Churches on Ossington

[vaneramos]

While strolling along Harbord Street last Friday morning, I peered down an alley and spied a shining Byzantine steeple several blocks distant. It seemed practically a mirage hovering over rotting fences, sway-backed garages and a tangle of power lines. It begged to be photographed, so I went in search the following afternoon. I found the apparition on Leeds Street, one block north of Bloor and Ossington. It turned out to be Protection of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church. Apparently I have walked or ridden past en route to Danny's many times without noticing, but then I was always intent on finding my way, or peering through darkness for the right bus stop.



The elegant structure in the left foreground, understated but equally pompous to my jaded eye, is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Both were immaculate, stunning and utterly incongruous in the plain West End neighbourhood of Toronto. I felt like I had somehow wandered into Epcot Center.










With amusement I wondered how these congregations, placed back to back by constituency and economics, regard one another. Their faiths are disparate as are both their architectures with the surroundings.

Comments

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

oooooooh! the ukrainian church is gorgeous! there's one down in washington i went to see once. unfortunately, it was unfinished inside, but i got to look around at the beautiful exterior.*

say, looking again, i see that the church is huge. there must be lots of ukrainians to fill it up.

*yes, i'm a church architecture geek, but purely as an amateur. :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

If you like church architecture you could have fun in Guelph. You might like to look at the walking tour of downtown I posted in August, but if you have dial-up be warned there are many images.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vaneramos/62964.html

The big Catholic church is the city's most outstanding landmark. It is lovely and I intend to give it a fuller treatement here one of these days. There are many other beautiful churches as well. They seem more appropriate to the community and its history than these two in Toronto. We even have a Ukrainian Catholic Church a 10 minute walk from my place. I will photograph it and post images of it sometime, too, but it is less imposing and at the same time gloomier than this one.

The one in Toronto is indeed huge. It goes up! You might be interested in reading bitterlawngnome's comment, which follows yours; he lives in the neighbourhood.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

thank you for the link! i enjoyed looking at the b&w photos, would love to go into those churches. the statue of mary in front of that beautiful cathedral is lovely. :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Well I will definitely do a photo tour of The Church Of Our Lady one of these days, inside and out. Although I never went to a traditional church, I really appreciate beatiful buildings. For many centuries Christianity was the greatest patron of architecture, as it was of all the arts.

[kwangjse.livejournal.com]

I was going to say "oooooooh!" Guess I still can...oooooook! got something caught in my throat

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't get me wrong. It is indeed breath-taking. :-)

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

What you don't see is that the quaint little exterior of the mormon church is merely the toadstool blossoming from a vast fungal corpus ... the "church" takes up about half a block, and encompasses a training center and broadcast facilities.

This area, which is now mostly Portuguese, was during the 60s and 70s predominantly Russian and Ukraininan, with a considerable seasoning of Hungarians. As is traditional in Toronto, those groups eventually moved out of the downtown core, and those parishoners who do attend the church are mostly elderly and come in from the burbs. There is a Serbian Orthodox church directly south of us, a Russian Orthodox church a block over (near where token_otter lives), and a Greek Orthodox church a short walk west.

I used to live on Roblocke, about a half block south of that church. They don't have bells but play a tape of bells though loudspeakers in the belfry. When I lived there, the tape was so old you could hear it warble.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yarg! That is too funny, probably less so for those who live nearby. Interesting stories here, Bill.

[lotuspoet.livejournal.com]

You always take such amazing photos... Can I ask you were you learned to b sucha great and professional photographer? I attempt photography but often stink at it.:)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I was steeped in photography. Born, raised and educated. ;-)

But I hardly took any pictures for a few years. LJ got me back into it. I posted the story a few weeks ago.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vaneramos/167471.html

[superdus.livejournal.com]

oh wow, that Byzantine chapel is just *so* gorgeous :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is quite striking!