How Toronto Found Itself with Two Holy Trinity Anglican Churches

Sunday, 23 September 1894 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Today I visited Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Toronto...both of them. Both built for the same reason only years apart. Perhaps I should start from the beginning.

Toronto, then called York, had a Anglican Church called St. James. Anglican is basically the Church of England outside of Great Britain. The church was rebuilt several times to accommodate the growing number of English settlers.

Even before the Irish Famine that started in 1845 with the potato blight, Irish immigrants were pouring into Toronto just to escape the horrid poverty. By 1851, at the peak of the Famine, the Irish made up the largest ethnic group in Toronto. Most settled in a neighborhood called Corktown. It was in this neighborhood that the first Catholic church in Toronto, St. Paul’s, was built in 1841.

However the majority of Irish in Toronto weren’t Catholic, but Protestants--Orange Men with the Church of England. They had St. James--or did they? At the time St. James rented their pews. It was a common practice of the time to collect money to run the church. What it meant was the rich sat up front, the middle class sat behind them and the poor--well, they either sat in the very back or stood. The Irish Protestants were the poorest of the congregation.

Original Holy Trinity in Corktown

The Irish had enough. They decided to build their own Anglican Church in Corktown. Providing much of the labor themselves and using the bricks they made in the brickyards, they built Holy Trinity Church in 1844. The pews were open to all--free and unreserved. Tithing would have to be by contributions from the struggling working class congregation.

Meanwhile a certain Mary Lambert Swale of Settle, England must have heard of the plight of Toronto’s working class. Knowing she was dieing , she made a will, leaving 5,000 pounds sterling to the Toronto Diocese to build a church. The stipulations were that it had to be Gothic design, the pews were to always be free, that the pulpit not be placed as to obstruct the view of patrons, and that the church be named Holy Trinity.

Mary Lambert Swale's Holy Trinity Church

Although Miss Swale gave the donation anonymously, her named leaked out. She was only twenty-five when she died. Her church was opened in 1847. The original Holy Trinity Church changed it’s name Trinity East, although even now it is better known as Little Trinity Church, no doubt touched by Miss Swale’s dieing wish.

Little Trinity’s congregation has grown and the church was expanded in 1889 to add 600 more seats! They has been sending missionaries around the world.

Holy Trinity in the future

As for the other Holy Trinity Church, eventually in the next century it will find itself in the middle of the urban core, the residential neighborhoods replace by skyscrapers. Rather than closing down, Holy Trinity will turn it’s attention to the urban homeless, helping where it can. Indeed a plaque by the door will list the names of the ignored homeless who died on the streets. It will champion the cause of social outcasts whether homosexual or the latest wave of immigrants, like the Hispanic. It will be in the spirit of the church’s founder, Mary Lambert Swale, who wanted an church that catered to the forgotten and powerless.

Why Politicians Should Never Run a Church

Sunday, 17 July 1881 - Birmingham, UK

Today I attended the service at Holy Trinity Church in the Bordesley area of Birmingham. Built in 1823 it is the second Gothic Revival style church in the area. As lovely as the church is, I was really asked here by the University of Birmingham to record a martyr.

Holy Trinity Church

Fortunately this is the Victorian Age and the British no longer burn heretics at the stake. Now they can toss them into jail, and then only if they are priests in the Church of England. That is what happened to Rev. Richard William Enraght. Last November on the 27th he was arrested and tossed into prison for 49 days.

Rev. Richard William Enraght horrible crimes were:
1. adoration of the Blessed Sacrament,
2. the use of eucharistic candles,
3. wearing the chasuble and alb,
4. using wafers in Holy Communion,
5. ceremonial mixing of water and communion wine,
6. making the sign of the Cross towards the congregation,
7. bowing his head at the Gloria,
8. allowing the Agnus Dei to be sung.

Rev. Richard William Enraght

In doing this he broke the law and was prosecuted under the Public Worship Regulation Act passed in 1874. How did Parliament get involved with what should have been a church matter? It all started with Henry VIII.

At first King Henry was appalled by Martin Luther’s ideas of a Protestant Reformation. He was a good Catholic boy, even writing a book entitled The Defence of the Seven Sacraments, for which he was awarded the title "Defender of the Faith" by Pope Leo X. Then the Pope refused to give him a divorce, so Henry proclaimed himself now the head of the Church in England and the Pope could shove off. Henry refused the rule of Rome but he did keep that smashing title “Defender of the Faith”.

