3 centenarians on what a lifetime of faith has meant to them

The United Church of Canada celebrates its 100th anniversary on June 10. To honour the occasion, we spoke with three members, all over the age of 100, about what the church has meant to them over the decades.

In their own words, they reflect on music, faith and change. 

Miriam Tees, 102, Mountainside United, Westmount, Que. 

I remember church even before it was United, because I was at my brother’s christening. I was born a Methodist, and my family was very much involved in the church. I was baptized as a baby, and my brother, who was three years younger, was baptized in 1927.

I remember his baptism because I was allowed to attend. Our church—Dominion-Douglas United Church, up on the mountain in Westmount—had just been built, but it wasn’t finished yet. They really wanted to wait so he could be the first baby baptized there.

In the end, they held the christening in the big room downstairs that was being used as a temporary sanctuary. I got to sit with someone up in the gallery and watch. I must have been about three and a half. That’s my first memory of church.

In those early days, everybody went to church. It was just what people did. My friends went to Sunday school, and I was sent too. 

One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the role of women. My mother was active in the Women’s Missionary Society and the Women’s Association, which were important parts of church life at the time. I followed in those footsteps in my own way. For many years, I was always on some kind of committee—I met so many friends through the church.

I’ve been a churchgoer all my life. In my 50s and 60s, I skied a lot on winter Sundays, so I might miss church sometimes—but if I wasn’t on the slopes, I was in the pews.

Music has always been especially important to me. I sang in the choir for many years, right up until I was about 83 or 84. Then I developed a little click in my voice—it didn’t sound very nice, so I gave it up. That was a sad moment, because singing was something I truly loved. I still miss the choir. 

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Ray MacKay, 102 — Westmount (N.S.) United

It wasn’t a very good time when they changed from the Presbyterians to the United. But I do remember the time of church union in 1925.

I joined the Navy in 1942. The church was looking for someone to play the organ. I knew I could play, and from that time on, I’ve been a church organist here and there.

My wife and I are married 75 years this year. I think that’s a record too—75 years of married life. She’s 96 now, and I’m 102.

I don’t know about changes, other than there was a lot of turmoil at the time of the church union. Many families wouldn’t speak to one another if one was United Church and one was Presbyterian.

There’s a hymn I think of sometimes:

‘Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me’ 

Molly Austen, 101 — St. Matthew’s United, Halifax

When I was about 10, we moved back to Toronto from North Bay, and the minister from Rhodes Avenue United came to visit my mother. He invited us to the church, and that’s where we started. There were two women in charge of the young people. They were so lovely and kind. I wanted to be just like them. I hope I did turn out like them.

I joined every choir I could — the Sunday school choir, the girls’ choir, the tweens’ choir and the senior choir. I had them all, but they wouldn’t let me join the boys’ choir. To me, church has always been singing in the choir. 

When I led the youth group [at St. Matthew’s], we acted out Bible stories. I didn’t tell them what to believe, I just asked them to learn the stories. We would take the story and take it apart and make it our story. We had fun. I liked them, and I think they liked me. I’m still at the church. We’re down to four kids in Sunday school now.

These days, I mostly sit in my chair and look out the window. But every Sunday morning, I’m in my choir seat. They let me sing, even though I’m tucked behind the piano where nobody sees me. But I’m there because I love to sing.

The church has been my life. I joined the Wrens—the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service—when I was 17 or 18, and they shipped me from Toronto to Halifax. In those days, even us wild Navy people liked to find a church. On my second Sunday there, we were walking down Barrington Street and came to St. Matthew’s. We went in, and the alto soloist sang the most beautiful solo. I was hooked. I’ve been there ever since.

These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

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Paniz Vedavarz is an intern at Broadview. 

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