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Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto)
Encyclopedia
The Church of St. Mary Magdalene is an Anglo-Catholic parish of the Anglican Church of Canada
located in Toronto
. It is famous for its association with composer Healey Willan
and was part of the composite Robertson Davies
used to form "St. Aidan's" in his novel The Cunning Man
. Robertson Davies
attended Mass there while still a Presbyterian and a student at Upper Canada College
.
The church is also mentioned in Marian Engel
's "The Glassy Sea".
The church, nicknamed "SMM" or "St. Mary Mag", was founded in 1888 by a group from the nearby Church of St. Matthias
led by the Rev'd Charles Darling. The Church's somewhat unusual choice for a patron was probably an homage to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, England, where Charles Darling had served as Assistant. The church building was originally designed by the Rector's brother—noted Toronto architect Frank Darling
. However, his ambitious plans were tempered by the always modest financial resources of the parish. The exterior of the church building was begun in 1888, added to in 1896 and completed in 1908. The Choir loft was added in the 1920s. The sanctuary was extensively remodeled in 1963 by Rambush & Company, NY. In 1993 a substantial addition to the building added additional spaces for instruction, meeting, and church administration. In 2008, another removation to the liturgical space opened up windows that had been closed up in the 1920s.
As an Anglo-Catholic Parish, SMM has always celebrated the Eucharist as the central act of worship. This has historically been done at SMM in a liturgical style reflecting the convergence of Roman Catholic and Anglican influences. In 1919, the Church shifted more towards Roman-style parish life: the Rev'd H. Griffin Hiscocks began hearing private confession
. This period also ushered in the use of incense
and the installation of a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (now in the south aisle of the church). Newspaper accounts of the time reveal how controversial the installation was. A chip in the statue's toe shows evidence of a hammer attack made by those hostile to SMM's Catholic-leaning spirituality.
The rector is the Reverend David Harrison, who became rector on June 1, 2010 after a nine-year incumbency at the parish of St. Thomas', Brooklin.
. It was designed by William Rae, modelled by Frances Loring and originally painted by Frank Johnston
(one of
the Group of Seven
). Sylvia Hahn painted a pastoral scene of a young Jesus in the north aisle. Sylvia Hahn also painted the triptych behind the Lady Altar in the south aisle. Devotional stations with statues of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, St. Mary Magdalene and others are spread throughout the church. A modern painting by Lynn Donoghue hanging near the baptismal font explores the challenges of faith in the modern age.
reported that there were only two things worth doing in Toronto
: seeing the Chinese Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum
and listening to the SMM choirs. This owes much to the legacy of Healey Willan
, who came to the parish in 1921 and remained as the organist and choirmaster until his death in 1968. Willan composed music for SMM liturgies that have lasting influence and usage. He was also an accomplished organist famous for his improvisational skill. He once remarked, "You have a sense of home, absolute completion... doing the work you want to do and the work you feel you can do."
This legacy of excellence in sacred music is demonstrated by the fact that the musical services of Tenebrae
celebrated in Holy Week
are the best attended services of the year. One distinctive characteristic of the music tradition at SMM is the division of the choir into a "Gallery Choir" which sings polyphonic music from a balcony in the west end of the church and a "Ritual Choir" that specializes in performing Gregorian Chant
from choir stalls in the chancel
.
, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer
, as well as Solemn Mass
es on Sundays and important feasts of the Christian calendar
. Far from being limited to traditional language liturgies, however, the parish also celebrates contemporary language liturgies based on the Canadian Book of Alternative Services
. SMM's role in the development of liturgy in the Anglican Church of Canada can also be seen in claim that the "reordered" 1962 Eucharistic Rite contained in the BAS was partially inspired by developments at SMM. For some time the parish had experimented by literally cutting and pasting pages of the Canadian Book of Common Prayer into the Anglican Missal
. The resulting "reordered Rite" combined the sequence of Roman usage, Canadian BCP prayers, and supplemental liturgical material (e.g. minor propers) from more ancient sources.
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...
located in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. It is famous for its association with composer Healey Willan
Healey Willan
Healey Willan, was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano...
and was part of the composite Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...
used to form "St. Aidan's" in his novel The Cunning Man
The Cunning Man
The Cunning Man, published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994, is the last novel written by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies.The Cunning Man is the memoir of the life of a doctor, Dr. Jonathan Hullah, living in Toronto. Hullah is a holistic physician — a cunning diagnostician who can often...
. Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...
attended Mass there while still a Presbyterian and a student at Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...
.
The church is also mentioned in Marian Engel
Marian Engel
Marian Engel, OC, née Marian Ruth Passmore was an award-winning Canadian novelist.-Summary:Born May 24, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario, to teacher parents Frederick Searle and Mary Elizabeth Passmore...
's "The Glassy Sea".
The church, nicknamed "SMM" or "St. Mary Mag", was founded in 1888 by a group from the nearby Church of St. Matthias
St. Matthias Bellwoods
St. Matthias, Bellwoods, is a small inclusive Anglo-Catholic parish of the Anglican Church of Canada located in Toronto, Ontario. The cornerstone was laid in 1873 and the building consecrated in 1874...
led by the Rev'd Charles Darling. The Church's somewhat unusual choice for a patron was probably an homage to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, England, where Charles Darling had served as Assistant. The church building was originally designed by the Rector's brother—noted Toronto architect Frank Darling
Frank Darling (architect)
Frank Darling was a Canadian architect and key player in buildings built in Toronto during the early 20th century and promoter of the Beaux-Arts style.-Life and career:...