Problem was that outside of making himself answerable to no one, Henry really hadn’t thought out what this new church should be. Were they Catholic or Protestant? It took his daughter Queen Elizabeth II to come up with a definition she thought would make everyone happy. The Church of England was Catholic AND Protestant.

Turns out a lot of people were not happy. Dissenters appeared almost immediately. Some were crackpots, like the Adamites who believed the only way to recover the lost innocence of Adam and Eve before the fall was to run around naked. (I believe they all froze to death.) There were also the Seekers who felt the True Church was the one Christ would bring to them on His return. So they would meet every Sunday to sit in silence, waiting in vain for Jesus to walk in. Neither sect lasted long.

Saner sects broke off either quietly like the Methodists or violently like the Puritans who took over the country with Oliver Cromwell. The one thing all the dissenters agreed on was they opposed state interference in religious matters. Parliament slowly agreed with that except when it came to Church of England matters.

In the meantime Catholicism had been outlawed. Killing Catholics proved not only messy, but created martyrs. So Parliament came up with a sneakier plan. Catholics were stripped of the right to vote, hold property, travel, worship openly, etc. Martyrdom might be romantic, but repression was just depressing. Still some stubbornly held onto their Catholic faith.

Then at the beginning of the 19th century two things happened that made Parliament rethink their oppression of Catholics.. Refugees were pouring into Britain from France trying to escape the French Revolution. Not only were the Revolutionists beheading nobility, they were going after Catholics as well. The French wanted to wipe the slate completely clean to start a new society--unfortunately in their zeal they rubbed a hole in said slate.

The second event happened in 1800 when the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. Suddenly the country had a whole Emerald Isle full of Catholics. Parliament was forced to slowly start abolishing those repressive laws until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1832 erased all of them. Now Catholics were full citizens allowed to practice their religion openly. What happened next, no one saw coming.

Curious Anglicans began showing up to watch these mysterious Catholic services. In the last 300 years, the Church of England had been stripping away the old traditions. Most visitors walked away thinking, “Well, that was boring. Glad we modernized.” However some thought, “How beautiful! Why don’t we have all those lovely rituals anymore?”

A group, calling themselves the Oxford Movement worked to make the Church of England more Catholic. They were deemed dangerous radicals. Making the Church more Catholic might lead to it becoming too Catholic and winding up back under the rule of the Church of Rome. Good or bad, it was England’s Church, and neither the Crown or Parliament wanted to lose it to some Pope. So they stepped in with the Public Worship Regulation Act to give the Archbishop of Canterbury all the help he wanted.

A cartoon from Punch, 18 December 1869
Archbishop Tait uses the crook "Public Worship Regulation Bill"
trying to control the  black sheep of  "Ritualism" before they
jump the fence of the "Established Church" and run off "To Rome" 

Not everyone in Parliament wanted the Act. This was a Church matter, not a State matter. Let the Archbishop Tait handle it, they said. If a clergyman disobeyed, the head of the church (Her Majesty) could just send off a nasty notice telling him he was sacked. But arresting and imprisoning? That was a bit too much.

They weren’t the only ones thinking so. When Enraght was arrested the public outcry was deafening. Newspapers here and abroad condemned the arrest. A huge rally that filled the Birmingham Town Hall protested the imprisonment. Enraght was released from prison early, much to the relief of the Warden who felt rather distressed at having to lock up a religious martyr.

I noticed today Enraght did a full Catholic communion. He learned nothing from his incarceration--and neither did Parliament. In a couple of years they will threaten him with imprisonment again. This time Bishop Philpott will just evict him from Holy Trinity to avoid the embarrassment.

Eventually many chaps in the Oxford Movement will decide to just turn their backs on the Church of England and “return” to the Catholic Church. I think part of the appeal of the Catholic Church to intellectuals is the fact that this is the religion of the Medieval Period which the Victorians long for. The world is changing far too fast for many of them and they long for the past. Never mind that it is a past grounded in fantasy rather than reality. Middle Ages was a dreadful period and none of them would really have liked living there.

