A Service of Blessings
On Monday, February 11, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto and Tyndale University College & Seminary held a joint service in the main chapel at Morrow Park to commemorate the transition of the Bayview property.
On April 1st the Sisters of St. Joseph will leave Morrow Park, which they have called home since 1960. The service included hymns, a brief history of both organizations and intercessory prayers for each organization. During the service the Sisters stood up and sang a blessing upon Tyndale’s endeavours at the Bayview campus. The Tyndale community responded by standing with students singing a blessing upon the Sisters work in their new home.
Sister Thérèse Meunier passed a symbolic ceramic key to Dr. Gary V. Nelson, Tyndale’s President and Vice-Chancellor. She stated, “In giving you this key we are now entrusting Morrow Park to you.” She continued to speak about how much the residence meant to each Sister as many took their vows in this location and it was a place where they interacted with the local community. Sister Therese spoke about how there is sadness in their leaving, gratitude for the 52 years they could call Morrow Park home and that they are “delighted in the knowledge that Morrow Park will be used for Christian education by Tyndale University College & Seminary…While the key symbolizes the key to your new home…it also symbolizes the key that unlocks the minds of students; the key that unlocks their creativity, their curiosity, their ideas and their questions while enrolled at Tyndale.”
As a lasting memory of the original ownership, the Sisters gave to Tyndale a historical board with pictures and historical facts. The Tyndale gift to the Sisters was an original painting of the ravine on the Bayview property – a tangible reminder of the place they once called home.
As Dr. Nelson thanked Sister Thérèse, he stated, “We stand with great pride in this place today and a deep sense of the sacred responsibility you are passing onto us. We hope, we pray that we will be worthy to the task of living out the legacy that you have lived in this space…that we might be a place of hospitality, that we might be a place of sacred worship…” He was also clear in sharing that all of the Sisters should continue to consider this place their home and they would always be welcome.