BITS and PIECES
298th Edition – June 14, 2026
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
It was Monday morning June 7, fifty years ago, I went into my study in Tandragee and turned on the 8.00am news. We were in the final stages of preparation for the move to Canada planned for the end of the month. I was shocked to hear that the Canadian Attorney General was looking to ban our entry into Canada. In this he was backed by Roy McMurtry, the AG for Ontario. I immediately phoned Dr. Paisley for his advice. He said to me, “You have immigration approval here from Canada House in Belfast. Get on the next plane for Canada lest they try to undo that.”
This was quite a bombshell. Our children were on my passport. Dr. Paisley used his political clout to get them transferred to my wife’s passport and she would be left to wind up our affairs in Ulster.
That Monday was a hectic day sorting out the details of my hasty unexpected flight. The church had planned a farewell service for us later. All I could do was pay a quick visit to elder Isaac Hazley to say farewell. He reacted by bursting into tears.
On Tuesday morning I said a sad farewell to my wife and four children and flew the short flight to London and from there to Montreal. We chose Montreal thinking, correctly, that it would be a safer place for immigration procedures than Toronto with its negative publicity – and so it was.
After a short flight to Toronto, I was met by my wife’s sister and her husband. It was interesting to be in Toronto for two weeks listening to our media opponents tearing us to shreds. For example, the well-known Charles Templteon and Pierre Berton had a radio program and they opined that, as Canada had laws to keep alien vegetable matter out of the country so it should have laws to keep us out! They did not know I was listening. Toronto Free Presbyterian Church had it’s first service on July 4, but more of that later.
“There hath not failed one word of all His good promises which He promised.”
THE STATE OF RELIGION IN TORONTO
Despite the maelstrom of opposition we faced, mostly from the ecumenical movement, there were several evangelical churches in Toronto. These varied from reasonably faithful to seriously compromised. But there were vestiges of the old Toronto the Good’ feeling still around,
Sadly, we cannot say that today. A measure of this can be seen in the following. When we started in 1976, we began to advertise our services in the ‘Toronto Star’, the city’s main newspaper. Then there were three full pages of church ads. Now? – None!
The reality we must face is that the government’s policy on immigration, mostly planned by Pierre Trudeau to ensure for him a significant voting majority, has meant the importation of many non-Christian people. The result is the dilution of Christianity.
This is true also of England that has departed from being a country which in earlier years produced so many Christian leaders such as Tyndale, Wesley, Bunyan, Spurgeon and others. Visitors now report it is like a foreign country. If ever we needed a genuine revival of Christian thinking and practice, it is today. May we pray that the Lord will fulfill this promise.
“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” [Isaiah 43:19].
FIRST TIME IN CHURCH
I first saw him in church last week. He was in his mid -70s with thinning silver hair and neatly dressed. He was a well-respected, honest man with so many characteristics a Christian should have, but he was not a Christian. He told me of a childhood experience he had sixty years ago. He was one of many children in a large, impoverished family. He was about ten when he was invited to go to church. He enjoyed the Sunday school. After the class, the teacher took him aside and said, “Son, don’t ever come again dressed as you are now.” He stood in his ragged, unpatched overalls and said, “No, ma’am, I won’t ever.” And he never did.
I next saw him in church was last week. Immaculately dressed in his casket, I thought of his words, “No, ma’am, I won’t ever”…….. and I wept! [By Shirley Ward]
