was filling in on its west side, but the more expensive properties along Euclid, Palmerston and Markham were still largely empty. Development west of Clinton Street was hampered by the large Bickford ravine, the old Garrison Creek bed. In 1890, the streets that were to make up the west end of the parish—Grace, Beatrice, Montrose (then called Sully) and Crawford—did not yet extend north of College.

As it turned out, the geographic parish of Saint Mary Magdalene's was not filled with houses until about 1910, when only a few gaps remained on the westernmost streets. Still, the future was plain to see in the mid-1880's. The recession had ended, large-scale house building had resumed, and Saint Matthias was wise to begin its missionary work when it did. The work was spearheaded by the Reverend Charles Burroughs Darling, who came to Saint Matthias as curate in 1882. Charles Darling was born in 1851 and raised in the parish of Scarborough, Ontario. After studying at Trinity College, Toronto, he went to Keble College, Oxford, and received his MA in 1873. He also prepared for the priesthood in England, where he was ordained in 1879. Darling's activities during the next few years are not known in any detail, but he did serve a curacy at Saint Ives, Huntingdonshire. He also served at Saint Mary Magdalene's, Paddington, London, under Richard Temple West, a noted anglo-catholic and the founder and first rector of that parish. It is said that West's missionary work in this poor and crowded area of London inspired Darling to return to Canada in 1880 to take up missionary work of his own.

Richard K. Harrison, rector of Saint Matthias's church

COURTESY ST. MATTHIAS'S CHURCH

Darling's workload as curate at Saint Matthias was both heavy and varied. He seems in fact to have been more active than the rector, the Reverend Richard K. Harrison. Besides parish visiting and assisting at worship, Darling conducted Bible study and confirmation classes for the rector. He was also deeply involved with a number of parish organizations, most notably the "Girls' Friendly Society" and the "Church of England Temperance Society", the latter of which he was president. On top of this, he wrote and assembled the parish magazine and served as chaplain at the Central Prison near King and Strachan. He was clearly a person who liked to be in charge. Fortunately he had a talent for organizing projects, and more importantly he could lead and inspire others. Although in later life he grew difficult and quarrelsome, there was little trace of these qualities in his earlier years. It was these years that Archbishop Owen (1933–46) was recalling when he described Darling as "a man of charming character. To come into his presence was a benediction." Against his many strengths, we know of only one weakness from his Saint Matthias days: as a preacher he was not at his best, as Darling himself confessed. He seems to have had a weak voice, and his throat was chronically sore and irritated. He returned to England in 1884, ostensibly on medical leave. But while there he married Agnes Georgina Ansley, a woman he seems to have known from his time at Saint Ives. The couple returned to Canada after honeymooning in Derbyshire.

Charles Darling as a young man.

COURTESY ARCHIVES OF THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO.

SMM in 1888. Parishioners today will recognize the south door and the vestry windows. The picture was probably taken by John Ross Robertson, whose sketch of the church, which accompanied his article in the Evening Telegram, matches it almost exactly.

COURTESY METROPOLITAN TORONTO LIBRARY.

As curate, and as a man of great energy and determination, Darling was the natural choice to lead Saint Matthias's missionary efforts, which began in 1885. Fortunately, the parish had a sophisticated instrument of urban evangelism ready to hand, its group of "district visitors". These visitors, mostly women, were assigned to different blocks and streets in the parish, including by 1885 the territory north of College Street that was to become Saint Mary Magdalene's parish. They canvassed the homes in the neighbourhood to discover what, if any, church affiliation the residents had. Members of the Church of England were encouraged to participate actively in parish life. The visitors collected money for various causes, and they reported to the rector any need they discovered for pastoral care or poor relief, distributing such relief themselves when appropriate. They received assistance in 1886 when the "Church of England Workingmen's Society" set up a branch at Saint Matthias. This group also engaged in house-to-house visiting, but unlike the district visitors, their work was done in the evenings and was aimed specifically at adult males who were not active in the church. Saint Matthias's parish magazine approved of these efforts among the people north of College Street, noting that 'The Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian bodies all have places of worship in closer proximity to their population than the Church of England."

Darling himself took a hand in the visiting. With his help the Anglicans in the new neighbourhood north of Saint Matthias were quickly identified, and those showing interest in the work were brought on board. The first fruit of these efforts was the opening of a small Sunday school in July 1885 at 288 Clinton Street, the "top" of Clinton which at that time extended north of College only to Bloor. This first Sunday school soon disappeared from the records, and it may have disappeared in fact. It resurfaced in June of 1887, however, when temporary rooms for a new school were secured at 590 Manning Avenue, to the north of SMM's present location. They were poor rooms, lacking chairs and benches with neither a stove for heat nor pictures to decorate the bare walls. They were also small, with space for only a few children, and as the school was growing in size it soon had to move again, first to 105 Clinton in October of 1887, then to 135 Clinton in January of 1888. More about the mission school we do not know, except that it held classes every Sunday afternoon and was under the care of the Reverend Charles Adams, an honorary assistant at Saint Matthias. He received help from Henry Lane and William Bullock, both of whom later served as churchwardens of SMM.

Meanwhile, the Reverend Mr. Darling was scouting land for a future church. Although the area was still largely empty, he wanted to purchase a site before property values rose any higher. By September of 1885, a good central location priced at $800 had been found, and within a short time $100 had been raised for a downpayment. The site in question would seem to have been that of the present church—it measured 50 feet by 135 feet, the correct dimensions—but it is difficult to be sure because the property was not in fact purchased at that time, partly because money was short, and also because property lines and the location and construction of roads in the area were all still unsettled. SMM's present site at the corner of Manning Avenue and Ulster Street was not secured until June of 1887. The cost had risen to $2,600, a remarkable bit of inflation in just two years assuming this is indeed the same site.

Once the land was acquired, things began to move quickly. Given the crowding at Saint Matthias and the need for a visible centre for the missionary work, it was decided to proceed with an inexpensive church which could be upgraded later when more money became available. A large chancel with 15 foot walls and a temporary roof was built as the nucleus of the future church. Construction began in late 1887 with a projected cost of $3,500 and with John Stroud, a future parishioner, as the main contractor. To keep costs down, volunteer carpenters from Saint Matthias helped with the interior work. The name of Saint Mary Magdalene was chosen in late 1887, presumably after Saint Mary Magdalene's Paddington, and in early 1888 three trustees for the "north mission church" were appointed: Alexander Lightbourn and George Verral, both wardens of Saint Matthias, and Azariah Clubb, SMM's first rector's warden.

The "first" Saint Mary Magdalene's consisted of a partially- finished chancel (it rose in height only to about the sills of the present chancel windows), a vestry and a very small nave. In length it extended no further than the present-day chancel. It must have been very dark and stuffy inside, problems which future alterations would address. Beneath the chancel was a small basement which was used by the Sunday school and other parish groups. The original SMM was therefore none too impressive, but it was equipped with gas lighting and running water, and heated by coal stoves in the winter months. Thanks to the generosity of Saint Matthias and the first members, it also had a reasonable supply of furnishings for such a newly established mission. The altar was the gift of one Edgar Hallen of Orillia [1]. The church also received a large and handsome stone font which is still in use today. The white stone for the font was bought by John Stroud, the contractor, while the carving, in a Celtic style, was done free of charge by a Mr. Jones of Euclid Avenue (apparently Benjamin Jones of 230 Euclid, a carver by trade). Mary Stroud, John Stroud's daughter, embroidered a banner of gold silk on a purple background for the Sunday school's use. Other gifts included a black ash credence table given by a Miss Platt, a 170 lb. bell from Jane Darling (Charles' mother), a vestry clock from Azariah Clubb, a brass gasalier for the vestry from Alexander Lightbourn, a pair of altar candlesticks from John Gander (who with his wife and daughter had canvassed the area as district visitors), a lectern from Mr. Nixon and "a set of altar hangings, stoles etc., for the four seasons" from William Thompson, the first choirmaster. Members of Saint Matthias sewed cassocks and surplices and contributed prayer books and hymnals. Still on the shopping list were a chalice and paten, a washstand for the vestry and an organ in the basement for the Sunday school.

The mission church of Saint Mary Magdalene was officially opened on Low Sunday, April 8,1888. Writing in 1925, Father Hiscocks, then vicar of SMM, reported that prior to the completion of the mission church, services had been held in a small house on Clinton Street (presumably where the Sunday school was), then in the basement of the partially finished chancel. Although there is no other record of these services, Hiscocks' source was probably Charles Darling himself, so we may take this report as reliable. It is a shame that we possess no real description of the celebrations on opening day. We do have a very full schedule. The day began with a said eucharist celebrated at 8:00 am by the Reverend Richard Harrison, rector of Saint Matthias. There followed a choral eucharist at 11:15 with Darling presiding and Professor William Clark of Trinity College preaching "an able and impressive sermon" on the text "Lovest thou me". In late afternoon yet another service was held (presumably a "choral litany" as was the custom at Saint Matthias); it was probably at this service that the first baptisms in the parish were performed, the children being Emily Bullock, daughter of the Sunday school director, and Lily Billinghurst The day ended with evensong at 7:00 pm with Archbishop Sweatman as the preacher.

The work of other church groups in the neighbourhood was also bearing fruit. As noted, there had been churches on the perimeter of SMM's district since the 1870's, but as the streets between the main thoroughfares filled in, new activity commenced. College Street Presbyterian, first opened in 1873, was replaced by a new and much larger building in 1885 to accommodate its growing congregation. Two Methodist missions in the area, sent out by two separate congregations in 1886, amalgamated to open a large church on Clinton Street just north of College in May of 1888, just one month after Saint Mary Magdalene's was opened. The congregation of College Street Baptist, first organized in 1872 to the east of Bathurst, was also busy in the neighbourhood. Instead of establishing a separate mission, though, it elected to move in its entirety to a new location at College and Palmerston in 1889. In all, there were six places of worship within just over half a kilometre of Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1889. No wonder C. S. Clark, in his book, _Of Toronto the Good_ (1898), called Toronto "a city of churches". Clark himself, however, could see little that was good about it.

From Mission to Parish

As for the mission church of Saint Mary Magdalene, there was no thought in April of 1888 that it should soon become an independent, self-supporting parish. Rather it was to be "a home for the wandering Sunday School" that would provide "some modicum of Sunday services" as well. Indeed, as overcrowding at Saint Matthias remained serious—parishioners were said to be "jammed into a space of about two square feet, like sardines in a box, flanked, backed, and fronted by other hot and half-smothered human beings Sunday after Sunday"—the rector of Saint Matthias began to conceive of SMM less as a mission than as a chapel of ease for the mother church. Before long, however, he realized that the mission church was too far away to serve this purpose, and that in any case it would soon be full with its own congregation. But any ambitions Saint Matthias had for its mission quickly became academic. On May 8, 1888, just a month after the official opening, Archbishop Sweatman wrote to the rector and wardens of Saint Matthias concerning a "memorial" he had received from the mission congregation. This memorial asked him to establish Saint Mary Magdalene's as a separate and independent parish. The archbishop said he was considering the matter, and he invited the corporation of Saint Matthias to state what objections, if any, they had to the plan.

The mission was obviously confident it could support itself, although at this point it was still being subsidized by Saint Matthias. Their enthusiasm had been communicated to John Ross Robertson, founder and editor of the _Evening Telegram_ , whose habit it was to visit and report on the churches of Toronto. Robertson predicted good things for the mission even before it was actually opened:

Mr. Darling is genial in manner and popular among the people, especially young people. He has in him, in addition to this social power, that spirit of consecration to his work that is the guarantee of its ultimate success [2].

The signs of success were not long in coming. Under the direction of Lane and Bullock, the Sunday school grew quickly to about 120 children, a large number given the small basement they met in. By August of 1888, district visitors had been organized at SMM to canvass the area as far north as Bloor Street. With talk of independence in the air, Saint Matthias instructed its mission to work among those people north of College Street who "have not attached themselves to any Parish Church". The mission was explicitly warned not to build itself up by stealing members of existing congregations, no doubt first and foremost Saint Matthias itself.

Additional impetus to make SMM an independent parish came from Charles Darling, who had formally been given pastoral charge of the mission area, though services at SMM were still shared between him and Richard Harrison. In the fall of 1888, Darling moved from the bottom of Euclid Avenue to 481 Manning to be closer to his mission church. Certain aspects of the mission's relationship to Saint Matthias upset him, and he probably pressured the archbishop to grant the mission its independence quickly. We have an undated memorandum of his concerning a meeting he had with the archbishop to discuss the matter. In it he noted that although he was curate of SMM, he was still obliged to assist at Saint Matthias. Also, the mission church was paying more than one-third of the bill for clerical salaries in the parish that year, a proportion he thought excessive. He also claimed that the mission congregation had paid for the building and its upkeep all on their own, thus questioning the purpose of any ongoing relationship to Saint Matthias. The memorandum argued for a better deal, not full-fledged independence, but Darling's thinking was clearly headed in that direction.

Any objections Saint Matthias may have had to the proposal cannot have been compelling, for in January 1889 the archbishop agreed that SMM should be made independent. We are told (as if we needed to be) that the small mission greeted this decision enthusiastically. The act constituting Saint Mary Magdalene's as an independent parish was signed by the archbishop on March 9, 1889, just eleven months after the church doors were opened. The boundaries of the new parish were College Street to the south, Bloor Street to the north, Bathurst Street to the east and Shaw Street to the west. (The western boundary was later extended two blocks to Ossington Avenue.) As it was Lent, inauguration services were postponed until Low Sunday, April 28,1889. Professor Clark of Trinity College and the Reverend J. C. Roper of Saint Thomas's preached at the 11:00 am and 7:00 pm services respectively. Although it seems unlikely that all of the activities we have outlined could have gone unnoticed, the church put up posters around the parish to announce its "inauguration":

Here is a great opportunity! Come one and all! MEN, WOMEN, and CHILDREN rally around us, and help us to build up amongst you this new centre of the Church of England life and influence. There is plenty of work for you all.

There was, too.

Stages of Construction

The congregation grew quickly enough. Figures are generally lacking for the period, but we do know that on Easter Day 1889, a day on which all confirmed members were expected to make their communion, there were 39 communicants at SMM; others may have preferred to return to Saint Matthias on this occasion. The number of Easter communicants rose to 65 in 1890 and to 110 in 1891. The total weekly offering rose from an average of $14.39 prior to Easter 1890, about half of which came from 28 envelope subscribers, to $20.62 between Easter 1892 and Easter 1893, when 61 envelope subscribers were listed.

Many of the early members of SMM had formerly belonged to Saint Matthias, despite the mother church's pleas not to grow at her expense. Interestingly, some of the Saint Matthias crowd seem not to have thrown in their lot completely with the new church for a time. Alexander Lightboum and George Verral, both deeply involved in the founding of Saint Mary Magdalene's, nevertheless both served as lay representatives to synod for Saint Matthias from 1889 to 1891. They and others maintained a kind of dual membership, and in that sense continued to treat SMM as a chapel of ease. One unfortunate result of losing part of its congregation to the mission was to deepen Saint Matthias's financial troubles. The mother church was disfranchised at synod for failure to pay its assessment from 1892 through 1897. Also, as we have noted, Saint Matthias never was able to build a new church for itself. Saint Mary Magdalene's, though, was doing well for a young parish. When John Ross Robertson returned to the church in the mid-1890's, he noted that "the congregation is united and enthusiastic and the work is well and strongly organized".

Work on the church building proceeded quickly at first. The structure of 1888 was a temporary one, or rather was the nucleus around which the completed church could be built; except for the west wall and the roof, all the building that had been done was permanent. Future building was intended to follow the plans laid down by the architect, Frank Darling (1850–1923), Charles Darling's elder brother.

After graduating from Trinity College, Frank Darling had studied architecture under Henry Langley in Toronto. He then went to England to study under Sir George Edmund Street and Sir Arthur Blomfield. All of his teachers were champions of the nineteenth century revival of Gothic architecture, a style which many, including the Tractarians and the Cambridge Camden Society in England, considered to be the only appropriate style for churches [3]. After returning to Toronto, Frank Darling, along with George Curry and (later on) other partners, developed a thriving Toronto firm with an impressive list of clients in both the residential and commercial spheres. Among the well-known Toronto buildings that Darling, in concert with various partners, was responsible for were the Bank of Montreal at Yonge and Front Streets (1885–86), one of a long list of banks; many buildings at the University of Toronto including Convocation Hall (1906–07) and the Sandford Fleming Building (1907); and, just nearby, the Toronto General Hospital (1909–19) and the Royal Ontario Museum (1912–14). His fame was such that he received the King's gold medal for architecture in 1915. In 1916 he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the first "colonial" to be awarded this distinction. When the Parliament buildings in Ottawa were destroyed by fire that year, the firm of Darling and Pearson was chosen to oversee their reconstruction.

Frank Darling is not as well known for his church work, partly because little of it survives. Besides SMM, he is said to have worked on Saint Matthias, which as we saw was meant to be a schoolhouse, and which was later enlarged and remodelled as it became clear that it would be the congregation's permanent home. Frank Darling also designed the second Saint Thomas's (at Huron and Sussex), Saint Luke's Church (Saint Joseph and Saint Vincent Streets), the chapel in old Trinity College (Queen Street), and Saint John's Convent and chapel (Major Street). Interestingly, Trinity College chapel, built in 1884, had seven large windows in the apse, just as Saint Mary Magdalene's was to have. However, old Trinity College, Saint Thomas's and Saint Luke's were taken down many years ago. Saint John's Convent was sold to the Doctor's Hospital, which has occupied the building to the present; at the time of writing, it too is slated for demolition.

Though he had studied with famous practitioners of the Gothic revival (Langley was responsible for such Toronto churches as Metropolitan United and the Necropolis Chapel on Winchester Street; George Street designed SMM Paddington), Frank Darling did not submit a Gothic design for Saint Mary Magdalene's. While he did do some designs in the Gothic style—both Saint Luke's and Trinity College chapel were considered to be excellent examples of that style in their day—Darling was eclectic in the sources of his inspiration. The rounded windows and archways of SMM have led some to characterize it as Romanesque, although the church does not have the heavy walls or dark interior that are also features of this style. SMM is essentially in the form of an early and simple basilica, rectangular in shape (making the most efficient use of our parcel of land) and with a seven-sided apse projecting from the east end. Large and open, the nave is considerably taller than the two side aisles, which are set off from the nave by rows of pillars. Also characteristic of the basilica style is the narthex or porch at the west end that extends the entire width of the church, across the nave and both side aisles. It has been said that Frank Darling's taste tended toward the simple and streamlined, and that taste is reflected in the Saint Mary Magdalene's he built.

On the other hand, simple and streamlined were not quite the features of the Saint Mary Magdalene's he once intended to build. The SMM he originally designed survives as a drawing he made in or around 1892. It shows the rounded arches and doorways that the present church has, but it also shows a much more elaborate exterior, especially its medieval western facade replete with statues and decorative turrets. The church was also to have been larger, extending further north to provide room for clergy and sexton's quarters and a large bell tower. It was probably this design that Frank Darling submitted to vestry in 1892. Vestry voted its thanks to the architect and its "great admiration" for the design he had conceived. That Darling waived the fee for all his work was a welcome bonus.

Frank Darling's original ambitious design for SMM, ca. 1892.

The church was built in stages, but because the evidence is fragmentary, it is hard to be precise about what was accomplished at each one. The first order of business was to provide additional space for the congregation. The special vestry meeting of September 2, 1889, unanimously approved plans for an addition to the nave to seat 400 people at a projected cost of $5,000. While the work was in progress, a celebration was held on November 7,1889, when the Reverend Richard Harrison laid the cornerstone with a silver trowel. To save on expenses, the stone was entirely plain and the customary coins were not put inside it. By Low Sunday of 1890, when the work was completed and the enlarged Saint Mary Magdalene's opened, the church consisted of the chancel, the organ chamber and vestry which flank it, and "two piers" of the nave and some 40 feet of the south aisle (about half of its present length) completed up to a height of 20 feet. The nave section was covered by a flat temporary roof. According to a report in _the_ _Canadian Churchman_ , "Though the building has at present no beauty to speak of, except that of capacity, there are signs now visible of its future beauty and greatness."

These must have been heady, optimistic years for the young congregation. They had after all become independent and self-supporting much sooner than anyone had imagined. Even though their church was far from completion, their plans grew bigger and bigger. No longer content with just building a church, they purchased additional property for further projects. In 1889 the lot next to the church on the north side of Ulster Street over to Euclid Avenue was purchased. The purpose of this lot was not made clear in the records (and was perhaps not decided) until 1892, when it was designated the site for a future rectory. This was a more ambitious plan than might first appear, for rectories were still something of a rarity in those days; even in 1910, of the 55 Church of England parishes in Toronto, only 18 had houses for their clergy. Also in 1892, SMM purchased an additional 20 feet of frontage along Manning Avenue to the north of the church, at a cost of $40 per foot, with a view to building a schoolhouse and parish hall there at some point in the future. Of course, the parish was not yet prepared to build either a rectory or a schoolhouse, but it wished to acquire the land quickly lest it be lost "in view of the rapid building operations in the neighbourhood". And the parish had little doubt that its plans would soon bear fruit.

Additional work on the church, though on a smaller scale than that of 1889–90, began in the fall of 1894 and was intended to "give to our Chancel what it so sorely needs, viz: SUNLIGHT and above all VENTILATION, besides adding greatly to its acoustic properties and interior effect". To this end, the sanctuary roof was raised seven feet, and seven sashed windows were installed in the apse. The chancel was given oak steps, and a new and larger altar with a platform and retable was put in place. The work cost about $1,200, a sum that was quickly paid off, and was overseen by the same small group of men whose names recur over and over in the records of the opening years of the parish: Henry Chick, Charles Murray, and Ernest Restall (all of whom served as wardens in the 1890's), Alexander Lightbourn (treasurer of the building fund for many years), William Jephcott, Charles Warwick and T. W. Howard. Unfortunately their work did not solve all of the problems. The temporary wooden wall at the west end was unsightly; the windows in it rattled and let the wind and the cold in, while the temporary roof over the whole structure leaked. According to a fundraising brochure of 1907, describing this phase of the church building, "Our best friends will not say it is beautiful, nor attractive, nor inspiring. Indeed it is depressing in the extreme."

Whether these comments were also meant to apply to the interior of SMM is difficult to say, for we have next to no information on that subject. Despite the improvements of 1894, the church must still have been dark on the inside, although the drafty west wall would seem to have solved the ventilation problem. Furnishings must have been spartan and makeshift at first. It was in 1892 or early 1893 that John Gardner erected the first pulpit, and around that time an altar rail was put in place. There is a photograph of the chancel dated 1903, which even in its faded condition shows the oppressive effect created by the low roof and the small windows in the apse. The apse wall was decorated with crosses, and the chancel was set off from the nave by a wooden rood screen and gate not unlike those still in place today at Saint Matthias. Across the ceiling beam at the entrance to the chancel ran the inscription, "All ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord." Around the apse ran a second inscription taken from God's covenant with Noah: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Raising Money

With the purchase of the Euclid Avenue lot and the opening of the half-finished nave in 1890, almost $15,000 had been spent by the young congregation. This figure included $2,600 for the church lot (paid for in full), about $9,000 on the building itself and about $900 for the lot on Euclid Avenue (both on account). As the parishioners, generally speaking, were of modest means at best, the money was acquired piecemeal through a variety of methods including subscriptions to the building fund and the staging of parish "entertainments". Another venerable technique was the "Sale of Work". The first such sales were held in 1888 in the church basement, but within a short time they had become quite substantial affairs. The Sale of Work organized for November 16–17, 1891, by Agnes Darling, the rector's wife, and other women of the parish was fairly typical. The sale was held at the schoolhouse beside Saint Stephen's Church, which is a short distance away from SMM. Goods made by parishioners, chiefly articles of clothing, were sold along with refreshments and baking. The 10 cent admission charge paid for music and a series of "tableaux vivants" on secular themes presented by the children of Saint Luke's Church. The chief attraction of the show, however, was "the wonderful PHONOGRAPH" demonstrated by Mr. Strickland. This sale raised $360 for the building fund, an amount equivalent to several thousand dollars today.

Two other fundraising methods of the 1890's are also of interest. One of these, first tried in 1891 to raise $1,000 for a new organ, involved issuing "organ key" cards to parishioners. Each card pictured 50 ivory keys, and parishioners were to contact their friends and relations and persuade them to "buy a key" at a cost of 10 cents each. Naturally it took time to pay for the organ this way, and organ key cards were still in use in 1893. They were supplemented in 1892 with "land cards" for the schoolhouse lot and in 1894 with "brick cards" for the chancel improvement fund. A more questionable technique of raising money appeared in 1893, when the wardens appealed for donations to make up the operating deficit. Their appeal was based on the practice of Lenten self-denial, for self-denial would result in some saving to the parishioner which could then be turned over to the church:

Surely the man who gives 10c. [per week to the church], can, by denying himself, say tobacco, street cars or any little luxury, save another 10 cents a week ... In no way, we venture to say, could the necessary amount be more easily raised, and in no way more acceptable to Almighty God.

Such appeals have an odd ring to modern ears, but the method was tried and true 100 years ago. It was a regular feature of Lent at SMM and no doubt elsewhere. Whatever we may think of it, this method (like the organ key cards and brick cards) made sense in terms of the limited disposable incomes of most parishioners. Given that reality, the chief method of raising money could only have been to borrow against the future, and this left the church with a mortgage of $9,500 in 1894.

Saint Mary Magdalene's from the southeast, ca. 1900. Notice the small apse windows: the chancel was still well below its finished height, and the nave was even lower.

The unfinished west end of the church in 1907.

After the chancel renovations of 1894, building ground to a halt. Toronto had entered a recession, and hopes for the quick completion of the church were dashed. Before any more work was done, it was thought advisable to institute an ongoing fundraising plan to pay off the debt that had already been accumulated. The money came in slowly, and the plan was still in effect in 1906. It appeared that what happened to Saint Matthias was going to happen to Saint Mary Magdalene's also: the church would be caught under a permanent debt which would prevent it from fulfilling its dreams. Indeed John Ross Robertson, who in 1888 had predicted such success for SMM, now told his readers that "it is only the intention of the present rector and congregation to build a portion of the church in their generation". However, all was not lost; while the money trickled in, and while the congregation waited for the economic situation to improve, they took the opportunity to make some modest and low cost improvements to their property. Carpeting and cupboards were acquired in 1896, as were new altar frontals and a brass lectern for use in worship. In 1897, new seating was installed in the nave, and sod and a new slat-wood sidewalk were laid along Ulster Street. At Easter in 1898, the wardens were "pleased to report the completion of the lavatory"—no doubt others were pleased too! Finally, electric lighting was installed in 1900. These may not have been the big improvements hoped for, but they all helped make the church more comfortable.

With the return of prosperity in the early 1900's, hopes of completing the church were revived. The original plans were scaled down to a more modest level, however, to suit the congregation's financial position. By 1907 SMM was free from the debts it had incurred to that point and was ready to expand again. Frank Darling's original design for the church remained as a long-term ambition, but in 1906 the architects were ordered to prepare designs for a church that was "simpler, not so large, more severe in detail and less costly". While the building was still to be carried west to Manning Avenue, the elaborate western facade was dropped, as was the bell tower on the northwestern corner. There may also have been some changes in the conception of the interior—for instance, the rood screen was removed and replaced by a low wall at the entrance to the chancel—but it is impossible to be sure as no plans or sketches of any sort have survived. At any rate, the amended plans were accepted by the special vestry meeting of November 7, 1906. Frank Darling was sent off to prepare the working drawings and specifications, keeping the cost to $26,000 or less.

The actual work began in April of 1907. In charge of the masonry was Edward Teagle, who we surmise was a member of the parish; the plastering was entrusted to John Gander, who had canvassed the area as a district visitor. The construction was naturally inconvenient. Services had to be cancelled entirely one Sunday in 1907, and for nine Sundays in 1908 the congregation was confined to the north aisle. In addition to the expansion westward, the chancel ceiling was raised again and that of the nave was carried up to meet it. The interior was done over and a new organ was installed in the northeast comer. In all, the work took almost a year to complete.

It was an unexceptional spring day in 1908, April 26, that the new church was officially opened. Again it was Low Sunday—the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the mission church, the eighteenth anniversary of its dedication. In the morning, Charles Darling celebrated a full choral eucharist with the Reverend Canon Welch as the preacher. In the afternoon a special "Children's Service" was held, though to avoid complete chaos parents were requested to attend. The big event was choral evensong at 7:00 pm with Archbishop Sweatman in the pulpit. The archbishop chose to make an important statement on the unification talks that had been going on among the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches since 1886. The archbishop had supported these talks from the beginning, and had even forecasted an early and successful conclusion to them back in 1889. This result had not been forthcoming, although the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches produced the "Basis of Union" in 1908 which led to the creation of the United Church in 1925. Archbishop Sweatman took Psalm 87, verse 3, as his text: "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." He noted that the city of God "embraces the whole body of Christians of every name" (as paraphrased in _The Globe_ ) and expressed the hope and belief that it would in future be the Church of England's role to act as "the reconciler of the divisions of Christianity". Ironically for the archbishop, the question of the episcopacy was the major block to further participation on the Church of England's side.

Not that this was liable to dampen the mood at Saint Mary Magdalene's. Celebrations continued through May and into June. Over the next four Sundays the congregation was treated to a series of guest preachers. Among them were Professors Oswald Rigby and Arthur Jenks of Trinity College, as well as Canon Henry John Cody, rector of Saint Paul's Bloor Street. (Given that SMM was a Tractarian parish, and that Canon Cody was a great champion of Evangelical Anglicanism, his presence is of special interest.) In addition, evensong was sung over the next five Wednesdays by the choirs of Saint Augustine's, Saint James' Cathedral, Saint Stephen's, Saint Cyprian's, and Saint Simon's. Celebrations concluded on Wednesday June 3 with a recital on the new organ by T. J. Palmer, organist of Saint Paul's, assisted by the choir of that church.

The Completed Church

The work completed in 1908 gave us the structure of Saint Mary Magdalene's as it exists today. While the church, as we have said, was not Gothic in design, it did reflect some of the principles championed by the Cambridge Camden Society. The church followed the traditional east-west orientation with the high altar at the east end. Within the relatively cramped quarters which the size of the property dictated, there was an attempt to preserve the nave–choir–sanctuary distinction that the Tractarians favoured. The chancel was elevated five steps from the nave, and separated from it by a low wall carried up three feet or so from the floor of the choir, and by a striking chancel arch whose columns met the top of this wall at either end. In addition, while the ceiling of the nave was in plaster with dark wooden beams, the chancel ceiling was covered entirely in wood. Inside the chancel, the large choir sat in stalls facing each other from either side. The sanctuary was raised an additional three steps from the choir floor, with the communion rail on the top step marking the transition. The high altar was placed on a platform against the apse wall, so that the celebrant should stand with his back to the people and in clear view of the entire nave. With the altar raised in this way, and with a rich blue dossal ringing the apse behind it, the desired effect of an altar commanding the eyes and focussing attention on the mysteries of the eucharist was achieved.

If liturgical principles were one major influence on the appearance of the completed church, financial considerations were another. With the exception of the sanctuary, the interior of the church was marked by austerity, which is a more becoming word than poverty. There were few ornaments to compete with the simple stone pillars, wooden beams and painted plaster. The north aisle of the church was virtually empty, although it was laid out to serve as a large chapel when finished. The ceiling of the north aisle was done in barrel vaulting, while that of the south aisle was in rib vaulting. In both cases, the vaulting meshed with the arches between the pillars which define the side aisles. The vaulting also served to frame the windows on the side walls, which were arranged in sets of three. The south aisle was equipped with a small chapel at its east end, while the font was placed at the west end near the side door. In between were hung a number of religious pictures which had been given as memorials, including one of Christ the Good Shepherd, another of the Good Shepherd and the lost sheep, and a third of Mary and the baby Jesus. Despite or rather because of the lack of ornamentation, the interior of the church possessed a beauty and quiet elegance that were complemented by its brightness, which even today is greater than the size and number of windows would have us believe. It was brighter still in 1908, before five of the large apse windows and three more overlooking the gallery at the back of the church were closed and plastered over in the 1920's. [4]

One break in the general severity of the interior is worth noting, and that is the great chancel arch. Whitewashed and hollow behind its finely detailed mouldings, from the nave the arch gives the impression of lace. It consists of three decorated "steps", each one recessed from the one before. The first and third steps are decorated with doves, while the middle step is of more abstract design. The whole is framed by crosses set between stylized sheaves of wheat. This "break" in the severity was wholly unintentional, however, for the mouldings of the chancel arch were not part of the original design. They became necessary when the plasterers damaged the original choice of mouldings, and they were all that was available. Still, it went against Frank Darling's better judgement to install the new arch "as he considered it marred the simplicity of the design". While the chancel arch was out of keeping with the treatment of the other arches in the church, this has been little noticed since the large rood cross was hung in 1921, for the mouldings establish a bridge between the elaborately decorated rood cross and the overall simplicity that Darling was trying to achieve.

The font and the unfinished south aisle, ca. 1920. Behind the curtain at the far end was the so-called "vestry chapel".

It may be that the austerity of the interior was the architect's wish regardless of the financial situation. The exterior of the church and the basement, however, illustrate clearly the extent to which cost-cutting influenced the final shape of SMM. The exterior was (and is) decidedly plain. Save for the white trim and the facing of stone along the base, all ornamentation was stripped away. Despite its size and height, the church is even difficult to see at any distance. Once the district was filled with houses there were no clear sightlines, and the houses surrounding the church were also tall and shared the same red brick. Even the rounded windows of the church were a relatively common feature in the neighbourhood. The result is that from the outside the church is far from striking. Indeed, it calls to mind the factories and warehouses of that period.

The drive to keep down costs is also revealed by the state of the basement in 1908. In a comment made before the original mission church of 1888 had been completed, John Ross Robertson said "There will be a handsome room in the basement, eleven feet high and of the same size as the church above." There was indeed a basement room under the chancel which was used by the Sunday school and other parish groups. As the church grew in the early 1890's, however, the basement did not grow with it, leaving most of the church with only a crawl space beneath and very shallow foundations. Nor was the basement room handsome, to the point where Agnes Darling, president of the Women's Auxiliary, felt it was discouraging prospective members from joining her group. Even she was affected: "It strikes me more & more each week as I come down those steps into this dark room what a depressing thing it is ...", she told the members gathered in the basement in 1906. She added the hope that a larger and better work area for the WA would be provided when the upcoming construction was completed. In fact little was done to the basement, which consisted only of the round room under the chancel and the unfinished long room under the central part of the nave. Agnes Darling and the WA were left feeling "rather disheartened" at the dark and cold surroundings in which they did their work. Clearly, whatever money was available was spent to achieve as fine a sanctuary and place of worship as possible; in that context, everything else was a frill.

In spite of cost-cutting, the construction of 1907–08 came in well over budget at $40,000. This figure did, however, include such additional expenses as the purchase of a new organ from Breckells and Matthews costing $4,400. As the congregation was left with a mortgage of $23,450 in 1909, it must have been able to raise what for it was a substantial sum of money in a short time. The sale of the rectory lot at the comer of Euclid and Ulster in 1906 was one source of funds; the rectory and the church could not both be built, although there was still a plan to build a schoolhouse on the north lot one day. Friends outside the parish were perhaps the major source of funds. A campaign was launched in 1907 to tap this source. Darling hoped to raise $5,000, but in the event, although precise figures are lacking, he seems to have brought in a good deal more, including one anonymous $3,000 donation.

It seems to have been through Darling's own contacts that the approach to outside benefactors was made. One alleged contact can be discounted, though. None other than Andrew Carnegie, the famous American industrialist and philanthropist, contributed $2,000 to help pay for the new organ. Carnegie was described in _The Globe_ as "a personal friend of the rector's", but that is quite doubtful. Rather, giving church organs was one of his favourite charitable activities. Carnegie felt it was a good thing for congregations to hear sacred music "after such sermons as often show us little of a Heavenly Father", so he happily gave money for organs (he required the congregation to pay half) to thousands of churches that applied to his foundation [5].

We are on safer ground with two other famous patrons: Sir William Osler, the great physician and educator, and his brother Edmund, a director of the Dominion Bank and the CPR. Each donated one of the stone pillars of the nave as a memorial. (Four other pillars were also given as memorials.) William had attended Trinity College School in Weston as a boy, and his gift was in memory of the school's founder, the Reverend William A. Johnson. Johnson was also a friend of Darling's; when he died, he entrusted an altar in his possession to Charles Darling, and through Darling it became the high altar at Saint Matthias. The Oslers had connections to Saint Matthias through its rector, Richard Harrison. "Mrs. Edmond sic] Osler" is listed as a subscriber to Saint Matthias's parish magazine in 1884. When the rector's niece was married later that year, Featherston Osler, William's and Edmund's elder brother, gave away the bride in place of her deceased father [[6]. It is worth mentioning also that Frank Darling designed Edmund Osler's private home, "Craigleigh", in Rosedale. It is impossible to be exact as to the total amount raised through such contacts as these; however, the people's warden, Philip Dykes, wrote in 1910, "It is largely owing to the generous help of friends outside the parish that our Church is completed and our funds are in as good shape as they are...."

In spite of these efforts, the new church carried a mortgage of over $23,000 in 1909. Darling and the wardens resolved to pay down this debt as quickly as possible because of the crippling interest payments. While the rate was between five percent and six percent, hardly a burden by today's standards, the $1,381.50 paid out in 1909 as interest represented 30 percent of SMM's total expenditure that year for parish purposes. The nickel-and-dime fundraising methods of the early days were clearly not up to this challenge; a systematic and long-term scheme was in order. A series of so-called "Five Year Plans" was devised by which yearly pledges totalling about $1,000 per year for five years were secured. By November of 1917, as preparations to renew the plan for the third time were underway, the debt had been reduced to less than $13,000. This was quite an achievement given that the First World War (1914–18) saw a sizeable drop in attendance and income at Saint Mary Magdalene's and other Toronto churches. In 1916–17, for instance, SMM failed to pay its synod assessment, along with over half of the churches in Toronto deanery. Again, it seems to have been the rector who was chiefly responsible for organizing and managing these five year plans. At least Darling noted in the parish register, in a remark clearly intended for posterity, that the reduction of the mortgage "was rather the work of the Rector than of the Wardens". Darling was ever the man to get things done, and his statement was likely no less than the truth.

Bishop Sweeny, "My lad's death has affected me more than I thought possible, and at times I seem little better than an automaton, going about my work without spirit or hope." Or, as he told his flock, "For months [after Oswald's death] I was as one in a dream. I had no life, nor energy, nor heart for anything. " Though Hiscocks was still only curate, Darling dropped almost all the work of the parish into his lap after Oswald died. With that, a new chapter in the history began, for Mr. Hiscocks had great ambitions for Saint Mary Magdalene's.

