January 29th, 2023: Christian Unity

St. Matthias’ was officially founded as a mission of St. George’s, Place du Canada, in 1873, which means our community is 150 this year! For the next 12 months, we’ll be diving into the archives to shine the spotlight on particularly interesting parts of our history.

By 1967, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated between the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter (January 18th) and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25th), had been in the Anglican mind for 100 years; the 1867 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops had been the first denominational body to formally discuss such a practice. Although there would not be formal worship resources until 1968, in 1967 the churches of Westmount got together on the Sunday of the Week of Prayer for an evening of ecumenical prayer that they designed themselves. The service, hosted at Dominion-Douglas United Church (later renamed Mountainside United), featured contributions from three Catholic (including the then-Bishop of Montreal, Léo Blais), a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, and an Anglican priest. Bilingual hymns were sung, led by the choirs of Melville and Stanley Schultz Presbyterian Churches, two sermons were preached, and those assembled prayed both in one voice and responsively.

The St. Matthias’ parish records don’t tell us how many attended, since we weren’t the hosts, but then-rector Rev. Jack Doidge preached the English sermon, so we can assume at least some Matthians joined the service and its reception. Christian unity would have been at the forefront of their minds in 1967: the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church were in serious talks about uniting as a single denomination, and had jointly published, in 1965, a document called “Principles of Union” outlining an argument in favour. By the spring of 1969, St. Matthias’ was having serious conversations about the implications of union for the community. The parish study group was working systematically through all the elements of religious and social life that might be affected, and the church promoted at least one guest speaker to talk about the content of the proposals. Although the talks would break down in 1975 when the Anglican House of Bishops declared the union proposal “unacceptable,” and indeed tensions had been raised in 1965 with some contentions back-and-forth publications, on January 22nd, 1967, it still looked very much like union was on the table.

What advice might these Matthians of old have for us, as we continue conversations about a somewhat different kind of union with Selwyn House?