TORONTO's HOLY ISLAND?

Prior to the first Europeans seeing the Toronto area (around the time of Shakespeare), Great Lakes First Nations cultures regarded what we now know as Toronto Island as a sacred place of healing. Somewhere I read once (but I have lost the source) that members of all tribes and nations were welcome to go to the island for healing provided they first lay down their arms. They considered the Islands so healthy that they resorted to it “whenever indisposed”.

"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God,
and wilt do that which is right in His sight,
and wilt give ear to His Commandments,
and keep all His Statutes,
I will put none of these diseases upon thee,
which I have brought upon the Egyptians:
for I am the LORD that healeth thee." Exodus 15:26

Of its birth Mohawks said, “On a day before the coming of the white man [the Great Spirit] was in a mood of anger and, as he often expressed himself forcefully, the winds came that day with a terrific roar, laid the forests bare as matchsticks, whipped the waves as tall as treetops on Lake Ontario and made the earth tremble with their violence…when the sinking and upheaval finished and the storm had ended an island had been formed…” From More than an Island by Sally Gibson.

The visionary who saw to the building of the island’s first church, The Most Reverend Arthur Sweatman (1834-1909), later became Lord Archbishop of Toronto and, later still, the Primate of all Canada.

At the opening service of St Andrew’s By-The-Lake Anglican Church, 27 July 1884, the good bishop preached to the crowded pews on the theme,

“It is good for me to draw close to God.”

Surely, we should draw close to God there still.

The Toronto Carrying Place - the local community group of the Northumbria Community has made the island a repeated place of pilgrimage. Looking at the island high in the air above the mainland, if you squint the island seems to take the shape of a bird's wing. During one of the Carrying Place events, we encouraged our island pilgrims to reflect on these sacred words. [ALL TNIV]


Exodus 19:4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

Deuteronomy 32:9-12 For the LORD's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.
10 In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.
12 The LORD alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.

Ruth 2:12 May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

2 Samuel 22:10-12
10 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
11 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared [a] on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his canopy around him—
the dark [b] rain clouds of the sky.

Psalm 57:1Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.

Isaiah 40:31: Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Ezekiel 10:5,19, 11:22 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks… While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them… Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

Malachi 4:2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.

Luke 13:34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Revelation 4:8: Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."