The chancel ca. 1903, before the ceiling was raised to its present height and the rood screen was removed.

[Return to TOC]

The great rood cross designed by William Rae, dramatically marking the entrance to the chancel and sanctuary.

CHAPTER TWO COMPLETING THE CHURCH

All things considered, Charles Darling left Saint Mary Magdalene's in good financial shape. By 1917, the mortgage had been reduced by more than 40 percent, and it must have seemed that in a few short years the church would be entirely free of debt. In fact it was another 30 years. In part because of Father Hiscocks' efforts to complete and beautify the interior of SMM, but chiefly because of some major repairs to the church fabric, the mortgage ballooned in the 1920's and the ground that Darling had gained in reducing the debt was lost. At the time, this setback was not seen as especially serious. The 1920's were on the whole a prosperous decade, and attendance at SMM was rising substantially from the low it had sunk to by the end of the Great War. The debt problem quickly became critical, however, when the depression of the 1930's struck. This massive debt problem, combined with plummeting membership and parish morale, brought Saint Mary Magdalene's to the brink of collapse in the late 1930's. It was no small miracle that the congregation recovered, rebuilt itself and carried the church to its consecration in 1948.

Finishing the Interior

We have seen how hard SMM worked to keep costs to a minimum during the construction of 1907–08. One result of this effort was that the interior of the church had never been properly finished. Not until 1910 did the church replace the kitchen chairs covered with curtains on which the clergy and servers sat while in the sanctuary. The parish magazine of 1915 bemoaned the "depressing emptiness of the wide north aisle", which was without pews or apparently much of anything else. Because the schoolhouse had not been built, the Sunday school began using the north aisle as its classroom. A low screen was bought from Eaton's to hide the school's "not very sightly furniture", as well as to induce a greater sense of discipline and order among the students.

Beyond deficiencies of this sort, there was a reservoir of unfinished dreams from the past suggesting additional courses of action. Some had no doubt sunk without a trace, but the dream of a bell tower, for instance, for a time at least remained: the north porch was meant to be its base. On a more practical level, Charles Darling had never been entirely happy with the chancel, and kept a picture of the chancel of Saint Clement's Church in Philadelphia "to suggest ideas for the future treatment of the Church of S. Mary Magdalene". In particular he did not care for the large apse windows at SMM, complaining that they were excessive in size and would be expensive to fill with stained glass. He preferred the style at Saint Clement's, which had a pair of small rounded windows in place of a single large one as at SMM. Darling did however intend to have the apse windows stained. In fact he began collecting money for this cause even before the plain glass windows were installed. The war years brought forward three memorial offers to fill in one window apiece, and in 1918 it was planned to join the seven apse windows into one coordinated picture focussing on "Our Lord Seated in Glory". Nothing was done, however, because there was no money for the remaining windows, and it was felt that the work should be done all at once rather than piecemeal so that the tints would be mated.

Darling's other plans are uncertain, but in 1914 or 1915 one Fellowes Prynne was contacted in England to devise a plan for the "Enrichment of the Sanctuary" involving memorials to parishioners who had recently died. The only part of this plan of which some record survives was the installation of a set of gates between the two parts of the low chancel wall. A sum of money was secured from the estate of George Verral for this plan, but it was never accomplished. The only work done around this time that we know of was the electrification of the sanctuary lights in 1918, well after the other lights in the church had been changed over. By then Darling had relinquished control of the parish to Father Hiscocks, and Father Hiscocks, to put it briefly, had other ideas.

People today are apt to admire the simplicity of Saint Mary Magdalene's interior. Things might have turned out quite differently if more money had been available. Father Hiscocks was particularly keen to beautify the church, and went on record as saying "we want all the decorations we can have". Comments like this one hardly inspire confidence, but in the event his efforts to beautify SMM worked out well: his changes only progressed far enough to add some colour and interest to the church, enhancing the simple interior rather than overwhelming it. Father Hiscocks was assisted by William Rae, an architect and member of the parish. William Rae is little known now, but he was well-respected and active in Anglican circles in his own day. In 1907 he designed the new wing of Bellevue House, operated by the Sisters of Saint John the Divine as a rest home, and in 1927 he designed the altar for Bishop Bethune College which the SSJD ran in Oshawa. Working with J. E. H. MacDonald, a member of the Group of Seven, Rae served as architect for the great renovation of the interior of Saint Anne's Church in the 1920's. He also served as consultant in the design of the reredos behind the high altar in Saint Thomas's. Rae's connection with SMM may have come about through ties to Father Hiscocks, whom he seems to have known prior to Hiscocks' arrival in the parish; at least Darling listed "Mr. and Mrs. W. Rae" as references for Hiscocks to Bishop Sweeny in 1917.

The first of William Rae's work for Saint Mary Magdalene's appeared in 1921, the new reredos for the high altar and the great rood cross hung in the chancel arch. The large reredos and tester, which were red and gold cloth with black orphreys, were a gift of Mrs. Goldwin Howland in memory of her daughter Doris. They were installed behind the high altar in the spring of 1921. The high altar was cut in half lengthwise to accommodate this elaborate structure; what is known today as "the old high altar" is really only the front half. The great rood, a large cross of wood and plaster depicting Christ risen in glory, was Rae's most visible and most important accomplishment at SMM. It was installed as a memorial to the men of the parish who had died in the First World War; the parish lost 15 men, plus one more in northern Russia in November, 1918, as the allies tried in vain to turn back the Soviet Revolution. It was Charles Darling who began collecting money for a memorial. He had been a strong supporter of the war effort and had a deep personal involvement as well, with three of his children—Gerald, Mary and Oswald, who was killed—serving overseas.

What form the memorial should take was a matter of prolonged discussion. Ideas included a bronze tablet, the installation of stained glass in the centre three windows of the south aisle, or most ambitiously, the staining of the seven apse windows. While the idea of staining the apse windows was older than the war and separate from the war memorial, by 1919 the possibility of joining the two together was being considered, with staining the three centre windows of the south aisle as a fall back if not enough money could be raised. Father Hiscocks, though, was evidently against this plan, and on January 24, 1921, he formally submitted Rae's design of the rood for vestry's approval. That approval was apparently gained with little discussion, and fundraising for the project commenced shortly thereafter.

Within a short time the work was completed, and the large rood cross measuring 14 feet by 8 feet was hung in the chancel arch. It was dedicated on June 5, 1921, by the Reverend C. Ensor Sharp, rector of Saint Thomas's, at a special "military'' high mass with a detachment of gunners from the Rosedale barracks in attendance. A crowd said to number over 600 heard the Reverend Captain Harold McCausland of the Cowley Fathers preach. Although the design of the rood was William Rae's, the figure of Christ was modelled in relief by the well known Toronto artist Frances Loring (it is said that Florence Wyle was her model), while the colouring was done by Franz Johnston of the Group of Seven.

The intention was that the rood should symbolize the sacrifice made by the soldiers of the parish in the Great War. Christ's own sacrifice on the cross was considered a fitting image. The association may be disturbing now, especially as the completed work portrayed Christ in triumph. Dressed in priestly robes, and set on a crimson field, Christ wore a crown of gold surmounted by a halo shaped with a cross in brilliant blue. His face was turned downward so that he appeared to be looking at his people in the nave, with the two fingers of his right hand extended in blessing. On the arms of the cross were placed symbols of the four evangelists, one at each terminal. The border of the rood was quite elaborate given the distance at which it is viewed. On the inner border was a design of leaves and flowers, "the fruits of sacrifice", done chiefly in green and red. Surrounding this design were ornamental mouldings, a twisted vine of gold and finally pomegranates, representing the fertility of the Word, in gold, red and black. The rood has twice been repainted, but the efforts of the Reverend Francis Stephens in 1981 were relatively faithful to the original. The work is greatly admired today, as it seems to have been in 1921. The rood and the great chancel arch, though installed separately, together speak powerfully of God's glory and dominion. But one man who was not enamoured of it was Charles Darling, who continued to collect money for a bronze memorial tablet. After many trials and tribulations, such a tablet was placed in the narthex in 1926.

The installation of the rood was the most dramatic change to the church's interior, but the 1920's brought other changes too. The north aisle had been laid out as a chapel but, as we have seen, was unfinished and did not have an altar, occupied as it was by the Sunday school. It would appear that Father Hiscocks established an altar at its east end very early in his tenure, though exactly when is uncertain. The chapel was for use at the 9:30 eucharist, which Father Hiscocks added to the Sunday schedule in November 1919. The altar, which sat on a low two-step platform, was backed by wooden panelling and a high retable for the altar candles and cross. Because the 9:30 service was intended in part for families, it seemed appropriate to decorate the chapel with motifs of the holy family. Above the altar hung a gilt-framed oil painting of Mary and the infant Jesus. Embedded in the wall beside the altar was a ceramic roundel, from the _Della Robbia_ school of sculptors, depicting Our Lady, the Christ child and a host of angels. Father Hiscocks is said to have obtained it in Europe. Because of these decorations, during the ritualist controversy of 1922 the newspapers dubbed this the "Altar of the Virgin Mary", though no other reference to this usage exists. Around Saint Mary Magdalene's it was just called the north aisle chapel. Later in the 1920's, this chapel was used for reserving the sacrament during the week, and a plain, veiled tabernacle and a hanging lamp were installed. In keeping with its important new function, the altar was painted and gilded in 1928, the gift of Elizabeth Dickson.

The north aisle chapel in 1927, where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved during the week.

Among Hiscocks' other accomplishments were the opening of the choir loft (or "gallery") and the acquisition of a statue of Our Lady, both of which are better discussed in later chapters. A great number of vestments and new altar furnishings were purchased, donated or manufactured in the 1920's to enhance Father Hiscocks' liturgical innovations (see Chapter Three). Many of these furnishings were acquired through the Convent of the Sisters of the Church, which opened on Ulster Street three doors down from Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1923; the convent's mother house in England ran a school of fine embroidery. The north and south aisles, still somewhat barren, were also attended to. New lighting was installed in both aisles, and a portable "Children's Altar" that could be wheeled to the front of the nave (it was later fixed in place in the south aisle) was acquired for use at the 9:30 service, now too popular to be confined to the north aisle. In 1926, a beautiful set of Stations of the Cross was hung. These stations, designed by Sister Delphine of the CSC mother house, were of white plaster cast in heavy relief, providing a dramatic and three-dimensional depiction of Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Again, their austere dignity seems most suitable for the church and for their subject matter, but Hiscocks hoped to have them painted; and the first in the series, showing Christ before Pilate, was, it seems, taken down and painted in 1928.

The Altar of the Holy Child in the south aisle, 1927. Installed the year before were the stations of the cross that can be seen on the walls.

Still other changes were financed as memorials. The winter of 1923 saw the first stained glass windows at SMM, the first group of three in the south aisle. Designed by William Rae in a fifth-century Byzantine style to be in keeping with the rest of the church, they were given by David Orr in memory of his mother. Significantly enough, Father Hiscocks described this window as "the first permanent window" in SMM—he wanted the others stained too. With the installation of the new reredos and the rood cross, however, the seven large apse windows had become a major distraction. Five of them were closed off by 1925, leaving just two on the north and south faces of the apse. In 1928 a new pulpit was installed, the money for which was bequeathed by Katherine Goodenough in memory of her mother, Katherine Osborne. The bequest was too small for the stone pulpit Father Hiscocks desired, and so the present wooden one was erected instead. It too was designed by William Rae and was decorated "after the manner of the Great Rood".

Like Darling, Hiscocks left a number of unfinished projects. Besides having the stations of the cross painted, for example, he suggested a large mural of Saint Christopher to overlook the Children's Altar in the south aisle. One major piece of unfinished business, though, was accomplished shortly after Hiscocks left Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1930, and that was the renovation of the chancel. Financed by bequests from the Clubb and Worden families, this renovation was prompted by two developments: first, the removal of most of the choir to the gallery at the back of the church, which meant that the large choir stalls in the chancel were no longer needed; and second, the elaboration of ceremonial which had occurred under Father Hiscocks and for which the old sanctuary was much too small. Work began in June 1931 under the direction of Father Gavitt, Hiscocks' successor, and the ever active William Rae. The basic plan was Father Hiscocks', however, and would have been done earlier if it could have been afforded. The altar, along with the reredos and tester, was brought out ten feet from the apse wall and placed on a three-step platform, creating a small ambulatory behind it The choir stalls on the north side of the chancel were trimmed back, and the organ console joined the rest of the choir in the gallery. The choir stalls on the south side were eliminated in favour of a sedilia for the clergy, and the communion rail was brought forward to the top of the chancel steps, creating a much more spacious sanctuary. In the process, the old distinction between the choir and the sanctuary was erased, with the sanctuary being lowered to the level of the choir floor. Finally, the top level of stone in the chancel wall was removed, further adding to the openness of the new sanctuary. (In an interesting anticipation of the renovations of 1963–64, some thought was given to removing the wall entirely and bringing the communion rail down to the floor of the nave.) On hearing of the changes, Hiscocks told Gavitt that they were "exactly what I had always hoped for".

Naturally, all of these projects cost money. Although much was paid for by bequests, they still represented a diversion of funds and efforts from the problem of the church debt. Even larger outlays were required for some major structural repair work. It would seem that the effort to keep down costs during the construction of 1907–08 led to problems in quality. These problems began to appear a scant ten years after the work was completed. The first concerned the "round room" in the basement under the chancel, which had a wooden floor and wooden uprights supporting the choir and sanctuary above. These had decayed by 1918 and had to be replaced by concrete and steel. Dry rot, caused by a lack of ventilation, also did damage to the narthex. In 1923 the south porch entrance had to be closed because the tile floor was unsafe, and the north porch was rotting too. Meanwhile, the roof over the vestry and the north and south aisles had begun to leak, and a sizeable sum was set aside in the budget of 1921 to repair these leaks, refurbish the eavestroughs and install storm windows on the north side of the church, which bore the brunt of inclement weather. Cracks later developed in the ceiling of the nave, and more money was spent repointing the exterior brickwork, repairing the chimney, and strengthening the window frames in the south aisle and clerestory.

The largest single expense was a new heating system. Keeping the old small church warm had always been a problem, and the expansion of 1907–08 had only made that problem worse. It was alleviated somewhat in 1918 when Edward Teagle, who had handled the masonry in 1907–08, donated a new furnace to heat the basement A hot water radiator was installed upstairs to benefit those attending the newly instituted daily eucharists in the 'Vestry chapel" (the present-day Lady Chapel). Still, the existing furnaces did not keep the church sufficiently warm in winter, despite the fact that there were four of them, three hot air furnaces and one combination hot air and water. Besides, four furnaces running on coal put a great strain on the poor sexton during the colder months. Thus in 1921 it was decided to install a completely new coal-fired system with a large central boiler, which entailed the excavation of a boiler room in the basement. The total cost of this work was about $7,000. In all, by 1927, some $15,000, by Father Hiscocks' estimate, had been spent on necessary repairs to the church fabric, about one-third of what the construction some 20 years earlier had cost. His estimate did not include money spent on decorations, on which he said "we could spend thousands if we had them".

Crisis

Because of the fall in attendance and income during the First World War, by the time Hiscocks arrived in 1918 SMM was running a sizeable operating deficit. It proved impossible to renew the five year plan for reducing the debt in 1918, as had been intended. As a result, by 1921 the mortgage had only been reduced to about $12,000, not much less than it had been three years earlier. Hiscocks was disturbed by the church's financial state. He urged the congregation to increase their envelope giving to an amount in line with expenses, so that he and the other clergy would no longer have to appeal for funds from the pulpit. Raising $7,000 for the new heating system was impossible, however. The church therefore took out a new mortgage of $20,000 to pay off the first mortgage, purchase the new heating system and erase the operating deficit. With the ongoing spending to repair and beautify the church, it was difficult to continue reducing the principal of the mortgage, and in fact the church went deeper into debt. Thus the special vestry of 1926 voted to refinance the church debt once again, liquidating the existing mortgage and taking out a new one for $25,000. They had wanted $35,000 to finance additional repairs to the church fabric and the organ, but the diocese in its wisdom would not allow such a large mortgage.

This new mortgage was no more able than the previous one to solve the problem Saint Mary Magdalene's was having in meeting its commitments. The parish was indeed able to raise money in the 1920's, and it was able to keep to its scheduled mortgage payments, but the combined mortgage payments and operating expenses were just too high. Short-term deficits became a fact of life in the 1920's, though with some effort it usually proved possible to eliminate them at year end. Still, corners had to be cut. By the mid- 1920's, for example, SMM was falling well behind in its allotment payments to the diocese. These payments represented SMM's share of the church's work outside the parish, chiefly missionary work in Canada's north and other countries, social work in Toronto and pensions to support retired clergy and the families of clergy who had died. The diocese allotted a sum to each parish based on its annual expenditure. However, there were no sanctions if the sum was only partly paid or not paid at all. SMM therefore decided to reduce its allotment payments, and from 1924 to 1927 inclusive paid only $1,631.11 of the $6,044.39 which the diocese requested. Other signs of the developing crisis in church finances were appearing also. Father Hiscocks had always been paid a low salary, as that was all the parish could afford. This made it difficult to find assistants and finally a successor to Hiscocks when ill-health forced him to reduce his workload and then retire. Interestingly, too, in October of 1929, on the eve of the stock market crash, it was reported that SMM owed $1,500 on current accounts. Weekday masses were being held in the convent next door so as to avoid having to heat the church.

The great depression caught Saint Mary Magdalene's out on a financial limb, in debt and overextended in its commitments. It was not just SMM that suffered, of course, though the depression did not affect all Toronto parishes equally: those hardest hit were in the east end of the city, generally the poorest part of town, followed by those in the west end (like SMM); churches in the more prosperous north were embarrassed to a far lesser extent. As parish incomes dropped, and as the diocese depended on the parishes for its operating funds, the crisis quickly spread upward through the church. Throughout the 1930's, depending on the year, up to one parish in four was unable to pay its assessment to the diocese either in whole or in part. Most churches cut back on their allotment payments as well, such that the diocese's ability to manage outreach projects—in essence, to be concerned with anything beyond mere survival—was severely compromised. Paradoxically, as allotment payments fell off, the diocese raised the amounts it was requesting. It was frantic to make up the shortfall, and to deal with the additional outreach obligations which the economic crisis imposed.

Many programs suffered, including the Church of England's missionary commitments in western Canada and foreign countries. Closer to home, in 1932 the diocese opened a hostel on Victoria Street (later moved to Oxford Street) to provide beds, food and clothing to unemployed young men; it was closed after 1934 because the City of Toronto withdrew its financial help, and the diocese could not come up with the difference. Another victim was the diocesan cathedral of Saint Alban-the-Martyr. The cornerstone had been laid in 1887, but the building had never been completed. In 1933 Bishop Owen reluctantly acknowledged that it would be financially impossible to finish Saint Alban's as the majestic cathedral it was meant to be, and that instead it should be regularized as a parish church. To this day Saint Alban's stands unfinished on Howland Avenue. In 1936 Saint James was formally and with some regret made the cathedral for Toronto diocese.

At SMM the problems were especially intense. The depression reduced many families' incomes, which naturally had an effect on church income. Also, the 1930's saw attendance plummet, an interesting occurrence given the widespread assumption that in times of crisis people turn to the church. Church leaders of the time believed this also. One author claimed in 1932 that because of the economic collapse, "the Church has now the most favourable opportunity in many a day". In fact the windfall he prophesied never came. If we can trust the figures submitted to the diocese, attendance at west-end Toronto churches generally remained stable through the 1930's. At SMM, though, normal Sunday mass attendance dropped by one-third between 1930–32 and 1937–39. As to why this fall took place, it is difficult to be precise. In part it was probably because the number of Church of England adherents within the geographic boundaries of the parish was declining, supplanted by a growing Jewish community moving in from the southeast. In part, too, given their reduced or uncertain incomes, some parishioners no doubt withdrew from the additional financial commitments that church membership entailed. At Saint Mary Magdalene's, these commitments were particularly obvious as appeals for money to service the debt and remain solvent became more and more common. Such appeals, along with the precarious state of the church and the dwindling congregation, caused parish morale to weaken, bringing about further defections among the membership. Whatever the precise balance of causes, though, this falling membership served to weaken further the church's financial position.

Shaky parish morale was also the result of two bouts of instability in the ranks of the clergy at SMM. Charles Darling continued as the nominal rector until 1933, but his dissatisfaction with the way Hiscocks and his successors were managing the church was well-known, and by no stretch could he provide leadership or a focus of loyalty for the congregation. After Father Hiscocks left in 1930, his assistant, Father Loren Gavitt, an American on loan from the diocese of Washington, was offered the post of vicar. He declined, ostensibly because it would have meant swearing allegiance to the Crown, which he claimed would offend his republican sensibilities. Gavitt's assistant, Father Gordon Graham, then took charge and became rector in 1933 when Darling finally resigned. Graham did provide a little continuity—he had served as a deacon at SMM in 1927–28, and returned as an assistant curate in 1930—but in October 1937 he too resigned. He had tired of the routine of parish life, he said, and wished to continue his studies. But he complained also of his relationship to the congregation and said that "the raising of the necessary money [to keep the church afloat] has tended to degrade me...."

Father Graham's resignation put Saint Mary Magdalene's back on an uncertain path. In January 1936 he had expressed the hope that the parish had hit bottom and that henceforth things would improve. They did not, and three years later his successor, Father Lloyd Sommerville, noted that the parish still remained "at a very low spiritual ebb". As one parishioner told Archbishop Owen, "We regular members of S.M.M. have been most unhappy and unsettled because ever since Fr. Hiscocks left we have had so many Clergy for such a short time...." Father Sommerville continued as priest-in-charge until 1938 when Hamilton Mockridge was appointed rector. Father Mockridge had spent the best part of his career at All Hallow's in East York, a church he had founded in 1914. Now he was 54 years old, and illness prevented him from beginning work at SMM until August 1939. He almost immediately suffered a relapse and was forced to withdraw from active work, dying of cancer on December 8, 1939. Not surprisingly it was in 1939, during this second period of instability, that attendance at Saint Mary Magdalene's reached its lowest point since the end of the Great War.

Evidence of chronic money troubles throughout the 1930's is abundant, even in the scanty records from that decade which have survived. As attempts to find a suitable replacement for Hiscocks in the early 1930's dragged on, it was recognized that SMM was not rich enough to afford a married priest, only a single one with no family. In 1931 Father Gavitt and Father Graham were receiving only $1,800 a year in total from the parish; they had to live together to make ends meet. Darling's pension and salaries to Graham and the organist, Healey Willan, were normally in arrears by the mid-1930's. To help Saint Mary Magdalene's along, Father Graham used to turn over to the church his Toronto Rectory Fund cheques, which were intended to supplement his income from the parish. Willan accepted a series of pay cuts to his already meagre salary of about $1,000. Another sign of difficulty was that SMM was consistently unable to meet its allotted outreach payments. In addition, the parish was constantly appealing the amounts of its assessments to the diocese. Unpaid bills abounded. Some creditors were forced to contact the archbishop and their lawyers, as the church had taken the expedient of not responding to letters or answering the phone. Perhaps it was not only to save the expense that the phone was later disconnected! The ranks of disappointed creditors included SMM's own Chancel Guild, which lent the church $50 to help pay the mortgage in 1935. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the money back, it decided to write the loan off as a gift. In 1937, however, the Chancel Guild came to the rescue again, purchasing communion wafers for the church "until such time as the old bill is paid up". Saint Mary Magdalene's credit was no longer a thing of value.

One attempt to solve the money problem was to reorganize the Women's Guild, which had worked for many years to raise money for parish purposes. It was revitalized in 1935 as the "Women's Association", this time with the explicit purpose of raising money to cover the interest payments on the mortgage. Unlike the old Women's Guild, this new association included all the women in the parish whether they cared to be in it or not. They were divided into ten teams (later reduced to four), each with a team captain to direct its activities; the whole met once a month under the presidency of Florence Nowell. Through a combination of members' pledges, a canvass of parishioners, concerts and church dinners, the Women's Association managed to raise over $500 for the interest payments in its first year. At the same time, the men of the parish were raising money for the principal, but in not nearly so organized a fashion. Said Father Graham, "The women put the men to shame and the men don't seem to mind." Consequently, in 1937 the Women's Association took charge of the entire effort. But soon after Florence Nowell resigned in 1938, the Women's Association disbanded. The heaviness of the workload was Nowell's reason for leaving, and no one came forward to take up the burden. There were problems too with the way the association was organized, and surely the unsettled and discouraged state of the congregation took its toll as well.

The Closing of Saint Mary Magdalene's?

Given its financial difficulties, plus the fact that attendance was falling and that more and more of the congregation was living beyond the geographic boundaries of the parish, the closing of Saint Mary Magdalene's or its conversion to other uses were discussed. When the difficulty of paying for a full-time priest became obvious in the early 1930's, it was thought that SMM might be made the headquarters of a religious order such as the Cowley Fathers. Charles Darling, still rector at that point, said the idea was "worthy of consideration", though it is doubtful that he meant it. Nothing came of it, but with the situation deteriorating, the congregation contacted a real estate firm in 1937 to solicit offers for the church. There seems to have been no fully formed plan behind this move. One possibility was to sell SMM and give the proceeds to Holy Trinity, thus consolidating the Church of England's resources in the downtown area. Another thought was to relocate SMM in the city's north end, perhaps uniting with Saint Leonard's (near Yonge and Lawrence) to establish an anglo-catholic presence in that area.

As it happened, Saint Mary Magdalene's received only one firm offer for the church, $37,500, proposed by the Jewish community which was by then well-established in the district. Their offer was refused on the grounds that it was too low, but there seems also to have been some disquiet at the thought of turning the church into a synagogue. With no other offers forthcoming, the congregation was left almost by default to carry on at its existing location in spite of the difficulties.

The low spiritual ebb persisted, as evidenced by the number of weekday masses said in late 1939 and early 1940 with the intention "For the Parish". Matters were such that Archbishop Owen decided to investigate. In the spring of 1940 he appointed an independent committee to review the problems and fixture prospects of Saint Mary Magdalene's. The committee found that the church was behind in its payments on the mortgage principal by $2,500, and was carrying other debts of nearly $1,200 on an annual income of about $6,500. It was however by no means the worst off church in the diocese, a finding which says more about the difficulties elsewhere than the health of SMM. One bright spot was that SMM had managed to keep up the interest payments on the mortgage and avoid foreclosure. Still, the principal stood at over $16,600 in 1939; in relation to the annual income of the church, this figure is equivalent to over $400,000 today.

Recovery and Renewal

Fortunately better times were coming. By the early 1940's, Saint Mary Magdalene's and the diocese as a whole were on the road to recovery, though not as yet prosperity. For many churches the recovery had begun much earlier, though others were dragging their heels like SMM. Still, the number of Toronto parishes which did not pay their synod assessments either in whole or in part fell from 15 in 1939 to zero in 1944. Over the same period, allotment payments to the diocese rose from $88,063 to $137,101. By January 1942 Saint Mary Magdalene's was coming along as well. Allotments to the diocese had been paid in full, outstanding debts had been cleared and the principal on the mortgage had been reduced $1,000 in the previous year.

The parish was fortunate to have as its new rector Father Lee Irvine Greene. Father Greene presided over SMM's recovery both in terms of finances and in terms of morale. Born in Montreal, Father Greene had been ordained for the diocese of Algoma and had served in Port Arthur and North Bay. He first appears in SMM's records on the Feast of All Saints, 1933, preaching on the Oxford Movement during the hundredth anniversary of John Keble's famous "assize sermon". While the recovery of the 1940's was general throughout the diocese, Father Greene still deserves some of the credit for Saint Mary Magdalene's revival. He worked hard to build up the congregation, visiting parishioners who had fallen inactive to persuade them to return to the church. He was equally attentive to visitors and strangers (something the congregation had yet to learn). Father Greene also had a talent for raising money, and SMM provided ample opportunity to apply his skills. To clear some pressing and outstanding debts, he held a "gift day" in October of 1940. All day Father Greene sat in the church to receive the people's gifts. The idea may not sound promising, but the "gift day" was such a success that it was repeated in subsequent years to raise money to pay off the principal of the mortgage, which SMM was attempting to clear at the rate of $1,000 per year.

Father Greene

The money troubles of the late 1930's had helped put the congregation in a fractious mood. They had not been able to agree on a successor to Father Mockridge, and some saw Father Greene, whom Archbishop Owen had finally approached, as an "imposed" rector. The preacher at Greene's induction, the Reverend C. J. S. Stuart of Saint Thomas's, saw fit to warn the congregation against quarrelling and criticism. Before very long this problem too was resolved. The minutes of the annual vestry meeting of 1943, at which the rector's warden Dan Stiff moved a vote of thanks to Father Greene, record the tribute in these words:

All those at the meeting knew of the condition we had been in when he [Father Greene] came to S.M.M., and by his teaching and way of life, through his example, the atmosphere had been cleansed, and the life of the church renewed.

Despite the troubles that surrounded his arrival, and the authoritarian quality of his leadership, Father Greene had won high praise by the time he left SMM in 1945 to take a parish in New Jersey.

Redecorating

One consequence of the depression was that the church had fallen into disrepair. The plaster was cracking and "badly in need of paint". During Holy Week of 1939 the furnace broke down, the drains backed up and the choirs sang "to the steady accompaniment of water dripping from the leaking roof into a series of tin pans placed at intervals up and down the south aisle". With the recovery of the 1940's, these problems were quickly attended to. The work of beautifying the interior was also renewed, first under Father Greene and then under Father Brain, who became rector in 1945. Between 1942 and 1948, work was done on the chapels in the side aisles which, save for the chancel renovations of 1963–64, created the interior which by and large exists today.

The use of the side chapels prior to these changes is somewhat uncertain, but the following account appears to be correct in its essentials. From the days of the first rector, the south aisle was equipped with a small chapel and altar just beside the sanctuary. Its use seems to have been intermittent, as the chapel doubled as a place of storage and as the place where the choir vested—in fact it was referred to as the "vestry" chapel. Certainly it was no longer in regular use by 1930. In the north aisle, as we have seen, Father Hiscocks established a chapel to be used for the 9:30 Sunday eucharist. In a short time, this service grew so popular (holy communion was offered, and it was not at the 11:00 am mass) that the north aisle could no longer accommodate it. Thus a portable altar was acquired which could be wheeled out to the front of the nave on Sunday mornings. Before long, however, the portable "Children's Altar" seems to have been fixed in place along the south wall. With the relocation of the 9:30 service, the altar in the north aisle was used for reserving the Blessed Sacrament. In 1930, in addition to this function, it became known as Saint Joseph's altar and began to be used for weekday masses.

During the ritualist controversy of 1922, as noted above, the north aisle chapel had been spoken of as the "Altar of the Virgin Mary", although it was not so called at SMM. The first "Lady Altar" to go by that name was located in the church basement. It was established in 1932 for weekday services during the winter to save fuel costs, and was dedicated as the "Lady Altar" in 1934. This altar seems to have fallen out of use after 1936, but the idea of creating a Lady Chapel upstairs in the south aisle was conceived. Alan Russell, a former warden and long-time member of the chancel choir, began decorating the altar for this chapel in the late 1930's. That is where matters stood in 1941, when the parish was approached about a memorial to a soldier who was missing and presumed dead. The offer fell through—it turned out the man was not dead—but other offers on behalf of Frederick Clark Downey and Gordon Robertson came forward. Invited back to oversee the project was William Rae. At the time Rae was working at the Royal Ontario Museum, and he prevailed upon Sylvia Hahn, one of his co-workers, to finish decorating the altar and paint a reredos.

The Lady Altar with Sylvia Hahn's reredos, completed in 1943.

Sylvia Hahn was the daughter of Gustav Hahn, a noted artist and for many years a teacher at the Ontario College of Art. Sylvia herself was a graduate of the college. At the museum she worked for the display department, for whom she produced murals for different galleries. With this as her base she went on to produce altarpieces for many churches in Ontario, including the chapels of Victoria College at the University of Toronto, of the Cowley Fathers in Bracebridge (now at Saint Cuthbert's, Leaside) and of the Sisters of the Church next to SMM. Her reredos for the Lady Altar is set out as a triptych. Mary and the infant Jesus are portrayed in the centre panel with Mary Magdalene on the left and Michael, patron saint of the Sisters of the Church, on the right. The figures were executed in a natural style using a variety of colours and were set on a field of beaten gold. To complement Alan Russell's fleur-de-lis on the face of the altar, Hahn painted trilliums on the base of the reredos. The altar and reredos have great charm, though the chapel itself is somewhat awkward given the layout of the church in that comer. Father Greene hoped to have the Primate come dedicate the chapel, but as the Primate was unavailable he did it himself on Sunday May 23, 1943, with the first mass—a requiem—to be said there on the Tuesday following.

Sylvia Hahn also painted the mural to stand behind the new "Altar of the Holy Child", which was erected along the north wall of the north aisle in 1944. This reredos, entitled "Fairest Lord Jesus", depicts Jesus as a joyful (and obviously Anglo-Saxon) young boy in the company of God's creatures, including a lamb at his feet and birds above his head. It was therefore appropriate for an altar intended for use at children's services. The figures were painted in white on a blue background, giving an effect reminiscent of Wedgwood china—quite different from the bright beauty of the Lady Altar reredos. The altar that stood before it was originally quite plain, along the lines of a communion table. Work had begun on the project by January 1944, and the Altar of the Holy Child was dedicated at solemn evensong on the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels later that year. It was paid for by a number of smaller donations, probably memorials (at least a "commemoration of the departed" was said at the blessing). Father Brain intended to replace the pews in the north aisle (which face east) with chairs so that the Children's Altar could be properly used. But his plan has never been carried out, and the Children's Altar remains more decorative than functional.

Plans were also afoot to redecorate Saint Joseph's chapel in the east end of the north aisle. Some work had been done in the early 1940's, financed in part by the Women's Guild. The main effort began in 1947, however, when a student from the Ontario College of Art was hired to execute a memorial to Edward Maitland and Edith Mary Shadbolt, given by their daughter Madeline, a longtime member of the Women's Auxiliary. Into the oak face of the new altar were carved three scenes from the life of the young Jesus. On the left is shown Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, while on the right is Jesus learning the carpentry trade from his father. The larger centre frame shows Jesus in the temple interpreting scripture for the rabbis. Behind the altar stood a large plaster statue of Saint Joseph, bending slightly and reaching out his hand as if to safeguard the tabernacle below it. The statue had its critics, but the altar is a fine and uncommon piece of work. The new chapel, used for the 9:30 family service on Sundays, was dedicated on Saint Joseph's day, March 19, 1948.

Saint Joseph's Chapel, completed in 1948. The statue now stands in Saint John's Polish National Catholic Church on Cowan Avenue.

The Consecration of the Church

Meanwhile, slowly but surely, the congregation was paying down the mortgage. Reduction of the principal proceeded rapidly after the end of World War Two; it stood at about $10,500 at the beginning of 1947, and about $8,000 at the beginning of 1948. The congregation resolved to clear the debt entirely with one great effort, and so a canvass of all members was launched in the closing months of 1947. This fundraising drive, which had Herbert MacLean Bell as its chairman, not only paid off the mortgage, it brought in additional sums for a proposed parish hall for the still vacant property on the church's north side—in effect, the schoolhouse that had been dreamed of since 1892. Just as Darling had done some 30 to 40 years previously, Brain seems to have tapped his friends and connections outside of the parish for help. But SMM's own congregation was larger and better off too, as indeed were many Toronto congregations. Many churches that, like SMM, had carried heavy debts through the depression were recovering. In the years following World War Two, a great number of mortgages were burned and churches consecrated. Among the long-established churches to be consecrated around this time were the Church of the Messiah, Saint John the Baptist Norway, Saint Clement's on Jones Avenue, Saint Mary the Virgin and at long last SMM's mother church Saint Matthias.

Bishop Beverley at the consecration of the church, October 13, 1948. The small altar candles would not have been lit until devotions.

The consecration of SMM finally took place on Monday October 13,1948, over 60 years after the first services were held in the church. At Sunday mass the day before, the congregation prepared themselves by repeating their confirmation vows. They also heard the premiere of Healey Willan's _Missa brevis_ _X_ , which he composed for the occasion. More than 500 attended the consecration service Monday evening along with numerous clergy, including the Reverend Henry Hunt (the future bishop, then rural dean), Provost R. S. K. Seeley of Trinity College, and the Reverend Doctor W. E. Taylor representing Wycliffe. The Bishop of Toronto, the Right Reverend Alton Ray Beverley (1947–55), was received at the door by the wardens and the parish Girl Guide troop. Gerald Darling, one of Charles Darling's sons, petitioned the bishop to separate the church "from all unhallowed, ordinary, and common uses" and to dedicate it to the service of God. Bishop Beverley then processed to the sanctuary where the deeds and title to the church were laid on the high altar. After the prayers of dedication were read, Father Brain and his assistants processed around the church, blessing the altars and pillars with water and incense while the choir sang the _Benedictus_. Bishop Beverley read the remaining collects and signed the sentence of consecration, then Brain stepped forward and set the mortgage papers alight. The preacher was the Very Reverend C. E. Riley, Dean of Saint James' Cathedral, who spoke of sin and God's healing grace. He noted that SMM's special call was to minister to sinners and to "people suffering as Mary Magdalene did". The Blessed Sacrament, which had been removed from the church while the first part of the service was underway, was then restored to the high altar tabernacle, and Father Brain led the congregation in devotions. The celebrations concluded with a party in the church basement, which like the service upstairs must have been all the more joyful for the many trials the congregation had weathered.

[Return to TOC]

The high altar in the 1950's. This photo, by Tom Hyland, a member of the choir, captures a spiritual quality which is most appropriate.

CHAPTER THREE LITURGY AND WORSHIP

One man invited to the consecration in 1948 was the Reverend Ramsay Armitage, then Principal of Wycliffe College. He was unable to attend, so William Taylor came in his place. When Armitage read about the service in _the Canadian Churchman_ , he wrote to the paper to point out that carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession, and placing it on the altar for devotions, were contrary to the Thirty-nine Articles. Taylor's presence, he added, did not mean Wycliffe approved; he and the college must have received criticism on that point. Bishop Beverley was asked about his own participation. He responded privately that he had not known that solemn devotions were to take place—they were sprung on him at the last moment, as it were—and that he "entirely disapproved" of such services. Besides Armitage's letter, the editor of _the Canadian Churchman_ received two other letters on the subject, but he put a quick end to the discussion. Armitage's letter was printed with the statement, "it must be obvious to readers of goodwill no further correspondence for publication is needed". These brief exchanges were a distant echo of the controversy that had surrounded Saint Mary Magdalene's anglo-catholic style of worship for many years. This "echo" shared the essential features of those earlier controversies, including complaints that SMM had deviated from the ethos of the Church of England, an unsympathetic bishop and an attempt on the part of church officials to quiet matters down. The sharpest controversy to involve Saint Mary Magdalene's came in 1922, but the roots of the conflict reach back to the nineteenth century.

Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals

The twin stories of the Evangelical and Catholic revivals in England are well enough known that they do not need retelling here. Less well known is the resonance that events in England found in Canada. Here, anglo-catholic and evangelical Anglicanism both began to make their influence felt in the mid-nineteenth century, though in less agitated forms than in England. Still, the two sides soon came to blows. The synod of the province of Canada of 1868 witnessed a major confrontation. This synod received "memorials" from the dioceses of Toronto, Huron, Montreal and Ottawa, and from various parishes as well. These memorials, all quite similar, condemned anglo-catholic "ritualism" in general terms as Roman and foreign to the spirit of the Church of England. The most specific complaints were voiced by the Toronto synod, which said it was

deeply grieved by the innovations in Ritual that are prevailing in some Churches in the Mother Country, and justly alarmed lest these innovations should extend to the Church in this Province....

Specifically it spoke against the wearing of chasubles, albs, copes and tunicles, the use of altar lights, incense and wafer bread at holy communion, and the practice of elevating the bread and wine after the consecration. (Anglo-catholics championed these practices to honour Our Lord's presence in the sacrament of the altar. Debate often focussed on "externals", however, as they provided a visible sign of intentions and beliefs.) The memorial concluded by asking the provincial synod's help "in preserving the pure and simple service and worship in our Churches...."

This is not to say that the Toronto synod was resolutely evangelical. In the late 1850's and early 1860's, it had joined Bishop Strachan in defending George Whittaker, the first Provost of Trinity College and an Oxford high churchman, against attacks on the "Romanism and Ritualism" of his teaching. In the 1870's it would again side with the anglo-catholic party against the evangelical. Many at synod were no doubt moderate and traditionalist, prepared to speak out against either party if it threatened disruption.

At the provincial synod of 1868, it was agreed after much discussion that the elevation of the bread and wine and the use of incense, the mixed chalice and wafer bread were illegal in Canada, just as they were in England; and that while altar lights and vestments other than surplices, stoles, scarves and hoods should be resisted, no other action should be taken until the matter was decided in the mother country. High church supporters were surprisingly quiet at this synod, perhaps because they knew the decision would go against them. The Reverend William Stewart Darling did move, in response to proposals condemning vestments, that the wearing of academic gowns should be discontinued also: he was making the point that if high church practices were vulnerable under the prayer book rubrics, so were low church practices. The motion was defeated.

This William Stewart Darling was none other than the father of SMM's first rector. Born in Scotland in 1818 and raised a Presbyterian, William Darling came with his family to Canada while still a boy and grew up near Orillia, Ontario. As a young man he joined the Church of England and was ordained priest by Bishop Strachan in 1842. From 1842 to 1853 he was in charge of the parish of Scarborough, which at that time was as large as the township. In 1853 he went to Holy Trinity Church, Toronto, as assistant to the famous Henry Scadding. From 1875 to 1886 Darling was rector of Holy Trinity. It was there that he became one of the leaders of the anglo-catholic party in Toronto and indeed all of Canada.

When William Darling arrived at Holy Trinity, communion was celebrated once a month; he made it the major focus of worship each Sunday and later introduced it on saints' days during the week. To increase the dignity of worship, he made the Sunday eucharist choral and dressed the choir in surplices. He is also said to have been the first to introduce eucharistic lights and vestments in the Church of England in Toronto. On his death in 1886, he was eulogized in the parish magazine of Saint Matthias, one of the leading anglo-catholic churches of the day, as "the prime mover in the restoration of the true idea of Christian worship" in Toronto. The eulogy went on to describe Darling as a man

who was, for many years, a prominent figure in the Canadian Church, and who perhaps more than any other man, has done more for the advancement of sound Church principles in this country ... [a leader] in the battle for the Faith and the liberty of Churchmen against a narrow Puritan spirit.

William Stewart Darling

COURTESY ARCHIVES OF THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO

It was not just his supporters who acknowledged his contributions. The evangelical Archbishop Sweatman also paid Darling a eulogy in 1886. Describing him as both cheerful and zealous, the archbishop noted:

During the many years when party feeling ran high and party controversy raged hot in the Diocese, Mr. Darling was a conspicuous figure on the floor of this Synod. A man of strong convictions, intrepid in their assertion, ardent even to impetuosity in the advocacy and defence of principles which he esteemed of vital moment to the Church, it was impossible but that he should be to the forefront in the fray, rallying with voice and example, as a leader of men, the forces of the party with which he was identified.

The "years when party feeling ran high" were the years following the provincial synod of 1868. Relations between the evangelicals and anglo-catholics went from bad to worse. Feeling excluded from positions of influence in the diocese, and wishing to carry on the fight against ritualism, the low church party formed the "Evangelical Association" in 1869. Renamed the "Church Association" in 1873 after the like-minded body in England, the group opposed "tractarianism, ritualism, rationalism, or whatever other movements threaten to undo the great work of the Reformation". They were also cool to Bishop Alexander Neil Bethune (1868–79), Strachan's successor. Though he tried to some extent to be even-handed, Bethune was clearly sympathetic to the anglo-catholic position. Anglo-catholics organized in response to the Church Association, and at the synod of 1873 they managed to exclude evangelical Anglicans from all major synod offices and committees. In 1874 Bishop Bethune summoned the clerical leaders of the Church Association before an episcopal commission on a charge of breaching church discipline. This action did nothing to settle their differences. Rather it threatened to lead to the creation of two Churches of England, as it were [7]. The Church Association began to produce its own newspaper and founded its own theological college, which in 1879 became Wycliffe College. At this point Bishop Bethune died, and in the difficult process of finding a successor—24 ballots were cast—the evangelical Arthur Sweatman was elected and the Church Association agreed to disband.

Recalling these events is none too agreeable, but they are necessary background to what was to happen at Saint Mary Magdalene's in the years to come. They also remind us that the controversies that were to surround SMM were less intense and of less consequence than a simple reading of them might have us believe. For while in England the prosecution of "ritualists''continued, in Canada the fires which had blazed so fiercely in the 1860's and 1870's burned low. This occurred in spite of the fact that Toronto's new bishop in 1879 was an avowed member of the evangelical party. One might think this would have spelled trouble in the same way that Bishop Bethune's support of the anglo- catholic party did. Archbishop Sweatman let no one mistake his views. In his inaugural address as bishop, he confessed to his evangelical leanings and warned the high church party against any further innovations. In a reverse of Bishop Bethune's stand, he spoke against private confession, at least as an habitual sacrament. Private confession, he felt, assumed that laypeople could only be reconciled with God through an ordained minister rather than "face to face". He also took issue with what he called extreme views of the Real Presence. Having the celebrant face the altar and elevating the host at the consecration, he said, tended toward unorthodox views of the eucharist. On similar grounds, he opposed the use of vestments, altar crosses and candles, just as the provincial synod of 1868 had opposed them.

That said, Sweatman vowed to govern impartially in a spirit of unity rather than uniformity—the bishop "not of a party, but of the Church", as he later said. He was true to his word, and under his leadership partisan spirit was greatly subdued. In 1904, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his consecration, Sweatman said that the greatest blessing of his tenure as bishop had been "the healing of the unhappy divisions of the past, the complete restoration of the spirit of brotherly union and concord among our Clergy and Laity". He did not mean that high and low church had ceased to exist, or had ceased to disagree; rather, the two sides understood the need for internal peace, and were learning to live and work together for the greater purposes of the church.

One reason for the decline of party strife was that the church was turning its attention to missionary work, which promoted cooperation, or at least healthy competition, among Anglicans. Sweatman encouraged missionary work in just these terms, urging

a laying aside of the petty dissensions and suspicions and prejudices which have so paralyzed the life of the Church in past years in the larger and worthier aim of actively prosecuting her blessed work of bringing men under the saving influence of the means of grace.

A second reason that party tensions were reduced was that in spite of his personal views, and in spite of the decisions of the 1868 synod, Sweatman seems to have made no attempt to impose uniformity or to bring the anglo-catholic party to heel. He was determined not to repeat Bishop Bethune's mistake of 1874. In the interests of peace, the issue was given a rest, and the church was given a chance to heal.

Anglo-Catholicism at Saint Mary Magdalene's

One consequence of this policy was that anglo-catholic views and practices were able to spread. Anglo-catholic parishes founded missions; Trinity College, the high church college in Toronto, was training many new clergy; and the personal influence of the leaders of the movement had a great impact. One of William Darling's accomplishments was to inspire a group of young priests, one of them his own son Charles, to continue his work. With William Darling as his father, and with his experiences at SMM Paddington and at Saint Matthias, it is not surprising that Charles Darling made SMM Toronto an anglo-catholic church too. From the start (or very nearly so, for we must discount the period when Darling had to divide his time between Saint Mary Magdalene's and Saint Matthias) the eucharist was meant to be the main service on Sundays. SMM was among the first, perhaps the first, Anglican church in Canada of which this can be said. A typical Sunday in 1889 began with said eucharist at 8:00 am. Matins followed at 10:30 as a preparation for the main eucharist, although how many attended matins and whether they did stay for the eucharist is impossible to say. A sung eucharist complete with choir and sermon began at 11:00 am. In the afternoon there was a "Children's Service and Sermon", and the day ended with choral evensong at 7:00 pm. In later years the children's service was dropped, except on special occasions, but the Sunday schedule as a whole remained intact for the rest of Darling's tenure.

Also of note are SMM's Lenten and Holy Week activities, for which we have schedules for 1893 and 1894. Ash Wednesday was celebrated with two morning eucharists, the main one preceded by a "Litany and Commination Service", though almost certainly ashes were not imposed. Matins and evening prayer were said daily in the church during Lent, with sung evensong every Wednesday and morning eucharist every Thursday. In Holy Week the communion service was celebrated daily. Palms were used on Palm Sunday, and Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were also marked with special activities. Holy Saturday was marked only by evensong in 1893, but a morning eucharist was added in 1894. This pattern also showed little change over the course of Darling's tenure.

Writing in 1919 at the time of his retirement from active work, Darling spoke with some pride of his role "in the establishment and maintenance of our high standard of worship". Because so little direct evidence survives, how Darling conducted services is not entirely clear. Father Hiscocks reported that vestments, altar lights as they were called, wafer bread, the mixed chalice and the practice of the celebrant genuflecting during the canon had been in use at SMM since 1888. As similar anglo-catholic practices were observed at Saint Matthias at that time, we can be confident in his assertion. John Ross Robertson visited Saint Matthias in 1888. His description of the sung eucharist will help to fill out our idea of anglo-catholic worship in those days. The choir entered the church singing a processional hymn, led by a server carrying a cross. Following the choir was the celebrant dressed in a chasuble, stole and maniple. The celebrant took his place at the altar, facing east with his back to the people, and began the chanting of the Ten Commandments.

Throughout, the order of service as prescribed in the _Book of Common Prayer_ was followed. The celebrant communicated himself kneeling, and the congregation also knelt to receive communion. Most bowed their heads at the name of Jesus and signed themselves with the cross at the end of the Creed. This was the practice at Saint Matthias, but it is probably valid for Saint Mary Magdalene's too.

Two other signs of SMM's anglo-catholic orientation under Charles Darling should be noted. First, sacramental confession was available to parishioners who desired it, though it seems that Darling was rather circumspect about publicizing this fact. There are so few references to the practice that it is doubtful Darling made a point of it or that many parishioners made use of it. Second, SMM soon developed a close relationship with Trinity College, a relationship that has been important and beneficial up to the present. We saw in Chapter One that the Reverend Professor William Clark helped celebrate opening day in 1888. Clark, who continued to help out in subsequent years, was joined in 1892 by the Reverend Professor Oswald Rigby, Darling's first formal assistant. Rigby was Trinity's Dean of College and professor of history; he was reputed to be the most popular member of the staff. He stayed on at SMM through 1897 and in fact was married at the church on June 30, 1896. Other members of Trinity who helped out occasionally in the early years were the Reverend Professor Edward Cayley and Provost Charles W. E. Body.

While it is hard to be sure, there are signs that worship at Saint Mary Magdalene's became increasingly anglo-catholic, or should we say more openly anglo-catholic, as Darling's term as rector progressed. Hiscocks reported that vested servers and processional lights only came into use in the mid-1910's, although there is reason to think that vested servers must have been introduced in the 1890's. We do know that in the mid-1910's Darling made a trial of incense, which was already in use at Saint Matthias and Saint Thomas's. At Saint Mary Magdalene's, though, the experiment was short-lived. A more important sign of this developing anglo-catholicism was the increasing frequency of weekday eucharists. In the 1890's, weekday eucharists were held on Thursday morning only. This pattern persisted into the 1900's when a small number of saints' days were added to the list. By 1915 the eucharist was celebrated each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning, except in Lent when it was celebrated daily. The number of saints' days that were observed was also increased. Perhaps the most notable addition was the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (February 2).

Throughout Toronto the anglo-catholic movement was gathering steam. This can be seen in the establishment of two monastic orders for women. The Sisters of Saint John the Divine, a Canadian order, opened a house on Robinson Street near Saint Matthias in 1884, where Darling struck up a lifelong friendship with them. Not everyone welcomed the sisters, but their work was warmly endorsed by Archbishop Sweatman. In 1891, the Community of the Sisters of the Church, an English order, opened what was to become Saint Mildred's College in Toronto. It appears also that elements of anglo-catholic ceremony were beginning to spread more widely through the city. The Catholic movement was hailed by some as the wave of the future. When a Wycliffe professor spoke out against the trend in 1908, the _Toronto Star_ joked that he probably took heart in Joshua's efforts to stop the sun in the sky—that is, in accomplishing the impossible. One supporter of the movement related to the _Star_ how he asked an unhappy Anglican which church he was attending:

"Well, I hardly know", he replied. '1 used to attend the Church of the Messiah, but they put surplices on their choir, and I couldn't stand for it. So I went to the Church of the Redeemer, but I hadn't been there many weeks before they, too, introduced the surplices. Now I think I shall try Saint Luke's, and Saint Luke's has started to use altar lights...."

William Stewart Darling had introduced the first surpliced choir at a Toronto Anglican church at Holy Trinity, and the use spread quickly. There were said to be 13 surpliced choirs in Toronto Anglican churches in 1888; the practice was becoming popular enough that it was losing its distinction as a mark of high churchmanship.

While Saint Mary Magdalene's was quite definitely in the anglo-catholic camp, it was by no means the most prominent member. The best indication of this concerns the frequency of celebrations of the eucharist. Between March of 1910 and March of 1911, Saint Mary Magdalene's celebrated the eucharist 150 times—essentially, as noted above, twice on Sundays and one morning per week. This was more frequent than most other churches in the diocese. However, there were three or four churches recording almost as many celebrations, and five churches with more, including Saint Matthias with 282 and Saint Thomas's with 525! By this measure, Saint Thomas's was the leading anglo-catholic parish in Toronto at that time. Also, Saint Thomas's (and to a lesser extent Saint Matthias) was more "advanced" in terms of the ceremonies employed at Sunday services. Interestingly, the Reverend Professor Arthur Jenks, who was instrumental in bringing Father Hiscocks to SMM, told Hiscocks that he would find at Saint Mary Magdalene's "a sane Catholic work, not an exotic [one] like the work at S. Thomas's". It was up to Father Hiscocks to make Saint Mary Magdalene's "exotic".

Father Hiscocks at Saint Mary Magdalene's

"I am looking for a Priest to take S.M.M. off my hands." That is what Charles Darling wrote to Henry Griffin Hiscocks in November 1917. Hiscocks was born in London, Ontario, in 1890. He was educated at Trinity College, Toronto, and the General Theological Seminary in New York. He was priested in 1914 in London, England, where he was serving a curacy at Saint John the Divine Kennington, a church noted for its advanced anglo-catholicism. On returning to Canada, Hiscocks went west to serve as a missionary in the diocese of Qu'Appelle. At the time of Darling's letter, he was stationed in the parish of Saint David's, a five-point parish centred on Punnichy, Saskatchewan. There he established anglo-catholic credentials of his own by precipitating "a few ceremonial disturbances" (as he called them) in Punnichy, though he did not introduce any anglo-catholic practices in the rural churches surrounding the town. For a young man he was quite well informed and, on the surface at least, extremely self-possessed. On the inside, however, he was subject to stress, a fact that was to shorten his stay at SMM. Perhaps for this reason too he tended to be aloof and something of a loner. A man of gentle humour, occasionally self-deprecatory, he confessed to a certain absent-mindedness and a love for detective stories. He was a poor singer, so while he usually preached at the 11:00 am sung service at SMM, he normally did not celebrate. But all of this was still in the future in 1917.

Providing Darling with an assistant had been a concern for some years, but as the First World War dragged on and as Darling approached his seventieth birthday, the question became one of great urgency. Darling did not know Hiscocks when he first wrote to him, although Hiscocks knew of Saint Mary Magdalene's. It was Professor Jenks of the General Theological Seminary who had recommended Hiscocks to Darling as a suitably Catholic priest. Jenks had formerly taught at Trinity and was a sometime assistant at SMM. His recommendation was apparently good enough for Darling, for without further ado he offered Hiscocks the post of curate with a view to becoming vicar and finally rector one day. It was also good enough for the congregation, already concerned at the length of time it was taking to find a replacement for their rector. The annual vestry of 1918 was glad to endorse Mr. Darling's invitation. As for Hiscocks, he was anxious to move to a city parish because he considered himself a "city person" and was unable to develop a suitable spiritual rapport with his rural charges. So it was arranged. Hiscocks was scheduled to begin work at SMM at the beginning of Lent, 1918, but a series of delays set in and he did not take up his post until September 1.

The understanding was that Hiscocks would serve as curate for 12 months. If all went well, he would then assume the management of the parish as vicar. The only stumbling block was Bishop Sweeny (1909–32), who said he would prefer a more experienced minister, and one from the diocese of Toronto. Darling suggested that the bishop had heard unfavourable reports of Hiscocks' activities in Saskatchewan, but Bishop Sweeny denied the charge. The bishop did eventually agree to the curacy, but he again balked when it came time to make Hiscocks vicar in 1919. He told Darling that he wished Hiscocks to remain curate a while longer, and Darling to remain as active rector, first because the people knew Darling and loved him, and second because he "was not anxious to put so important a Church in the hands of too young a man".

The rector, though, was too stubborn a man, and he did not like other people, including bishops, interfering with the parish he had founded. He therefore led a small campaign to pressure the bishop to change his mind. His letters to the bishop warned of the dire consequences of refusing to accept Hiscocks. When that proved ineffective, he persuaded the special vestry of September 1919, which elected to accept Hiscocks as vicar, to petition the bishop to accept this decision also. This petition, echoing one submitted in January of 1918 in favour of Hiscocks' curacy, gave enthusiastic testimony to his character. It said that Hiscocks had proven himself

by his earnest and hard work, by his tact and good judgement, by his ability as a preacher and teacher, and above all by his self-sacrifice, high ideals and exemplary life....

SMM's two lay delegates to synod also wrote to the bishop as part of this campaign. The difficulties were such that Hiscocks considered leaving Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1919, having been offered a parish in Vermont, but Darling persuaded him to stay. Finally Sweeny relented, agreeing to appoint Hiscocks as vicar for a term of one year. The appointment seems, however, to have been made permanent in 1920 without much ado.

One reason the congregation was glad to have Hiscocks as vicar was that it solved a potentially difficult situation, namely Darling's retirement from active duty but his intention to retain the title of rector. No doubt this condition had made it hard for Darling to find a successor. While admitting that it would be better if he left the parish upon retirement, Darling said that he could not afford to give up his house on Palmerston Avenue, nor could he manage on the retirement income provided by the diocese. Therefore he wished to remain partially active, collecting surplice fees (for performing baptisms, weddings and funerals) and part of the Christmas offering to supplement his income. He and Hiscocks signed an agreement in September 1919 (prior, we note, to the bishop's permission; it appears that Darling was trying to present him with a fait accompli). By this agreement, Darling surrendered all management and control of the parish to Hiscocks, so that whatever Darling could have done as rector, Hiscocks could now do as vicar without interference. Nor could Darling remove his vicar from office unless requested to do so by a resolution of vestry. In return, Darling received a secure income, could assist at services and was entitled to a seat in the chancel. Hiscocks formally assumed control of the parish on November 1, 1919, though in fact he had been assuming greater and greater responsibility throughout his curacy.

It was not just because Hiscocks would agree to his terms that Darling was happy to get him. He also wanted a priest who would preserve Saint Mary Magdalene's as an anglo-catholic parish. Professor Jenks pointed out that if Darling did not take this step, "he would see happen to S.M.M. just what happened to his father's work at Holy Trinity under John Pearson". The senior Darling had invited the Reverend John Pearson to be his assistant at Holy Trinity in 1875, the same year he became rector. Pearson, however, along with some parishioners, disapproved of Darling's anglo-catholic innovations. Matters came to a head in 1881, and William Darling decided to withdraw from active work. Pearson was placed in charge, and he quickly abolished most of Darling's innovations, including vestments, altar lights, wafer bread and the mixed chalice. This reversal provoked a large exodus from Holy Trinity, including the resignation en masse of the church choir. Perhaps Charles Darling was remembering this when he gave SMM six bronze candlesticks in memory of his son Oswald (which by the way are still in use). In making this gift he laid down "one very distinct condition": should the church cease using candles on its altars, the candlesticks were to be given to the Sisters of Saint John the Divine for safekeeping, and from there be sent to another church in Canada which would allow them a place on its altar.

Still, Darling was not entirely comfortable with Hiscocks' reputation, and he advised him to "go slow" with any ceremonial changes he was contemplating. As a young man, Darling must have been dismayed at the disturbances of the 1860's and 1870's in which his father had been embroiled. His formative years as a priest in Toronto were in the climate of patience and toleration that Archbishop Sweatman counselled. Darling told Hiscocks that he had experimented with incense "a couple of years ago, but I know now that the whole thing was premature". He reported that the Servers' Guild were in favour of a more embellished ceremonial than SMM had at that time, but Darling felt that given the situation in the Canadian church they had to be restrained.

Darling got more than he bargained for. Hiscocks was the proverbial man with a mission: to convert the Church of England in Canada to a purer and more apostolic faith, without which he felt the church would not survive. Before coming to Saint Mary Magdalene's, Hiscocks told the bishop of Qu'Appelle:

there are so many parishes that need converting to the Catholic faith, and I hope that if I were offered two parishes, one Catholic and the other Evangelical, I should choose the latter.

His decision to take SMM implied a change in strategy, but the essential mission remained. His goal now was to make Saint Mary Magdalene's a parish where full anglo-catholic teaching and practice obtained. SMM would become a national centre for the Catholic revival in Canada he was hoping for, and a model for other parishes to follow. He once noted that anglo-catholics in Canada were "small in numbers, but by the grace of God, we may in His good time be the leaven that will leaven the whole lump". His use of the term "lump" was hardly accidental; Hiscocks was almost as unsympathetic to other traditions as they were to his. The 1920's marked the zenith of anglo-catholic strength and confidence in England and elsewhere. So it was at Saint Mary Magdalene's, where the careful, moderate stance of Charles Darling was replaced by the aggressive, missionary posture of Henry Griffin Hiscocks.

Early Innovations

It did not take Hiscocks long to make changes. Daily eucharists began almost immediately upon his arrival in the parish and have continued ever since. SMM's first requiem (another practice associated with the Catholic revival) followed shortly afterward in January of 1919. Saint Mary Magdalene's also began to observe All Souls' Day, which soon became an occasion of some significance. At a special vestry meeting on November 20, 1919, "Mr. Hiscocks made his inaugural address as Vicar, stating plainly his views, aims & hopes for the future of the parish." The minutes of the meeting record no further details, but other sources allow us a glimpse of the changes he was instituting. He ceased to be addressed as "Mr. Hiscocks", becoming instead Father Hiscocks, and he took to wearing the biretta as a mark of his status. The eucharist he began to refer to as the "mass". The Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the church as of the Feast of Corpus Christi, 1920, for private devotion and the communion of the sick. The first communions of the sick from the reserved sacrament of which we have record were taken in July 1920.

As for liturgy and ceremonial at Sunday mass, information is scarce. It would appear that by early 1919 the "Summary of the Law" with which the prayer book eucharist began had been replaced by the _Kyrie eleison_ —the first recorded departure from the old prayer book service. Hiscocks made other departures from the prayer book service, though exactly when it is impossible to be sure. In general, he altered the service to conform with _The English Missal_. This book combined the 1662 _Book of Common Prayer_ with an English translation of the Roman Catholic missal. Liturgically, the most important departure from the _Book of Common Prayer_ at SMM involved the interpolation of the so-called "Roman canon", said in a low voice, into the BCP prayer of consecration.

At the same time, the ceremonies at the 11 o'clock mass were changed to incorporate features from Ritual Notes. This book, first published in 1894, set down rules derived from Roman Catholic practice for the conduct of Anglican services, as well as for services not anticipated by the prayer book. Most 11:00 am Sunday masses remained "sung" masses rather than "high" masses, however. High masses, in which a deacon and subdeacon assist the celebrant, were normally reserved for major feast days. Also, only two or three servers dressed in red cassocks were normally employed in the early 1920's. Again, the movement toward Ritual Notes is impossible to date precisely, but the indications are that it came early in Father Hiscocks' tenure.

We are on firmer ground with the introduction of incense, a traditional rite of purification, at the 11:00 am sung mass. Parish lore has it that Father Hiscocks introduced incense unilaterally and unannounced, simply "fumigating" the church with smoke one day before the congregation arrived. This is inaccurate. As noted above, Darling had experimented with incense prior to Hiscocks' arrival. Hiscocks resumed the experiment in 1920 following the vestry meeting of that year at which the use of incense was discussed and a straw vote, apparently almost wholly in favour, was taken. It was then used intermittently until January of 1922, when the service register noted, "Incense regularly used".

A more significant change in the 11:00 am sung service was the restriction of communion to the celebrant, with aged and infirm parishioners as occasional exceptions. Father Hiscocks instituted a third Sunday morning eucharist at 9:30, partly for the children of the parish but also for adults to make their Sunday communion. Breakfast after the 9:30 was provided on the assumption that communicants would then stay to witness the 11:00 am eucharist as well. Hiscocks had several reasons for restricting communion at the eleven o'clock. One was to help enforce the rule of fasting communion, that the Body of Christ should be the first food of the day, a point he was quite strict about. Also, he had qualms about dispensing communion to the visitors and strangers who might show up at the eleven o'clock, for he could not be sure that they were entitled to receive communion or that they had properly prepared themselves. Early communion, he told the congregation (echoing 1 Corinthians 11) was "our duty in protecting the Sacred Mysteries from possible profanation". This policy posed a problem when midnight mass was introduced at Christmas in 1922, since there was to be full communion and many visitors were expected. Hiscocks therefore elected to enforce the prayer book rubric: "So many as intend to be partakers of the Holy Communion shall signify their names to the Curate, at least some time the day before." This practice was continued in future years and was extended to other services like Palm Sunday and Easter in 1924.

Father Hiscocks wearing a biretta on SMM's fortieth anniversary in 1927.

On a more positive note, Father Hiscocks saw great spiritual value in the contemplative experience the sung mass afforded. Nourished by their communion at the 9:30 service, the congregation, he felt, would experience the sung mass all the more deeply, as

fresh glories of the Sacrament of the Altar stretch out before us, and we are able to realize as never before the great act of the pleading of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ.

According to one interpretation, the typical anglo-catholic aim was

not so much that the services should be a corporate offering of priest and people but that they should be offered by clergy and choir in such a way as to call out from the people an attitude of awe and reverence [8].

Several points could be made against this interpretation, with respect to anglo-catholics in general and Father Hiscocks in particular, but it does describe in part the effect that Hiscocks was trying to achieve.

The Ritualist Controversy of 1922

By this time, Father Hiscocks and Saint Mary Magdalene's had come under intense press scrutiny and public criticism for their anglo-catholic teachings and practices. Saint Matthias, Saint Thomas's and a number of other churches were caught up in the controversy too. SMM was moving to the forefront of liturgical change, however, and received more than its share of scrutiny. There would be little point rehashing the terms of the debate. It is enough to say that they were similar to those that had stirred passions in the 1860's and 1870's. The general issue was whether the Church of England was rightly Catholic or Protestant, and whether the historical settlement of the church (arrived at in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) permitted the innovations of the anglo-catholic wing. Opponents were driven in part by the fear that these innovations would lead to a fundamental reorientation in the teaching and practice of the Church of England. As one anonymous critic told the _Star_ , the anglo-catholics were "determined to make the whole church after their own pattern by a patient, insidious method, gaining an inch here and an inch there". His language was extreme, but we can appreciate his position if we remember how upsetting for some people change in the modem church has been.

If party rivalry had declined since the heady days of the nineteenth century, why did it revive so sharply in 1922? It was not because of Hiscocks' recent innovations. Most of the liturgical practices at SMM that were criticized in the press, except for incense and saying the "Hail Mary", had been practiced there for some time. The use of incense was well-established at Saint Matthias and Saint Thomas's in any case. Of more account was the increasing confidence and militancy of the anglo-catholic party, both in England and in Canada. In Toronto, efforts were being made to found a group within the Church of England to defend and propagate the principles of the Catholic faith. Early results were tenuous, and the group went through several name changes and reorganizations before the "Anglo-Catholic Union" was founded in November 1920 in Saint Thomas's parish hall. Similar groups were appearing in other Canadian cities. Saint Thomas's provided the main impetus to the ACU, but Hiscocks encouraged members of Saint Mary Magdalene's to join too. The ACU's first public act in Toronto was solemn high mass at SMM on the Feast of the Circumcision, January 1, 1921, with the Right Reverend R. H. Weller, bishop of Fond du Lac, as the guest preacher. The next year on New Year's Day another solemn high mass was celebrated at SMM with special intention for the work of the Anglo-Catholic Union.

A second factor helping to precipitate the controversy was outlined by Canon H. A. Brooke, rector of Saint Matthew's, in a sermon on March 5, 1922. Deploring controversy and favouring freedom in forms of worship, Canon Brooke suggested that the controversy was being used to prevent the union of Wycliffe and Trinity College. It is difficult to verify this theory now, but there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that favours it. Discussions to amalgamate Trinity and Wycliffe had begun in 1910. While they soon lapsed, they revived a year or so before the outburst of the ritualist controversy. Though it had been heating up for some time, the controversy was ignited by a pamphlet issued in the name of Wycliffe College entitled _Facts Worth Knowing_. According to this pamphlet:

It is sometimes said that the day has come for Wycliffe College to surrender its rights and privileges so dearly won against terrific odds, since the great body of the "Laity" have no use for division within the church.

But the pamphlet viewed the work of the Anglo-Catholic Union with alarm. It called on those "who love their Bible, their liberties, and their church, to stand fast in this hour of difficulty and danger".

There was in fact some difference of opinion among the Wycliffe community on this matter, and on the state of intrachurch relations as a whole. In 1927, the Principal of Wycliffe, Thomas O'Meara, espoused a "live and let live" philosophy, urging "a greater spirit of Brotherliness" than had existed in the past between evangelicals and anglo-catholics. Ramsay Armitage, the future Principal of Wycliffe, was a graduate of the college and a lecturer there in Greek in the 1920's. He and Father Hiscocks had worked together on church business, and Hiscocks reported in 1924 that they met frequently for prayer and discussion. The two obviously did not see eye to eye on many points, but Hiscocks attended services at the Church of the Messiah, where Armitage was rector, and Armitage visited SMM. In this way they developed a "close friendship", as Armitage explained to _the Canadian Churchman_ in his letter of 1948.

Striking a different pose was the Reverend Dyson Hague, Wycliffe's professor of liturgies, who was well-known for his uncompromising views. He felt that Wycliffe was needed more than ever, as the principles of the Reformation had never been so endangered as they were in the 1920's:

To-day the Anglo-Catholic party have attained a position in the Anglican Church that seems almost incredible. They are determined to blot out the Reformation. And the serious thing is not merely that the Anglo-Catholic movement implies the definite repudiation of the Reformation and all that it stands for, but that its inevitable trend is towards Rome.

Dyson Hague was the only member of Wycliffe to speak out publicly against Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1922.

Yet another facet of the controversy concerned the politics of Toronto newspapers and the competition between them for readers. The issue was covered almost exclusively by the _Evening Telegram_ and the _Toronto Star_ , the two more populist papers of the day. _The_ _Globe and the Mail and Empire_ , on the other hand, essentially ignored the entire affair. The controversy broke on Monday February 13,1922, with an article in the _Telegram_ on the pamphlet _Facts Worth Knowing_. The _Star_ followed suit with a similar article the following day. There the matter rested until the weekend when a _Telegram_ reporter, smelling a story, staked out SMM. On Monday February 20 he reported back under the headline "MASS IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH—FIVE ILLEGAL PRACTICES SHOWN". Again the _Star_ , caught napping, struck back the next day with two major articles of its own. Competition extended to the nature of the coverage. The _Telegram_ 's articles were on the whole argumentative and hostile to the anglo-catholics, demanding that action be taken against them. In response, the _Star_ modified its initial hostility and tried to present a more even-handed and genuinely informative discussion of the issues involved. Articles continued to appear on an almost daily basis through the first week in March, after which the _Star_ lost interest. The _Telegram_ continued to carry the story until about the last week in March when it too finally moved on to other issues. Ultimately, the knowledge that "controversy" could help sell newspapers made this controversy seem more important than it was.

The article that touched off the fireworks: "Services are conducted without any respect for authority ".

COURTESY METROPOLITAN TORONTO LIBRARY

All of which is not to say that the controversy was entirely a manufactured one, or that there was no interest among the public at large. Neither the manoeuvrings of a small group of Wycliffe supporters nor the competition between newspapers would make sense if there were not. The press published a number of letters hostile to Saint Mary Magdalene's, and the church received some directly. One described SMM's ceremonial as "clownish" and asked, "Why in the name of goodness are you not honest and go over to the Roman Church?" A more interesting letter was received from a millenarian who was convinced that the "consummation of the age" was at hand, and who suggested, "Instead of you and all people argueing [sic] about matters of ritual, you should take the Bible & see what it had to say."

Father Hiscocks received threats to disrupt mass on Sunday February 26, 1922, just as the controversy was breaking. He was impressed enough by these threats to request police protection in the form of plainclothes officers. The service book records this as "The day we were threatened by Prots. for 'ritual'—Police protection obt." Healey Willan said later that Father Hiscocks took the precaution of tacking a copy of the "Riot Act" to his prayer desk, ready for reading if the occasion demanded. Word of the threat leaked out courtesy of the _Star_ , and an unusually large congregation of 353 turned out to see the excitement. Many must have gone home relieved, and many others disappointed, for in the event nothing exciting happened. Some credited Father Hiscocks' sermon on love and charity, based on the epistle of the day (1 Corinthians 13), with this happy result.

Not all of the public response was negative. SMM also received two very positive letters that are worth quoting at length. One Irish woman (who was clearly not a parishioner) wrote to Hiscocks:

I'm one of the many that I know wants to thank you & Fr. Thomas for many enjoyable evenings in S.M.M. Evenings that mean consolation to some of us who are far from home & friends & instruction too to those of us who were brought up or well brought up in good homes & pious so-called Irish Protestants & we never know the first thing of the real heart of the Church we were supposed to belong too.

Another letter of support came from one George McCann, who wrote,

At this time when you are receiving so much criticism and advice in some of the newspapers from those who subscribe themselves Anglicans may I—one of the plain people called Methodists—express to you my gratitude for the blessing which I received at the eleven o'clock service at the Church of S. Mary Magdalene this morning. The atmosphere was most conducive to worship and devotion. I do not understand how anyone could go out from such a service harbouring uncharitable thoughts.

The controversy died down fairly quickly. One reason was that the officials of the diocese refused to become involved. Bishop Sweeny did not address the subject at the Toronto synod that year, or in any of the years that followed, nor does it seem to have entered the agenda in any other way. The bishop also consistently refused comment to the press, as did other diocesan officials. A meeting of the clergy of Toronto deanery on March 6 declined to consider the matter too. Officials of the diocese, said the _Star_ , were "discreetly treading a pedal of exceeding softness—so soft in fact that no tune is heard".

One exception to this blanket of official silence came in _the Canadian Churchman_ of March 9, 1922. There, "Spectator", a regular editorialist, expressed disappointment in the press and their "manifest effort to stir up trouble" by trying to revive old controversies. The same issue contained an editorial that argued that the term "mass" should not be used to describe the eucharist as "it is repugnant to most Anglican minds ... and is misleading in its association and inference". The editorial went on to say:

The practice of addressing prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary is entirely without warrant of Holy Scripture. It is illegal in the Church of England. It is disloyal.

On the other hand, _the Canadian Churchman_ did not report the details of the controversy, nor did it publish any letters from its readers on the subject. It would seem that the low key approach the paper adopted in 1948 was at least partially in effect in 1922. Not surprisingly, the _Telegram_ reported the _Churchman_ 's editorial but failed to notice Spectator's comments.

Silence on the part of the bishop and other officials and their refusal to take action helped to ensure that the controversy did not progress to a critical stage. The bishop, James Fielding Sweeny, had received his Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College. He rose to prominence in the diocese under Archbishop Sweatman, who appointed him cathedral canon and then, in 1895, rural dean of Toronto. _The Canadian Churchman_ hailed this latter appointment on the grounds that

all parties in the church will receive fair treatment at his hands, since we have ever looked upon him as standing for moderation, toleration and impartiality.

Like Archbishop Sweatman, Sweeny objected to many anglo-catholic practices, including the use of birettas, incense, processional lights and the practice of genuflecting during the canon. In the midst of the controversy, he privately "requested" Hiscocks "to discontinue practices which distract the worshippers; which disturb the peace of the Church; and have the lamentable result of ranging Brethren in hostile camps to one another". In spite of his personal opposition to what was happening at SMM, Sweeny's first concern as bishop, again like Sweatman, was the peace and good order of the diocese. Was this a convenient excuse to oppose innovation at Saint Mary Magdalene's? His private correspondence with Hiscocks does not bear out this interpretation. Even before the ritualist controversy broke, Sweeny wanted Hiscocks to curtail the newspaper advertisements announcing times for confession, but he did not ask Hiscocks to stop the confessions themselves. He also objected to SMM's use of the word "mass" in advertisements, a practice which began in 1923 (before that the term eucharist had been used). Again, however, he took no disciplinary action when the practice continued.

