Re Back Cover, March
On behalf of the people of St. Andrew’s King Street, Toronto, we would like to express our disappointment with the back cover of the March edition of the Record. The photo of St. Andrew’s, placed above a quotation describing a congregation which is disconnected, unengaged, irrelevant and hostile to the people in its wider community was quite offensive.
The congregation’s mission statement is that “the people of St. Andrew’s are called by God to serve in faith, hope and love in the heart of Toronto” and—for 183 years—the congregation has responded to the needs of its community, including the recent development of an ambitious plan to expand our ministries with the residential and business communities in our neighbourhood.
Presently, hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of people come to St. Andrew’s on a weekly basis for worship services, educational seminars, Out of the Cold meals, midweek services, Bible study groups, musical events, large Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, to name only a few of our regular activities. The church sanctuary is open as a place of prayer during the day and we offer support and office space to the Boarding Homes Ministries, the 48th Highlanders Museum and weekly prayer groups made up of people who are not even part of our membership.
We commend the Record for exploring the challenges of ministry in modern Canadian cities, but were dismayed that the back cover conveys such a profoundly misleading impression about the life of St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto.
The editor replies:
We apologize to the congregation of St. Andrew’s for this embarrassing error. It was not our intention to pair the provocative quotation intended to nudge conversation with a photograph of St. Andrew’s. But we managed it regardless. Please see Pop Christianity for a reflection on how this error occurred.
