The Parish and Cathedral Church of St James', Toronto, 1797–1997: A Collaborative History by William Cooke, and: Women in the Life of St. James' Cathedral, Toronto, 1935–1998 by C.T. McIntire (review)

humanities 407 Canada's `national' theatre (by Ira Levine); Oscar Ryan's complex socialisthumanist critical stance favouring both overt political theatre and Stratford, writing over the course of several decades for the labour publication Canadian Tribune (by Mayte Gomez); the `growth' of Jamie Portman from reviewer to arts advocate (by Moira Day); and, in two cases, Urjo Kareda in Toronto (by Denis Johnston) and Marianne Ackerman in Montreal, the movement from critic to practitioner B writing themselves, in effect, into the narrative. In a fitting final article, by Robert Nunn on Ray Conlogue, the author takes the useful course of asking some theatre practitioners how their art was affected by the critic's work. Their answers resonate throughout the book B this critic's power could ghettoize a production, and could even alter the aesthetic course of a company by forcing the alteration of mandates to ensure better reviews, an unsettling situation that could only be alleviated through a greater range of critical writing, and a diversity of funding opportunities not restricted to either box office or a single (government) patron. This will be an important work to anyone with an interest in Canadian theatre, and Canadian culture in general. I do find some fault with it. Although there is some geographic diversity, Toronto and Montreal critics predominate. Only one woman (Ackerman) is included, and only one (Ryan) from a publication other than the broad-based commercial press. I appreciate that these are editorial resolutions to constraints of time, space, and available research; the absence needs to be stated, nevertheless. What really annoyed me was the cover illustration, a photograph of the Stratford stage portrayed without irony. I cannot imagine a less fitting advertisement for a work dedicated to a discussion of the complexities inherent in that image. (STEPHEN JOHNSON) William Cooke. The Parish and Cathedral Church of St James', Toronto, 1797B1997: A Collaborative History University of Toronto Press 1998. xvi, 326. $40.00 C.T. McIntire. Women in the Life of St. James' Cathedral, Toronto, 1935B1998 Canadian Church Historical Society 1998. 36. n.p. The history of a living organization is always a tricky subject, since so many persons alive will have an investment in their version of the story. When that organization is a Christian church congregation, the perils are nearly endless. Because there is such a resulting temptation not to cede control, few parish histories are very objective. In the matter of objectivity, as in other areas, the beautiful history of the cathedral parish of the Anglican Dioceses of Toronto sets a very high standard indeed. Commissioned by the cathedral in preparation for the two-hundredth anniversary of the first recorded Church of England service in Toronto, the 408 letters in canada 1999 sponsors wisely invited the participation of competent historians who were not part of the parish, except for the discussion of music and worship. The book is organized in six large chapters. The first four chapters are divided by temporal period, the first covering the early history before the creation of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, the second the period when St James's claim to be the diocesan cathedral were unrivalled, the third the period when the project for the ill-fated St Alban's cathedral undermined St James's claim to a wider dignity, and the fourth, the period since 1935, when St James's status was again unrivalled and St James' embarked on its remarkable vocation as the cathedral of an enormous diocese and an effective parish and congregational reality. The fifth and sixth chapters deal, respectively, with the architecture of the four buildings that have housed the congregation, and with the music and worship. The book covers the period of European history in Canada and its detail is rich in the effects of the controversies about church and state, ritual and doctrine, education and social justice. There are ambitious and fractious clerics, prelatical bishops, and women seeking a just recognition of their place in the life and governance of the congregation. There is, in places, a consciousness of the driving and diverting forces involved in paying for the buildings and for the operating costs. The first and fourth chapters will generally...