The question of publicity was all-important. When the service of tenebrae was introduced in Holy Week in 1923, Sweeny requested that it not be described as such since the term "tenebrae" was not used for any office in the Church of England; he asked that Hiscocks simply refer to it as a "Special Service for Holy Week" 9]. The advice was followed, though Hiscocks normally thought of advertising as a means of announcing the Catholic revival at Saint Mary Magdalene's. In 1926, Sweeny refused to sanction a public blessing (as Hiscocks had requested) of the candles that were to be used at Candlemas that year, urging Hiscocks to continue the existing practice of blessing them privately in the vestry, although Sweeny did not approve of blessing them at all. Perhaps if the bishop had been a younger man—he was 65 in 1922—he might have dealt with Hiscocks more firmly. As it was, it seems he was relatively happy so long as Saint Mary Magdalene's stayed out of the newspapers [[10].

There was only one significant development at SMM that the bishop chose to block. That was Hiscocks' proposal in 1924 to establish a house of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in the parish. This plan was worked out between Hiscocks and Father Spence Burton, Superior of the SSJE in the United States. The SSJE, a society of mission priests who live together under monastic vows, did not have any establishments in Canada at that time. They did however have some Canadian brothers, and they had been active in the diocese conducting missions, quiet days and retreats.

Hiscocks, for his part, knew that he would soon be away on extended sick leave, and he wanted to leave the parish in reliable hands. He therefore proposed that two of the Cowley Fathers (as the priests of the SSJE are known) set up a branch house at Saint Mary Magdalene's. Bishop Sweeny, however, was reluctant to permit this on the grounds that doing so "would promote strife in the diocese and accentuate differences". He had not refused outright, so the Cowley Fathers tried to work out a compromise. They undertook, for instance, not to wear their habits outside parish boundaries. Bishop Sweeny agreed to license one SSJE priest for SMM, but the fathers would only come if they could establish a house, and so declined.

Sweeny used to complain that Hiscocks had no consideration for his "Father in God" (the title by which Hiscocks always addressed him), thereby making the point that Hiscocks was disobedient while professing obedience. According to one member of the parish in those days, Father Hiscocks "had a very high theology about Bishops, but on the whole a very low view of their behaviour, and he enjoyed Bishop baiting". In defending himself to the bishop, Hiscocks always insisted that he was "absolutely loyal to the spirit and letter of the _Book of Common Prayer_ ". This was the traditional defence of anglo-catholics, though by now it had begun to wear thin. It is doubtful that the bishop believed him when later even Father Gavitt, Hiscocks' friend and successor at SMM, did not. It is, however, clear that in spite of some suggestion in the _Telegram_ , Hiscocks was no great friend of the Church of Rome. He wrote Gavitt in 1930, "My god why does anyone EVER go over to Rome"; on another occasion, "God deliver me from ever having to become a Roman, and I only hope the Bishops won't drive us out."

When the discussions around the Cowley Fathers' house were taking place, Hiscocks adopted a more interesting line of argument. He told Sweeny that his fear of disruption in the diocese was unjustified, for the depth and significance of the conflict in 1922 had been exaggerated. He said that when _Facts Worth Knowing_ appeared in 1922, several members of the Wycliffe staff contacted him to say that they had no knowledge that it was going to be issued. They were angry their names had been used. According to Hiscocks, Dr. E. A. McIntyre, Wycliffe's professor of systematic theology and apologetics, had even offered to preach at SMM one Sunday to show that there was no enmity, but Hiscocks declined on the grounds that it would just bring further publicity. If Hiscocks was trying to say that strong feelings had not been aroused in 1922, he was surely wrong. But if he meant that the brief flurry of attention and excitement had produced no lasting results, he was right. "Ritualism" never did rise to the head of the church's agenda in the early 1920's, which was dominated instead by concern for the ongoing economic difficulties, the church extension program in Toronto's suburbs, the profanation of the Sabbath and moral laxity. And the controversy did nothing to impede liturgical development at SMM, which continued and became still more radically anglo-catholic in the years, indeed weeks, that followed, and without further incident.

Later Innovations

Among these developments was the introduction of midnight mass to celebrate Christmas in 1922, a great success with 393 in attendance. More striking from an anglo-catholic point of view were changes in eucharistic, Lenten, Holy Week and Marian devotions. Concerning the former, the Feast of Corpus Christi had been marked at SMM at least since 1912, though nothing special was done to celebrate the day. Hiscocks added a morning solemn mass to mark Corpus Christi in 1921. Then in 1922 he instituted a special evensong service on the vigil of Corpus Christi for Toronto branches of the "Guild of the Servants of the Sanctuary". There were 490 in attendance at that service, which because of this success became an annual event. Also of note is the service of "adoration" or "devotions" in which the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar following evensong. This was the practice that created a stir at the consecration service in 1948. It was first recorded on All Saints Day in 1924. The service included the eucharistic hymns "O Saving Victim" and "Therefore We Before Him Bending" as well as a motet; it was essentially like present-day benediction at SMM, although the Blessed Sacrament was not held aloft to bless the congregation. By 1926, devotions had become a regular adjunct to Sunday evensong.

In general, Lenten and Holy Week services were moving toward the form laid down in _The English Missal and Ritual Notes_ , a form which in its essentials has survived to this day. The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is first mentioned in 1924. Of course it is possible to practice a rite before mentioning it. Still, 1924 saw a great number of changes to Lent and Holy Week, so it was almost certainly the first year ashes were used too. The service of Stations of the Cross was introduced as a Lenten devotion that year, though there were no physical "stations" in the church until 1926. In Holy Week, an Altar of Repose was set up in the north aisle as part of the Maundy Thursday liturgy; after communion, the Body of Christ was carried in procession to this altar where it remained for the devotion of the faithful. (In 1926 and for a few years afterward, the Altar of Repose was placed in the basement at the far end of the long room so as to be clear of the coming and going upstairs.) Finally, Holy Saturday had been observed for years with a simple said mass. An expanded Easter vigil liturgy was first celebrated in 1924 too, when 133 witnessed the "Blessing of New Fire etc." (the "etc." included the lighting of the paschal candle and likely also the blessing of baptismal water and the font) followed by evensong at 5:30 pm.

The rites of Good Friday were also moving toward their modem form, but they remained in a state of experimentation for some time longer. It had been the habit at SMM (though never exclusively) of celebrating Good Friday with the "Three Hours" service. The "Three Hours" combined preaching with hymn singing and times for meditation; it can still be found in some churches today. Hiscocks was not fond of this service, advising parishioners that the ancient church had marked the day by singing the passion followed by general communion from the reserved sacrament. He dropped the "Three Hours" in 1921, but put in its place a succession of services—matins, a litany, and the ante-communion service followed by a sermon and evensong—which just by coincidence lasted three hours also. In 1922 SMM went back to the "Three Hours", only to experiment again in 1924. The current practices of venerating the cross and communicating from the reserved sacrament were first incorporated in 1925, but elements of the "Three Hours" service remained to the 1940's.

The Maundy Thursday Altar of Repose in the church basement, its majesty cramped by the low ceiling.

Finally, feast days associated with the Virgin Mary were given more prominence. Except for the Annunciation (first recorded observance in 1912) and the Purification (first recorded observance in 1916), there is no sign that any of them was ever celebrated under Charles Darling. Again it was Father Hiscocks who instituted their observance, but he did not have a set practice for doing so. In 1922, he began to mark the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a solemn morning mass. The Feast of the Purification, or Candlemas, was marked by an evensong vigil through most of the 1920's. Hiscocks sometimes, though not always, added an additional low mass on Conception Day, which he began referring to as the "Immaculate Conception" in 1923. The Visitation was marked only by the regular daily mass, although attendance grew rather larger than was usual for a weekday eucharist. While some parishioners took to the new services wholeheartedly, participation was on the whole not extensive during the 1920's, indicating an obvious limit to their popularity.

There were two other innovations in devotion to Mary to be noted. First, in December 1926, Hiscocks introduced the practice of saying the "Angelus" (which includes the prayer "Hail Mary") after the principal mass on Sunday and before evensong. It was prayed in silence by the congregation. As with the Altar of Repose in the church basement, or the carefully worded newspaper advertisements, one sometimes has the feeling that even in Hiscocks' most radical innovations, circumspection sometimes got the better of him. There was no concealing his second move, however, which was to install a statue of the Virgin and Child at SMM. Statues in Anglican churches were of course most unusual then, nor are they very common now. Hiscocks voiced his wish for a statue of Our Lady in 1927. Following this lead, Edith Mary Shadbolt donated the money for one in memory of her sister, Fanny Gertrude Heald, in 1928. The statue was erected and blessed on Dedication Sunday of that year. It depicts Mary as the Queen of Heaven, crowned with a halo and holding a sceptre and the infant Jesus, whose arms are outstretched as if to welcome supplicants. Carved from wood, imported from England and originally painted in very light tones, the statue was placed in the north aisle of the church, directly opposite to its present location in the south aisle. Before its installation, an article appeared in the parish magazine discussing the practice of lighting candles at shrines while saying prayers.

The Lady Statue installed in 1928. Mary is so graceful, the child and sceptre appear to be weightless.

While the ritualist controversy of 1922 had little effect on the development of anglo-catholic worship at Saint Mary Magdalene's, it did have an adverse impact on Father Hiscocks. Never in the best of health—he suffered from high blood pressure—and subject to stress and (it would appear) alcoholism, the strain of the controversy in 1922 led him to take a three-month leave of absence starting in July of that year. Even upon his return he did not assume a normal workload for several months; it was not until December, for example, that he preached again at the main Sunday mass. He was back on a reduced workload by 1924, and took nine more months leave in 1925. Once again, it was his faithful assistant, Father Alfred Rose, who held the fort. But Hiscocks' heart trouble was now chronic, and in 1929 his doctor prescribed extensive bed rest. He left SMM in the spring of 1930, though his resignation as vicar was not official until July 1, 1931.

Hiscocks retired to the south of France where he secured an Anglican chaplaincy, one of many which existed to service the English gentry who owned villas there. It sounds like the life, but Hiscocks missed his old church. Writing from Cannes in 1930 shortly before Christmas, he told Fathers Gavitt and Graham, "I wish to god I were going to be at SMM. for the midnight [mass at Christmas]. I expect to be Deacon here but then SMM. is SMM. and no Church to me is as good." There are many who would echo his sentiments. Hiscocks did return to Toronto in late 1933—probably because of his sister's long-running illness—and for several months took the 8:00 am Sunday low mass at SMM. He finished out his days as "Father Hugh", an oblate in Nashdom Abbey, England, where in 1940 his poor health led to a premature death at age 50.

Anglo-Catholicism and the Laity

Besides hastening the deterioration of Father Hiscocks' health, these controversies and innovations helped to solidify the anglo-catholic outlook of the congregation at large. The publicity attracted new adherents who preferred this style of worship; existing members saw their faith reshaped, their views sharpened and their self-image reinforced. Before Hiscocks' arrival, the congregation was Catholic in a lukewarm sense at best. The same could be said of other high churches in Toronto. Despite his successes at Holy Trinity, for example, at the end of his rectorship the Reverend William Darling still found that he had to argue in favour of the eucharist on Sundays over morning prayer, in the face of ongoing murmurs of discontent. At Saint Matthias during Charles Darling's time there, it was a job persuading members to make their communion even once a month. In fact, it was quite common for noncommunicants to leave the service at the invitation. One of the high church practices that was attacked during the debates of the 1860's was that of encouraging people to remain for the entire eucharist, even if they were not going to partake.

Matters were not so different at Charles Darling's SMM. While he clearly meant the 11:00 am sung eucharist to be the major celebration on Sundays, evensong habitually drew more worshippers. This seems to have been true of all Anglican churches in Toronto at that time whatever their stripe. Commenting on the high level of Sunday evening attendance, John Ross Robertson gave some credence to the theory that the lack of other forms of entertainment in puritan Toronto was at the root:

The stern discountenance of any and every form of recreation is sometimes said to be the cause of so many people going to church. They must go somewhere, it is said, to break up the dreadful monotony and lifelessness of the day, and so when evening comes they are glad to go to church—not so much for purposes of worship as for social relief from the oppressiveness of the day.

However, this could not have been the whole explanation. As Robertson himself noted, the Roman Catholic churches always drew more people to morning mass than to vespers. Darling too had to remind parishioners to make their communions regularly. The number of communicants each Sunday was never high, some 20 percent to 25 percent of the number in attendance.

Hiscocks had remarkable success in bringing the parish to a fuller understanding of the Catholic faith. He told the bishop in 1924 that "while personally you may not approve of the teaching or ceremonial at SMM you must admit that to-day it is a united congregation, we have lost no members through Parish disturbances." He went on to claim that Sunday attendance was more than four times that of 1918–19, but this was a tremendous exaggeration—one of those stories that priests tell bishops when they want to bend their ear on a certain point. Still, attendance had rebounded nicely from the low reached during the First World War, even considering that many now were attending both the 9:30 and the 11:00 am. One source of this growth was the influx of newcomers to Toronto who were looking for the kind of services that Saint Mary Magdalene's provided. Hiscocks told the bishop in 1921 that several families recently arrived in Canada from England had sought out SMM because they had been members of anglo-catholic parishes at home. One such family included Molly Philips, for many years a member of the Altar Guild and a parishioner until 1989, when she died at age 92. A recent immigrant from England, she and her mother learned of SMM through the free publicity generated by the controversy of 1922. They decided to attend, thinking it sounded like their church back home.

To keep the congregation united, and to see that they understood what he was up to, Hiscocks naturally had to embark on an ongoing teaching effort. In the early years a great many sermons on subjects of concern to anglo-catholics were preached. In Lent of 1921 Hiscocks gave a series of Sunday sermons on "Controversial Subjects", namely the use of the terms "mass" and "purgatory", the position of the Blessed Virgin in church teaching, the invocation of saints and church ceremonial. Sermons at evensong on Wednesdays that Lent treated the history and development of the liturgy and its ceremonial in greater detail. The next Lent, while the newspaper controversy was raging, Hiscocks preached on "The Revival of English Church Life in the XIX. Century", while in Advent he gave a cycle of instruction on "The Ritual of the Anglican Communion". Such explicitly didactic sermons seem to have become less frequent in later years, but of course Hiscocks' anglo-catholic outlook would have permeated any of his talks [11].

Another means of instruction was through the monthly parish magazine, resurrected in 1925, which consisted of two or three pages of material written by Father Hiscocks bound up with _The Fiery Cross_. _The Fiery Cross_ was published by the Catholic Literature Association, which described itself as "the official propaganda publishing medium of the Anglo-Catholic Congress" in England: it contained news and homilies on matters of anglo-catholic interest. Hiscocks' own writings, besides informing parishioners of coming events, used to exhort them to attend mass and to avail themselves of communion and confession more regularly. The congregation was also taught the finer points of anglo-catholic practice, such as what to do when you enter the church for confession, or when the priest arrives at your home with communion for the sick.

In terms of lay religious practice, the evidence is mixed.

Hiscocks' advocacy of private confession seems to have struck a chord. Confessions were heard openly in the church, as they are today, at a prie-dieu in the north aisle. The time allotted for them had to be increased in Holy Week of 1922, as Hiscocks reported a large increase in the number of penitents with many adults making their first confessions. On the other hand, Hiscocks used to complain of the low attendance at weekday masses. Normally only a handful came, and most of them were sisters from the convent next door, though Hiscocks promised that the congregation would be out in 25 minutes [12]. The ratio of communicants to attendance at a typical Sunday eucharist remained around 25 percent, no higher than in Darling's day. (The comparable figure now is about 85 percent.) Even in the late 1930's, Father Graham and Father Sommerville had continually to remind confirmed members that they were to communicate a minimum of three times a year. Finally, as noted above, while the new Holy Week services were popular, the Marian feast days were not so well received. Clearly there was a strong bedrock of active and inactive members of the parish who were slow to follow Hiscocks' lead.

On the whole, however, Hiscocks was pleased with the progress, and often expressed pleasure at how well the congregation had accepted "the full revelation of the Catholic Faith". Indeed Saint Mary Magdalene's "special status" had become a source of pride to parishioners. According to Mr. Underwood, president of the Men's Association, SMM was

the Centre of the Catholic Faith in Toronto, our Vicar is the most eloquent of preachers, our music, under Dr. Willan, is beyond comparison, and our service is unique in the Dominion.

Similar claims were made in the curious "memorial" of 1930, sent to the bishop by vestry to persuade him to accept Father Gavitt as Hiscocks' successor. A comparison of this memorial with that of 1918, to pressure the bishop to make Hiscocks Darling's successor, is of great interest. The lengthy 1918 memorial contained only one very general reference to the doctrinal orientation of the parish. It asked for a priest

who shall be willing to carry on the traditions of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, and to continue the teaching and practice of the said Church as have obtained ever since the Parish was founded thirty years ago.

By 1930, having come to conceive of themselves "as a parish of distinctive Catholic convictions", vestry used a tone and language quite unknown in 1918. They also went into the matter at much greater length. They insisted that Sweeny appoint a "definite out- and-out Anglo-Catholic" as Hiscocks' successor; someone who would uphold the practice of confession and fasting communion; someone who would administer private communion to any who were sick or who because of work were unable to attend mass. (Father Gavitt of course was held to be such a man.) These two memorials reveal clearly the great development in lay attitudes and self-perception that Father Hiscocks achieved.

A Counter-Reformation?

One man who was not pleased with Hiscocks' changes was Charles Darling. Within two years of taking charge, Hiscocks had run seriously afoul of Darling, who ceased to participate in the services at SMM. The causes of their dispute were in large part personal—Darling especially was a proud man and quick to take offence—but he was also unhappy with Hiscocks' liturgical changes. What in particular displeased him is difficult to say, as he voiced his displeasure in the most general of terms. Darling was a high churchman of the old mould, and he regarded Hiscocks' anglo-catholicism as extreme. Further, he thought these changes had made Saint Mary Magdalene's into a church for the curious, the superficial and for those who loved spectacle. He hoped that SMM would one day return to being "a Parish Church and a centre of spiritual life and activities, and more than a focus for people seeking for themselves the delights of music." Not surprisingly, Darling still thought of SMM as "his" church, and he still bore the title of rector. By the agreement they had signed, however, Hiscocks had complete authority over the conduct of services. The rector was powerless without the support of vestry, but vestry supported Hiscocks. This accounts for Darling's frustration and bitterness through the 1920's. It is a sign of his estrangement from the parish he founded that when he died on October 19,1938, his funeral was held at Saint Bartholomew's.

Palm Sunday, showing the sanctuary after its expansion in 1931. Under Hiscocks and his successors, the liturgy required more room than it had under Darling.

Harold Boundy, Father Brain and Father Thomas in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Corpus Christi.

In the meantime, though, Darling was very much alive, and when Hiscocks retired he saw his chance. He undertook to persuade the new priest-in-charge, Father Gavitt, to turn back the clock to the kind of SMM he was comfortable with. Still rector, Darling wrote to Gavitt in 1931 to note his regret at "the extremes in the teaching from the pulpit and in the conduct of its services to which things have carried of late years". He asked Gavitt to restrain these tendencies. Unfortunately for Darling, Gavitt had already been making his own changes, which he discussed with the parish at the vestry meeting of 1931. Exactly what these changes were is unclear, although they likely involved moving the _Gloria in excelsis deo_ from the post-communion rite, its position in the _Book of Common Prayer_ ; to the liturgy of the word. The changes were at any rate of a more radical nature than anything Hiscocks could have supported, for Hiscocks complained to the bishop all the way from southern France, charging Gavitt (as Gavitt tells it) with "disloyalty to the Prayer Book!"

Undaunted, Darling pursued the matter. When it came time to sign an agreement with Gavitt as vicar under his rectorship similar to the one he had signed with Hiscocks, he determined not to make the same mistake twice. Darling tried to insert a clause to the effect that no changes in the conduct of divine service or in the fabric of the church could be made without the rector's approval. Gavitt refused to accept this condition and ultimately did not become vicar at all, preferring to leave SMM and return to the United States. He claimed that, as an American, he could not in good conscience swear the oath of loyalty to the King that the appointment demanded. But the fear that he would find himself in the same unhappy relationship with the rector that Father Hiscocks had been in was surely a factor in his decision.

With Hiscocks and his (and the congregation's) preferred successor gone, there was "coast clear" for Darling, who turned his attentions to Father Graham, the new priest-in-charge. He met with the bishop and, the following week, with Canon Hartley "to talk over the 'conditions' to be imposed on Graham". Darling added, however, "I expect the [SMM Parish] Council will strongly object to any conditions." He informed the bishop of a meeting with Graham in which Darling told Graham "what our wishes are as regards certain alterations in the services and he quite realizes the situation". Six months later, he was pleased to report that Graham had "reduced considerably the former extremes". Darling was still not satisfied and continued to hope for someone to restore "ordinary sanity" to the services at SMM. But he did finally relinquish the rectorship in 1933, and Father Graham was appointed rector in his place.

What "extremes" had been reduced, and for how long, is not entirely clear. Father Graham did restore the general confession to the sung mass (in the absence of communion it had been dropped) and returned the Gloria to the end of the service, although he moved it back again to the liturgy of the word in 1936. Ceremonies at the 11:00 am Sunday eucharist seem to have remained intact, except for "asperges", which Graham introduced on Easter Sunday, 1936. (In asperges, the celebrant sprinkles the congregation with holy water in order to remind them of their baptismal vows. For many years this sprinkling was wholly symbolic, for it was not until 1955 that the clergy actually came down into the nave to do it!) Father Graham seems also to have staged the first procession of the Blessed Sacrament (inside the church) on Corpus Christi, which can hardly be considered a sign of "moderation".

There were however signs of moderation where two of the more controversial Marian feast days were concerned. December 8 went back to being the Feast of the Conception, rather than the Immaculate Conception as Father Hiscocks had called it. The Feast of the Assumption had been celebrated with two or three masses on the day plus, in some years, an evensong vigil. Under Father Graham, observance was reduced to one mass with distinctly average attendance and no vigil.

Meanwhile, Bishop Sweeny had retired for reasons of health, and Derwyn Trevor Owen, formerly bishop of Niagara, took the reigns of the diocese in December 1932. Owen had known SMM in Darling's day—in 1906, while curate at Saint James' Cathedral, he had given a lenten series of sermons at SMM on the subject of prayer—but he was no supporter of the advanced anglo-catholicism of Father Hiscocks. Besides his personal misgivings, there was still a general concern for the peace of the diocese on questions of ritualism. Prior to the 1932 synod, Canon Hartley, rector of Saint Matthias, proposed that since 1933 was the centenary of Keble's "assize sermon", Toronto diocese should arrange a suitable celebration. When synod was actually convened, however, he withdrew the motion before it could be debated. Apparently he had reconsidered (or had had pointed out to him) the possible consequences of such a proposal. As it turned out there were no formal celebrations, although Bishop Owen did follow the lead of other dioceses in Canada in setting aside July 9 as a day of prayer for the peace and unity of the Anglican communion. His wish was duly carried out at SMM, apparently without any special pomp. In his own remarks on the Oxford Movement to the Toronto synod, Owen walked the knife edge between endorsement and criticism. He noted in very general terms that like all such movements, the anglo-catholic one had brought a mixture of good and ill, and that it was the duty of the church to seek out what was good in it.

The trend toward moderation continued under Father Greene, an anglo-catholic not given to extremism, but the parish was clearly happy with the status quo. Just days after his appointment as rector, Greene wrote to the archbishop regarding "the use of the English Prayer Book at St. M.M.", assuring him that he would "endeavour to correct as many of the peculiarities as possible". At the same time he noted:

While I am trying to bring the order of service into line with the 1662 P.B. by refusing to say the Roman Canon—restoring the Invitation, General Confession & Absolution etc. to their proper place—I do feel that to throw out the English Bk. would but split the parish. They have used this P.B. for yrs.

The archbishop took this advice and made it his own. When Father Brain took over Saint Mary Magdalene's in 1945, he too told Owen of his distaste for "extremism". He asked whether the archbishop wanted him to bring SMM back to the "Ang. orb" somewhat. In reply, the archbishop recognized that the congregation had its own standards of ritual they felt strongly about, and he was not about to interfere. He thought it best if incoming priests refrained from any changes of the kind Brain was suggesting until and unless they had won the support of the congregation. That support was not forthcoming, and later Father Brain had to fend off what he called "idle talk" that he was planning to make changes in the liturgy. Hiscocks had done his work well. Under his leadership, the parish had attained a firm anglo-catholic outlook. While the clergy still complained (and still do) that people did not avail themselves enough of weekday masses and the confessional, the congregation had helped make SMM's anglo-catholic orientation permanent. On essential points Saint Mary Magdalene's has remained the church that Father Hiscocks dreamed of.

The liturgy of All Souls' Day with (from the left) Father Thomas, Father Brain and Bill Long as the sacred ministers. The veiled Sisters lend an eerie presence to the photo. Many years after it was taken, Bill Long fulfilled a long-standing ambition by becoming a deacon of the church. The server on the left is Hugh Stiff, future Bishop of Keewatin and Dean of Toronto.

[Return to TOC]

Healey Willan in 1952 at the organ, which he nicknamed "old girl".

CHAPTER FOUR SING PRAISE

While, theologically, the nineteenth century anglo-catholics took their stand on the "objective realities" of the faith, they came to emphasize the subjective impact of worship and ceremonial. This tendency is usually associated with later generations of anglo- catholics, but the groundwork had been laid by the first generation. Both Keble and Newman stressed the inability of the mind to comprehend fully the inner mysteries of the faith. They looked to poetry, music and a more elaborate ceremonial at divine worship to reach to the deepest feelings of human beings. They knew Christianity must appeal to the heart as well as the mind. This view led the movement, through the efforts of such men as John Mason Neale, to work to restore music to an integral place in divine worship, at least as practiced by the Church of England. It was therefore appropriate that Father Hiscocks' partner in recreating SMM along advanced anglo-catholic lines was Healey Willan, who in his long tenure as SMM's choirmaster and organist gained international renown as a composer of liturgical music. It was appropriate too that when Willan came to SMM in 1921, he found a church already proud of its choir and committed to using music to enhance worship. Just as Father Hiscocks found the seeds of an advanced anglo-catholic liturgy at SMM, so too did Willan find the seeds of a musical tradition that was to blossom under his leadership.

The Early Days of the Choir

Toronto at the turn of the century was known as the "choral capital" of North America, at least among English Canadian critics. English Canada as a whole had a strong choral tradition that was closely linked to churches and to worship. Churches were the venues for the performance of both religious and secular music; their organists and choirmasters were music teachers, and their choir members were the foundation of many secular choral societies. The taste for embellishing worship with music was shared by many denominations [12]. Providing good music was "a matter of catching the crowd", according to C. S. Clark, who criticized this development as tending to make churches into concert halls.

More particularly, SMM's interest in choral music derived from Saint Matthias, which followed the high church tradition of using music to enhance the dignity and impact of worship. Within a few short years of its founding, Saint Matthias had established a firm reputation for its liturgical music. Its choir gave recitals far and wide. In Chapter Three, we outlined John Ross Robertson's comments on the liturgy and ceremonial at Saint Matthias in 1888. His description of the music in 1888, while incomplete, is of some interest also. Following the entrance hymn, during which the choir and clergy took their places, the Ten Commandments were sung in monotone, led by the celebrant. Though he gives no further details, Robertson found this essentially monotone style of service at other Anglican churches in Toronto. Most of the prayers and responses at Saint Matthias were sung—the rector was complimented for his fine voice—though the epistle and gospel appear to have been read. The choir, dressed in white surplices and black cassocks, sang a short chorale between the epistle and gospel and another piece at communion; the works were said to be of "classical selection". To the congregation was left the singing of the responses, hymns and the Creed, all with the organ accompanying. It was clear to Robertson

that the musical culture of this congregation was of a superior nature to that usually known in Protestant churches ... it was the most cultivated service it has been the writer's privilege to witness outside of a Roman Catholic church, where, of course, special stress is laid upon the artistic execution of an elaborate and ornate ritual.

It was because of its connection to Saint Matthias that even before a note was sung at SMM, Robertson could write of "the superior music and service" that would make the new mission a success. On Low Sunday, 1888, SMM had a choir in place to sing the main eucharist as well as evensong. The choir consisted of men and boys wearing surplices and cassocks, some of which had been sewn by the women of the new congregation, others borrowed from Saint Matthias. The use of choirboys along English cathedral lines in preference to women seems, like the wearing of surplices, to have been a mark of high church worship in those days, or at least of parishes aspiring to the best in church music. The first choirboys were recruited from the mission Sunday school, which had begun work in the parish in 1885. One of the men involved in running this school was Harry Lane, a future organist at SMM; another was William Poulett Thompson, who was to serve for many years as lay reader. It was William Thompson who organized the choir in 1888 and who, as precentor, led it on opening day. According to the brief report in the _Globe_ on the Low Sunday festivities, "The singing of the choristers was excellent, and indicated careful training by Mr. Thompson, the choirmaster."

Was this the standard compliment? We learn elsewhere that the choir was still small and thin, "very much in need of treble and bass voices". The first organ too was a small one costing $67. It was played by Maria Thompson, William Thompson's wife and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in England. Still, whatever the artistic impact of the service, it was opening day and the culmination of three years' work. There is little doubt the choir sang with feeling and contributed much to the joy of the occasion.

It naturally took some time for the choir and music to get fully established. The mission had been founded to provide "some modicum of Sunday services", which turned out to be choral evensong every Sunday and holy communion on the second and fourth Sundays of the month. The communion service was said, however, rather than sung, so the demands on the young choir were not too onerous. In July of 1888, with the acquisition of a deacon at Saint Matthias to replace Charles Darling, a second evensong was added on Friday nights. Each Sunday the eucharist was said at 8:00 am, followed by matins and a sermon at 10:30 except on the first Sunday of the month, when a choral eucharist was celebrated. It was not until 1889, when SMM became an independent parish, that the communion service was sung each week.

It may have been just as well. Since building the church was the first priority, there was little money to buy sheet music or other supplies. At first, the choir was expected to raise the money they needed among themselves. This point was driven home in 1892, when vestry authorized the choir to establish a choir fund but failed to contribute any money toward it. Within two years, however, vestry did start contributing regular church funds to the choir to purchase sheet music and new cassocks and surplices. A larger organ was bought for $1,000 in 1891 and first used on Saint Mary Magdalene's day that year. The organ was placed in the chancel with the choir and required the employment of an "organ blower" at the rate of $20 per year. The choir also grew to a large size fairly quickly, such that by the mid-1890's it had reached (and apparently stabilized at) about 40 voices, half of them boys.

F. H. Prine, an SMM choirboy, in 1897. It would be interesting to know what book he was singing from.

The choir on Palm Sunday, 1902. Charles Darling is standing just to the right of the cross in the centre rear.

Although financial constraints may have cramped some activities, SMM was committed to maintaining a good choir. Writing of his return to the parish in the mid-1890's, Robertson noted that

A visit to this interesting beginning will be amply repaid, and the lover of good music will be delighted with the singing of the large choir of 40 voices, which is acknowledged to be one of the best in the city.

Robertson went on to praise the choirmaster, Ernest Callaghan, for the "efficiency and good order" he maintained. This compliment may seem unusual, but its meaning is not difficult to surmise. The large number of choirboys meant that discipline both inside and outside the sanctuary was a problem. Vestry was just being more specific than Robertson when in 1893 it voted its thanks to "the Organist, the Choir and Mr. Calahan [sic] for the marked improvement in the music and also in the behaviour of the boys". Boys being what they are, such improvements can only have been temporary at best. In 1900, vestry set aside money to pay the choirboys $10 each for the year's work. At the same time, the choirmaster was authorized to draw up a set of rules and regulations to govern them, along with a schedule of fines to be deducted from their "salaries" for misbehaviour. Since vestry budgeted only $100 to pay 20-odd boys, it evidently expected that the boys were going to lose most of their salaries in fines. Vestry might even make money!

As for the music the choir used to sing, it is impossible to be specific. It was said by two long-standing members of the choir and good friends of Healey Willan (who did not however have first hand knowledge) that the music at SMM before Willan's arrival was relatively undistinguished, consisting of Anglican chant, offertory anthems sung as solos and masses "of the type of the Harwood in A flat". The only listing of liturgical music at SMM before Willan's time comes in the parish magazine of 1909, where the pieces to be performed on Easter that year were recorded. They were Harding's Communion service in F (said to be the Canadian premiere), Gounod's Ave verum corpus and Stainer's Sevenfold Amen (sung after the prayer of consecration); at evensong, Stainer's Magnificat And Nunc Dimittis in A, Joseph Barnby's Break Forth into Joy and Henry Smart's Festal Te Deum in F were performed. This evidence is indeed very slight. It is also limited to the most important celebration in the church calendar. Probably on regular Sundays a fairly simple sung service was the norm. It is probably also fair to conclude that most of the music heard at SMM was English and nineteenth century in origin, a tradition which all of the composers above (except for Gounod) represent. The music of Sir John Stainer (1840-1901) in particular was in vogue at that time, though it is seldom performed in Canada now. In his own day, Stainer was well-known as an organist, composer and teacher. His early research into medieval and renaissance music helped pave the way for Healey Willan's compositions.

Regarding the personnel and leadership of the choir, details are just as scarce. Some of the organists and choirmasters were members of the parish, while others seem to have been hired from outside. Sometimes both positions were held by one person; at other times they were held separately. In its first 20 years the church went through a succession of short-term organists and choirmasters, probably because it could not afford decent salaries. For the same reason, most of them were amateurs. Besides the Thompsons, who served briefly in 1888, the closest SMM seems to have come to a professional musician was Harry Lane, the organist in 1890–91, who was a piano tuner. As finances improved in the early years of the twentieth century, the church was able to pay more. It acquired the one musical director before Willan who could claim an extensive musical background: that was James Galloway, an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. He taught piano at the Toronto Conservatory of Music as well as voice, harmony and counterpoint to private students. Galloway received $500 a year from the church, still not a great sum and apparently not enough to retain him very long, for he left in 1912 after four years of service. During the difficult years of the Great War, SMM's ability to pay for professional help was compromised, so it reverted to employing amateurs. In 1919 the organist and choirmaster was Frederick Duke, a clerk at the Bank of Commerce, while his successor Charles Rodgers was a dentist.

One choirmaster we do know something more about is Ernest Callaghan. Callaghan, also a clerk on weekdays, was baptized at SMM as a young man in 1891. He was appointed choirmaster in 1894, though he had likely been serving in that position unofficially for a couple of years. As choirmaster, he was given the power to recommend on the appointment and discharge of organists. He seems not to have been paid for his work, though the vestry of 1898 voted him a $50 present in appreciation. Callaghan resigned his post early in 1899 for reasons unknown, but he was back as choirmaster by 1917, if not earlier. Darling called him a "tower of strength to me" and told Father Hiscocks, still in Saskatchewan at the time, that Callaghan had a free hand in running the choir and selecting the music. A man of boundless energy, Callaghan also helped with the Sunday school and was in charge of the parish Boy Scout troop. Darling told Hiscocks that with Callaghan at the helm, "we have one of the best Choirs in Toronto. Our boys especially are really splendid, voices very fine, behaviour excellent." He hoped that Callaghan and Hiscocks would get along with each other.

They did not. Callaghan and Hiscocks soon fell out, apparently because of the changes Hiscocks was instituting. Darling told Callaghan in March 1919:

The nature and conduct of the services, the ritual of the Church, the offices of Lay Reader and Acolytes, and their places in the Sanctuary and everything that relates to the S.S. [Sunday school] and the various classes, and such questions as e.g. as to whether the Kyrie or the Summary, or special Pss. at Evensong shall be continued indefinitely—all these matters shall be left absolutely in the hands of the Clergy.

In the only known instance of internal opposition to Father Hiscocks, Callaghan, the organist he had hired and some members of the "Men's Forward Movement" drew up a "statement" directed against Father Hiscocks which unfortunately has not survived. But Hiscocks still had Darling's confidence at this point, as well as that of the congregation. Callaghan was fired in April of 1919. It seems that when he left, the parish Boy Scout troop disappeared too.

Healey Willan Arrives

As the church spent the next two years in search of a suitable and steady replacement, Callaghan's departure ultimately opened the door for Healey Willan. Willan was bom in a suburb of London, England, in 1880. Soundly schooled in music as a child, while still young he decided to make music his career. In 1898 he took up the first of a series of positions in various churches as organist and then as choirmaster, and at the early age of 18 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He soon began composing, partly for churches but chiefly for the concert hall. His early compositions, along with his musicianship, attracted favourable attention, but the income he earned as a choirmaster and as a tutor was too small to support himself, his wife Gladys and their three sons. He therefore accepted an invitation to become head of the theory department at the Toronto Conservatory, packing his bags for Canada in August 1913. Willan was one of many English musicians who, short of work at home yet inspired by the renaissance of English church music, carried that renaissance to Canada. As a group they did much to improve the standard of church music and more generally music education in this country.

To supplement his income from the Toronto Conservatory, Willan took up the post of organist at Saint Paul's Bloor Street, which paid him the respectable sum of $1,200 per year. There his musicianship won favourable notice, and before long Willan was receiving offers from churches in the United States. It also won him the notice of Father Hiscocks and SMM. Willan and Hiscocks apparently became friends through their similar interests, and soon Willan began making his face known around SMM. As of early 1920, Willan was assisting Dr. Rodgers, then organist and choirmaster, with weekly choir practice. On the vigil of Corpus Christi in 1920, Willan directed the Toronto Plainsong Society, assisted by SMM's choir, in the singing of evensong at the church. And it was Father Hiscocks and Dixon Park Wagner, a long-time member of the choir, who provided Willan with the text to An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts, a choral piece that Willan composed in the summer of 1921.

Shortly thereafter, Rodgers informed Father Hiscocks that he was unable to continue at SMM on a full-time basis. Willan, for his part, was tiring of Saint Paul's and low church Anglicanism. He also wanted more scope to pursue his growing interest in liturgical composition. When Hiscocks approached Willan for help in finding a replacement for Rodgers, Willan resigned from Saint Paul's and, much to Father Hiscocks' surprise and delight, presented himself for the job. He began his duties as organist and choirmaster on December 4, 1921. Father Hiscocks noted his arrival in the service register in very large letters, which more than words expressed his feelings on that auspicious day.

For Willan, coming to SMM meant a substantial reduction in pay, although in fairness the church was paying him more ($420 a year) than it was used to paying its choirmasters. (Rodgers had been earning $360.) It is true that Willan did not depend on SMM for his livelihood. On weekdays he was vice-principal of the Toronto Conservatory of Music, a post he had held since 1919. Still, the financial sacrifice he made in coming to SMM, and then remaining there all the years that followed (when, with his fame established, he could have gone to many other churches that would have paid a lot more), is truly extraordinary and speaks of his great love for the church. In Father Hiscocks Willan had found a kindred spirit. Coming to SMM meant the chance to practice and compose the music he wanted in the setting he wanted. His love for his work and for the parish enabled him to accept very low payment for the rest of his career. Indeed in 1924, when vestry did offer him a raise of $200, Willan, no doubt thinking of the church's financial problems, declined to accept.

