Church pews were packed with joyful parishioners on Oct. 6 as centennial celebrations culminated with Holy Mass celebrated by His Grace, Most Rev. Francis Leo, Archbishop of Toronto.
The service marked the end of a week of observances held in honour of St. Teresa’s 100 years of service up to this point. The period leading up to last Sunday’s celebratory Mass featured a 9-day reading of the Novena to St. Teresa and veneration of St. Teresa’s relics at each service held at the church.
Additionally, St. Teresa’s had been offering spiritual preparation in the form of Parish Missions delivered by Fr. Piotr Prusakiewicz, an experienced speaker, retreat leader and former editor-in-chief of magazines “Who is Like God” and “The Angels - Messengers from a Loving God.”
A landmark of faith in the city just west of Toronto, St. Teresa’s was first founded out of St. Leo's, Etibicokes’s oldest Catholic church on the orders of Archbishop Neil McNeil. Fr. Aloysius Trenor Clancyin was appointed in 1924 to establish a parish that would spiritually serve New Toronto’s community. It wasn’t until the following year that St. Teresa opened the doors of its original church on Tenth Street, marking the start of a growing congregation that has become synonymous with Etibicoke.
The parish consistently serves the needs of its community in a multitude of ways outside of weekly Mass by hosting services for a youth ministry at Holy Trinity and Saint Josaphat elementary schools, the elderly at Lakeshore Lodge Long-Term Care Home and young adult students at Fr. John Redmond High School.
With so many different avenues that serve so many, it is easy to confuse St. Teresa’s as a flashy, overly complicated place of worship. According to long-time parishioner Joseph Markson, the inverse is true.
“I always thank St. Teresa’s for being a place of peace and tranquillity and for being such a simple parish,” he said, “It is that simplicity and peace that resonates deeply with all of us in our spiritual journeys.”
Markson and his wife Alicia have been members of St. Teresa’s parish community for 23 years now, having also brought up their daughters Julia and Amelia through the parish. For them, 100 years of service is not a product of show or any gimmicks but rather the persistent, mundane selfless compassion that the parish exudes at all times.
“One of the greatest blessings of being Catholic is that you can go to any church and find spiritual reward, but it’s nice when your spiritual place of reward is also home. St. Teresa’s not only feels like home to our family, it is our spiritual home,” he continued.
Not only to the Marksons, the parish had woven its way into the fabric of countless other Catholic communities in the area with an especially strong connection to the Polish community. Its large Polish community currently under the Michaelite Fathers as of 2002 began as a result of the influx of Polish immigrants who arrived in New Toronto after the Second World War.
At present, the parish has seen fellowship with the local Filipino community with St. Teresa’s describing itself as a mosaic of Canadian multiculturalism. It’s something special that Markson has seen firsthand after 23 years of attendance at the parish.
“We have seen both our own family as well as many others proceed through St. Teresa’s as the generations pass. The emphasis on family life at all stages has been very apparent with the Church embracing those many dimensions and the gifts that come with it,” he said.
While there have been changes to the church itself across its century of operation, such as a new stained glass windows altar put in during renovations in the late 1990s, things have stayed the same more than they have changed - a testament to the wholesome, unchanging service St. Teresa’s has been at the forefront of.
It is something perhaps best explained by someone present and able to feel the years pass, yet who never felt a disconnect to the church and its community.
“There has been this golden thread of continuity within St. Teresa’s right through the years, this steadiness that is unchanging. That in itself is a gift because that is what makes (the parish) a place of peace, tranquillity and strength for people to go to in times of celebration and in times of need,” Markson said. “I cannot imagine the life my family and I have enjoyed without St. Teresa’s being at the heart of it.”
As for what comes next for the parish, the goals of both staff and the broader community can be summed up by a writing dedicated to the centennial celebration from parishioner Jessica Kowalski.
“Looking ahead, let us embark on the next 100 years with hearts full of gratitude and a spirit ready to embrace the challenges and blessings that lie ahead. With courage and renewed commitment, may we follow St. Thérèse’s example of childlike trust in God and humble service to others.”