Onto the Queensway

Not too long ago, I posted of some of my boyhood memories form Montreal, and they became mostly about church. Afterward, I  thought that perhaps I should post about my very first church in Toronto after we moved there. I then left it in the queue for a while because I had more current things to bother you with, but here it is after some hesitation.

Carrying on with my memories, mainly about my early church history, we moved from Montreal to Toronto in 1962, just a day or three before my 15th birthday. This city boy found himself living in a little cottage on a rural nursery where his father worked the greenhouses. Said boy — said introverted boy — found himself friendless in an almost foreign land, as it were. He even had to board a school bus to get to his new high school. He had scarcely seen a school bus in Montreal and, suddenly, after just one weekend, he was riding in one. And the school . . .  ah never mind . . .  let's get back to the church.

Somehow or other, we found someone to drive us to Queensway Cathedral, a pretty highfalutin name for a Pentecostal church. Hitching a ride was the only way to get there because this wasn't a place with good public transportation, and we didn't yet have a car. The church was really Lakeshore Gospel Temple for the first visits before the new building, Queensway Cathedral, was dedicated.

If I have the time frame correct, this was full 10 years after the inauguration of Evangel Temple. Like Evangel, the opening service with dignitaries and such occurred on a Sunday afternoon. Of course I remember more from being 15 years old in Toronto than I do from having been 5 years old in Montreal, 

Queensway Cathedral was founded as the Lakeshore Gospel Temple on High Street in 1955. In 1962, they moved into a new, larger church shaped like a geodesic dome at 1536 The Queensway.  https://www.etobicokehistorical.com/the-queensway.html

Let me tell you that t was a pretty impressive edifice, but I can't prove it from photos although I will show you a picture from our wedding in a bit. 

While specific photos of Queensway Cathedral in Toronto from the 1960s aren't readily available online, the church, now known as Church on The Queensway, is a prominent landmark on The Queensway in Etobicoke, a former municipality that was amalgamated into Toronto. (Google AI, emphasis mine)

Queensway Cathedral was where Sue and I got married in 1969. After the vows, we left Toronto and this particular church. Our wedding photo may give the reader some idea of the main sanctuary. Beyond the platform, there was a large back section containing a chapel and other good-size room for Sunday School and other events. It was a rather grand church in the 60s.

I sang in that choir loft a few times on Sunday Evenings, trying to sing the bass part in the back row.

Sue and I did get back to the QC every now and then a few times afterward when we visited our folks in Toronto, but my mother soon moved on to another, closer-to-her Church, so we haven't been there for a very long time — more than 50 years, I guess.

After we left Toronto, Queensway Cathedral grew yet again, so a grander, or at least a bigger church, was built on the same property. I have never been to the new building.

By 1984 they had outgrown this church and demolished it to make way for their current building on the same site. When this new church opened in 1985, it was the largest church auditorium in Canada, with seating for 4,000, two acres of carpeting covering the floors, one mile of pews, and television production capability. In 2013, the church was renamed “Church on the Queensway.”  https://www.etobicokehistorical.com/the-queensway.html

It has taken me four posts to get from passing Ruby Foo's in a bus in the 50s to getting married in 1969. While that should be more than enough of my ancient memories, readers have asked some questions about my faith or lack thereof. Perhaps, I will write one more post in answer.