Just as Father Hiscocks' arrival produced some very quick changes in the conduct of services at SMM, Willan's arrival brought changes to the choir and to the music. One of Willan's first acts was to divide the choir into two parts: a ritual choir (or as it was more often called, the chancel choir) and what came to be known as the gallery choir once it had moved from the chancel to the west end of the church. The division of the choir into two took place immediately, with the "gallery" section moving to the back within a month. The gallery had existed from the time the church was completed, but it had not been used and there were no stairs leading up to it. When the church was renovated in 1907–08, a small narthex running the width of the church was built at the west end with a wall to separate it from the nave. Because of the height of the nave, it was decided not to carry this wall right to the ceiling. Instead the narthex was capped half way up with a platform between the interior and exterior walls, thus creating the foundation for a gallery. Interestingly, most nineteenth century Tractarians did not approve of choir galleries. They preferred instead the original arrangement at SMM with the choir seated in the chancel in parallel stalls facing inward. But Willan wanted two choirs, one to specialize in plainsong and the other to sing polyphonic music. The physical separation of the two would also enhance the effect when the choirs sang antiphonally, and no doubt once the move to the gallery took place the other acoustical advantages became obvious.

The creation of two choirs was premised on a change in the music of the mass. The Tractarians had championed the revival of true Gregorian chant (as opposed to its more popular derivative, Anglican chant) in line with their desire to produce a body of music "special to the Church", set apart from secular music just as the Church was set apart from the world. Gregorian chant, or plainsong, refers to the traditional ritual melodies of the western church, developed in the early centuries of Christianity but "corrupted" over the years by various additions and alterations. Willan had been exposed to Gregorian chant at a very young age at his anglo-catholic home parish in Beckenham, Kent. When he first heard Anglican chant he decided it compared unfavourably. In 1910, as a budding choirmaster and composer, he joined the "London Gregorian Association", which was dedicated to promoting "the study and practice of plainsong within the framework of the English Rite". Plainsong was certainly not well-known in Anglican churches in Canada at that time, but it was not completely unknown. In 1877, the diocese of Toronto published a collection of chants, including some Gregorian ones, for use at morning prayer and evensong. Under William Darling, the Church of the Holy Trinity used Gregorian chant in the 1870's, and the Sisters of Saint John the Divine and Saint Thomas's were doing likewise in the 1880's. One might ask if SMM had not sung Gregorian chant at least occasionally before Willan.

According to a report written almost 20 years after the fact,

On the last Sunday of the pre-Willan regime, the choir of Saint Mary Magdalene's ambled through the usual series of Anglican compositions which were no better and no worse than those heard in a few thousand other Canadian churches on the same day. The following Sunday there was plainsong dating from the 2nd century which might have been sung in the catacombs of Rome; there were motets, fauxbourdons, chorales, Kyries, a Sanctus, Benedictus, Gloria, Credo and Agnus Dei with music from four hundred to a thousand years old.

This is perhaps an overly dramatic account of the change, which was not so directly tied to Willan's arrival, nor was it exclusively Willan's doing. Father Hiscocks had been attempting to introduce plainsong since Easter Day 1920. Later that spring, he invited Willan to give a lecture on plainsong to the congregation along with a practice session. It was a disappointment to Hiscocks that only 54 attended, for he wished "to build up a strong body of congregational singing" at SMM; it seems that not everyone was taken with the idea. But the change these moves heralded was real, and within a short time amounted to a complete reworking of the musical tradition.

The music at SMM in the 1920's largely embodied the ideal of a plainsong-based eucharist with a healthy congregational component. It also had a greater simplicity and unity of style than would be apparent in the years to come. The leading part was played by the chancel choir, which sang the ordinary of the mass along with the daily propers. Medieval Gregorian settings of the ordinary (consisting of the Kyrie eleison, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei) were used almost exclusively in the 1920's after Willan's arrival. These settings, in English, were sung from the English Gradual, first published by the Gregorian Association in England in 1851 and later revised in light of more recent scholarship. At first, and apparently through 1922, the chancel choir alone sang the Gloria and the Creed, a fact the press commented on during the ritualist controversy that year. This was probably done to accustom the congregation to the new music, for before too long the congregation took over singing the Gloria and Creed in their plainsong arrangements.

The chancel choir also sang the minor propers of the day to Gregorian settings developed in part by Willan himself. The minor propers (the introit, gradual and alleluia, offertory and communion) are short texts selected from the Bible to illustrate the teaching of the day or season; their use in the Church of England had been discontinued at the time of the Reformation. As the choir sang the propers, the congregation could meditate quietly on their meaning, while the clergy and servers could perform such liturgical actions as censing the altar, making ready for the gospel or preparing the altar for the consecration.

If the congregation was to meditate on the propers, though, English texts had to be used. The chants written for the Latin texts had to be transcribed for their English counterparts. This Willan set out to do. As an authority on plainsong, and with a talent for seeing the music in language, Willan was not fully satisfied with the transcriptions to English that had been done up till then. He developed his own plainsong settings from the _Liber usualis_ , first published in 1896 by the Benedictine monks and scholars of the Abbey of Solesmes in France. Through research into medieval manuscripts, this Abbey played a large role in purifying Gregorian chant in terms of its melodies and style of performance. Willan began by transcribing the tunes for a few key Sundays, the propers of which could be used for several Sundays running. The work of transcription picked up with the arrival of Father Alfred Rose in the parish in 1922. Rose, an Englishman who had just finished a tour of duty in British Honduras, came to SMM to substitute for Father Hiscocks who was going on sick leave. He eventually stayed on as Hiscocks' assistant through 1925, when he left to "test his vocation" with the Cowley Fathers in Boston. He was professed as a monk in the society in 1928 and joined their new monastery in Bracebridge, Ontario.

Willan recognized Father Rose's musical abilities—it was he rather than Hiscocks who normally sang the mass—and the two of them collaborated in preparing the propers for the remaining days of the year. Their transcriptions naturally involved some adjustments to the original melodies to suit the rhythms and word order of the English texts. They also involved some simplifications, perhaps to take account of the amateur status of the chancel choir. Willan set the graduals and alleluias to just a few tunes, a different tune for each season rather than for each Sunday. Also, the offertory verses used ordinary psalm tones except on festival days, when the proper offertory chants were used. As usual, SMM was forging ahead on a prayer. At first, Willan had to borrow his copy of the _Liber usualis_ from the public library, and his transcriptions, in modern notation, had to be copied by hand by the members of the chancel choir.

Nowadays, we think of the gallery choir as the "main" choir and the chancel choir as an auxiliary, but in the 1920's the positions were reversed. With the chancel choir responsible for the ordinary of the mass and the propers, all that was left to the gallery choir were the motets, of which there were normally two, one at the offertory and one at communion. The first "gallery" choir had only 12 to 14 voices. It was composed of members of the parish and friends of Willan from the Conservatory. Willan was determined to start off on the right foot, so he had his new choir rehearse for six weeks before their debut on December 4,1921. Throughout his 46 years as choirmaster at SMM, Willan directed with a firm hand, seeking perfection from his singers rather than simply their best efforts. This drive for perfection is probably why Willan phased out the use of choirboys, opting for men in the chancel choir and for women in the gallery choir to sing the treble parts of polyphonic music. It was not because Willan disapproved of choirboys. He had been one himself, and later in life he took charge of the Toronto diocesan choir school founded in Port Hope. In the absence of such a school in the 1920's, however, it was difficult to find boys with good enough voices. Willan also had trouble getting the boys to attend the two weekly practices as well as both sung services on Sunday. Choirboys continued to serve in the chancel choir at least until the fall of 1924, but that is the last reference we have to them.

What music did the gallery choir sing? SMM's newspaper advertisements in 1922 promised motets (short polyphonic settings of sacred texts) by composers such as J. S. Bach and Louis Bourgeois. Advertisements then as now could be misleading, however. What in fact the gallery choir was singing were hymns from _The English Hymnal_ set to tunes by these composers. SMM adopted this book in the early months of 1922, just after Willan's arrival, though again Father Hiscocks had already displayed some interest in the matter. _The English Hymnal_ was first published in 1906 with Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams as its editors. Though it claimed not to be a "party-book", the prominence given to hymns of the saints, of Mary the Mother of God and of the eucharist made clear its anglo-catholic orientation. At SMM it replaced _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ , also of high church lineage but considerably more popular in the Church of England at large. _The English Hymnal_ provided some hymns with choral settings, and Willan wrote "fauxbourdon" settings of his own, a collection of which was published in 1927. Here, the music was spread between four voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), each of which sang a variation on the basic melody. Such arrangements of hymns from _The English Hymnal_ accounted for more than half of the motets heard at SMM in the mid-1920's.

Other sources provided the gallery choir with similar material. One was Twenty-Five Chorales by John Sebastian Bach, in which Bach melodies were set in four parts to English verse from the pens of George Herbert, William Blake and others. A second was The Cowley Carol Book, which contained carols for the Christmas, Epiphany and Easter seasons. Not all of the gallery choir's music was quite so simple. There were also Willan's own motets, which he was still in the process of creating. Very Bread and Let Us Worship and Fall Down, among six published in 1924, were sung during communion on a regular basis. Even these works were relatively uncomplicated, with the choir often singing in one or two voices. But unlike the carols and hymns, these motets employed free-flowing rhythms and melodies to suit their non-metrical texts, and they must have posed a great challenge to the young choir. This was all the more true in that the gallery choir had to be directed by one of its members, since Willan was busy playing the organ in the chancel. Nevertheless, Willan worked diligently to expand their repertoire. In addition to the six motets of 1924, he produced eight more before 1930, including the three so-called "Lady Motets", beautiful pieces among Willan's own favourites. Even so, given the preponderance of works from _The English Hymnal_ and similar sources, Willan's motets were a relatively minor source of the gallery choir's music in the 1920's.

With all this emphasis on the choirs, two other "players" in the music of the mass at SMM should not be overlooked. The first was the congregation, which as we noted sang the Gloria and Creed in plainsong. It was long-standing anglo-catholic practice to make singing hymns an integral part of church services, and SMM had followed this practice since 1888. Under Willan, hymns were normally sung at the offertory, at communion, after the dismissal, and on high feast days during processions and between the epistle and gospel as well. There was a small problem, though, with the introduction of _The English Hymnal_. To accustom the congregation to the new hymns, just as they had to become accustomed to the plainsong Gloria and Creed, it was decided that the chancel choir should sing the first verse by itself, with the congregation joining in on subsequent verses. However, the congregation was not joining in when it was supposed to, preferring to sit and listen to the choir!

Finally there was Willan himself playing the organ. Purchased with the help of Andrew Carnegie for the completion of the church in 1907–08, the organ had been built by Breckels and Matthews of Toronto in the large chamber off the north side of the chancel; the console was in the chancel proper among the choir stalls. Willan was known as a sensitive accompanist, not only when the congregation sang hymns but also when the chancel choir sang the propers, for they always sang with Willan playing lightly in the background. There is great doubt now as to the authenticity of this practice, but Willan felt it added to the meditative quality. Some of his plainsong accompaniments were later written down, but as one former cantor, John Cozens, observed, what Willan played was generally improvised week by week. Willan was also famous for his improvised "postludes" at the end of mass. Said one observer,

Starting quite often with a snatch of melody from the last hymn sung, he gradually builds up the organ into a gigantic mountain of sound, ascends it with one or two majestic modulations, and crowns it with a cadence of such colossal stature that the very walls do tremble [14].

Such was the music of the mass in the 1920's. A similar style of music was adopted for evensong, which was sung in the church every Sunday and on the vigil of many major feast days. At evensong, the chancel choir led the congregation in the chanting of the psalms. In later years, "congregational choir practices" were occasionally held to practice the psalm tones, and Willan may well have done the same in the 1920's. The chancel choir also performed the two evening canticles, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis. The original source of this music was _A Manual of Plainsong_ published by Thomas Helmore in 1850, which contained the psalms and canticles for the daily office set to Gregorian tones. In the Victorian period this work was considered authoritative, but it too was revised as new discoveries were made. Willan's first set of Evening Canticles with Fauxbourdons was published in 1928, although some of them had been in use for several years. Willan eventually produced some 30 settings of the canticles, chiefly for use at evensong, based on Gregorian psalm tones. These fauxbourdon settings effectively combined chant with polyphonic singing, and also allowed for the chancel and gallery choirs to sing antiphonally. In addition to his own settings, Willan arranged fauxbourdon settings of works by Viadana, Andreas and Bach in a similar fashion. These too were sung in the 1920's, again at first from manuscript.

Willan's adaptation of the introit and gradual for Easter in his own hand. The choir still sings from copies of the handwritten scores.

By the mid-1920's evensong was accompanied by devotions of the Blessed Sacrament. At devotions, the Blessed Sacrament was placed on the altar and censed while two hymns, "O Saving Victim" and "Therefore We Before Him Bending", were sung. (The texts of both hymns, which are found in _The English Hymnal_ , were by Thomas Aquinas and translated by John Mason Neale.) While the congregation prayed, the gallery choir would sing a motet, normally one of Willan's own. The exultant Hail, Gladdening Light, with a third century Greek hymn for its text, was a particular favourite, as was O How Sweet, O Lord, an ethereal piece with a quiet, yearning quality. In their different ways they both added to the sense of mystery and wonder that was (and remains) such a part of devotions.

The great years of Willan's compositions and fame were still before him, but his work at SMM began to attract interest almost immediately. _The Evening Telegram_ , though hostile to SMM during the ritualist controversy in 1922, nevertheless reported that the services were "gorgeous to eye and ear alike". Later that year, a correspondent for the Montreal Standard came to visit what had quickly become the "most 'advanced'" Anglican church in Canada. He too waxed enthusiastic about the music, calling it "an inspiration, an uplift and a delight", although he seems to have regarded it more as a concert performance than in its proper liturgical setting. The congregation was also appreciative, whatever their initial difficulties with plainsong or _The English Hymnal._ No doubt they revelled in the attention their choirs were bringing them. In their "memorial" to Bishop Sweeny in 1930 on the occasion of Hiscocks' resignation, vestry told the bishop that

Under Dr. Willan the music at our parish church has become known throughout the entire world for its perfection and Catholic purity. All visiting artists, whether English, American, or continental European, come to S. Mary Magdalene's to hear the choirs....

No doubt too there was some exaggeration here; the intention, after all, was to persuade the bishop that SMM was doing just fine without his help. Still, it is hard to dispute the growing fame of Willan or of Saint Mary Magdalene's.

Willan must have been gratified too, though being a shy and somewhat introverted man he did not normally seek this kind of publicity. Likely he was concerned that his efforts inspired more flattery than imitation, at least in the short-term. Plainsong never became as popular as Willan and its other proponents wished. There is an early case, though, concerning Trinity College, of SMM's influence on the music of the church at large. The organist and choirmaster at Trinity was Harvey Eward, who later went to England as an Anglican priest. Eward used to attend SMM in the 1920's when he was able to, and he greatly admired Willan's work. He therefore introduced plainsong to the services at the college chapel. Unfortunately, his tastes were not universally shared, and some of the students complained of the "lugubrious" plainsong that Eward enjoyed.

Expanding the Repertoire

Just as Father Hiscocks had revolutionized SMM's liturgy and worship in the 1920's, so Willan had revolutionized the music. Yet it was not until the 1930's, with substantial modifications to the relatively simple, plainsong-based repertoire we have described, that the music at Sunday mass assumed its modern form. One factor helping this change was the removal of the organ console to the gallery. Willan had requested this change in 1926 as the organ was being enlarged by Casavant Brothers of Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada's best-known organ company. The move was accomplished in the summer of 1931 as part of the renovation of the chancel described in Chapter Two. The console was placed in the south side of the gallery so that Willan could still see the chancel choir as he accompanied them. The organ couplers were adjusted to produce the kind of sound Willan wanted, and a new pedal board was acquired. In the fall of 1931 on the Feast of Dedication, the "new" organ had its formal debut in a special evensong and organ recital highlighting the works of Willan's beloved Bach. The organ had been improved, but the chief benefit was to allow Willan to direct the gallery choir in person, which in turn allowed it to develop a more demanding repertoire.

This repertoire was largely Willan's, and included such niceties as involving the gallery choir in the singing of the Gloria and Creed. As Willan arranged matters, the gallery choir sang the Gloria antiphonally with the congregation, alternating line by line, and as well sang the _incarnatus_ during the Creed. But the most important feature of this new repertoire was Willan's settings of the ordinary of the mass. He had written two such settings in England, as well as parts of three others, but he put the work aside on coming to Canada. Whether he always meant to return to it—probably in his early years at SMM he decided that his plainsong adaptations were a priority—return he did, and with a vengeance, composing 13 mass settings between 1927 and 1939. Five of these settings, like the two he had written in England, were "complete" settings, but eight were _missae breves_ written specifically for use at SMM. That is, unlike the complete masses, they did not include settings of the Gloria and Creed, which the congregation and gallery choir continued to sing in their plainsong arrangements.

Willan's masses reflect the range of his interests. His first settings display the influence of plainsong on his writing; Missa brevis VI is based on Bach chorale tunes; the seventh makes use of "O Western Wynde", a sixteenth century secular tune that John Taverner and Christopher Tye had used in mass settings of their own. In the midst of this diversity, some general features of Willan's style can be discerned. He regarded church music as "the embellishment of the Liturgy"; its role was to support the liturgy, not to assume the spotlight or to "obscure the intention or impede the movement" of the mass in any way. His settings of the Kyrie eleison, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei were therefore short and to the point so that the music did not slow down the progress of the service. His music was also the servant of the texts, which except for the Kyrie eleison were in English so that their meaning would be clear. The words were laid bare by Willan's subtle and restrained use of counterpoint, and as choirmaster Willan insisted on clear enunciation. His mass settings are therefore often deceptively straightforward. They are characterized by strong, clean melodies and by the mystical spirituality that Willan so deeply felt. "The holiness of beauty" was how Father Brain, echoing the words of Psalm 96, described Willan's approach to church music. That music is often austere, like the church for which it was written, but it is never forbidding.

That his church music should have an intimate, natural quality was most appropriate. Willan disliked pretension, and he was quite capable of poking fun at himself. "My music may not be good", he joked once, "but by God it's scholarly! " This was his way of dealing with the praise and adulation heaped upon him. His interest in the supernatural went beyond the normal bounds of Christianity. Willan used to tell of a ghost he had seen at SMM, an old lady dressed in grey. While practicing the organ one day, he observed her at the front of the nave. Another time he saw her at a garden party in the lot next to the church, but when he went to speak to her she vanished. It was the sort of story that Willan, with his roguish wit, might have told for effect—but no, he was quite serious. Other parishioners claimed to have experienced the ghostly presence too.

The use of plainsong mass settings and motets from _The English Hymnal_ persisted into the 1930's, but by the middle of the decade the repertoire had assumed its modern form. The gallery choir now sang the ordinary of the mass using settings by recognized composers, chiefly Willan. In 1934 and 1935, three-quarters of the mass settings heard at SMM were by Willan, a proportion that the future never challenged. In those years, the only masses heard at SMM that were not by Willan were two written by Claudio Casciolini (1697–1760), apparently sung from manuscript in an arrangement Willan had made. Part of the problem was that there were few settings in English in the style that Willan desired, so Willan himself set out to provide some. In 1943, he arranged the mass L'horapassa by Ludovico Viadana (c. 1560–1627); the following year he published William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices and Mass for Five Voices adapted to English texts. In later years, settings composed by Robert Fleming and Margaret Drynan, both members of the gallery choir, were sometimes performed at SMM. One way or another, Willan had a hand in almost all of the masses his choir sang.

By the 1930's, too, the style and calibre of the motets heard at SMM were beginning to change. Again taking the years 1934–35, the motets heard at mass and evening devotions can be divided into three groups of roughly equal size. The first third comprised Willan's own motets, and this proportion too was to remain constant in future years. Willan was famous for introducing the music of sixteenth and seventeenth century composers in Canada at a time when few other churches were performing their works, and they made up the second group of motets. Most of these were of the "English School", Orlando Gibbons being the most often performed, but also heard were William Byrd, William Mundy, Christopher Tye and Thomas Tallis. The list was rounded out by continental composers of that period, chiefly Victoria and Palestrina, but music by these composers was (and was to remain) relatively uncommon. Most of these works, if not in English already, were performed in English translation, although the use of Latin was not entirely unknown. The remaining motets were by a variety of composers, often Bach with English texts as described above. Also prominent were works by three Russian composers, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Gretchaninov. As time went on, performances of these eighteenth and nineteenth century compositions became much less frequent. The Bach settings, performed so regularly in the 1920's and 1930's, were a positive rarity ten years later. Taking their place were increasing numbers of works by Renaissance composers, including names not as well known as those listed above—Peter Philips, Adrian Batten, Richard Farrant and Thomas Weelkes. Here again, some of this new repertoire was edited and adapted by Willan, including works by Hans Hassler, Vincenzo Ruffo and Adrian Batten.

Willan composing, 1927. The pipe was a constant inspiration.

Willan Around the Church

It would appear that, after Father Hiscocks at least, the clergy at SMM had little hand in these developments. Like the congregation, most were pleased to let Willan forge ahead as he saw fit, which was probably the wisest course. As SMM went through a number of priests in the 1930's, and as the congregation was having its ups and downs, Willan and the choir provided some much needed continuity and identity to the parish. They also provided some immediate practical assistance in the troubled years of the depression. In the 1920's, recitals of liturgical music became commonplace at SMM and on occasion drew sizeable crowds; there were 410 in attendance at the choir recital of Monday October 14,1929, for instance. Of interest here are the large number of recitals given in the 1930's to raise money and draw new members to Saint Mary Magdalene's in its time of need. The peak year for such recitals was 1935, when Willan and the choirs put on nine of them at the church. These recitals typically began and ended with Willan on the organ playing one of Bach's "Chorale Preludes" or another such work. In between came a variety of hymns, motets or canticles, whatever was appropriate to the season, using both the gallery and chancel choirs. The music was normally what one might hear at an actual service at SMM, but these recitals did give Willan and the choirs a chance to explore a different repertoire. Willan concluded one recital in 1934 with the funeral march from Wagner's _Gotterdämmerung_! Closer to the beaten track, on the first Sunday of Lent in 1935, the choir sang the Kyrie and Sanctus of Palestrina's Missa Aetema Christi Munera in Willan's own arrangement, which was not apparently heard at mass at SMM till much later.

As might be expected, Willan's prominence in the parish could and did cause trouble when the rector and choirmaster did not see eye to eye. In 1941 Willan had to leave the parish for a time. He and Father Greene had refought the battle between Callaghan and Hiscocks over which of them would be in charge. This time the ending was happier. Both sides quickly thought the better of it, and Willan returned to the fold in 1942. Before he returned, however, Greene complained to the bishop about the degree of control that Willan had exercised at Saint Mary Magdalene's. He asked that Willan be told in no uncertain terms that the rector had final authority over the music of the church and the personnel of the choirs. He vowed to resign rather than let Willan "run S.M.M." Yet Willan and Greene ended up good friends. Father Greene's daughter, Deirdre, was named after an opera Willan wrote that premiered about the time of her birth.

The episode suggests something of Willan's stubborn and imperious streak, and for the most part he did retain a free hand in the choice of music and in the running of the choirs. In this he had the full support of the congregation, which regarded Willan with great awe, though for the most part they worshipped him at some distance. Choir members felt this awe too, and many also felt his withering glance if they miscued during a performance. It is said that one reason Willan was able to get his choirs to sing their best was that they were afraid to do anything else! But Willan was also capable of great kindness and warmth, and he formed many lasting friendships with his singers. The gallery choir was, in some respects, like a family with Willan at its head. Members were recruited from the congregation, although many were attracted from outside by the opportunity to learn from Willan and to sing with such a talented group. While the granting of small honoraria to cantors and assistant directors was not unknown, it was a point of pride that the singers were essentially unpaid. This tradition stemmed from the earliest days of the parish and had an obvious practical foundation. Still, it is a sign of their devotion to Willan and to the church that the singers endured a crowded liturgical calendar (particularly "Saint Mary's Marathon", as Willan referred to Holy Week) in addition to their twice weekly practices. Members of the gallery choir also went on tour to other churches and cities—most notably to Town Hall in New York in 1945—and made the occasional radio broadcast besides, all without remuneration. In many ways, as Gwethalyn Graham wrote in Saturday Night in 1940, the story of SMM's music is "curiously romantic, and a rather unique example of what can be done without money".

If, as Graham went on to say, SMM had the finest church music on the continent and a reputation well-established in the United States, it was in large part thanks to the commitment and dedication of the choristers. It would be foolish to try to mention all those who have given their talents and time in God's service over the years, but here are two who might be singled out. The first is Margaret McClelland, who visited SMM in 1934 and was immediately attracted by the plainsong. Within a short time she was introduced to Willan and, though she did not have much singing experience, was asked to audition for the gallery choir. She remained with the choir for some 40 years and was a great help to Willan as an assistant organist and director. The second is Dan Harmer, who came to Toronto from Saskatchewan in 1939. A student of Willan's at the Faculty of Music, Dan was in the midst of setting some poetry to music when he asked Willan to look at it. Willan thought he would rather hear it, so he played the piano while Dan sang. Willan stopped in the middle and without further ado invited him to join the choir. He did, met Margaret and they were married in 1943.

The Harmers illustrate two of the many routes by which choir members were drawn to SMM. They illustrate something else that was extraordinary too, that in spite of his commitment to perfection, Willan did not seek out trained singers for his choir. He felt that trained voices would draw attention to themselves rather than submit to the discipline of the whole. His idea of perfection was rather a harmonious blend of voices. The acoustics of the church, well-suited to contribute to this blend, provided the choir with a warm, intimate and unforced sound. This intimacy was a feature of Willan's conducting, but it was also partly the result of practical considerations. When Willan first came to SMM he thought that the gallery choir should have at least 32 voices. The actual number seems to have hovered around 20, and was rarely if ever as high as Willan had originally wanted.

The Dean of Canadian Composers

In 1950, Willan was 70 years old and had entered what for most people would be called the twilight of their career. Willan, though, carried on for another 17 years composing and directing the choir. His output remained prolific. A number of new settings of the evening canticles appeared around 1950, accompanied by a flurry of motets. He published four more mass settings for use at SMM between 1953 and 1963, and kept himself busy preparing settings of hymn tunes and devising original tunes of his own. It is however true that his best compositions were behind him. The repertoire and character of the music at SMM had been set and would not vary much until the end of his tenure.

With his reputation established, Willan took on more and more activities characteristic of a "dean of Canadian composers". His contributions to the church in general over the years were many, not that they had waited until this stage of his career to begin. In 1934, he had participated in the revision of the Canadian hymn book, which appeared in 1937. When Coventry Cathedral was destroyed in World War Two, Willan served as chairman of the fund of the Canadian College of Organists to raise money to replace the organ; for his efforts he was presented with a "cross of nails" from the old cathedral, a cross that still hangs in the south aisle of Saint Mary Magdalene's. When a summer choir school for the diocese of Toronto was established in 1954, Willan accepted the bishop's invitation to become its director. In the midst of these and other new departures, Willan also carried on with the work he had begun many years before. In 1950 he helped to found the Gregorian Association in Toronto to promote the study and use of plainsong. Willan was the musical director of its choir, which used to sing evensong and devotions at SMM as part of its annual festival. Perhaps his last effort to promote the use of plainsong in the church was his work editing the _Canadian Psalter_ , to take account of the new prayer book and a revised translation of the psalms, which was published in 1963.

There were honours, too, in these last years. Best known is the invitation Willan received to compose an anthem for Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953. In 1956 he received the prize he cherished most, the Lambeth Doctorate from the Archbishop of Canterbury; and, to recognize his contributions to both religious and secular music, he was made a Companion of the newly-created Order of Canada in 1967. With his health failing, though, he was naturally forced to restrict his activities. He resigned his post as director of the choir school in 1963, and as musical director of the Gregorian Association in 1964. Willan last played at SMM at the Christmas midnight mass of 1967. Because of his illness, his appearance at the church that evening took everyone by surprise, and he had to be helped climbing the steps to the gallery. Though virtually sightless, he played the organ for the entire service as if nothing was wrong, while Margaret Harmer directed the gallery choir. Two days later a malignant cancer was discovered, and Willan died quietly at home on February 16,1968, at the age of 87. His funeral was held at the church on February 19. The organ was silent in his honour, but the choir sang Casciolini's requiem mass, a piece they had practiced with Willan only a short time before. They sang at their best, retaining their composure just until the last note sounded.

[Return to TOC]

Building the Harbord Street bridge over the Bickford ravine, ca. 1910. The bridge no longer exists as such as the ravine, just west of SMM, was soon filled in south of Harbord. The price of progress was paid by the neighbourhood children, who once swam and fished in the creek.

JAMES COLLECTION, COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES.

CHAPTER FIVE PARISH LIFE

Until now we have been chiefly concerned with the leaders of SMM, especially the clergy, who set the priorities and directed the activities. In the background, there were hundreds of people quietly doing the work—planning building projects, teaching Sunday school or serving in the sanctuary. If they appear in the church records at all it is in the most fragmentary form, as a godparent at this child's baptism, or a victim of that winter's flu epidemic. Occasionally someone famous turns up in the records. Roland Michener, the future Governor General, was included by virtue of his marriage to Norah Willis, a member of the gallery choir, in 1927. Others at least had a kind of parochial fame, like Maria Thompson, the first organist and a founding member of the Women's Auxiliary. When she died of cancer in 1905, Charles Darling hailed her as "One of the Saints of the Parish ... who had been with us from the beginning". At this remove, most of the saints of the parish are quite unknown to us. They were real people, though, working and raising families, and they were real Christians who worshipped in the church and tried their best to understand God's will for them. They too were a part of the history, and it is fitting to return to 1888 and see what we can find out about them.

The Neighbourhood—The Community?

At the time Saint Mary Magdalene's was founded, Saint Matthias displayed a certain envy of its new mission church. According to Saint Matthias's parish magazine, the area north of College Street was destined to become

one of the favourite residential quarters of our city. The class of houses which has been building in that locality for some years past has been of such a superior description, as compared with the houses in the older part of the parish [i.e. near Saint Matthias], as to give assurance of a population in the near future, not perhaps wealthy, but of those who may be described as well-to-do.

Here is a lesson in the importance of perspective. The mission neighbourhood may have been prosperous relative to that near Saint Matthias, but in relation to Toronto as a whole it was hardly exceptional. In fact the earliest homes around SMM, chiefly along Clinton Street and Manning Avenue, were to rank among the lower echelon of homes in the neighbourhood once the area was filled in. They were occupied by people at the lower end of the social scale, mostly general labourers and members of the building trades. As the neighbourhood grew, and as a finer class of housing appeared on Markham Street and Palmerston Avenue, greater diversity in the social status of local residents appeared. There developed an interesting progression moving from east to west through the parish, from the fine large homes on Markham and later Palmerston, through the semi-detached houses on Euclid and Manning, to the poorer homes on Clinton and more particularly Jersey Street and Montrose Avenue.

Saint Mary Magdalene's served quite a diverse group of people. This diversity is apparent in the baptismal registers, which often listed the father's occupation, where professional and business men appear side by side with servants and unskilled labourers. Into the 1930's (when the baptismal registers become too unreliable), blue-collar families consistently accounted for about 60 percent of all the families listed, with unskilled and semi-skilled workers making up by far the largest number. Some of the earliest parishioners had a very low level of formal education. Their signatures in the marriage register were often shaky or crudely drawn, or even occasionally replaced by an "x". (The last such case occurred in 1916.) For these poorer people life could be hard, and the rate of infant mortality, a good sign of general living conditions, was high. One-fifth of all deaths recorded in the burial register between 1888 and 1900 were of infants under one year of age. Almost two-fifths were of children under the age of 10. In such cases the cause of death was often not listed, which suggests how "natural" an occurrence it was. Respiratory diseases, including pneumonia, bronchitis and whooping cough, seem to have been the most common causes. Saint Matthias used to advise parents to bring their children to baptism before the cold weather set in. Even for adults, these same respiratory ailments (plus the greatest scourge of all, tuberculosis) accounted for more than a third of all deaths in this period. The occasional touch of typhoid and cholera shows that contamination of the water supply, which was piped directly from the lake, remained a problem too. SMM undertook various relief efforts for the poor and unemployed in the parish, distributing small amounts of money, clothing and other goods. The church also provided dinners for poor families at Christmas. As the neighbourhood was generally more prosperous, though, these efforts were never as great a concern as at Saint Matthias.

Accounting for about 30 percent of the households, Anglicans made up the largest denomination in the geographic parish. They were followed closely by the Methodists, Presbyterians and, at far greater remove, the Baptists and Roman Catholics. The proportion of Methodists grew significantly as one descended in the social scale, while the proportion of Presbyterians dropped just as quickly, but Anglicans were to be found in good numbers among all classes in the neighbourhood. Happily, SMM was open to everyone. From opening day in 1888 there were no pew rents; rather, as the church used to advertise, all the seating was "free". This was the tradition in Tractarian parishes, though by then the practice was spreading more widely through the city. (It had long been the norm in rural areas.) With the introduction of the envelope system, passing the collection plate at the offertory had become popular in the 1860's and 1870's. By 1888, most of the new churches being opened in the city were, like SMM, offering free seating exclusively.

In many ways, this new suburb was not so different from new suburbs today. Unpaved streets ran past empty lots and half finished houses; there were very few trees, and the homes had mud rather than grass for their front lawns. There were many younger families in the district, settling on the outskirts of town where rents and property values were lower. An unscientific perusal of real estate ads shows that in 1888 land was selling for about $30 a foot along Manning Avenue, $35 a foot along Euclid. Finished homes were asking between $2,000 and $4,000, though there was obviously some variety here. A "six-roomed cottage with good cellar and city water" on Ulster Street listed for $950 in April 1888. The price may seem ridiculously low, but it was still very difficult for members of the working class to afford their own homes. Consequently, many of the earliest parishioners were tenants rather than owners. They were a very mobile group of people, even by modern standards. Addresses changed quickly as people moved around within the neighbourhood or to other parts of Toronto. Checking the city directories, we find that on Clinton Street and Euclid Avenue between College and Bloor, 57 percent of those living there in 1900 were no longer at the same address in 1905; 73 percent were no longer there in 1910. Among the richer families on Markham Street the mobility rate was lower, though still substantial: 35 percent of those living on Markham between College and Bloor in 1900 were no longer there in 1905, and 54 percent were no longer there in 1910. With so much coming and going, the neighbourhood must have had some of the "nameless" character of the modern suburb too; like the houses and streets, it must have long remained in a half-finished state.

The mobility of the residents did not just affect the community, it affected the stability of SMM's congregation as well. It was reported at vestry in 1904 that this mobility was playing havoc with the envelope system, which was supposed to allow the wardens to estimate future income; this they were unable to do because of the great number of "losses through removals from the parish". The same turnover complicated the lives of parish organizations. One parish group, the SMM chapter of the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew, was dissolved in 1910 because of the "unfortunate removal to distant parishes of all—or nearly all—its active members".

In the task of building community among the Anglicans in the neighbourhood, SMM must have faced an uphill climb. Another impediment was a private, family-centred approach to the basic rites of the church. Some weddings were held in people's homes rather than at the church, though this practice was becoming less common. Most funerals were still held at home. From 1888 to 1900, over 80 percent of the funerals listed in the parish register were held at the deceased's or a relative's home, while just 15 percent were held at the church. Baptisms too were oriented toward the family rather than toward the Christian community as a whole. In 1888, the time officially set aside for baptisms was Friday at 8:00 pm (at evensong) and Sunday at 4:15 pm. The practice of holding evensong on Fridays did not last, but the practice of sequestering baptisms away from the congregation did. Years later, in 1919, the time for baptisms was still Sunday afternoon. It was also common for parents to act as godparents at the baptism of their own child. Between 1888 and 1900, one or both parents acted as godparent in 70 percent of the baptisms for which information is available.

Finally, many baptisms were marked in the registers as "private", which seems to indicate that they were held outside of the church. Here, though, we are not necessarily dealing with a cozy family celebration: in some cases it meant that the child was dying, in others that it was illegitimate. It was Father Hiscocks who took steps to ensure that baptisms, marriages and funerals were all performed in the church rather than at home or at the undertakers'.

A Sea of Inactivity

It helps to explain the "private" character of these basic church services to know that many Anglicans who availed themselves of these services—and there were many who did not—were what are known today as "inactive" Anglicans. Many of us imagine the past as a time when people were faithful and churches were full. Such a "golden age" of churchgoing has never existed. Current figures suggest that only one Anglican in three is listed on parish rolls, only one in four has been confirmed and only one in ten attends church on any given Sunday. Data from the turn of the century are not sound enough for detailed analysis, but it is safe to say that the church was facing remarkably similar problems. In 1910–11, SMM averaged about 200 attendances at Sunday morning eucharists and between 200 and 300 at evensong, out of an estimated Anglican population of 2,000 in the parish. Counting just attendance at Sunday eucharists, the church was at the one in ten level of today. If we add in evensong, we still have only about one in four Anglicans attending Sunday services, even on the implausible assumption that none of those attending in the morning returned at night. Confirmations were actually rarer than today: SMM had only 350 confirmed members in 1911 among the 2,000 or so Anglicans thought to be living in the parish. Nor was 1911 an unusual year. Ten years later, in 1921, the parish list contained 1,305 names, but total Sunday attendance averaged only 325. There were 320 confirmed members of the parish, only 52 of whom made their communion on an average Sunday. Statistics for the diocese as a whole were little different.

We tend to think of parish membership lists as inflated. Could this account for these shortfalls in attendance? The answer is simply no. The Church of England acknowledged that in most cases, its parish rolls greatly underestimated the number of available Anglicans. In 1901, parish rolls turned up 50,874 Anglicans in the deanery of Toronto. The census of that year, however, found over 69,000 Anglicans within the same boundaries, suggesting that parish rolls typically fell short by a factor of 20 to 25 percent. The underestimate seems to have been even larger ten years later, when clergy returns listed 72,124 Anglicans in Toronto, while the census showed 128,682.

The problem of inactivity was one that church leaders of the time were well aware of. At the jubilee in 1889 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the diocese of Toronto, Bishop Sullivan of Algoma touched on a familiar but still disquieting theme. He spoke of the large numbers of people, chiefly of low and middling social status, who were

dwelling locally under the very shadow of countless churches, yet practically as far removed from the converting, elevating power of the Gospel as if they inhabited some distant, undiscovered island of the sea.

