Metropolitan United Church

Metropolitan United Church is fortunate to be led by a team of two committed pastors. As a teaching facility, our ministry is occasionally supported by student ministers.

I recently resigned from the Congregational Care Committee because I'm leaving Toronto and moving to Vancouver. I found this hard, because even though I'm way too busy to be on this committee, I always enjoyed it. It's been especially enjoyable recently since Sandra Hellyer took over as the chair, because Sandra does such a great job at appreciating everyone's contributions. She makes sure to thank everyone for every little thing, which just makes it so much more fun to actually DO those little things.

The current members of the library committee are:

• Ruth Brown
• Joyce Callender
• Grant Campbell
• Lisa Hems
• Jean Lee
• 
  
  

Dr. Patricia Wright has been Director of Music and Organist of Metropolitan United Church since September 1986 , where she plays the largest pipe organ in Canada, conducts adult and children's choirs, manages a concert series, and oversees a varied programme of arts in worship. A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, she holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University as a student in the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Her teachers have included Donald Wilkins, Charles Krigbaum, Nadia Boulanger, Jean Langlais, and Michael Schneider.

Matthew Coons took up his responsibilities as Metropolitan United Church's Organ Scholar in September 2006. He is an organ student in the performance degree program at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. He studies organ with Dr. Patricia Wright.

Gerald Martindale was appointed Carillonneur of Metropolitan United Church in 1997. He studied carillon with Dr. Sydney Shep, former Carillonneur of the University of Toronto. He earned a Bachelor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Windsor and holds Associate Diplomas in Organ from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Fran Harvey has been the conductor of the Metropolitan Silver Band since 2003. Prior to that she played Flugelhorn and Solo Cornet with the band for many years. She holds Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees from the University of Toronto, where she studied trumpet with Larry Weeks, James Spragg, and Stephen Chennette.

Benjamin Stein is an accomplished musician who is a lead tenor in the Metropolitan Choir and directs the Metropolitan Concentus Iuventium Clamorosus(obstreperous teens playing music).

Margaret is director of the Metropolitan Handbells and is a member of the Metropolitan Choir. She is a retired elementary school teacher, and she is trained in Orff and Kodaly methodology as well as piano and vocal performance.

Carol Matthews is the leader of the Metropolitan Sparklers, a music education group for children aged 4-6 that meets every Sunday. Carol comes to Toronto via New York and the western US. She has a Ph.D. in music composition from City University of New York, and has taught at University of Oregon, Hunter College in New York, the University of Wisconsin Centre at Wausau, and Boise State University in Idaho.