FACES OF FAITH
Community Profiles at St. Andrew's
Darlene Treen
1) What is your favourite hymn?
While there are many hymns I love, when asked to pick a favourite my answer is LORD OF ALL POWER sung to the traditional Irish tune SLANE (also used for BE THOU MY VISION).
The tune has always moved me, perhaps speaking to my Irish heritage.
Also the words,
I praise and adore you for all you impart
Your love to inspire me, your counsel to guide
Your presence to cheer me, whatever betide.
speak to how I think of God, and it gives me an opportunity to utter a delightful word like "betide".
2) Do you have a favourite passage from the Bible?
1Corinthians13 - It was used in our wedding ceremony and speaks about the nature of love. Every year on our anniversary, I sit with my husband, Peter, and we listen to an audio recording of our wedding. Hearing the promises we made and the Bible's description of love reminds us of how fortunate we are to have love in our lives.
3) What is the best book (biblical or non-biblical) that you have read in the last six months?
I wish I had more time to to read,and I admit to being a voracious consumer of many magazines (fashion, health, design) but I did make a point of reading Consolation, by Michael Redhill. It was chosen as the inaugural ONE BOOK by the Toronto Public Library, as the book that everyone in Toronto should read. It switches back and forth between present day Toronto and the city in the 1850s.
I was most intrigued by the chapters which dealt with Toronto's early days .Being a third generation Torontonian, I was fascinated by the portrait of my city's infancy. There is even a mention of St. Andrew's Church, although it is the earlier location east of where we are now. I have also just begun reading The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of John A. MacDonald by Richard Gwyn (winner of the 2008 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction). Did you know that MacDonald's mother was 34 years old when she married his father who was 28 at the time?
4) What is your favourite style of music, and what is likely on your stereo / ipod / car radio right now?
Like many people, my tastes in music are varied. Being the wife of an organist (he plays at a church in the west end and that is why he is never with me on a Sunday morning), I listen to a great deal of classical music, but there is just as likely to be Tuvan throat singing or banjo music playing. Add to that, the pop music sensibility of three teenagers and you can appreciate why when I turn the radio on, it is set to CBC radio-one...talk-radio! I like to stay informed and hear the opinions of others, but if I were to pick my own favourite style of music (which after all was the other part of the question) it would be dance music, either disco (in high school I went dancing almost every weekend with my friends), swing, Talking Heads and Patti Smith. I am also fond of songs I can sing, WW1 and WW2 songs along with older popular songs and show tunes.
5) What is your earliest memory of church?
Trying to stay inside the lines while colouring a picture of Jesus with a lamb.
6) What attracted you to become a part of the St. Andrew's community, and what keeps you here?
During my university days, I began looking for a church of my own and I visited many. What drew me to St. Andrew's was its history. In part, I hoped that a congregation that had such a long and proud record in a beautiful and historic building would remain standing for me, my children and my great grandchildren.
I was also impressed with the ministers, Douglas Stewart and Jim Evans. Their sermons made me listen and think. The formality of the service along with the beautiful organ music and choir only intensified my love of St. Andrew's. When it was discovered that I was working for a children's theatre company, I was quickly co-opted into the Sunday School programme. Now I count many St. Andrew's members among my friends. St. Andrew's is where I was married, where my children were baptized and while I have had associations with other churches where my husband has worked, St. Andrew's is our church and where we always return.
7) What is your greatest hope for St. Andrew's?
My greatest hope is that St. Andrew's never becomes a condominium, a theatre or a Starbucks, that it stays true to its history and tradition and remains a shining presence in the downtown core. I hope that it continues to be invigorated and loved by newcomers and old St. Andrew's folk alike, by those who visit and those who return again and again. I also hope that we can become a closer congregation, know each others names, look out for the children and the elderly, notice when someone has been away for a week or two and call them to say they have been missed. When I first came to St. Andrew's, it took years before people stopped asking if I was a visitor. This Faces of Faith space helps us to get to know each other better and maybe a new photo directory could be set up (the last one was printed in 1988.) We are so blessed at St. Andrew’s, my greatest hope is that we strengthen our future without forgetting or neglecting our past. Oh, and one more hope, that Will Ingram and his family are happy here with us, so happy that they simply decide to stay.