When Jane Tilley joined First Presbyterian Church, in Collingwood, she knew she had come full circle in her religious journey. From birth Jane attended Queen St. East Presbyterian Church, in Toronto, where her parents, Edna McIlveen and Bill Melvin, had met at Young People’s. (For the record, this church was founded , in 1877, as Leslieville Presbyterian.) Jane still cherishes a Sunday school photo taken, at Queen St., when she was five. In the 1950s, a photograph was still a “big deal,” according to Jane.
“I wore a white blouse, a red hand-knit sweater and itchy wool jodhpurs that were part of my snow suit,” she recalls.
Soon after, the Melvins moved to a brick bungalow, in a brand new subdivision, in Scarborough – then a sea of muddy fields, devoid of trees. There the Melvins along with young parents, like themselves, raised money to start a new church. Wilmar Heights United Church was officially sanctioned in 1957. (It is now a community centre, surrounded by non-profit housing.) Jane remembers the ground-breaking ceremony presided over by Rev. Kersey – who would, one day, marry Jane and Frank Tilley in Knox College chapel. But before that momentous event, at the Wilmar church, Jane always sat in the third row, where she could see her mother singing in the choir. “I was so proud of her,” Jane says. “The choir walked in singing Holy, Holy, Holy. And I particularly liked the anthem Were You There When They Crucified my Lord and my favourite hymn was Will Your Anchor Hold in the Storms of Life.”
Jane taught Sunday school, in her early teens, and remembers egg salad sandwiches, pink Freshie and her mother’s butter tarts as staples at Sunday school picnics.
After graduating from Victoria College (U of Toronto), Jane became a high school teacher. Once married, Jane and her new husband moved to Mississauga where they joined Christ Church United Church. In 1984, Professor Ted Lutz, a member and teacher of Near Eastern Studies, at the University of Toronto, was organizing a trip to the Holy Land. The condition, for those who wished to join him, was attendance, for six months, at a Biblical course he was giving at Christ Church. “Studying was mandatory. That trip to Israel was heavy duty and deeply Biblical,” Jane says.
Meanwhile the Tilley’s neighbours invited them to hear a guest speaker at the Erindale Bible Chapel. Jane and Frank found this church so active and sociable the family, now four, ended up changing allegiance. A highlight was sending their children to the Christian camp associated with the chapel. Jane, pregnant with her third child, went to camp the first year and worked as a cook. One of her jobs was to make Jell-O, in big industrial pans, for about 400 campers. Something went wrong and the jelly did not gel and hundreds of children did without dessert. “Any idiot can make Jell-O, but not me,” laughs Jane.
This tale reminds Jane that she was sent to the United Church camp at Sparrow Lake. There, at age 12, she learned how to canoe, but her most vivid memories are of squatting around the camp fire, toasting marshmallows and singing old favourites such as Fire’s Burning and Land of the Silver Birch.
Ten years ago the Tilleys moved to Collingwood and went church shopping. “The Sunday we walked into First Presbyterian the enthusiasm and warmth enveloped us. We knew that was the church for us.”
Jane also felt right at home, as she was back to her Scottish and Irish Presbyterian roots.
Jane also describes this congregation as musically gifted thanks to the minister Rev. Tim Raeburn-Gibson, who plays guitar and sings, and his wife, Kimberley, the Director of Music Ministries.
The Tilleys find Rev. Raeburn-Gibson’s preaching “strong.” “The teachings are in-depth and rooted in scripture,” Jane says. “There’s a sense of the Holy Spirit at First Pres.”
When it comes to church socials, Jane admits her husband is better known for his culinary accomplishments than she is. “For example, Frank is famous at the men’s breakfasts for his creative additions to the menu. If he’s to bring a fruit plate, he’ll do something like make a fruit basket out of a water melon and decorate it.”
That said, Jane sticks to the butter tarts her grandmother, Ellen McIlveen, and her mother, Edna (Melvin) MacKenzie, always made.
THREE-GENERATION BUTTER TARTS
Prepare your favourite pie pastry recipe. Line a tart (muffin) pan with pastry. (Or buy frozen tart shells.) Recipe makes 18 tarts.
Filling
½ cup raisins
¼ cup soft butter. ¼ cup brown sugar (packed). Pinch of salt. ½ cup corn syrup.
1 lightly beaten egg. ½ tsp vanilla
Method
Soak raisins in hot water for 30 minutes.
Mix together butter, sugar, salt, corn syrup. Stir until creamed. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
Drain raisins well. Divide them equally into the pastry shells. Add butter/sugar/egg mixture equally to all shells.
Bake at 400F for 15 minutes for runny tarts. 20 minutes for firm tarts. Let stand for 20 minutes before removing tarts from the pan.