Still one has to admire Rev. Richard William Enraght for sticking up for his convictions. Most men would have knuckled under. Four other clergymen will also suffer his martyrdom. Persecutions will end in 1906, although the Act itself won’t be repealed until 1965. Everyone felt good riddance to the silly law. Never mix politics and religion.

A List of clergymen imprisoned under
the Public Worship Regulation Act:
- T. Pelham Dale, Rector of St Vedast Foster Lane, London, 1880
- Richard William Enraght, Rector of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, 1880
- Sidney Faithorn Green, Rector of St John's, Manchester, 1881–82
- Arthur Tooth, Vicar of St James's, Hatcham, 1877
- James Bell Cox, Vicar of St Margaret's, Liverpool 1887

The Vicar Who Took On the Luftwaffe--And Won

Sunday, 5 June 1881 - Coventry, Warwickshire, UK

I believe I mentioned “the Three Spires” of Coventry in my last blog? The towers all survived the Blitz of 1940-41, but the churches attached to them did not fair so well. Only one survived--Holy Trinity. That’s where I was today.

Built in the 12th century, and restored several times, Holy Trinity retains most of its medieval flavor. 194 feet long, it would be an impressive church if it wasn’t nearly kiddy-corner to the much larger and grander St. Michael’s Church, which will become a cathedral in 1918. How did Holy Trinity survive the Blitz when St. Michael’s was gutted? Did God protect the smaller house of worship? Well, partly. Mostly it was protected by a stubborn vicar who refused to lose his church.

I know I was at Holy Trinity to record today’s service, but my mind kept drifting back to that fateful day, so long ago (well, nearly sixty years in the future from where I sat.) The fourteenth of November 1940 the German Luftwaffe bombed Coventry. This was no hit and run bombing as they had done before. Five hundred planes, for nearly eleven hours, did their best wipe Coventry off the map.

Rev. Graham Clitheroe

While saner people were huddled in bomb shelters, Holy Trinity’s vicar, Rev Graham William Clitheroe was at his church, doing his best to protect it. He had the help of his son and the curate. It’s believed there was a third man, but no one remembers who it was. I do. His name was Dr. Basil Hancock from the University of London and my friend.

You are probably wondering how I knew someone from the 20th century when I’m only allowed back in the 19th, but Basil was a temporal anthropologist from the 27th century like myself. We went through training at the Institute of Time Travel together and received our licenses at the same time. Basil convinced the Institute that his being at Holy Trinity that night would change nothing and he would be safe.

Basil recorded that whole hellish night. Rev. Clitheroe ran about putting out fires around his church, and even climbed ladders to push bombs off the roof. How he managed is a wonder, for he was not a young man. Basil admitted to me he cried as he watched the city around him going up in flames. Rev. Clitheroe would cry later, that night he had his hands full just saving this one building.

Holy Trinity still standing after the Blitz

The next day Coventry was horrified to find out they had lost their beloved cathedral. However the vision of Holy Trinity standing above the rubble inspired them to carry on. Rev. Clitheroe invited St. Michael’s to share his church, and combined services were held until St. Michael’s could rebuild. For a time, Holy Trinity was the city’s unofficial cathedral.

I understand that when Graham Clitheroe died in 1968 (four years after he retired) his final wish was to be cremated and his ashes buried in the graveyard of the church he loved. He knew the burial ground had long since been filled up, but felt they could surely find a spot for a small urn. The current Vicar at the time, Lawrence Jackson, refused. Clitheroe would not be buried outside the church he had saved--he would be buried inside at a place of honor!

Graham Clitheroe buried inside Holy Trinity Church

The only major damage Holy Trinity suffered that night was the loss of their east and west side stained glass windows. As I stared at the doomed Victorian panes, I thought of Basil. He wanted to record Britain at it’s “finest hour.” He had records of where bombs would drop and what places were safe. He must have lost track, for he would later die in the London Blitz. Not the first temporal anthropologist to lose his life in the line of duty. Although it’s been twenty years since he died, I still miss Basil, even if he won’t be born for another 694 years.

A more detailed account of that night in 1940.

Holy Trinity Church through the ages (video)

Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry (documentary)
Part 1     Part 2    Part 3    Part 4