Steven Ketola

Steven Ketola found St Peter and St Simon after he’d gone on a search for churches, “test driving” a number before settling.

His actual introduction to SPSS came through a Toronto Doors Open event in which he was struck by the style and grace of our building. The arts and crafts style, including touches from architect Eden Smith, left its impression.

Born in South Porcupine, near Timmins, Steven spent his first nineteen years in northern Ontario before coming to university in Toronto. A career that covered the gamut from bartending to corporate communications and banking ensued.

Meanwhile, the young man who’d grown up “without much of a religious background” entered into a process of self-realization through reading Spinoza and Hegel and thinking about things theological. In the end, everything about St Peter and St Simon suits his tastes, from the architecture to the traditional liturgy and to the people. “I firmly believe,” he says, “in the aesthetic being a pathway to the divine.”