If Benches Could Speak
The history of the Fellowship has always been connected to theological education. In the 1920s the controversy with McMaster University in the east and Brandon College in the west drove men and churches away from the “old” conventions. Eventually, many of those in Eastern Canada would come back together to form our Fellowship in 1953, followed by Prairie and British Columbian churches several years later.
McMaster had been the training school for pastors and missionaries who were giving leadership to Baptist ministries across the country and beyond. To fill the gap caused by the rift and to provide strongly biblical theological training, Dr. T. T. Shields, pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church, the largest and most influential of the dissenting churches, founded Toronto Baptist Seminary.
New controversy in the late 40s between T. T. and Dr. W. Gordon Brown, then Dean of TBS, led to the creation in 1949 of Central Baptist Seminary, an antecedent of Heritage College & Seminary currently located in Cambridge, Ontario.
During any maelstrom, big personalities and great issues are on display but the little details often get missed. This post uncovers one of those little voiceless things that, if it could speak, would have volumes to say about many less volatile subjects.
During its history, Central Baptist Seminary trained countless pastors, missionaries, and workers for the Kingdom, a tradition that continues to this day through Heritage and other schools. Some thirty years of Central’s earliest history took place at 221-225 St. George Street in Toronto. Alongside the professors and staff who faithfully served at the school were many volunteers who lent their skills to help the students, and shared their gifts to provide comfort and encouragement. Among these were several ladies who worked in the school’s kitchen to prepare snacks and meals for both students and staff. One of these ladies was Dorothy Swayze whose amazing smile lit up the kitchen and dining room. Dorothy’s father-in-law, William Allen Swayze, was a founding member of the West Toronto Independent Baptist Church, and both Dorothy and her husband served there faithfully for many years.
When the seminary was leaving St. George St. to move to different quarters, some of the furnishings were not needed in the new building. This included a bench that sat outside the Dean’s office. Many students over the years had sat trembling on this bench awaiting appointments with Dr. Brown (who was not as terrifying as some thought he was!). Because of the move, the bench was offered to anyone who might want to give it a new home. Mrs. Swayze took the Dean’s “hot seat” home with her.
When Dorothy passed into the presence of the Lord, the bench became the property of her daughter, Lynn Henry. It spent many years in her front hallway.
In 2024, Lynn and her husband, Doug, decided it was time to downsize. The bench was not something they could take to their new residence, so Lynn went looking for a new home for it. Because of the story behind the bench, she wanted to place it where someone would appreciate its significance. Lynn reached out to me to ask if I might know of someone who would be interested in the bench.
Eureka! I don’t remember having sat on the bench outside the dean’s office (though I was called in to see him a few too many times in my final year at CBS) but I was certainly interested in the historic significance of something that, if it could speak to the thoughts and intents of the hearts of those who did sit on it, and who would become significant players in the story of the Fellowship, would have a lot to say.
I happily received the bench. It now sits in my front hallway as it did in Lynn Henry’s—but hopefully not for long.
Heritage Seminary is in the process of completing a new seminary building in its present location in Cambridge, Ontario. In collaboration with the national Fellowship, several rooms in the new building have been set aside to house the Fellowship Archives. This will allow students and researchers freer access to documents, books, photographs, and artifacts that testify to the history of the Fellowship movement and the significant people who have been part of the movement that brought the Fellowship into being and, because of their presence and service, have provided the foundation for its ongoing ministry today. It makes sense to house Fellowship Archives at Heritage since both organisms are part of the same story.
And that means that the bench also is part of that story. My hope is that this little thing with big history will eventually return to its home.
And if, when any of the readers of this post should come to the seminary to do a little research on some aspect of the history of the Fellowship, they should sit for a while on an old wooden bench in the outer office of the new Fellowship Archives, they might remember that others before them, whose stories are somehow a part of their history, once sat on that same bench before them.
The bench that has gone full circle.