"Reaching the masses", he said, would require greater effort from the church in future. In one such effort, in 1911, SMM took part in a "Lenten City Mission". Thirty Anglican churches in the deanery of Toronto participated, and clergy came from all over Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain. SMM's two mission priests, the Reverend W. Guy Pearse and the Reverend E. E. Seyzinger, were from the Community of the Resurrection based in Yorkshire, England. Their mission was not to be confused with the more evangelistic or revivalist missions that were still popular. "There will be no excitement nor sensations," Darling told his flock. "Everything will be marked by true earnestness and deep reverence." Still, the goals of this mission were not so different from the exciting ones. It was advertised as a call to the sinful and the worldly; it was to help the faithful "lead better lives and live closer to Christ". Striking is the prominence given to attracting the inactive population. According to Pearse and Seyzinger, this Lenten mission

is a call—it may be the last—to those who are "living without God in the world", and to show them that a Godless and prayerless life must mean an eternity without God. It is a call to the indifferent and to those who "forget God" to awaken to their danger.

Attendance at the mission services was quite reasonable, though probably most who came were already active in the church. But at least one inactive family seems to have heard the call, that of Fred and Minnie Whalley, who brought their two children aged four and five to be baptised by Father Seyzinger.

Whatever the success of the 1911 mission, it was often possible to "reactivate" the inactives, perhaps more so than today. It may come as a surprise that many Anglican children around the turn of the century were not even baptised, let alone confirmed. One gains a sense of this problem through the large numbers of "family" baptisms which can be found in the early records of the parish. Instead of having their children baptised one by one as they were born, many couples (like the Whalleys) waited until the family was complete, or nearly so, before having them baptised en masse. William and Mary Findlay, who ran a milk dealership out of their house on Lippincott Street, had their three children baptised on October 30, 1890, the eldest child being five. Earlier that year, in March, Sarah and James Cully, a shoemaker living on Manning Avenue, brought five children to the church to be baptised. They must have been happy with the results, for two weeks later they returned with another three. From 1888 to 1900, such "family" baptisms accounted for almost one-fifth of all baptisms in the parish. It would appear that the parents had little use for the church until something caused them to be "reactivated", at least to the point of bringing their children to baptism. In a few instances, the records suggest how the reactivation came about. Family influence was one possibility. In January of 1891, Ernest Worsdell brought his two-month old son to be baptised; evidently he prevailed upon his brother John, who was also his next-door neighbour and a fellow stonecutter, to present his nine-year old son for baptism on the same day. Sadly, death or impending death seems to have been a more common factor. Just days after Selina May was struck down by tuberculosis in 1895, her husband William brought their two children, aged 10 and 12, as well as a niece and a nephew, to be baptised. Also baptised in 1895 were the six children of Charles and Harriet Hunter. We may surmise that diphtheria had infected the household, for within two months two of the older children had died of this disease.

Not being baptised, like not being confirmed, was not at all unusual. Nor did it necessarily stop people from participating in the life of the parish, albeit at a low or occasional level. Easter, much more than Christmas, was the day for inactives to renew their ties to the church. In 1909, 777 came to eucharist on Easter, three to four times the number on a regular Sunday, while 570 came to evensong. As Darling commented following Easter in 1913,

We had the usual full Church and crowded Altar, and the old, recurring questions, "Where does all this multitude of people come from? Where are they for the rest of the year?"

And yet there were still several hundred Anglicans in the parish who did not attend church that Easter. Darling had no illusions about people being more faithful in his day, and neither should we.

Parish Organizations

At the turn of the century, just like today, the church consisted of a small core of active and enthusiastic members surrounded by a larger mass of more or less uninterested bystanders. What can we say about the relatively small group of more active Anglicans? Given the state of the church records and the kind of information they contain, this is not an easy topic to deal with. The most promising approach is through the many parish organizations that have flourished or struggled over the years at SMM. These organizations, part of a world that has passed on, were in many ways different from parish organizations today. They were almost always segregated by sex, for example. Such traditions died hard: only recently have men infiltrated the Chancel Guild and women the Servers' Guild at SMM. Organizations in the past were usually established on the basis of age as well. It was common for an adult group to set up a 'junior" branch for younger people involved in much the same activities. Parish groups were typically well-organized to the point where minutes of meetings were kept and where the group had a "constitution", rules for admitting new members and a plethora of officers to direct their activities. They also had a strong spiritual component, meeting regularly for fellowship and worship in addition to planning their work. By contrast, modern-day parish groups are loosely organized and more strictly functional in nature, as well as being smaller in size and fewer in number.

Of course, parish groups at Saint Mary Magdalene's were similar to those in other parishes at that time. Indeed they were often local branches of wider organizations. The Women's Auxiliary, the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew and the Anglican Young People's Association, the major church groups for women, men and youth, were all organizations of this kind. On the other hand, it will no doubt please some present members of the congregation to learn that SMM seems never to have had a branch of the Church of England Temperance Society. Charles Darling had been president of the Saint Matthias branch, but by the 1890's the CETS in the diocese as a whole was experiencing major difficulties and declining membership. Among the reasons was a lack of cooperation between the moderates and the teetotallers. Their work was eventually taken over by the diocesan "Committee on Temperance and Moral and Social Reform", which made representations to the government on such subjects as drinking, gambling, prostitution and "the immoral use of automobiles", which apparently even in those days were the scene of much lost virtue.

**Women's Organizations** One of the first organizations to become active at SMM was the Women's Auxiliary. The main concern of the WA was missionary work, chiefly to the native peoples of the Canadian north and northwest, but also to a lesser extent overseas and the Far East. Large-scale organized missionary work in the Church of England in Canada dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1880 the provincial synod established two central boards, one for domestic missions and one for foreign missions, with corresponding committees in each diocese. The two central boards merged in 1883, and in 1885 the Women's Auxiliary, modelled on a similar organization in the United States, was founded to assist it. Church leaders in Toronto diocese liked to complain of "the deplorable indifference to the great missionary interests of the Church prevailing in our Parishes". Such comments simply reveal the extent of their ambitions. In fact the popularity of the new movement was so great that by the 1890's most parishes in Toronto had set up branches of the WA.

SMM's branch was organized in November 1888 with Agnes Darling, the rector's wife, as president. She remained president until 1922 and did much to organize and define the ethos of the branch, though in the early years she was preoccupied with her children at home. Joining her in 1888 were Maria Thompson and Emily Clubb, nominally vice-presidents but in truth the only other members. They decided that the group would meet weekly and levy an annual membership fee of 10 cents. Within a year they had gathered 17 members, and by the mid-1890's had over 40.

It is easy today to be critical of the Women's Auxiliary, in part for the none-too-subtle form of cultural imperialism it promoted, however naively. Missionaries who mistook British values for Christian ones did much harm to native culture and society in Canada. We are also tempted to be critical of the Women's Auxiliary for the traditional supporting role in which the movement cast women, which even the name of the group suggests. Agnes Darling, though, took a very high view of the group's responsibilities. She was insistent that the WA should not degenerate into "a mere sewing society". Rather, its purpose was to pray for missions, diffuse information, increase missionary zeal among the congregation at large, raise money and make clothing to be sent to mission stations. Sewing, as Agnes Darling was fond of pointing out, came last on the list.

The WA did provide its members with a fair scope for their talents and enthusiasm. To be able to arouse the zeal of the congregation, members had to keep themselves informed of missionary doings. They followed a course of study prescribed by the diocesan headquarters, and occasionally missionaries would come to speak to them about their work. More strictly spiritual activities were also important. The monthly business meetings always began with worship. It was up to the person leading them what form this worship would take, whether prayers, hymns, Bible readings or some combination. (Under Father Hiscocks these somewhat ad hoc observances were replaced by formal intercessions in the church conducted by the clergy.) The Women's Auxiliary held its corporate communion on Advent Sunday, as well as a "chain of prayer" on Saint Andrew's day, in which members would pray in the church for missionary work in succession for one hour each. Members were enjoined to pray for missions privately at home as well.

One of their most important activities was fundraising. The WA collected pledges from its members to meet the assessment levied by the diocesan WA, which went to support women working in the field as missionaries, teachers and nurses. Synod requested money for missionary work from the parish at large as part of its "allotment" or outreach collections. At Charles Darling's request, at SMM the parish allotment for missions was raised by the WA. This involved the WA in larger fundraising efforts. Annual "Sales of Work", chiefly clothing that the WA had prepared, and soliciting direct pledges from the congregation were the chief means of meeting this outreach commitment. On occasion, too, members canvassed the homes in the neighbourhood in search of donations, though they were normally disappointed by the income from this source. During the Great War, it was decided that the total sum for diocesan missions was too much for the group, so from then on they settled for raising only part of it.

Yet, in spite of Agnes Darling, it is perhaps as a sewing society that the WA is best remembered. In addition to its monthly business meetings, it also met weekly to sew and prepare "bales" of clothing, blankets, books, toys and other supplies for missionaries, their families and for the people under their charge. Missions with which the WA had a long-term relationship around the turn of the century included the station at Apsley near Bancroft, on the outer edge of Toronto diocese, the Shingwauk school for native children near Sault Ste. Marie, and a second native school at Touchwood Hills, Saskatchewan. The women did their sewing in the church basement which, though cramped and poorly decorated, was the site of most group meetings and parish activities. For that reason, Father Hiscocks later referred to the basement with a smile as "the bosom of Mother Church".

While the WA carried on at SMM for many years, in organizational terms it peaked in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1908 it counted 60 members who were raising and spending over $400 per year. By then it had given birth to a Girls'Auxiliary for teenagers and a Junior Auxiliary for children; in 1909 these had 27 and 40 members respectively and concerned themselves with similar causes, though on a much smaller scale. By 1919 the girls' branch had disappeared, although the junior branch remained. The WA's ability to raise money was also facing setbacks. While in 1919 they raised over $500, this figure dropped to about $200 in 1925, and to about $150 in 1935 in the admittedly difficult years of the depression. This decline was parallelled by a drop in the membership. From 50 to 60 members in the mid-1910's, the WA fell to 44 members in 1921 and to 29 in 1931. The reasons for the decline are mysterious. Possibly one factor was the change in focus and spiritual direction implied by the advanced anglo-catholicism of the 1920's. Father Hiscocks, though, who had after all been a missionary out west himself, took an active interest in the WA and participated in many of their meetings. The same may be said of his successors. Probably the decline had more to do with the passing of the enthusiastic first generation of mission workers, including Agnes Darling, who resigned the presidency in 1922 after more than 30 years in office. Still, the WA remained active at SMM, albeit at a lower level, into the 1960's.

A party in the round room under the chancel, occasion unknown. The poor lighting, furnishings and ventilation did not prevent the round rom from becoming "the bosom of Mother Church".

The Sunday school posing on the vacant north lot, the intended site for a schoolhouse since 1892. The need for a schoolhouse was much greater in 1892, when the neighbourhood was filled with young families.

A second important women's organization was the Chancel Guild. In 1909 it had 15 members, mostly younger single women. Practically all of our records concerning the Chancel Guild, however, date from the 1920's and afterward, by which point the guild had 20 to 30 members. Whether or not the WA had been touched by the anglo-catholic developments at SMM, the ethos of the Chancel Guild, if not its actual work, was affected. Unlike other organizations in the 1920's, membership in the Chancel Guild was restricted. To join, one had to be nominated by two existing members, then voted in by the group as a whole after two months' probation. A formal service of admission conducted by one of the clergy was then held at which the candidate would make certain vows and receive a medal as a symbol of those vows. These restrictions on membership were justified on the grounds that members would be working in and caring for "the holiest spots in the Church building", in particular around the reserved sacrament. For the same reason, Father Gavitt insisted that members keep up with their communions and confessions. All members were expected to attend the 8:00 am eucharist on the second Sunday of the month as an act of corporate worship and communion. The Chancel Guild's constitution, which spelled out these duties and procedures, also laid down that work in the church was to begin and end with prayer before the reserved sacrament.

By the 1920's, the guild was under the direction of one of the sisters from the convent next door who was responsible for planning the work and assigning members to it. Other sisters helped with the work itself, especially the washing. In addition to their work on Saturdays in the church, the guild met twice a month in the late 1920's to plan their activities, to admit new members and to sew, creating and repairing vestments, cassocks, altar linens, and other supplies. To purchase the necessary materials, the Chancel Guild raised money through members' pledges and the occasional parish "event". They received help from the junior Altar Guild, first set up in 1927 for teenage girls. (Its existence thereafter was intermittent.) Members of the junior guild helped with the work in the church one Saturday a month and raised money for altar supplies and vestments. Like other junior guilds, though, its purpose was not so much to advance the day-to-day activities of the senior group as to initiate the young into the beliefs and practices of the adult congregation.

**Men's Organizations** Other women's activities in the early days of the church included weekly "Mother's Meetings", a useful device for lower income families. By pooling their money, members could buy material for clothing at cost and pay for it in installments. There was also the "Women's Guild", apparently founded in conjunction with the renovations of 1907–08, which raised money through bazaars, parish dinners and direct pledges for the fabric of the church.

While the women's groups were strong and active, maintaining groups for men was much trickier. The parish did have a branch of the "Brotherhood of Saint Andrew" from the early 1890's. The BSA was new to the diocese in the 1880's; like the WA it was patterned on an American organization with the same name. It also shared in the missionary drive that gave birth to the WA. Organized into parochial chapters under the leadership of the parish clergy, the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew was a group for young men whose "sole object" was "the spread of Christ's Kingdom among young men". Specifically, they attempted to bring other men to the church by prayer and witness, foreswearing any activities that were "not of a plainly religious and spiritual nature" unless used as a means to promote the "sole object". Their focal activity was the members' Bible class. They also visited the sick as well as newcomers to the parish to invite them to church. The central office of the BSA sought out recent immigrants with a Church of England background, whose names and addresses they obtained from immigration agents. This information was passed on to the local branch in the parish in which they took up residence. The local branch would then initiate contact. Other wayward Anglican men were tracked down using lists that institutions like the University of Toronto and the Toronto General Hospital kept. By 1910, as we noted above, the SMM chapter of the BSA had dissolved because most of its active members had moved to other parishes. Attempts were made to revive the group, but there is no indication that they were successful. In any case, the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew as a whole was devastated by the Great War. Many of its members enlisted for military service; the national office folded, as did many parochial branches.

The circumstances surrounding the demise of the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew may seem fairly particular, but in fact keeping a men's group in operation for any length of time at SMM was a great challenge. The BSA was replaced by a "Men's Association", then by the "Men's Forward Movement" which had a short run in 1919 raising money for the church. By the end of that year it too had disappeared, and talk of reviving a men's club was heard at the special vestry meeting of November 1919. Whatever was set up was certainly not very active, for we have only one brief reference to a "Men's Guild" in 1925 before an entirely new "Men's Association" was set up in 1927. The chief goal of this group was to assist the Women's Guild in raising money for the maintenance and beautification of the church. On the spiritual plane it attempted to educate its members on Catholic doctrine and other topics of interest. The Men's Association grew rapidly and by the middle of 1928 had about 50 members. This success, however, was not to last. The Men's Association was in trouble again by 1935, when a general meeting was held to consider the issue; it disappeared shortly thereafter.

SMM's experience was fairly typical. Men's groups in other parishes also tended to be less permanent and less active than women's groups. It was considered a sign of vitality in a parish if the men played an active role. Complaints about their general lack of interest were quite common. In 1909, noting that the church had fallen short on the diocesan assessment for outreach, SMM's wardens said that this situation would continue "until the men of the congregation take up the subject of Missionary Work and its support, as a serious matter". On more than one occasion, Charles Darling urged the men to involve themselves with missionary work too. He wrote that it was "little short of a scandal that so great and important and primary a duty of Christians, should be altogether left to the women of our congregation". In their defense, those men inclined to be active at SMM were likely occupied with the choir or the Servers' Guild.

The choir and the Servers' Guild were the exceptions to the rule concerning the frailty of men's organizations. We have considered the choir at some length; the Servers' Guild can be described very briefly, for we have only a little information on it. We noted in Chapter Three that Saint Matthias employed only one server at the typical sung eucharist of 1888, and it is likely that SMM did the same. The earliest reference we have to an organized guild of servers comes in 1906, when it was said to be seven men strong. By 1909 it had grown to 21, which suggests that ceremonies were elaborated somewhat after the church was enlarged in 1907–08. Still, even in the 1920's three to four servers only was the norm at the main Sunday eucharist—two acolytes, a thurifer and on occasion at least a boat boy. Boat boys aside, the Servers' Guild was primarily for young men and adults rather than children and teenagers, so in 1929 a "Junior Acolytes' Guild" was established to give the younger ones a chance to serve at lesser services and evensong. Like most parish groups, the servers met regularly for fellowship and spiritual activities in addition to their work serving at mass. Over the years they have played an important practical role as the chief repository of many of SMM's liturgical practices and traditions.

One additional sphere of activity that was essentially a male preserve was the sphere of church government. The adult women of parishes with free seating had once had the right to vote at vestry, but synod removed this right in 1884 when it adopted new canons regarding vestries in free churches. The right was not restored until 1918. Thus, while women were the strength of the church in terms of organizational life, their role in governing the church was limited. (They were not shut out entirely, though. The first evidence of women holding official parish posts comes at the vestry meeting of 1892, when three of the seven members elected to serve on the envelope committee were women.) It appears that the relative indifference of men to the life of the parish extended to church government. We are fortunate to have attendance figures for the annual vestry meetings from 1906 to 1911. Average attendance over that period was a paltry 24 including the rector. The special vestry meeting of November 7,1906, which met to consider the expansion and renovation of the church, drew only 15! Nor did women flock to exercise their restored voting rights in 1918: only 5 women turned up at vestry that year, along with 12 men. Interestingly, since women were still not allowed to attend synod, they were also not allowed to vote for the parish's lay delegate. That was done at a separate meeting of the men only after the regular vestry meeting had finished. Women were granted the right to vote for lay delegates in 1929, but it was not until 1936 that they exercised that right at SMM. It was not until the 1950's that they were allowed to serve as lay delegates themselves.

The great power of rectors in those days is proverbial, if exaggerated, and that may have had something to do with the low interest the congregation evinced. Certainly there were few efforts to encourage participation. Beyond vestry, the rector was assisted by two wardens in the running of the parish. There were also various building and finance committees in the early years of the church, normally seating the same small group of men year after year. Then in 1919 a "Parochial Council" was created. Its members were elected by vestry, and its general function was to assist the wardens in the handling of parish finances. Its first task was to draw up a proper budget for 1920, which seems to have been the first budget the church ever had that covered all major expenses. The Parochial Council was also significant in that of its six elected members (it sat nine in all, the two wardens and the vestry clerk making up the difference), three were to be women. This right was of the briefest duration, however. In 1921, when it came time to renew the Parochial Council, the number of elected members was reduced to four, and all those elected by vestry were men. Women did return to the council in 1930, when two were elected. The council continued to exist in various guises through the 1930's, though there are few records of it. Father Greene finally abandoned it in 1941.

**Young People's Organizations** We have already looked at groups for young people and children in the form of "auxiliaries" of adult organizations. Given the large number of young families in the neighbourhood at the turn of the century, it is not surprising that there were many other activities for children. The most important, of course, was the Sunday school. Just how important can be seen in the fact that the Sunday school was the first project the missionaries from Saint Matthias undertook. Founded in 1885, the Sunday school came into existence three years before the church did. In the early years of the parish, the Sunday school was much larger and more rigidly organized than it is today. Classes were held on Sunday afternoons in the church basement; after the new church was opened in 1908, they moved upstairs to the large north aisle, there were so many children—206 in 1909, with an average attendance of 152. At the time there were 19 teachers, 8 men and 11 women. The children were divided into classes, probably as many as there were teachers, on the basis of age and sex.

The parish Girl Guides taking part in the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Corpus Christi. The observant viewer will notice that the picture must have been staged after the fact.

The curriculum was centralized in the Diocesan Sunday School Committee, which provided a four year program structured around Bible readings and the catechism. The committee drew up the schedules and distributed notes for the teachers and leaflets for the children, as well as a cycle of prayers to be followed in opening and closing school sessions. The diocese held exams every year that the scholars were encouraged, though apparently not forced, to take. SMM's Sunday school staged a number of extra-curricular activities including the annual school picnic, a major parish event. Also, in 1888 and for some years afterward, the children of the school were organized into a "School Drill Corps" to practice marches and manoeuvres, and were supplied with instruments for a "Children's Mission Band". But in spite of its importance and its high degree of organization, the Sunday school left few records of its work, so our account must end here.

In addition to the religious groups operating in the parish, the church sponsored many secular activities. There was a tennis club affiliated with the parish in 1905, and in 1915 the Men's Association was running a lawn bowling club on the empty north lot. There were doubtless other such activities typical of a "neighbourhood church" which have not survived in the records. The most enduring of the non-religious or semi-religious groups were for young people. In the 1910's a Boy Scout and a Girl Guide troop were founded, both of which, with some interruptions, were active for many years. For younger boys the "Knights of King Arthur", who went to summer camp and practiced jousting in a homemade castle, was founded in 1920. Young adults, meanwhile, had an organization of their own in the "Anglican Young People's Association". The AYPA had its start in Huron diocese, but once it was endorsed by Toronto synod in 1906, it spread rapidly through the city and arrived at SMM in 1909. To the best of our knowledge, the AYPA was the first parish group not to involve some form of segregation by sex. Perhaps for this reason it was very popular. It attracted 69 members in its first year of operation and, even more telling, an average attendance at meetings of 55.

The AYPA disappeared from SMM some time in the 1910's, perhaps because of the war, but was reconstituted in the early 1920's. Like most church groups it met regularly and collected dues from its members. Primarily a social club for the young, the major activity of the AYPA was to organize dances, motion picture nights and other "socials", often in concert with the branches of other parishes. It performed a useful social function for the children of respectable families. "Where else could one go for a good time?", asked Harold Boundy, then a server and in future an Anglican priest, who in fact met his wife Mary through the AYPA. The good times also involved debates and lectures on various topics, and the AYPA did contribute to some extent to the work of the parish. They raised money for missionary activities, for instance, or in 1926 for a banner of the Blessed Sacrament. And individual members served in the choir, the Servers' Guild, the Sunday school and other parish groups.

Anglo-Catholicism and Parish Life

Taken together, these parish organizations represent an ambitious, if only partially visible, collection of activities being carried on behind the more glamorous events of building campaigns or developments in liturgy and music. But the grassroots life of the parish was naturally affected by such developments, and it would be good now to take a closer look at this interaction. While SMM was indeed a Tractarian parish prior to Father Hiscocks, the ideals of the movement had made only limited headway among the congregation at large. The 1920's saw new attempts to give parish life a more distinctly anglo-catholic flavour. The most visible and fruitful of these attempts came with the Community of the Sisters of the Church, who arrived in the parish in 1925. The CSC was founded in England in 1870 and engaged in a variety of works, chiefly running schools and orphanages. In 1890 they came to Canada, opening a school in Ottawa, then in 1891 they opened what was to become Saint Mildred's College in Toronto. As their work in Toronto grew, it was decided to open a novitiate in the city. In 1923 the order rented 130 Ulster Street, a house three doors down from the church. It was originally intended to call this, the CSC's first convent in Canada, "Saint Mary's Convent", but in the end Saint Michael was taken as the patron saint. Two sisters entered the convent on a rainy April 5, 1923, and the congregation welcomed them with a "shower" of gifts to outfit the convent with food, dishes and housekeeping goods.

Exactly how the sisters came to settle next to Saint Mary Magdalene's is uncertain—or why for that matter Bishop Sweeny let them, when he turned down the Cowley Fathers a year later— but we do know that the CSC had been active in the parish for several years. Sister Dora was helping with the junior branch of the WA in 1915 and was in charge of the Chancel Guild in 1917. Around that time the Sisters of Saint John the Divine, with whom Charles Darling had had a close acquaintance since his days at Saint Matthias, gave over two of its members to help with the Sunday school. Before long, though, the SSJD was supplanted by the CSC. In 1919 the young children's Sunday school was passed to Sister Sheila, a trained kindergarten teacher and later superior of Saint Michael's Convent. Sister Sheila also took charge of the "Mothers' Meetings" held at the church every Wednesday afternoon in the fall of 1922, where mothers could sew or just talk while a nun took care of their children.

By December of 1924, there were 10 sisters and novices in Saint Michael's Convent. The convent building was growing even faster. Earlier that year the CSC had bought the house next door to them and set up a hostel for young women. In 1925 the convent expanded again, this time taking over the house at the corner of Ulster Street and Euclid Avenue. The hostel was moved there and a small music school for children, offering lessons in voice, piano and violin, was begun. Other houses were bought as they became available, and by 1930 the sisters owned a block of six houses next to the church on the corner of Ulster and Euclid.

The sisters needed this property to carry out their expanding social work activities. Once the young women's hostel was up and running, the CSC opened Saint Mary's Rest Home at 504 Euclid. This rest home was originally for convalescents and the mentally impaired, but as the need developed it became a rest home for the aged also. In time it was able to accommodate between 50 and 60 residents. In line with their interest in education, the sisters then opened a kindergarten and primary class for children under eight to go with their music school. They came as well to act as the centre for poor relief in the parish, collecting used clothing, furniture and other goods from parishioners to distribute to the poor. They raised money to send the children of poorer families in the parish to summer camp, and at Christmas they distributed groceries and small presents to local children. More ambitiously, during the depression the CSC opened a shelter for unemployed women, though their work was short-lived due to a lack of funds.

Sister preparing lunch for the street people who would line up daily at the convent door. The picture was taken in 1963: there are no photographs before the 1960's because the sisters did not allow them, nor did they ever eat in public.

Because of their work in the neighbourhood, the sisters were able to bring many new members to the church. They appear regularly as sponsors at the baptisms of both children and adults in the 1920's. The sisters also ministered to the congregation proper, with a special call to the women and children of the parish. As noted, they had quickly assumed direction of the Chancel Guild, the Sunday school and the Mothers' Meetings. To these were added a Girls' Club for girls over 10 and a Junior Club for boys and girls under 10. The convent assisted the parish spiritually, as a site for day or weekend retreats, not to mention the informal "retreats" that parishioners took advantage of, for they could just knock on the door and be welcome. Besides, the sisters operated a small lending library and a gift shop which stocked "books, statuettes and other devotional accessories". It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the books heavily promoted the anglo-catholic movement.

In numerous ways great and small, the sisters contributed much to SMM and to the neighbourhood [15]. In the process they helped to give the work of the parish the anglo-catholic flavour that Father Hiscocks desired. There was still more work to do if, as Hiscocks wished, SMM were to become the leading anglo-catholic parish in Canada. With such a position comes new responsibilities. True to his dream, SMM engaged in some anglo-catholic missionary work in the 1920's which, though small in scale—the church did not have the resources for more—indicates the direction of Father Hiscocks' ambitions. In 1925, he persuaded the Chancel Guild to make a white cope for the mission parish of Holy Trinity in Medicine Hat, which was trying to maintain full Catholic ceremonial without one. When Gordon Graham, who served at SMM as a student in the late 1920's and who was to become the rector in 1933, took up his first charge as priest in Port Arthur, the parish gave money to outfit a chapel in which Graham could say daily mass. The parish also gave money to the Cowley Fathers when they built their monastery in Bracebridge. Father Hiscocks himself took a hand with the carpentry work; hanging the windows proved to be so difficult, he felt they should be known as "The Hiscocks Memorial Windows"! SMM supported various projects in the diocese of Algoma in the 1920's, repaying the moral support shown SMM by the Right Reverend Rocksborough R. Smith, the anglo-catholic bishop of that diocese. Hiscocks indeed wanted all parish outreach monies to be spent by the parish directly rather than through the general diocesan fund, whereby a portion of the money went to "certain Dioceses under the Canadian Church where the Catholic Faith of our Holy Mother the Church is discredited, and denied".

Hiscocks also tried to reshape parish life by introducing distinctly anglo-catholic parish organizations whose activities were primarily spiritual in nature. These groups signal clearly the refocussing of efforts that Father Hiscocks was trying to achieve. In Chapter Three we met the Anglo-Catholic Union, which was organized on a Toronto-wide as opposed to a parochial basis, and which Hiscocks urged parishioners to join. (It disappeared before long and was replaced in 1933 by the Canadian Church Union.) More specifically parochial bodies were soon to appear, again promoted by Hiscocks as part of "the broader propaganda in which all Catholics must assist" to convert the Canadian church.

At a meeting in October 1923, the decision to found a branch of the "League of Our Lady" at SMM was taken. The goals of the League were to promote the honour due the Virgin Mary and the communion of saints and to follow Our Lady's example of purity in thought and life. The members naturally supported Hiscocks' new Marian observances, holding their corporate communion on the Feast of the Annunciation. They promoted such practices as saying the rosary, and they raised money to help young men in the parish with a vocation for the priesthood, but who were too poor to afford the education. It was said in 1924 that SMM had the largest branch of the League of Our Lady in Canada, and Father Hiscocks was an overseas member of its governing council in England.

In 1927 a parish ward of the "Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament" was founded, although some parishioners had belonged to other wards in the city prior to this. The CBS was open to both sexes, but one had to make formal application and be vouched for by a member in good standing. The group met monthly under the direction of the Reverend C. A. Mason, who came to SMM as an honorary assistant in 1927. Its chief object was to promote "the honour due to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood", Specifically, it tried to promote public reservation of the sacrament and fasting communions. While Hiscocks claimed that "every member of S.M.M. is entirely in sympathy with all the objects of the society", the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament was not very successful. It was reported in 1929 that while the League of Our Lady was flourishing in the parish, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament was not. There was a large overlap in the membership in any case.

Father Graham at Saint Saviour's Church in New York, where as rector from 1939 to 1943 (?) he was "very well liked and quite a gentleman—while the term 'commie' was also used!" He finished his career in the American church.

COURTESY JOHN MARSILIA, SAINT SAVIOUR'S CHURCH, MASPETH, NEW YORK

Christian Socialism

It is natural that the ideas and interests of rectors, vicars and priests-in-charge leave an imprint on parish life. Darling's great interest in missionary work was reflected in the flourishing state of the WA during his tenure; Hiscocks' advanced anglo-catholicism made an impact in many areas; and in the 1930's and after, Father Graham and others tried to interest the congregation in the Christian socialist movement which was then spreading through Canada.

They were less successful than their predecessors, but their efforts are no less interesting on that account. Modem Christian interest in social reform was not new, but in Canada at least the Church of England was relatively slow to take to the field. Early Anglican "social thought" focussed on the sinfulness of individuals and concerned matters which we would tend to regard as falling within the private sphere—drinking, prostitution and sexual morality, gambling and failing to observe the Sabbath. Criticisms of the capitalist economic system were likewise phrased in terms of the greed and selfishness of individuals. Rather more searching ideas were appearing, however. Interest rose to a crescendo during the Great War as social conditions deteriorated under the impact of inflation. Progress halted after the immediate post-war years, but revived during the depression of the 1930's.

Father Graham, who was an active member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, combined an interest in Christian socialism with a more traditional Catholic spirituality emphasizing prayer, self-discipline and regular recourse to the sacraments [16]. On the grounds that "the Christian conscience is socially atrophied, at least in this city", in 1934 he sponsored a lecture at SMM on the acquisition of wealth, hoping to "arouse the beginnings of a Christian social conscience" at the church. Three years later, he was still complaining "that so many Church people are indifferent to the problems affecting the bearing of the Christian religion on the social and economic questions of our time". So, in 1937, inspired by a "School of Sociology" set up by the Canadian Church Union, he and a number of parishioners founded a "Sociology Group" of their own. The records give only morsels of their activities, but they are sufficient to get the flavour. They were essentially a study group, reading and listening to guest speakers on topics of interest. In December of 1937 they heard an address entitled "Social Reconstruction in Russia", in January 1938 one on "Present Economic Trends", and in March 1938 "Christian Morals and the Economic Situation".

Touches of radicalism continued at SMM in subsequent years through the efforts of two priests-in-charge, Father Reginald Thomas and Father Charles Feilding. The Telegram described Father Thomas as "the militant Anglican churchman". He was dismayed by the spread of fascism in Europe in the 1920's and 1930's, and by its echoes in Canada. During the Spanish civil war he became chairman of the "Friends of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion", the Canadian volunteers in Spain who were fighting for the republican cause. The "Friends" tried to arouse Canadians to the dangers facing Spain and Europe; they also collected money, clothing and food to support the soldiers in the field. But they could not prevent the Mac-Paps from being decimated by the German-and Italian-backed forces of General Franco. With the situation increasingly desperate, the battalion returned to Canada in the closing months of the war. The first group of veterans arrived in Halifax on February 3, 1939. Father Thomas was there to meet them. As they returned by train to their homes across Canada he served as a kind of unofficial chaplain, listening to their stories and seeing to their personal needs. On February 4,120 veterans arrived at Union Station in Toronto and were greeted by thousands of welcomers. Various church leaders, mostly from the United Church, as well as labour leaders and a number of academics, held a reception for them at Massey Hall, appealing for food and clothing in the absence of any government support. Father Thomas, meanwhile, arranged a service in their honour at SMM on the evening of February 5, 1939, which drew an attendance of 476. Amidst the raising of the colours and the Popular Front salute, Father Thomas climbed into the pulpit to praise the soldiers' valour for democracy. Against the widespread view that the veterans were all atheists and communists, Thomas called them "true Christians" for their sacrifice on behalf of the people of Spain.

Father Thomas represented what has been called the "unofficial church". So did Father Feilding, who became priest-in-charge of SMM in 1945 after Father Greene left. He continued to frequent SMM as an occasional assistant in the 1950's. Precise in matters of ceremony, he held advanced views in politics and as professor of moral and pastoral theology at Trinity College, and later as Dean of Divinity, Feilding emerged as one of the leaders of Anglican activism in the 1940's. Increasingly frustrated with the caution of the church hierarchy, he helped to found _Canada and Christendom_ to give voice to more radical views. Among other things he advocated greater worker participation in the control of industry and the just treatment of Japanese Canadians interned during the war. Though it began life as a homemade mimeographed bulletin of sorts, _Canada and Christendom_ soon became a substantial and influential publication.

Still, it cannot be said that any of these efforts had a deep or long-lasting impact on the congregation. Thomas and Feilding were only temporary priests-in-charge, of course, but there is no evidence that Father Graham's attempt to spread a Christian social conscience was very successful either. At least it seems not to have been universally popular. After Graham retired, one parishioner of 15 years, who claimed to be speaking for the "regulars" at SMM, urged Archbishop Owen to appoint the priest-in-charge, Father Sommerville, as rector. She said that she and her friends had been "most unhappy" under Father Graham, but as for Father Sommerville, "above all he is always A Priest. He is not just a clergy-man nor a 'red'." Perhaps Graham was referring to this situation when he told the archbishop on his retirement that he too was "not at all satisfied with the present relationship which I have to the people". His "Sociology Group" did gather a pocket of support, but the group was short-lived and did not take up any practical or lasting work. No doubt the sisters managed to interest some parishioners in their charitable projects next door, but by assuming the church's duties in this area, they relieved the congregation of any direct responsibility. However, it is fair to say that in these depression years, when the Christian socialist voice was strongest at SMM, the church was preoccupied with its own survival; even if everyone had been sympathetic, SMM did not have the confidence or the resources to move forward.

The Decline of the Neighbourhood Church

The 1930's were a difficult time for parish organizations. If the League of Our Lady and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament survived Father Hiscocks, it cannot have been by very long. The AYPA disappeared in the late 1930's. By then the Girls' Auxiliary and the junior branch of the WA had folded too. The WA itself remained fairly active, though it shrank in size and was said to be "small in numbers" in 1939. Membership in the Chancel Guild seems to have fallen as well, and we have already noted the difficulties experienced by the Women's Guild and the Men's Association. Some of these groups were re-established or revitalized in subsequent years, and in some ways the 1950's seemed to mark a revival in parish organizations. The revival was ephemeral, however. Though it was not realized in the 1930's, the end of the old style parish organizations was already at hand.

The immediate problem was the drop in church membership during the depression and the plunge in morale that accompanied it. The long-term problem was that SMM's membership was less and less a local membership, and increasingly one that was scattered throughout the city. At the time of its founding and for many years afterward, Saint Mary Magdalene's was by and large a "neighbourhood church". That is, the church was set up to service the Anglicans within the geographic parish boundaries, and most (though by no means all) of the people who drew on these services lived in the immediate neighbourhood. Tabulating addresses given in the baptismal registers, we find for the years 1890–1894, 1900–1904 and 1910–1914 that between 69 and 77 percent of families with candidates for baptism lived within one kilometre of the church, nearby if not precisely within parish boundaries. Only about 5 percent lived more than three kilometres away. In the earliest days of the parish, going to church meant (for most) walking to church. There was a fairly good street railway service by the early 1890's, serving most of the city and with lines along Bathurst and College running past SMM. But the streetcars did not run on Sundays until 1897, when the electors of Toronto voted narrowly in favour of such service, against the wishes of most of the Anglican clergy. Still, judging from the baptismal registers, Sunday streetcars did not produce any immediate effect on SMM's status as a "neighbourhood church".

On the other hand, even in the 1890's, the traditional parochial system was not fully in place. The one kilometre radius we have used leaves room for a fair amount of "leakage" in the geographic parish structure, as it describes an area considerably larger than the parish boundaries. More important, the baptismal registers do not represent the congregation precisely, for they include many families who were not active in the church while excluding others who were. They do not, for instance, include Elizabeth Hardy, a member of the Women's Auxiliary for nine years around the turn of the century; although she was in her sixties she commuted by streetcar all the way from Balmy Beach, a distance of about 10 kilometres. It is likely that the baptismal records emphasize local people at the expense of commuters. Many Anglicans in the parish who were otherwise inactive would have had their children baptised at SMM, the nearest church, while few inactives would have commuted great distances for the sole purpose of baptising their children.

Nevertheless, as we shall see, the baptismal registers give clear (though imprecise) testimony to the progressive weakening of the geographic parish structure. As travelling around the city became easier, and as people began to acquire motor cars, people moving out of the parish could more easily retain their ties to SMM. Others living outside the parish, attracted by what SMM had to offer, could more easily join. These trends were magnified during the 1920's when, because of Hiscocks' innovations and Willan's music, SMM was becoming truly unique. It is interesting that in the correspondence between Bishop Sweeny and Father Hiscocks, the issue of maintaining the geographic parish structure loomed large. Bishop Sweeny (and for that matter Charles Darling) voiced objections to Hiscocks' innovations on the grounds that they encouraged people to come to SMM from all over Toronto. For that reason, Sweeny was not taken with Hiscocks' practice of running regular newspaper advertisements (a most uncommon practice among Anglicans at that time). Rather, he urged Hiscocks "to maintain the Church as the spiritual centre for the whole of the parish district"—as opposed, that is, to catering to one group within the parish or within the church in Toronto at large. Hiscocks tried to reassure Sweeny that it was his "constant endeavour" to maintain SMM as "essentially a Parish Church". He told the bishop in 1924 that "the bulk of our congregation is from within the Parish boundaries, rather than without, in spite of the large number of Jews moving in."

