Jesus on our Team

Okay, full disclosure here. There are many blog entries which don't get past the "twinkle in my eye" stage because I can't find the corroborating news nugget. I just don't want to offer up phantom stories which my just be figments of my imagination. In other words, I have no political aspirations.

I am almost certain, though, that I saw a review of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new book on hockey which refers to the Mutual St. Arena in Toronto as the birthplace of the National Hockey League. The book is supposed to be well written and informative, by the way.

The record does show that the Mutual St. Arena was home to the professional hockey team in Toronto which eventually became the Maple Leafs for roughly twenty years before Maple Leaf Gardens was opened. In 1914 the Toronto Blue Shirts played the Victoria Aristocrats for the Stanley Cup there. The first live radio broadcast from this arena with Foster Hewitt doing the honours.

The reason the name of the venue caught my eye is that is was definitely the place where the United Church of Canada was born in 1925. The United Church of Canada was inaugurated at a large worship service at Mutual Street Arena on June 10, 1925.

The thousands who attended were handed 38-page order of service containing the full text of the liturgy, prayers, hymns, and music. Hymns from all three churches were sung: All people that on earth do dwell from the Scottish Presbyterian psalm tradition; the Methodist favourite O for a thousand tongues to sing; the Congregationalist O God of Bethel; and When I survey the wondrous cross.  The denomination is "United" because the Methodists, Congregationalists, and two thirds of the Presbyterians in Canada came into the union.



We are looking a little creaky as a denomination, although that tends to happen to octogenarians. We haven't done all that well at re-inventing ourselves for the 21st century, so the 600,000 members at union, which grew to 1.1 million in the early sixties, has faded to about half a million. Yes there are about 2.8 million adherents, but it seems that too many of them are interested in "hatch, match, and dispatch, along with warm fuzzies at Christmas and Easter. During those 83 years Canada's population has grown from 10 million to 35 million.

We may not play in the big leagues anymore, but maybe the game hasn't passed us by altogether. Let's hope that we can find our way into some creative pick-up pond shinny. I am choosing Jesus for my team, because I don't think we have a prayer without him.

Comments?