. However, his ambitious plans were tempered by the always modest financial resources of the parish. The exterior of the church building was begun in 1888, added to in 1896 and completed in 1908. The Choir loft was added in the 1920s. The sanctuary was extensively remodeled in 1963 by Rambush & Company, NY. In 1993 a substantial addition to the building added additional spaces for instruction, meeting, and church administration. In 2008, another removation to the liturgical space opened up windows that had been closed up in the 1920s.
As an Anglo-Catholic Parish, SMM has always celebrated the Eucharist as the central act of worship. This has historically been done at SMM in a liturgical style reflecting the convergence of Roman Catholic and Anglican influences. In 1919, the Church shifted more towards Roman-style parish life: the Rev'd H. Griffin Hiscocks began hearing private confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
. This period also ushered in the use of incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
and the installation of a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (now in the south aisle of the church). Newspaper accounts of the time reveal how controversial the installation was. A chip in the statue's toe shows evidence of a hammer attack made by those hostile to SMM's Catholic-leaning spirituality.
The rector is the Reverend David Harrison, who became rector on June 1, 2010 after a nine-year incumbency at the parish of St. Thomas', Brooklin.
Founding and development
Over the years SMM has accumulated other pieces of sacred art. A magnificent Rood Cross hangs from the chancel arch to commemorate the parish war dead of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It was designed by William Rae, modelled by Frances Loring and originally painted by Frank Johnston
Frank Johnston
Frank Johnston may refer to:*Frank Johnston , visual artist and member of the Group of Seven*Frank Johnston , politician in Manitoba, Canada-See also:*Francis Johnston *Frank Johnson...
(one of
the Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
). Sylvia Hahn painted a pastoral scene of a young Jesus in the north aisle. Sylvia Hahn also painted the triptych behind the Lady Altar in the south aisle. Devotional stations with statues of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, St. Mary Magdalene and others are spread throughout the church. A modern painting by Lynn Donoghue hanging near the baptismal font explores the challenges of faith in the modern age.
Music
St. Mary Magdalene's is particularly well known for excellence in sacred music. In 1940 the magazine Saturday NightSaturday Night (magazine)
Saturday Night was a Canadian general interest magazine. It was founded in Toronto, Ontario in 1887.The publication was first established as a weekly broadsheet newspaper about public affairs and the arts, which was later expanded into a general interest magazine. The editor, Edmund E. Sheppard,...
reported that there were only two things worth doing in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
: seeing the Chinese Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum
Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
and listening to the SMM choirs. This owes much to the legacy of Healey Willan
Healey Willan
Healey Willan, was an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer. He composed more than 800 works including operas, symphonies, chamber music, a concerto, and pieces for band, orchestra, organ, and piano...
, who came to the parish in 1921 and remained as the organist and choirmaster until his death in 1968. Willan composed music for SMM liturgies that have lasting influence and usage. He was also an accomplished organist famous for his improvisational skill. He once remarked, "You have a sense of home, absolute completion... doing the work you want to do and the work you feel you can do."
This legacy of excellence in sacred music is demonstrated by the fact that the musical services of Tenebrae
Tenebrae (service)
Tenebrae is a Christian religious service celebrated by the Western Church on the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which are the last three days of Holy Week. The distinctive ceremony of Tenebrae is the gradual extinguishing of candles while a...
celebrated in Holy Week
Holy Week
Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter...
are the best attended services of the year. One distinctive characteristic of the music tradition at SMM is the division of the choir into a "Gallery Choir" which sings polyphonic music from a balcony in the west end of the church and a "Ritual Choir" that specializes in performing Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
from choir stalls in the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
.
Variety of worship
A variety of worship takes place at SMM: daily MassesEucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer
Evening Prayer (Anglican)
Evening Prayer is a liturgy in use in the Anglican Communion and celebrated in the late afternoon or evening...
, as well as Solemn Mass
Solemn Mass
Solemn Mass , sometimes also referred to as Solemn High Mass or simply High Mass, is, when used not merely as a description, the full ceremonial form of the Tridentine Mass, celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of...
es on Sundays and important feasts of the Christian calendar
Liturgical year
The liturgical year, also known as the church year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may appear in...
. Far from being limited to traditional language liturgies, however, the parish also celebrates contemporary language liturgies based on the Canadian Book of Alternative Services
Book of Alternative Services
The Book of Alternative Services is the contemporary, inclusive-language liturgical book used alongside the Book of Common Prayer in most parishes of the Anglican Church of Canada...
. SMM's role in the development of liturgy in the Anglican Church of Canada can also be seen in claim that the "reordered" 1962 Eucharistic Rite contained in the BAS was partially inspired by developments at SMM. For some time the parish had experimented by literally cutting and pasting pages of the Canadian Book of Common Prayer into the Anglican Missal
Anglican Missal
The Anglican Missal is a liturgical book often used at Mass by Anglo-Catholics and other High Church Anglicans instead of the Book of Common Prayer.-History:...
. The resulting "reordered Rite" combined the sequence of Roman usage, Canadian BCP prayers, and supplemental liturgical material (e.g. minor propers) from more ancient sources.