In retrospect, however, it was a logical consequence of Hiscocks' dream of making SMM a church with a national profile that it should sever its roots in the neighbourhood. Bishop Sweeny saw this point more clearly than Father Hiscocks. Hiscocks told Sweeny that when members of SMM moved out of the parish, it was his custom to urge them to attend their new parish church. But he also encouraged them to take advantage of "the spiritual privileges that SMM afforded—chiefly an opportunity for an early weekly Communion, and for their Confessions when they so desired". The evidence suggests, though, that many retained full ties with SMM and not just an occasional friendship. In the same letter, Hiscocks noted that among the recent English immigrants to Toronto were anglo-catholics who found themselves "spiritually lost" because their local church did not offer the services they were used to. Some of these people began coming to SMM as well. Finally, not everyone within the parish boundaries was impressed with his innovations. Father Hiscocks reported that

the average child whose family moves into the Parish is as a rule not allowed to come here more than once or twice, because the child repeats what is taught in the Sunday School to its parents, and they decide that we are "High Church" and the child is removed. This has happened again and again.

While people from outside the parish were being attracted by SMM's unique status, others inside the parish were being put off.

By then, recruitment of new members depended less on people moving into the neighbourhood than on people from elsewhere hearing about SMM and visiting the church to see what the fuss was about. In the parish magazine of October 1925, Father Hiscocks reported the existence of a "floating congregation" who, though not members, were regular visitors. Later he referred to "the large number of hangers on" who attended the principal mass or evensong on Sundays but who otherwise played little part in the life of the church. There were also many special services, like midnight mass on Christmas, or tenebrae and the Easter vigil during Holy Week, that to all intents and purposes were offered at no other Anglican church in Toronto. Many of these visitors remained that, coming to SMM on special occasions on a regular or irregular basis, but many others joined the church after one or more such visits.

Returning to the baptismal registers, we can see some indication of these changes already in the early 1920's: the proportion of families with candidates for baptism living more than three kilometres from the church doubled to over one in ten. By the early 1930's this figure had climbed to over one in six, while the proportion living within one kilometre of the church had fallen to just over half. That new parishioners were coming from outside the geographic parish is dramatically confirmed by a Chancel Guild membership list of 1921 that was progressively updated through1927. While 55 percent of the members in 1921 lived within one kilometre of the church, only 20 percent of the new members joining between 1922 and 1927 lived so close. The proportion living from one to three kilometres away increased from 15 percent of the old members to 43 percent of the new members, while the proportion living more than three kilometres distance rose from 30 to 37 percent. Later membership lists for the Chancel Guild and the Women's Auxiliary point in the same direction. Still, the change was not rapid, and the notion of a neighbourhood church remained meaningful for some time. Even in the early 1940's, people living within one kilometre of the church provided the largest number of addresses in the baptismal register. They were no longer, however, even close to a majority.

Laying street car tracks at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor, 1911. Over time, improved transportation allowed SMM to extend its reach well beyond the geographic parish.

COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES.

We can now assess the oft-repeated claim that SMM was torn free of its neighbourhood by the influx of non-Anglo-Saxons into the area, starting with Jewish people of various nationalities. This movement certainly had a role to play, but only as part of a wider process. Jewish people from eastern Europe (Russia, Galicia, Poland) had begun to arrive in Toronto in the late nineteenth century. Generally poor and of working class status, they clustered together in the central districts, especially the Ward, which by 1900 they dominated. As the Ward became overcrowded, and as the wealth of the community increased, they began spreading north and west into what is now called Kensington market, just south and east of SMM. By 1915 there was a large Jewish population in this area, which is Saint Stephen's parish, and an estimated 100 Jewish families in SMM's parish. Meanwhile the total number of Jews in Toronto was growing rapidly, from 7,269 in 1911 to 34,377 in 1921. While their rate of growth slowed after that, their migration north and west into Saint Mary Magdalene's neighbourhood soared. Between 1921 and 1933, the proportion of Jewish households in the geographic parish rose from about one in twenty to over one in three. In their wake, many _shtiblach_ (small synagogues in converted houses or stores) were opened. Only one in the immediate vicinity of the church remains today, _Shaarei Tzedek_ (The Gates of Wisdom) at the corner of Ulster and Markham, which moved to that site in 1937.

Assimilating the "foreign born" (as well as aboriginal Canadians) into the English Canadian way of life was a major concern of many churches, and in this effort the Christianization of the Jews took pride of place. The Church of England first showed an interest in missions to the Jewish population of Toronto in 1909 when the Diocesan Mission Board was instructed to look into the matter. In 1914, the diocese assumed control of a mission of Holy Trinity Church, renamed it the "Nathanael Institute" and moved it next to Saint Stephen's Church in 1916. This would be the focus of Anglican efforts to spread the good news of Jesus Christ among the Jews. The Nathanael Institute ran night school and English classes that concluded with a Gospel message for adults. It also tried, with sometimes less than honest means, to enrol Jewish boys and girls in Sunday school. The New Testament was distributed, and squads of volunteers visited Jewish homes. It will surprise no one to learn that such efforts, which were carried on for many years, bore little fruit. While the "Synod Committee on Jewish Work" claimed in 1931 that "never were the Jewish people so eager to listen to the Gospel story as they are to-day", even they had to admit that it was little more than curiosity. Count on Father Hiscocks to state the matter plainly:

Amongst the Jews themselves we are quite unable to work. I have called many times in Jewish houses, and have been politely but very firmly told that they want nothing to do with [the church].

As he had tried to tell Bishop Sweeny, Father Hiscocks was genuinely interested in "working" the local parish. One of his first priorities as vicar had been to visit the inactive Anglicans near the church. As part of the "Forward Movement" to raise money for the church, a team of men canvassed the entire parish in 1919. This canvass was followed up by letters to some 500 Church of England families in the parish that the canvass had turned up, and then by more visits from members of the "Forward Movement". Another house-by-house visitation was made in the fall of 1920, and yet another in the fall and winter of 1923–24. Within a few short years, such activities had become most uncommon.

SMM's weekly bulletin in 1929 was normally prefaced by a short paragraph telling the visitor about the church. It noted that the congregation was scattered through all parts of Toronto, and that because

the Jews have bought up almost all the property within the Parish boundaries ... evangelistic work within the Parish is almost impossible.

The Jewish presence was indeed sizeable, but it was nowhere near this level. When Archbishop Owen's commission of 1940 was considering whether to sell and relocate SMM, one warden volunteered that there were enough Anglicans still in the neighbourhood to "fill the Church". He was right: even then, when the Jewish population accounted for over half of all households in the geographic parish, there were still perhaps 400 Anglican families living there. The statement on the bulletin is therefore significant less as a description of the social reality, and more as an indication of the unease which the Anglicans felt about their new neighbours, and of the way in which the church now viewed itself and its mission. Paradoxically, while the Sisters of the Church were boosting the Anglican presence in the community, the congregation proper was turning its back on it. SMM was coming to see itself less and less as a traditional parish church, and more and more as a home for party sympathizers throughout Toronto, and as an anglo-catholic beacon for the church throughout Canada. It effectively lost its roots in the parish before the roots themselves had disappeared. There is no need to bemoan this fact. Given the large number of inactive Anglicans that the parish had always had, those roots had never been as strong as we might imagine; and shifting its focus to its sympathizers no matter where they lived allowed SMM to survive once the local clientele disappeared completely.

[Return to TOC]

The Sanctuary in 1989.

COURTESY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER, JAMES LYNCH.

CHAPTER SIX MODERN TIMES

The years following World War Two were a time of growth and optimism for the church at large and for SMM. Across the diocese of Toronto, the number of Anglicans on parish rolls increased by about 20 percent between 1946 and 1952. The Church of England, like other denominations, embarked on a major building campaign to provide churches in Toronto's burgeoning suburbs. Church membership and attendance were rising all over North America and at SMM too. Income was also climbing, and with the mortgage paid off in 1948, for the first time in its history SMM was free of debt. It was still far from well-off, but the time was ripe for some long-delayed building projects. The moment was rare and fleeting. The post-war recovery was short-lived and by the mid-1960's SMM, like other churches in downtown Toronto, was facing a serious decline in membership. It was also being challenged to adapt to the liturgical and ecumenical movements that were sweeping through Christ's Church.

Years of Growth

Few if any foresaw these difficulties in the bright days of the postwar period. The new rector in 1946, Robert Theodore Francis Brain, was well-suited to preside over this period of growth—an outgoing, enthusiastic, even impetuous man. Like many of SMM's clergy, Father Brain had had some contact with the parish before becoming rector: he had preached at SMM on Saint Patrick's day in 1935, and again on the Feast of the Ascension in 1936. Following curacies in Lakeview and Peterborough, Brain had served during the war as an army chaplain in Europe, where he was badly wounded. He came to SMM after his convalescence, taking over from Father Feilding who had held the fort after Father Greene. Like Charles Darling, Brain confessed that he was not the best preacher, but he had a dramatic and sometimes brilliant style. He would also write long columns in the bulletin on a wide range of subjects, urging parishioners to support charitable causes, to speak of their faith to others, or simply to exercise some courtesy while driving. Christianity, he thought, should be evident in one's everyday life. He carried on the Christian socialist theme introduced by his predecessors, at least to the extent of hanging pictures of Jesus as the "worker priest" in the church basement [17]. By his charismatic personality, he was able to draw new members to the congregation, and to inspire existing members to involve themselves more fully in the life of the church.

Father Brain had noticed the large number of visitors—in 1949 he estimated that 1,200 people had visited SMM at least three times in the previous year—and he endeavoured to build on this interest by holding special events, lectures and missions. The English Benedictine monk, Dom Gregory Dix, whose influential book _The Shape of the Liturgy_ had been published in 1945, came to speak at SMM in 1947. Later that year a one-week parish mission was held before Advent, and a "healing mission", at which people received the laying on of hands, was held in February 1950. Brain also wished to reach out to the local community by holding "entertainments" in the church on Sunday evenings. Bishop Beverley, though, advised against it. While he understood the need "to awaken an interest in the Church's work on the part of many careless and indifferent people, who live in the area where your Parish is situated", the bishop doubted that such activities would be consistent with observing the Sabbath. But if that route was blocked, the church was still growing and growth was on everyone's mind. There was great faith in the power of advertising, a regular topic of discussion at vestry meetings. In 1947 the advertising bill for newspapers alone was almost $600, a considerable sum, and there were those who wished to raise that figure even more. At such times Father Brain would remind his flock that their own words and actions were the best form of "advertising" that Christianity could have.

These efforts did produce results, or at least seemed to. Sunday attendance, which had been climbing slowly since 1939, began to soar after 1945. In its train came a partial revival in the organizational life of the parish. The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament was revived in 1948 by Father de Catanzaro, an honorary assistant at that time. The AYPA had disappeared from the parish, but in 1950 the "Young People's Fellowship" was established in its place. Its goals were to study the Christian faith and Christian living and to encourage members to take an active part in the work of the church. For younger people (though more for local children than parishioners), Cubs, Brownies and Girl Guides were active, and the Boy Scouts reappeared in 1955. Membership in the Women's Auxiliary also rebounded in the late 1940's; they increased their meetings from one to two a month and revived the practice of monthly corporate communion. There was even talk of resurrecting the Men's Association.

With the mortgage paid off, and with this burst of parish activity, some improvement in the church's facilities was called for. The need for new facilities had long been apparent. Parish groups had been complaining since 1908 of the cramped and poorly finished basement, and Father Hiscocks bemoaned the lack of a parish hall in the 1920's. At the time there was no money for anything of the sort, but in the buoyant atmosphere of the post-war period the idea was due for revival. The fundraising campaign of 1947–48 had brought in more than enough money to pay off the mortgage. Father Brain advised putting the extra money toward a parish hall, which he suggested be called the "Darling Memorial Hall". He also suggested building a rectory, which in the long term would save on the rector's salary. The building of a parish hall was duly investigated, but it was decided that the cost was out of reach. It was also felt that with fewer and fewer parishioners living in the neighbourhood, the parish hall would receive little use and would prove to be a financial burden. With this note of caution in what was otherwise a time of confidence, it was decided instead to renovate the unfinished basement. This project began in 1950 with the creation of two offices, one for the rector and one for the wardens, which required some excavation work beneath the church. Further efforts, funded by the Women's Guild, resulted in the redecoration of the long room running beneath the nave and the installation of a kitchen at the far end [18].

That was not all. Vestry in 1954 established a committee to investigate additional building projects. A parish hall was reconsidered, as were obtaining a rectory and further extending the church basement by excavating a large parish room. The committee decided that a rectory was more pressing and more affordable than space for parish activities, and the special vestry of March 1954 took steps to raise the money. A second special vestry approved the building of a rectory on the vacant north lot of the church, the land acquired in 1892 for a schoolhouse. The building was quickly accomplished at a cost of about $20,000, and the new rectory was blessed on January 16, 1955. There was even enough money left over to install a new heating system in the church.

Saint Mary Magdalene's had never known such prosperity. With Sunday attendance at its highest level ever, and with their building projects completed, the wardens were happy to rest with a small but reasonable bank surplus. But the revival at SMM and across the diocese was short-lived. Even while it was going on there were obvious cracks in the facade. The old problems had not been overcome. The Church of England was growing and expanding into Toronto's new suburbs, but there was still "an appalling gap", as Bishop Beverley told synod, between the number of Anglicans on parish rolls and the number of Anglicans found by the census—a deficit of over 50 percent in the early 1950's. It also became clear, in retrospect, that the revival in membership in the post-war years had not struck very deep roots. As Archbishop Garnsworthy said later, "the pews were all nicely full, superficially." In a few short years, the Church of England would face great difficulty retaining its members or, more ominously, their offspring.

Years of Difficulty

The churches most seriously affected by these developments were those downtown—those with the lowest margin of survival, so to speak. The difficulties of downtown parishes were long-standing and had become serious during the depression. Many churches, like SMM, had been pushed to the brink; others tumbled over. The congregation of Saint Luke's Church (which Frank Darling had designed) was removed to East York in 1930; Saint Augustine's at Parliament and Spruce Street was disestablished in 1932 after a fire; the following year the Church of the Ascension on Richmond Street was disestablished because of dwindling membership and the encroachment of the business district on this formerly residential area. With the health of many churches failing, in 1935 the diocesan executive presented a report to the bishop on the possible regrouping of parishes in Toronto. Other synod committees came to the same conclusion in the early 1940's:

...there should be fewer churches down town, but better staffed and better equipped not only for regular services, but also to do social service work, including visitation of hospitals and jails.

No immediate action was proposed, but it was felt that in future, as the occasion arose, the diocese should be prepared to amalgamate downtown parishes or remove them to the suburbs.

For many downtown churches, the post-war revival represented not new life but a short reprieve. Most had stable or growing congregations in the 1950's. Nevertheless, the parish rolls for downtown churches were substantially smaller than for churches in other Toronto deaneries, with far fewer families and children. Compared to suburban churches, downtown churches were weak in terms of parish organizations and activities. They were also generally poor. Parkdale deanery, organized in 1955 with 12 churches including SMM, was by far the poorest deanery in Toronto in terms of income received from the congregation. Yet, because their buildings and facilities were aging, these parishes needed large sums of money for upkeep and renovations.

A new and growing problem facing the downtown churches, particularly those in the west end of the city, was the influx of non-English speaking immigrants. This new population has settled in a long band sweeping northwest through Toronto, anchored at its south end in Parkdale deanery. SMM was just a block or two from the heart of "Little Italy". There had in fact been a small Italian community near Grace and College Streets since the late nineteenth century. This community grew rapidly in the 1950's and by 1961 accounted for more than 40 percent of the people in the geographic parish. More recently, the neighbourhood has become home to large numbers of Portuguese and Chinese immigrants. In the process, the Jewish population was displaced, along with most of the remaining Anglo-Saxons.

To emphasize its openness to persons of non-English extraction, the Church of England finally became "The Anglican Church of Canada" in 1955—people had been discussing the matter since the late nineteenth century. In Toronto, synod established the "Urban Board" in 1957 to coordinate the efforts of downtown parishes and to cooperate with the churches of other communions. The downtown was designated a "mission frontier", just as it had been three or four generations earlier, and the diocese helped to plan and develop alternative ministries in the area.

The Anglican Church did have some success among non-English speaking groups. Saint Andrew's Japanese congregation began to form in the 1940's, and by 1961 was sharing Saint Alban- the-Martyr, where it still is today. The future would bring other successes, but the frustrations were manifold. In 1960 the Reverend Mariano Rughi was appointed to take charge of Anglican ministry to unchurched Italians. This work came to be centred in the Church of Saint Edmund-the-Martyr and then at Saint Anne's, both in Parkdale deanery. It bore very little fruit, however, and was discontinued shortly after Rughi left to take a parish in Malton. Language and culture were obvious barriers to such efforts. Less obvious, though no less important, most of the new immigrant population were Christian already, active or not. If they felt a need for the church they could turn to the local Roman Catholic parish. What is more, old-style evangelism was falling out of favour. With the Jewish population moving out, the Nathanael Institute was closed in 1962; even before then its purpose had shifted from making conversions to promoting dialogue and understanding.

The diocese was doing its best, but the very novelty of the problem, as well as its intractability, made it difficult to know how to proceed. The grassroots were effectively dormant. In 1952, in discussions with seven downtown parishes, the diocese raised the question of ministry to the "new Canadians"; the answers suggested that "our Church shows no great interest in them...." Likewise, when the Urban Board undertook a similar survey in 1960, it found that downtown churches were making little effort to reach out to the new immigrant population. Nor had many seriously considered the problem. SMM made only sporadic attempts at outreach. In 1967, starting English language classes and a day care centre for local people were proposed, but with a lack of facilities, expertise and volunteers, and with the congregation's roots in the parish long gone, these plans could do little but founder. The Urban Board continued to hold that it was the duty of parish churches to serve the local residents whatever their faith or denomination. As it grappled with the problem, however, the Urban Board came to turn its back on traditional parish ministry. It recommended instead that downtown clergy should acquire expertise in social service work (such as marriage counselling or youth work) as the most effective means of outreach to non-Anglicans. Its successor, the Metropolitan Toronto Urban Church Board, was even less concerned with parish ministry, devoting its efforts to extra-parochial social services. The local churches were left to their own devices. Recommendations to parishes and clergy about what to do or how to do it were rare. While diocesan officials clearly wanted to initiate work among non-Anglicans, they were as hard put as the churches they surveyed to know how this could be done through the existing parish structure.

With their low incomes, high costs and, what perhaps was worse, the difficulty of justifying themselves as centres of regular parish ministry, downtown churches were ripe for disaster when church membership plunged in the 1960's. The story of Parkdale deanery since then has been in large part one of the closing of churches founded with such enthusiasm so many years before. Saint John's Church on Portland Street, an old and failing structure, was demolished in 1963; what remained of its congregation, heavily subsidized by the diocese, met for worship in a new facility on the site of the former rectory. Saint Cyprian's (a short way north of SMM on Manning Avenue), suffering from low income and attendance, was sold in 1966 and became the Russian Orthodox cathedral; Saint Cyprian's congregation was amalgamated with Saint Mary the Virgin. To reduce costs, Saint Matthias and Saint Barnabas began to share a priest until the latter was disestablished in 1971 and the building sold. The Church of Saint Edmund-the- Martyr was disestablished in 1976 and sold to an Orthodox congregation. Finally, in 1983 the Church of the Epiphany was sold to a group of Maronite Christians, and the congregation was amalgamated with Saint Mark's Parkdale.

And yet a number of Parkdale churches have survived, even prospered, in the present era. Compared to the unfortunate congregations described above, SMM withstood the shockwaves of the 1960's fairly well. It entered the decade among the top half of Parkdale churches in terms of attendance and income, and its reputation and distinctive traditions have allowed it to continue to attract new members. Still, the shock waves hit hard. The parish rolls that listed over 500 names in 1961 had less than 250 ten years later. Typical Sunday mass attendance fell by 44 percent from 1960–62 to 1968–70. (It has been roughly stable since then.) [19] Even before this time, parish organizations were beginning to show the strain. The choirs, though still very active with recitals in the 1950's, were both losing members. Willan reported that, not only was it becoming more difficult to manage certain masses and motets, "the disbanding of the Gallery Choir is not so remote a possibility as to be ignored." More immediately, given that most of the congregation was now commuting to church, the number of people willing to return for Sunday evensong was falling; even the attendance of choir members was becoming problematic. Regular Sunday choral evensong was soon discontinued.

Similar troubles affected the women's groups in the parish. (There were no men's groups, other than the servers.) The Women's Auxiliary had 21 full members and about 40 associates in 1952, but already they were wondering if they were too small a group to continue. Concern about their small size persisted, and by the early 1960's no more than a handful of members were present at business meetings. In the fall of 1963 they approached the rector for permission to disband. The Women's Guild ceased regular meetings in 1965 due to the age and health of its members and the distances they lived from the church. They struggled along for a time with three or four meetings a year, but finally dissolved in 1967. Finally, the "Business Women's Group", which had begun in the 1940's to raise money for renovation projects, the Sunday school and the nursery, was dissolved in 1970.

The Liturgical Movement

The 1960's provided a shock to SMM for reasons other than just falling attendance. Many of the features that had defined SMM since the 1920's—that had defined the "old regime", as it were—were disappearing. To be closer to their school, Saint Mildred's, the Sisters of the Church left their convent on Ulster Street in 1964 for a new facility in Oakville. Willan's death in 1968 was another milestone, though one that had naturally been anticipated. Other developments were of still greater consequence. SMM and the church at large were being overtaken by the "liturgical movement". The roots of this movement can be traced to the Roman Catholic Church in Europe in the late nineteenth century, but its influence became widely felt after World War Two. Associated with developments in biblical scholarship and research into the practices of the first Christians, the liturgical movement sought to recapture the meaning and importance of the church's public worship, in particular the eucharist. Supporters were concerned about the traditional passivity of congregations. They urged liturgical reform to make laypeople full participants in what was seen to be properly a communal celebration. While there was an early interest in the medieval legacy—similar to that which inspired the nineteenth century anglo-catholics—as historical research proceeded, and as the principles of the movement were clarified, the medieval model was rejected in favour of early Christian practice, which was felt to exemplify more closely the true nature of worship. This work bore fruit in the simpler, more intelligible liturgy ordered by the Second Vatican Council in 1963. By then the principles of the movement had spread well beyond Europe and the Roman Catholic Church. Among Anglicans, _The Shape of the Liturgy_ by Dom Gregory Dix helped popularize the view that the eucharist was an act of corporate worship. In the post-war years, both in England and in Canada, many of the new churches being built were influenced architecturally by the concept of the "parish communion".

The liturgical movement posed a great challenge to SMM's traditional forms of worship. True, much in the movement was consonant with parish tradition. The importance of the eucharist and of regular communion had long been taught. There was a long history too of congregational participation, through the singing of hymns, responses, the Gloria and Creed. By their very brevity, Willan's settings of the ordinary of the mass helped keep the congregation focussed on the worship being offered. Still, the tendency of the service was to encourage private devotions rather than corporate worship. The arrangement of the chancel, the ceremonies of _Ritual Notes_ that effectively divided the people's prayers from the celebrant's, and the absence of general communion at high mass all made the congregation spectators rather than participants. The difficulty was that given the strength of its traditions, change at SMM was bound to be a slow and painful process. While some parishioners have tended over the years to emphasize maintaining tradition, others have favoured reform. "Tradition" and "reform" are more tendencies than party labels, and the strength of disagreement between them has varied greatly. Still, this ongoing division, which of course has occurred in many Anglican churches, set the stage for much of SMM's history over the past 30 years.

Father Christmas at the parish Christmas party, with Father Fairweather playing Santa. The two did much to rescue SMM's ministry to young people in the modern period.

Father Hutt blessing Easter eggs for the parish children. It was under Father Hutt that children were first admitted to communion at SMM.

Fr. William Robert Crummer

The new thinking found a ready adherent in William Robert Crummer, who became rector of SMM in 1953. (Father Brain left after an affair with the church secretary, beginning a tradition whereby rectors leave SMM in what have been called "spectacular circumstances".) While curate of Saint Bartholomew's in Toronto, Father Crummer had taken services at SMM during the interregnum between Father Greene and Father Brain. He became chaplain to the Sisters of the Church in 1948. He was an avid reader in theology who experienced the liturgical movement first hand as it was being practiced in France, where he vacationed regularly. A leader by nature, Father Crummer was also a man of genial good humour, known for his probing remarks in sermons and in the bulletin. He was very direct and down-to-earth in his teaching. When charged with preaching simply as if talking to children (he had been a public school teacher before entering the priesthood), Crummer replied:

I can't help it for I have a naive conviction that if only people can be made to SEE what the Catholic Faith really is they just can't help being captivated by its beauty and power.

He felt God's mercy very deeply, and in all things he wanted the congregation to grasp the truths of the faith in a new and more intimate way [20].

Crummer was not the only one thinking of reform. His earliest and most important change, the restoration of lay communion at high mass, had first been raised by Ken Dunn, the people's warden, in 1953 while Father Brain was still in charge. Brain promised to consider it, and, thus encouraged, vestry established a committee of the rector, the wardens and the heads of church organizations to investigate. This committee seems to have had the power to act as well as investigate, but when Father Crummer arrived at SMM shortly after, he made clear that as rector he alone would make the decision. His desire was not to impede progress but rather to unite the congregation behind the move, for he knew that many did not approve. In particular he had to deal with Healey Willan, who was dead set against the change and whose view carried weight. Crummer therefore embarked on an extensive teaching campaign, and general communion at high mass was not restored until 1959. Hiscocks had originally removed it to help enforce the rule of fasting communion, and it is noteworthy that his reasoning was upheld even after lay communion was restored: exhortations to fast were printed weekly in capital letters in the church bulletin. Indeed it took time for the congregation to adjust. For several years many remained reluctant to make their communion at Sunday high mass. Since then, however, the practice of communicating each Sunday has become much more widespread. The proportion of communicants to attendance at Sunday mass has risen steadily, from 45 percent in 1960 to over 80 percent at present.

For his first five years as rector, Father Crummer had kept the door to change shut. Now, with lay communion at the high mass in place, the door was open. Soon there were changes to the church interior. The font was moved to the rear of Saint Joseph's chapel. The statue of Mary and the Christ child was repainted in simpler, more earthy tones; the great rood cross was also repainted "so that the figure of Our Lord might stand out more clearly and majestically from the background". Much more important was the renovation of the chancel. The immediate cause was the deterioration of the high altar reredos and canopy which had become apparent by the late 1950's. The first thought was to repair or replace the reredos. As the need for new wiring and lighting was also realized, however, and as Father Crummer had time to think again, plans for a complete renovation of the chancel emerged. Thus, in 1962, the committee investigating the replacement of the reredos was converted into a full-fledged "Renovation Committee" under the leadership of John Hockin. By 1963 this committee had laid down the basic principles for the redesign of the sanctuary, and had hired the architects Robert Rambusch and Fred Christian to draw up detailed plans. These plans were accepted by a small majority at the special vestry meeting of February 1963.

Father Crummer summed up the renovations with the words "basic" and "simple". "The Catholic Faith never changes", he wrote, "but our way of presenting it must change with every generation or no one will know what we're saying." The new chancel was to embody, as much as possible given the basic structure of the building, the principles of the liturgical movement and its vision of the "parish communion". A new altar was installed on a two-step platform well away from the east wall. Large and undecorated—Father Crummer called it "honest"—the altar was left open in the middle in reference to Christ's empty tomb. The altar was not only plain, it was also (save for a frontal, altar linen and two candles) to be bare. The altar cross was replaced by a heavy bronze crucifix, of modern design, that stood on a pedestal behind the altar. The tabernacle was removed to a pedestal against the east wall of the apse: Crummer felt that placing the tabernacle on the high altar, as had been done up till then, obscured the primary importance of the eucharistic sacrifice and meal. To symbolize the gathering of the people of God around the altar, a corona of lights was hung from the chancel ceiling. An effort was made to take down the barriers between the chancel and the nave. (For some people, the installation of two large lecterns on either side of the chancel, to embody the renewed importance being accorded the liturgy of the word, has tended to obscure this intention.) The old chancel wall was removed and the communion rail, made as light and transparent as possible, was brought down to the level of the nave. In these ways the action of the mass was brought closer to the people. John Hockin acted as on-site superintendent of the work, which was practically completed by January of 1964. The renovations were paid off in 1967 and were blessed by Bishop Snell on the Feast of Christ the King that year.

The new altar and tabernacle in the renovated sanctuary, 1963–64.

Commenting on recent developments in liturgy and theology, the 1956 edition of _Ritual Notes_ , whose earlier editions had been the last word in ritual at SMM since the 1920's, wondered whether this new edition would "soon prove to be a book of the liturgy of a past era". It soon became that (in most respects) at SMM. The chancel renovations naturally implied some change to the conduct of services. Crummer acknowledged the lure of traditional ceremonial, but he had a clear sense of the place of ceremonial in the larger scheme of Christianity:

...I have met people who seemed to be of the opinion that a detailed knowledge of the directions to be found in 'Ritual Notes' was the one thing needful in order to be 'a good Catholic'... I shall never forget the young man in one of my confirmation classes some years ago who, after I had just finished talking about the splendour and privilege of the Christian's membership in Christ's Mystical Body the Church, asked, 'Father, why does the Subdeacon get only one swing of the thurible?' I humbly confess that my reply was neither polite nor kind!

Sensitive as he was to the developments taking place in the church at large, he did not want SMM to become "a quaint archaic backwater".

As with the introduction of lay communion at high mass, Father Crummer proceeded with his liturgical and ceremonial changes slowly. He first abolished the practice of having the celebrant repeat in a low voice all the prayers being said by the congregation. Then, in 1965, to clarify the distinction between the proclamation of the word and the celebration of the eucharist, he moved the first part of mass away from the altar to the new sedilia and lecterns.

Before any further changes could be made, Father Crummer left the parish to become a Roman Catholic. His interest in the Roman Catholic Church was long-standing, but as time went on he had become more and more doubtful of the legitimacy of the Anglican Church. One factor precipitating these doubts was the proposal for union between the Anglican and United Churches which General Synod endorsed in 1965. The issue of authority confronted him even in his own parish. He was mistrustful of lay initiative, yet his reforms at SMM were prompting some parishioners to come forward with additional plans and ideas. At any rate, he abruptly resigned his rectorship just after Easter in 1966. It was left to Father Eugene Fairweather, who stepped into the breach as priest-in-charge, to "complete" Father Crummer's reforms. Most notably, the celebrant at high mass was moved behind the altar to face the people. In all, the "new" high mass was greatly simplified in its ceremonial, and showed greater conformity to the _Book of Common Prayer_ as revised in 1959.

Crummer's successor was Mountain Coulter DeWitt Hutt. Ordained priest in 1950, Father Hutt had served the church in Holland Landing, Iroquois Falls and, since 1961, Saint Monica's in Toronto. Like Crummer he had an interest in Roman Catholicism, though in its more traditional practices and teachings. Father Hutt's parents had actually been married at SMM in 1913, to the dismay of his paternal grandparents, who were staunch Presbyterians, but to the delight of his maternal grandparents, who lived on Euclid Avenue and were members of SMM. The newlyweds lived for a time with the maternal grandparents on Euclid, and Father Hutt was baptised by Charles Darling in 1919. His brother William, the famous actor, was also baptised at SMM the following year.

It was unfortunate that Father Hutt returned to the parish in the midst of a latent crisis. Falling membership and attendance were taking their toll on parish morale, and Crummer's departure had left confusion and bitter feelings in its wake. His reforms had also begun to polarize the congregation. While Crummer was rector these tensions remained under wraps, though signs of the split were appearing in small but symbolic ways. Some parishioners began coming to high mass dressed informally, rather than in traditional "Sunday best", a fact that others remarked on unfavourably. But by and large the tensions remained submerged, and Father Hutt was able to tell vestry in January of 1968 that his first year at SMM had been "the happiest of his ministry". His second year was much less happy.

For there were some parishioners (collectively nicknamed "the Ginger Group") who wished to continue Crummer's reforming efforts. Most were younger parishioners, devoted to Father Crummer and ready to question received wisdom in the spirit of the 1960's. We can gain some insight into their views through the pamphlets they produced, _The Parish Pump_ and _Issue_. Neither was an official parish publication; rather, financed by their authors, they aimed to foster discussion on questions facing the church in the modern world. Two issues of _The Parish Pump_ appeared in the spring of 1967. Adopting a light, satirical tone, their authors advocated a stronger role for the laity in worship, a greater sense of community among the congregation and the "translation of the Anglican Rite into English". _The Parish Pump_ was succeeded by two editions of _Issue_ in the winter and spring of 1968. The satirical tone remained in part, but _Issue_ was more directly critical of the conservatism seen to be prevailing in the Anglican Church. The first edition took Father Hutt to task for a sermon he had preached in defence of traditional Christian morality, in particular sexual morality, which was characterized as insensitive and out of touch. The second edition of _Issue_ , which appeared just three months after Willan's death, advocated experimenting with the liturgy at high mass and trying out more contemporary music in place of Willan's.

It would be futile to pretend that the split that was opening up was wholly one of issues and ideas. Disputes in any small community are never simple: if they begin with a disagreement on goals and values, they soon take on the character of a personal dispute; and if they begin with a conflict of personalities, they quickly seek justification in the realm of ideas. It would be futile also to explore the problem at SMM in great detail. It is enough to say that open discussion of "the issues" did not proceed very far. The Ginger Group felt that Father Hutt was unresponsive to their concerns. Others felt that the group was pursuing its own agenda to the detriment of the health and unity of the parish. Matters came to a head when three members of the Ginger Group, who were also members of the Advisory Board and one the people's warden, visited Bishop Snell to discuss the divisions at SMM. They also raised their concerns at the advisory board meeting of September 24, 1968. This meeting, plus the visit of his fellow warden to the bishop, prompted the rector's warden, Rex Manaton, to tender his resignation. A special vestry meeting was held on October 7 to appoint a successor. In the meantime, there had gathered a second group of parishioners who were disturbed by _The Parish Pump_ and _Issue_. By Father Hutt's leave, they used the vestry meeting to call the reformers to account. The criticisms voiced in _Issue_ , they said, had contributed to the divisions in the parish. No doubt they interpreted the visit to Bishop Snell as an attempt to oust Father Hutt.

Others spoke in support of the rector and the current liturgical practices and condemned the action of "agitators". The result was that the people's warden, Gerald Bousfield, resigned too, and many who sympathized with his position, and who no longer saw a place for themselves at SMM, left the parish.

The congregation as a whole was seeking a respite from change, and that mood suited Father Hutt's personal inclinations. One would not have been surprised if the church had stood pat for the next few years, but that is not entirely what happened. Saint Mary Magdalene's did continue to change and innovate in line with modern ideals, and Father Hutt participated in this effort. While for some parishioners the pace of change has been slow, unlike many anglo-catholic parishes in Canada and the United States, SMM has not withdrawn into a shell, shielding itself from the currents of change washing over the church.

Over the years one of the parish's best contacts with this outside world has been Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, a professor at Trinity College and honorary assistant at SMM since 1949. A noted theologian, Father Fairweather has performed many services for the church at large, particularly on the ecumenical front. In addition to his many years with both the Canadian and World Council of Churches, in the early 1960's he sat on the "Committee of Ten" from the Anglican Church that worked out the "Principles of Union" with the United Church. In 1964 the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed him one of the official Anglican observers to the third session of the Vatican Council; his reports to the parish on the Council's doings helped to stir interest in their sweeping reforms. This work led to his involvement with the Anglican- Roman Catholic International Commission, founded in 1970 to explore the re-establishment of communion between the two churches. At SMM, Father Fairweather has been noted for his thoughtfulness, his unfailing good humour and his consideration of the viewpoints of others. The esteem in which the parish holds him has smoothed the way for his many contributions to parish life and renewal.

As early as 1940, there were those in the diocese of Toronto who, concerned about low levels of commitment and the loss of young people from the church, felt that Anglican services lacked "variety and freshness", and that for many people "Elizabethan English is as a foreign language and traditional forms [of worship] are forbidding or dull." Their concerns were not seriously addressed in the prayer book revision of 1959, and it was only in 1965 that General Synod urged the diocesan bishops to permit liturgical experimentation in the parishes. The bishop of Toronto, the Right Reverend George Snell, realized the need for such experiments, though he wanted to preserve the community of worship that the _Book of Common Prayer_ had always provided. He would have preferred the church to produce liturgies that could be tried across the board and then evaluated, rather than leave each parish to experiment on its own. Within a few years, the Doctrine and Worship committees of both General Synod and Toronto diocese were reconsidering the nature of baptism, confirmation, marriage and the eucharist, and were producing alternative liturgies for these sacraments. In the meantime, experimentation in the parishes went ahead.

At SMM, experimentation found its major expression in the so-called "Folk Mass", which had its origins in a revamped Christian education program for young people. This program was established by Father Fairweather while priest-in-charge in 1966, along with Father Ted Gale, one of the assistants. It began holding classes on Sunday mornings as well as one Saturday a month in 1967. Activities included singing and arts and crafts as well as formal instruction by age group. The author himself recalls making banners and being instructed in the eucharist and in the liturgy of the early church. The group also made two small stained-glass windows that were installed near the font in the north aisle. It was out of this program that the Folk Mass grew. At the time, with attendance at all services falling, and with communion now being offered at the 11:00, Father Hutt was wondering whether the 9:30 and the 11:00 should not be merged. At Father Fairweather's suggestion, he agreed to retain the 9:30 as a "guinea pig" to experiment with the new liturgies approved by the bishop. Father Fairweather conducted the first such "experiment" on Saturday April 25, 1970, as part of the Christian education program. The following year saw a series of Sunday eucharists in the modern rite for young people held at the 9:30.

Father Fairweather presiding at the Folk Mass. This cartoon, by Kevin Reeves, was presented to Father Fairweather by the children of the parish in 1987.

Father Fairweather later described his work developing the Folk Mass as "one of the happiest experiences of my life". The term "Folk Mass" is something of a misnomer. It was (and remains) a regular eucharist using modern language in which children and young people performed the roles of servers, readers and music makers. The intention was to involve the boys and girls of the parish in a joyful, reverent, and above all comprehensible celebration of the eucharist. It was based on the American church's "Rite Two", which Fairweather appreciated for the "straightforward and uncluttered" manner in which it presented the mass. Readings were from the New English Bible, and the hymns, accompanied by a variety of instruments, were generally in a modern folk style. The setting was informal but incorporated traditional elements, with the children vested in albs and carrying candles, incense and holy water. At first, some members of the parish objected to the use of the colourful banners that the children had made on the grounds that they were not in keeping with the dignity of the mass. Such views were quickly forgotten, and the Folk Mass became a fixture at SMM. Far from being the relic that its name suggests, it has continually been modified and developed. Perhaps because of the involvement of children, and because it is held only once a month, it has stayed fresh and remains the joyful celebration it was meant to be.

With this attempt to involve children as full members of the parish, allowing baptised children to make their communion was a natural next step. Through the diocese as a whole, this practice was being introduced according to the same "experimental" method that was being followed for modern liturgy. It was supported by the Doctrine and Worship Committee of Toronto diocese, to which Father Fairweather belonged. A survey of churches in the diocese in 1977 found a growing number admitting baptised children to communion. It was on Easter of 1977 that SMM joined their ranks. The move was preceded by a series of discussions in the parish, and Father Hutt preached three sermons in support. Because of the centrality that the eucharist and communion had traditionally had at SMM, this was one reform the parish could unite on. There were however some restrictions at first. It was stipulated that the children had to be at least six years old and regular attenders of the Sunday school. Before their first communion, the children also received instruction and made their confession. These provisions (which clearly resembled traditional Roman Catholic practice) remained for only a short time, and the communion of all baptised children is now permitted.

In time, the Folk Mass paved the way for a revamped 9:30 eucharist for the remaining Sundays of the month. A group of parishioners with different leanings and temperaments, but all desiring a less formal and more community-oriented service, received permission in 1980 to hold modem language eucharists at the 9:30. Much as the Folk Mass involved children, this new 9:30 involved laypeople as greeters, readers, intercessors and musicians. The celebration was moved from the high altar to the more intimate setting of Saint Joseph's chapel, and breakfast was served after mass to help solidify the group as a community. Some members of the parish were anxious that SMM was being split into two communities, the 9:30 and the 11:00. Whether this was intended or not, that was the wisdom of Hutt's and Fairweather's decision to retain the 9:30. It allowed those desiring a modem, simplified rite in a Catholic format to have it without forcing change on the more traditional 11:00 am high mass.

Celebrating Tradition

If the story of the 9:30 has been one of reform, the story of the 11:00 am high mass has largely been one of tradition. Despite Father Crummer's and Father Fairweather's changes, the high mass remains essentially within the framework established by Hiscocks and Willan. The ceremony is quite a bit more relaxed, but three sacred ministers and a handful of servers are still employed. The chancel choir still sings the propers, and the gallery choir still sings the polyphonic ordinary and the motet in traditional form. In spite of Willan's fears, neither choir is near to disbanding. Much of the credit for this must go to the talent and dedication of Willan's successors. The first, Giles Bryant, gained a deep interest and love for Willan's work as editor of the Healey Willan Catalogue for the National Library in Ottawa. Following service at several Toronto churches, he was appointed organist and choirmaster at SMM in 1968, and five years later took the same position at Trinity College. His successor in both appointments was Robert Bell, who came to SMM and to Trinity in 1975 after Bryant returned to his native England. As a young man, Bell and his parents would sometimes drive from Saint Catharine's to attend mass at SMM. A Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, he received his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University; like Bryant, he came to SMM with considerable parish experience. While both have modified the repertoire somewhat—Robert Bell in particular has made contemporary works in the modem idiom common, including several compositions of his own—Willan's music retains pride of place.

Willan's legacy permeates the choirs and their activities. One of their activities has been to record his liturgical music. The first tapes were made in the mid-1950's, with the intention of forming a "Record Society" to raise money for the pressing. Apparently no records were issued, however, perhaps because of Willan's high standards of quality. The first recording to see the light of day was Music for Mass and Evensong issued in 1971 under Giles Bryant's leadership. Produced independently by the church, this record featured plainsong, Willan's Missa brevis XIV and a number of motets by Willan and the Tudor composers whose works he had championed. The first pressing sold very quickly and, thus encouraged, the choirs went on to produce more records in ever larger numbers. In all, eight records were released in the 1970's covering most aspects of SMM's repertoire, from plainsong to polyphony and from Advent to Holy Week. Additional recordings have been made since, including one of music for Palm Sunday and Holy Week released in 1989.

The records have been very well received. They made Willan's music available to a wider public, and they enhanced the gallery choir's reputation as one of the finest amateur choirs in Canada. They also raised a substantial sum of money to restore the church organ. To this end the "Healey Willan Memorial Fund" was established in 1971. Besides record sales, the fund raised money by subscription and by special choir recitals. More than a restoration, the goal was to repair or replace existing equipment and to expand the organ's abilities by installing improved organ chests and new pipes. It was originally hoped to complete the work by 1973, but as the scope of the project increased, and as it naturally took time to raise the necessary money, the work continued on through the decade. In this way the rebuilding of the organ led nicely into the Willan Centennial Celebration in 1980 sponsored by the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Activities were held across Canada with many musicians and academics taking part. Canada Post issued a Willan commemorative stamp. SMM's choirs gave a number of concerts both inside and outside the church, but the main event occurred early in the year. On February 10, 1980, the Right Reverend Hugh Stiff, who had been raised in the parish and who had for many years been the head server, dedicated the refurbished organ. Beginning on February 12, Francis Jackson gave three nights of recitals on the new organ, and on February 17 Mary Mason, Healey Willan's daughter, unveiled a Toronto Historical Board plaque honouring Willan which was placed at SMM's front door. Also present was the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Pauline McGibbon, who graciously delivered a tribute.

Bill Marwick, the Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon and Father Heron at the installation of the Toronto Historical Board plaque honouring Healey Willan on the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

COURTESY EVERETT ROXBOROUGH LIMITED

Maintaining tradition has taken some interesting turns. As a special event to raise money for the organ fund, the "Old Western Rite" as detailed in _Ritual Notes_ was revived on the Feast of Dedication in 1971. This has become an annual event. In some respects there has been an elaboration of tradition in anglo-catholic directions undreamed of in earlier times. Indoor processions of the Blessed Sacrament on Corpus Christi had been held since the 1930's, but in 1974 the procession moved outdoors and around the neighbourhood. This too has become an annual event [21]. Still more striking has been the elaboration of devotions to the Virgin Mary. This work was spearheaded by the "Society of Mary", the spiritual descendent of the old League of Our Lady, which became influential at SMM in the mid-1970's. Another strong promoter was Alexander Francis Heron, who became rector in 1979. (In another "spectacular" turn of events, Father Hutt won the lottery that year and retired to Stratford.) Father Heron was priested in Edmonton in 1953 and served in a number of churches in western Canada. He travelled to England in 1961 to become a chaplain in the RAF, then returned to Canada in 1977 to assume the post of rector at Saint John's/Saint Luke's Brantford.

Father Heron took up the cause of Marian devotions with his customary enthusiasm. Most notably, in 1981 he instituted an annual "May Festival" with services in honour of Our Lady on each Saturday in the month. At first all these services were held at SMM, though other Toronto churches, among them Saint Matthias, Saint Thomas's, and Saint Bartholomew's, took part. More recently, the services have been divided between the participating churches, with the climactic celebration on the last Saturday of the month at SMM. Underpinning these developments has been a long-term rise in congregational interest in Marian devotions. Mass attendance on the Feasts of the Annunciation, the Assumption and the Conception of Our Lady was generally feeble before 1950. It has risen significantly since that date, and especially since about 1970. While attendance at most services has fallen in the modern period, on feast days associated with the Blessed Virgin it is higher now than it ever was.

Yet another way in which the church can be said to have been building on its heritage concerns the acquisition of new statues. In the first 80 years of its existence, SMM had two statues installed, one of Mary and the Christ child and one of Saint Joseph. In the last 20 years it has acquired four more. The first of these was a large statue of Saint Mary Magdalene, created by Thomas Bowie of the Ontario College of Art in 1969. The statue shows Mary Magdalene at that moment in the garden when she realized she was speaking with the Lord. It was given as a memorial to George and Louise Sexsmith by their family, whose association with the parish reached back more than 60 years. Three other statues were acquired early in Father Heron's time. The first, of Saint Benedict, was given as a memorial to Father Ellis Evans in 1980. It was soon followed by new statues of Saint Joseph, given by Ron Payne in memory of his father, and Saint Mary Magdalene given by Michael Hutt (Father Hutt's son) in memory of his grandparents. These last three statues are about half life-size and were created by Father Francis Stephens, an English priest and ecclesiastical artist.

Father Stephens was busy doing other work for SMM. Under his direction, the rood cross was taken down to be repainted in colours closer to its original ones in May of 1981. He also repainted the Lady statue in the south aisle in red and gold colours reminiscent of the rood. This work, plus the three new statues, was part of a much larger plan to refurbish the church in preparation for SMM's centennial in 1988. The most ambitious and most costly part of this plan was to excavate under the church to expand the basement, an idea considered and rejected in the 1950's. But the most controversial part was the proposal, developed jointly by Father Heron and Father Stephens, to redo the upstairs. Both men disliked Father Crummer's chancel, the one complaining of its "pedestrian utilitarianism", the other of the "bleakness, severity and a lack of colour" it brought to an already spartan interior. They wished to install what, given the general architecture of the church, they considered to be more historically correct furnishings. Among other things, Stephens proposed a carved and gilded altar front and a more elaborate corona. Also, they proposed removing the angular lecterns for the epistle and gospel, and replacing the simple tabernacle and pedestal with a much larger and more ornate tabernacle house "which would be a dominating focus of attraction, interest and prayer". The intention was to finance the work upstairs through memorials, so that no parish funds would have to be spent.

These ideas did not progress to the stage of fully developed plans, but Father Stephens did produce some preliminary drawings that were displayed in the church. While many parishioners approved of the proposals, there was a strong body of opinion that resisted them. Discussion bogged down on where to place (or indeed whether to accept) the new statues, a matter not finally resolved until June of 1983. Undeterred, Father Heron pressed on, which only caused opposition to stiffen. Concerns were raised about costs and priorities. The parish was having trouble meeting day-to-day expenses, and large amounts for repairs to the aging church were looming. Discussion of the redecoration scheme proper chiefly concerned its artistic merit, though it was noted that a large tabernacle house would obscure the focus that properly belonged to the altar and the eucharistic meal. More generally, some felt that Father Heron's view of the church was too conservative, as the nostalgic tone of some of the redecoration plans suggested. But the most contentious issue was whether, with the introduction of the three new statues and the repainting of the rood and Lady statue, the redecoration plans were being implemented without parish approval. In May of 1982, 11 parishioners wrote to Father Heron to express the

growing concern among many parishioners that the [redecoration] plans have never been formally presented to the Vestry for its consideration, and that the normal decision-making process has not been followed.

They asked Father Heron to call a special vestry meeting to deal with the plans, and they notified Archbishop Garnsworthy of their concerns. The special vestry meeting was held in September of 1982. To keep tempers cool, the meeting was held in the nave of the church, and the Right Reverend Basil Tonks was sent to preside. The meeting dealt with a single motion, that all plans for the redecoration of the church should be withdrawn. Some members came out in support of the rector, including Harold Wise, a parishioner for 70 years, who held Father Heron to be "one of the finest priests this parish has ever had". But the tenor of the meeting was clearly to favour the motion rejecting the plans, and it was passed by a clear majority of the members present.

Coming to Terms

By then the situation was beyond repair. As had happened with Father Hutt, there was a group in the congregation that no longer trusted the rector, nor he them, while another group felt that the rector was being unfairly attacked. The episode left very hurt feelings in its wake, as such episodes do, and prompted a certain loss in the membership. Father Heron remained as rector for several more months, but in January of 1983 Archbishop Gamsworthy appointed the Reverend John Whittall, Dean of Men at Trinity College and an honorary assistant, temporary priest-in-charge. In June he was succeeded in that post by Father Harold Nahabedian. A graduate of Trinity College, Father Harold was ordained priest for the diocese of Toronto in 1974 and served for three years as curate at Saint James' Vancouver. He returned to Trinity in 1976 as college chaplain. Conservative in temperament, he is conscious of SMM's history as a liturgical innovator, and he knows the parish must keep abreast of developments in the wider church and the world. He is conscious too of his prerogatives as rector, but knows he must lead by persuasion rather than by standing on authority.

Father Harold was therefore well-equipped for his primary task of stabilizing and reuniting the congregation [22]. The congregation was eager to make amends, intensely aware of the damage that had been done and the threat it posed to its very existence. The work was naturally slow and patient, hardly discernible at any distance. We can however list a number of important initiatives. In December of 1983, Father Harold began the practice of holding pot-luck suppers after mid-week masses on festival days. In conjunction with Toronto's sesquicentennial celebrations in 1984, SMM staged a "block party" as part of its patronal festival. This got people working together in positive ways. A set of small-scale house meetings on stewardship was held in 1984, followed by a second set on evangelism in 1986. In these and other ways, a renewed sense of community based on closer personal ties between parish members was fostered.

The congregation faced additional challenges stemming from the ongoing renewal of the church. In 1980, General Synod signalled an end to the era of liturgical experimentation, or should we say moved it to a new stage, when it ordered that a set of modern rites be collected in a single book. That book, _The Book of Alternative Services_ , became available in 1985 and was acquired by SMM that year. There was no difficulty moving the 9:30 congregation to the modern language rite in the BAS, but most at the 11:00 continue to prefer traditional language. However, the 11:00 has been adjusted in some respects in spite of itself. This work of adjustment was actually begun in 1982 in anticipation of the BAS by Father Heron, and has been continued in stages by Father Harold. Despite some lively discussions, altering the high mass to conform to the traditional language rite in the BAS has been made with little difficulty.

A more divisive issue, and one note yet fully resolved, concerns the place of ordained women in the church. This was another issue that had been brewing for some time. Toronto synod discussed the ordination of women in 1954, though a motion favouring the plan was easily defeated. Synod did, however, set up a commission to see how to provide women with greater opportunity for service to the church. Appropriately, at SMM as elsewhere, women did begin taking on a greater role in parish government. In 1956, vestry elected Elizabeth McLaughlin to be SMM's first female lay member of synod. The modern Advisory Board, descended from the long-discontinued Parochial Council, has sat women since 1966 when it was first established as a genuinely representative body. Women had long served as envelope secretaries, but in 1971 a former envelope secretary, Lillian Clayton, was appointed to the more responsible position of auditor. She went on to serve for a number of years as parish treasurer in the early 1980's, and Heather McGregor became the first female warden when she was appointed rector's warden in 1984.

Face painting at the SMM street festival, 1984. Events included a puppet show, medieval music and theatre and an outdoor neighbourhood dance in the evening.

This still left the more controversial question of women's ordination. Following General Synod's lead, Toronto Synod strongly endorsed the plan in 1974, as did other dioceses in Canada. November 1976 saw the first ordinations of women in the Canadian church, and in March 1977 Bishop Garnsworthy publicly announced his intention to follow suit in Toronto. Father Hutt had opposed women's ordination from the start, and when Margery Pezzack was ordained priest in May of 1977, he stood up in Saint James' Cathedral to voice his objections. The passage of time did not change him, and after his retirement he joined the Roman Catholic Church. Father Heron too was deeply opposed to women priests, and he too has since become a Roman Catholic. On the other hand, several women priests currently serving the Anglican Church have come from SMM.

Because the congregation was divided, the issue was allowed to lie undisturbed for a time. The parish has, however, been moving cautiously. In 1984 the Reverend Maylanne Whittall, a deacon involved in social work and the wife of the former priest-in-charge, renewed her ties to SMM. Father Harold obtained the agreement of the advisory board and the congregation at large for her to assist at the 9:30 on Sundays. Then, in November of 1986, the congregation agreed to allow women deacons to assist at high mass. Female servers were permitted to help at high mass too, where their efforts have been much appreciated.

The long process of adjusting to change has tended to make SMM inward-looking, preoccupied with itself, but it has not lost the ability to look outward. The most important outreach activity has concerned the parish thrift shop. Begun in the early 1960's, the thrift shop was meant to raise money for the church through the sale of used clothing and other goods. It made substantial donations to Father Crummer's chancel renovations, among other projects. The thrift shop also provided clothing free or at very low cost to those in need, and it was soon donating clothing to the Scott Mission, the Crippled Civilians and the Catholic Children's Aid Society. The charitable side has been its dominant feature since the thrift shop became associated with Stop 103. Named for its first location in Saint Stephen's parish hall at 103 Bellevue Avenue, Stop 103 was established in 1981 to provide counselling and direct aid to people who had fallen through the cracks of existing programs. During the recession of the early 1980's, its function as a food depot became very important. With its large staff of volunteers, Stop 103 assisted thousands of people a year, chiefly the unemployed, single-parent families and refugees. SMM's thrift shop functions in large part as Stop 103's clothing depot. Hundreds of clients are referred to the thrift shop to collect the items they need free of charge. Others pay a token amount, but they are so numerous that the thrift shop is still able to contribute financially to parish activities.

The number of clients the thrift shop handles each week, plus the large amounts of clothing it stores, pointed up once again the inadequacy of SMM's facilities. Once again this inadequacy led to plans for improvement. Earlier plans for excavating beneath the church had been shelved in the parish crisis of 1982–83, but the general idea lived on. Since 1985, the parish has been working toward building a hall in the rectory garden. A successful parish fundraising campaign was held—and SMM has received generous pledges from Saint James' Vancouver and the diocese of Toronto— but more money will be needed if the hall is to be built and the existing church fabric restored. Many grand building plans have been frustrated over the years at SMM. On the other hand, after some 90 years in the making, a parish hall is long overdue!

Saint Mary Magdalene's at 100

Whatever comes of this project, looking forward and planning for the future has been good for us. Membership has rebounded somewhat; morale has improved and under Father Harold the congregation has developed a greater sense of community—perhaps greater than it has ever had. We were ready to make the most of our centennial celebrations. The centennial proper began in 1988 with a full weekend of events for our patronal festival. On Friday July 22, the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, the two choirs gave a recital in the church. Robert Bell had organized an international competition for an original motet that would be appropriate for use at SMM. Over 60 submissions were received, and this recital gave the first performances of the prize-winning motets: _O Quam Suavis Est_ by Jose Evangelista, and Psalm VIII by Roland Packer. The next day a "service of light" was held at our mother church Saint Matthias, followed by a procession (in a drizzling rain) through the streets back to SMM. Bishop Joachim Fricker came to celebrate and preach at high mass on Sunday; the Sisters of the Church returned for the day and took their traditional seats at the front of the nave. Among other centennial events, Father Harold was formally inducted as incumbent of the parish on the Feast of All Saints, 1988. And the visit to Saint Mary Magdalene's of H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on July 9, 1989, gave the year a grand finale.

The Queen Mother greeting well-wishers while Father Harold Nahabedian plays the gracious host.

Centennials are for celebrating the past. They are also for taking stock of the present and preparing for the future. The fundamental purpose of a parish church is to build and sustain a community in the worship of God. Some churches find or develop a special call on top of that, something that occupies their time and resources yet breathes life into them. Many parishes have found a call in evangelism, sending and supporting missionaries through Canada and the world, or establishing mission churches in their own neighbourhoods. Other parishes devote themselves to some charitable or social work activity. Especially since the days of Father Hiscocks, SMM has had a very clear mission to bring the Canadian church to a fuller appreciation of its roots—liturgical, sacramental and theological—in the Catholic tradition. To a fair degree this "mission" has been accomplished. The eucharist is now widely recognized to be the norm for Sunday worship, and the proportion of Anglicans who are regular communicants is much higher today than 100 years ago. _The Book of Alternative Services_ proclaims the importance of the traditional Holy Week liturgies as preparation for Easter, liturgies we have used and promoted since the 1920's. The mission was accomplished in smaller points too, as in the spread of altar candles or of Healey Willan's music. Partly through our example, and through the many clerics and laypeople who have been associated with SMM over the years, the Anglican Church of Canada is quite different from what it used to be. In that sense, we really have come to the end of the story this book set out to tell. Saint Mary Magdalene's story will continue. As in the 1920's, when our mission was crystallized, today we seem to be in a period of transition. The question is, what are we and the church at large in transition toward? It is a task for everyone to seek God and learn his will for us now and in the days to come. The past we may celebrate, but our fulfillment lies in the future.

[Return to TOC]
APPENDICES

A: Church Attendance

Some people (including myself) are endlessly fascinated by maps and graphs. For those people we have some graphs of attendance at different services at SMM over the past 70 years. Unfortunately, Charles Darling saw fit to record services and attendances only very occasionally, so there is little data before 1918.

Graphs were made for a number of different services, only some of which are reproduced here. Curiously, all the graphs fell (with some variations) into one of four basic patterns. These four patterns are illustrated in the following graphs.

1) Average Sunday Mass Attendance

This graph shows total Sunday mass attendance. It is based on an average of nine Sundays a year and is an attempt to plot the attendance on a "typical Sunday". Major feast days and Sundays in the summer months were therefore deliberately excluded from the group of nine Sundays. From the 1920's to the early 1960's, the figures are inflated by the double attendance phenomenon. Many people attended both the nine-thirty and eleven o'clock services each Sunday, which meant they were counted twice. The great rise in attendance in the 1920's and the corresponding fall in the 1960's, then, are exaggerated. (However, a similar rise and fall can be found for most other services.) We cannot be precise as to how much the figures are inflated by "double attendance", but it probably ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent depending on the era. Caution should, therefore, be exercised when comparing data from 1922 to 1960 with data before and after.

2) Ash Wednesday - Total Mass Attendance

Ash Wednesday (along with Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday, whose graphs are very similar) was observed in Charles Darling's time, but it was not until Father Hiscocks that it became a major celebration. The curve bears some resemblance to the Sunday attendance curve, but the increase in the 1920's is rather less pronounced, and the increase in the 1940's and 1950's much more so. In the mid-1950's, Father Crummer introduced evening masses for many mid-week feast days. He was eager that more people should be able to attend. In the past, Crummer wrote, such feast days "were a real witness for crowds attended them, but of late, however, the number of people coming to them is simply disgraceful in a parish like ours". If Crummer had looked in the service books he would have known this wasn't so.

3) Christmas and Easter - Total Mass Attendance

Perhaps it is Christmas and Easter that cause people to think of full churches when they think of the past. However, although the evidence is slight, it was not until after midnight mass was introduced in 1922 that Christmas began to draw very large crowds. Our two records of Christmas attendance before 1920 show that 305 came to mass on that day in 1909 (compared to 777 on Easter that year) and only 211 in 1919. Easter (and Palm Sunday, which follows a similar trajectory) was much better attended, chiefly because of the large number of inactives in the neighbourhood who would find their way to church that day. With the progressive loss of the local inactive clientele, Easter attendance began to decline in the 1920's. Christmas attendance has declined also, but Christmas is now a more popular feast day than Easter. Perhaps this is because Christmas has more successfully made the transition from the religious to the secular calendar.

3a) Christmas — Total Mass Attendance

3b) Easter — Total Mass Attendance

4) AII Souls' Day and the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Total Mass Attendance

These two feast days (along with the Feast of the Assumption, whose curve is similar) were introduced by Father Hiscocks. While good crowds turned out for All Souls' Day in the 1920's, far fewer observed the two most controversial Marian feast days. Nor have the Marian feast days been consistently promoted since then. What the three services have in common is that they are all more popular now than they ever were. Proportionally the gains are even larger, for overall parish membership has fallen in recent years. The lesson? When we discuss attendance trends, we must be clear what services we are talking about.

4a) Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Total Mass Attendance

4b) All Souls' Day — Total Mass Attendance

B: Clergy in Charge of Saint Mary Magdalene's

Charles Burroughs Darling: Rector, 1889–1933

Henry Griffen Hiscocks: Curate, 1918–1919; Vicar, 1919–1931

Loren Nichols Gavitt: Assistant Curate, 1929–1931

Samuel Gordon Coulter Graham: Assistant Curate, 1930–1933; Rector, 1933–1937

Lloyd Matthews Sommerville: Priest-in-Charge, 1937–1939

Hamilton Mockridge: Rector, 1939

Reginald Thomas: Priest-in-Charge, 1939–1940

Lee Irvine Greene: Rector, 1940–1945

Charles Feilding: Priest-in-Charge, 1945–1946

Robert Theodore Francis Brain: Rector, 1946–1953

Eugene Rathbone Fairweather: Priest-in-Charge, 1953

William Robert Crummer: Rector, 1953–1956

Eugene Rathbone Fairweather: Priest-in-Charge, 1966

Mountain Coulter DeWitt Hutt: Rector, 1967–1979

Eugene Rathbone Fairweather: Priest-in-Charge, 1979

Alexander Francis Heron: Rector, 1979–1983

John Duncan Whittall: Priest-in-Charge, 1983

Harold Joseph Nahabedian: Priest-in-Charge, 1983–1988; Incumbent, 1988–

C: Wardens of Saint Mary Magdalene's

(Year: Rector's Warden, People's Warden)

1889: Azariah Clubb, Henry James Perks

1890: Henry James Perks, H. W. Fores

1891: Henry Chick, Ernest Restall

1892: George Pringle, Ernest Restall

1893: Henry Chick, Ernest Restall

1894: Henry Chick, Charles B. Murray

1895: Henry Chick, Charles B. Murray

1896: Henry Chick, T. G. L. Barnes

1897: William Henry Bates, Arthur Binks Cordingly

1898:William Henry Bates, Arthur Binks Cordingly

1899: G. Mitchell Thomas, A. W. Clark

1900: (election laid over, no record of any subsequent decision)

1901: James Hickman, Charles Hunter

1902: James Hickman, Charles Hunter

1903: James Hickman, J. Hopper

1904: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1905: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1906: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1907: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1908: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1909: T. G. L. Barnes, Philip Dykes

1910: T. G. L. Barnes, A. Pollard

1911: A. Pollard, W. P. Thompson

1912: A. Pollard, W. P. Thompson

1913: W. P. Thompson, Charles Phillips

1914: W. H. Worden, Charles Phillips

1915: W. G. Windus (?), Charles Phillips

1916: R. W. Driscoll, W. H. Worden

1917: W. G. Windus, W. H. Worden

1918: W. G. Windus, W. C. Godson

1919: W. G. Windus, W. C. Godson

1920: W. G. Windus, W. C. Godson

1921: D. McViccar Wilding, W. M. Dennett

1922: Frank S. Ball, D. McViccar Wilding

1923: R. K. Banting, D. McViccar Wilding

1924: R. K. Banting, Harold Wise

1925: R. K. Banting, Harold Wise

1926: Harold Wise, H. G. Hamilton

1927: S. G. Finbow, H. G. Hamilton

1928: H. G. Hamilton, W. H. Walton-Ball

1929: H. G. Hamilton, W. H. Walton-Ball

1930: H. G. Hamilton, Harold Boundy

1931: R. K Banting, J. Field

1932: J. Field, H. E. Nowell

1933: Harold Boundy, H. E. Nowell

1934: H. E. Nowell, H. Rees

1935: H. Rees, Herbert M. Bell

1936: H. Rees, Herbert M. Bell

1937: Herbert M. Bell, H. Greenwood* J. Coleman

1938: Herbert M. Bell, J. Coleman

1939: Alan Russell, E. A. R. Newson

1940: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1941: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1942: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1943: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1944: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1945: Dan Stiff, E. A. R. Newson

1946: E. A. R. Newson, W. R. McCallum

1947: H. D. Powell, G. D. Sexsmith

1948: H. D. Powell, G. D. Sexsmith

1949: G. D. Sexsmith, William K. Tidy

1950: G. D. Sexsmith, William K. Tidy

1951: R. C. Boundy, H. K. Collen

1952: R. C. Boundy, H. K. Collen

1953: M. E. Langlois, K C. Dunn

1954: H. K. Collen, William K. Tidy

1955: H. K. Collen, William K. Tidy

1956: H. K. Collen, William K. Tidy

1957: H. K. Collen, William K. Tidy

1958: H. K. Collen, William K. Tidy

1959: J. Garner, William K. Tidy

1960: J. Garner, Rex Manaton

1961: H. MacKay, Rex Manaton

1962: H. MacKay, Rex Manaton

1963: H. MacKay, Rex Manaton

1964: Rex Manaton, William K. Tidy

1965: Rex Manaton, William K. Tidy

1966: Rex Manaton, R A Fairbairn

1967: Rex Manaton, G. E. W. Bousfield

1968: Rex Manaton**, G. E. W. Bousfield***

Albert Mahon, William Greig

1969: Albert Mahon, William Greig

1970: William Greig, Russell Morrison

1971: Russell Morrison, Allan Mills

1972: Russell Morrison, Allan Mills

1973: Russell Morrison, Raymond Vickers

1974: Raymond Vickers, Paul Kneffel

1975: Raymond Vickers, E. W. (Tony) Anthony

1976: Allan Mills, Russell Morrison

1977: David Wedenmaier, William Marwick

1978: William Marwick, Bruce Benton

1979: William Marwick, Bruce Benton

1980: Bruce Benton, James McKay

1981: James McKay, Ron Webster

1982: James McKay, Allan Mills

1983: James McKay****, Allan Mills****

Allan Mills, William Greig

1984: Heather McGregor, William Greig

1985: Heather McGregor, Phyllis McCurdy

1986: Ian Walker, Phyllis McCurdy

1987: Ian Walker, Prudence Tracy

1988: Lorna Scott, Prudence Tracy

1989: Lorna Scott, Prudence Tracy

1990: Harold Buttle, Garry Lovatt

* died in office

** resigned October 7, 1968

*** resigned October 15,1968

**** wardens of 1982 remained in office until special vestry meeting of May 1, 1983
Note on Sources

Almost all of the research for this book was made in primary documents. However, in establishing a context through which to present Saint Mary Magdalene's history, I found a number of books helpful at various points along the way. Among them were:

D. C. Masters, The Rise of Toronto (University of Toronto Press, 1947)

Peter Goheen, Victorian Toronto (University of Chicago Press, 1970)

J. M. Careless, Toronto to 1918 (J. Lorimer 8c Co., 1984)

Eric Arthur/Stephen Otto, Toronto, No Mean City, third edition (University of Toronto Press, 1986)

G. W. O. Addleshaw and Frederick Etchells, The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship (Faber and Faber, 1948)

Philip Carrington, The Anglican Church in Canada (Collins, 1963) John Webster Grant, The Church in the Canadian Era (McGraw- Hill, Ryerson, 1972)

Unfortunately, this book was completed well before the fine new history of the diocese of Toronto, By Grace Co-Workers, edited by Alan Hayes (Anglican Book Centre, 1989) appeared. In the absence of such a book, my sense of context was largely based on primary research. For the neighbourhood in which SMM is located, I made extensive use of assessment rolls and city directories; for doings in the Anglican Church in Toronto, synod journals and, to a lesser extent, two periodicals, The Canadian Churchman and The Anglican.

With respect to SMM proper, one secondary source was quite helpful: F. R. C. Clarke's Healey Willan: Life and Music (University of Toronto Press, 1983). This work contains a good biography of Willan, though Clarke does not focus on Willan's activities at the church. Naturally, records pertaining specifically to SMM made up the bulk of my research. Part of the research was oral and involved interviews with former and current parishioners. There is some information to be gleaned from Toronto newspapers, though an exhaustive survey was out of the question. The archives of the diocese of Toronto have two files of correspondence, but the largest source of documentation— including parish registers, service books, parish magazines, bulletins, correspondence and other odds and ends—resides at the church itself. Much of this material will shortly be transferred to the diocesan archives, where it will be safe and readily available to anyone with an interest.

Except for the odd reference to a published work, no footnotes have been included. There are however footnoted copies of the manuscript at Saint Mary Magdalene's and at the archives of the diocese of Toronto. If you have a question about any of the material, if you have a correction or addition to point out, or if you have some reminiscence of SMM you would like to share, please write to me care of:

dgreig@rogers.com

or

The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene

477 Manning Avenue

Toronto, Ontario M6G 1E8

According to an article in Saturday Night in 1940, there were only two things worth doing in Toronto. One was going to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Chinese collection, and the other was going to SMM to hear the choirs. Toronto has changed quite a bit since then—now there are many things to do—but Saint Mary Magdalene's is still worth a visit. Do come!

David Greig
Endnotes

1] [[Return] Edgar Hallen, who likely made the altar, was the son of the Reverend George Hallen, formerly rector in Penetanguishene. George Hallen was a follower of the Reverend William Stewart Darling, Charles Darling's father and a leader of the high church party in the diocese of Toronto. One year George Hallen could not attend synod but Edgar, a lay delegate for the parish, did. George Hallen told his son to listen to what William Stewart Darling said and vote as he did, for then Edgar would be voting correctly. More on William Stewart Darling in Chapter Three.

2] [[Return] John Ross Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto, Volume 4 (John Ross Robertson, 1904), pp. 81-3. The article in Landmarks combines (with some rewriting) two separate articles that resulted from two separate visits to the church. A number of articles from Landmarks will be referred to in this work.

3] [[Return] The term "Tractarian" applies to the nineteenth century adherents of the Catholic revival in the Church of England. They are so called because of the Tracts for Our Times by which the leaders of the movement, including John Keble and Henry Newman, publicized their views. The Cambridge Camden Society, founded by John Mason Neale, had strong Tractarian leanings and sought to carry the Catholic revival into architecture.

4] [[Return] Since the print version of this book was published, the windows in the apse and above the gallery have been re-opened.

5] [[Return] Andrew Carnegie, Autobiography (Houghton, 1920), pp. 278-9

6] [[Return] Featherston Osier was a judge in the Ontario Court of Appeal, while Robert Alexander Harrison was Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench. As younger men they had been partners in a Toronto law firm.

7] [[Return] The "two church" description is suggested by John Webster Grant, The Church in the Canadian Era, (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972), p. 78.

8] [[Return] G. W. O. Addleshaw and Frederick Etchells, The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship, (Faber and Faber, 1948), p. 209

9] [[Return] Tenebrae is the special form of "anticipated" matins sung on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening in Holy Week. Tenebrae means "darkness", and the lights in the church are extinguished one by one during the service. It is a remarkable and moving experience, and many people have decided to join SMM after attending tenebrae.

10] [[Return] Anyone who finds this line of argument too prosaic may prefer the tradition that SMM was placed under Sweeny's "personal ban" for its misdeeds. But the available evidence, while indirect and inconclusive, suggests it was not. Sweeny visited the church yearly to perform confirmations until 1928, when none were performed. From 1929 to 1931, SMM's confirmations were handled by the Right Reverend James Lucas, the retired bishop of Mackenzie River, who was then stationed in Toronto as the warden of the Church Army in Canada. However, because of his age and health, Sweeny had grown accustomed to sharing his episcopal duties. In 1931 he took just over half of the confirmation services in his diocese; he had arranged to do SMM's that year, but Bishop Lucas came instead when Sweeny fell ill.

11] [[Return] Hiscocks was known as a good preacher. He spoke without notes, but wrote his sermons out beforehand with an eye on the clock, timing them to be eight minutes long. When the statue of Our Lady was installed in the north aisle in 1928, he invited the congregation to "turn and look, look upon the mother of God ... Some of you still aren't looking."

12] [[Return] Whether this helped to attract anyone, at least two people complained about the speed with which mass was said: "without feeling, sympathy or reverence", according to one, "causing irritation and resentment amongst many". "If it continues", wrote the other, "I shall have to go elsewhere."

13] [[Return] But it was not shared by all. While some Presbyterian churches permitted instrumental music, others did not. There was trouble at Cooke's Presbyterian Church (at Queen and Mutual Streets) in 1880 over the purchase of a reed organ. The purchase upset many of the older members, and during choir practice one day they stole the organ from the church.

14] [[Return] Quoted by F. R. C. Clarke, Healey Willan: Life and Music (University of Toronto Press, 1983), p. 74. This book was of great help to me in preparing this chapter.

15] [[Return] Not all of their activities ingratiated the sisters with their neighbours. One resident of the area, recalling the 1930's, tells how she and her friends used to play baseball on Sundays on the public school playground across from the church. Their play was regularly interrupted because the sisters, very strict and proper, used to phone the police to come break it up.

16] [[Return] One year on Palm Sunday, which always drew a good crowd, he began his sermon by commenting on the large congregation. He ended the sermon in the very next sentence: "How many of you will be at the foot of the cross on Good Friday?" On another Palm Sunday, Father Reginald Thomas, honorary assistant for many years, began his sermon by wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, because he knew he would not see many of them until the next Palm Sunday.

17] [[Return] On the other hand, Brain became a convinced Cold Warrior, and he once preached a series of sermons to alert people to the Soviet menace. The last sermon in the series began with the question, "How stupid can some people be about Russian communism?" When it was over, a parishioner who did not at all agree with his views said, "Well, Father, you certainly answered your own question!"

18] [[Return] Despite these efforts the basement remained small and depressing. In 1960 the National Film Board released Man of Music, a documentary on Healey Willan. They wished to include footage of the choir practicing in the basement, where they still practice to this day. The prospectus on the footage to be shot advised the camera crew diplomatically not to show too much of the basement "as pictorially it is not too interesting a place". In the event, the choir was filmed in the more photogenic surroundings of Cody Hall at St. Paul's, Bloor Street.

19] [[Return] Some of this drop can be attributed to the introduction of general communion at high mass. This put an end to the practice of people making their communion at the 9:30 service then staying for the 11:00, which resulted in their being counted twice.

20] [[Return] In 1962, the diocese took pictures of all its clergy and had them complete an "information sheet". Under "Special Interests" Crummer wrote, "I have no other interest besides trying to learn to be a good parish priest. I don't know whether this is 'special' or not."

21] [[Return] The Corpus Christi procession aroused a fair degree of interest among the local Roman Catholics, who knew what it was about. Some would pull flowers from their garden to strew in the path. The number of Italian and Portuguese households along the route has declined recently, so such acts of devotion have become rarer. There are however a number of Italian and Portuguese people who attend weekday and Sunday mass at SMM. Though not Anglican they consider SMM their parish church, and since 1984 SMM has acknowledged them by celebrating mass in Italian on Thursday mornings.

22] [[Return] Father Harold was renowned for his persistence and tenacity. Archbishop Garnsworthy was, as he tells it, wondering what to do about SMM when one day Father Harold walked past him at diocesan headquarters. "He's like a dog with a bone", remarked a bystander on seeing Father Harold. "Ah", the archbishop thought, "I have just the bone for him!

Publication Committee for St Mary Magdalene's

William Blissett

David Greig

Rev. Harold J. Nahabedian

Prudence Tracy

The research, writing and publication of a book such as this one ultimately involves the help and support of an enormous number of people. In addition to those acknowledged elsewhere, and with no intention of omitting someone undeservedly, the author and publisher wish to express their special appreciation to the following:

Norah Bolton

Helen Bradfield

James Burbidge

Douglas Cowling

Mary Finlay

Rev. June Greig

William Greig

Sandra Guillaume

William Kilbourn

Laurie Lewis

Rev. Michael Lloyd

Mark Lowrey

Honourable David MacDonald MP,PC

Heather McGregor

Joseph Minialoff

Sylvia Minialoff

Mary Ann Nichols

Ontario Choral Federation

Elizabeth Orsten

Ronald Payne

Elizabeth Price

Mary Reynolds

William Riddell

Lillian Scott

Loma Scott

Barbara Stewart

All the people of SMM past and present who have made it such a lively Christian community and continue to do so.

