Skip to content

TV minister returning for homecoming

By Vicki Gilhula Rev. David Mainse and his Cross-Canada Tour will visit Glad Tidings Tabernacle, Wednesday, April 24.
By Vicki Gilhula

Rev. David Mainse and his Cross-Canada Tour will visit Glad Tidings Tabernacle, Wednesday, April 24.
bottom
David Mainse

The tour celebrates Mainse's 40 years as a television minister and 25th anniversary as host of the daily 100 Huntley Street.

Mainse's visit is a homecoming. He served as pastor of Glad Tidings Church from 1964 to 1968. And although he started broadcasting a gospel program in 1962 at the Pembroke TV station, it wasn't until he moved to Sudbury that his weekly television program, taped at CKSO Television, started to reach a larger audience across the country on CBC's affiliated stations.

Mainse remembers the people of Northern Ontario "as the most hospitable and kind. They really took to us. It (the show) multiplied from there to the entire world."

In 1977, Mainse began his daily program on Global Television. The program was broadcast from a television studio at 100 Huntley Street, hence the name.

In 1998, Mainse received a licence to operate a 24-hour cable television service in the Toronto and Hamilton area. Crossroads Television System is broadcast throughout North America via cable and satellite. The Crossroads Centre is now located in Burlington.

The program has more than one million viewers each week. The 100 Huntley Street prayer line receives about 1,000 calls each day.

Over the past 25 years, 100 Huntley Street has featured more than 12,000 guests including former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former Newfoundland premier Joey Smallwood and actor Charlton Heston.

The television ministry pioneer founded the Geoffrey R. Conway/Crossroads School of Broadcasting, which trains young people from throughout the world. The school is accredited with McMaster University Divinity College.
bottom
David and Norma Jean Mainse

Mainse, along with his wife Norma-Jean and Reynold and Glen Rutledge, members of the original 100 Huntley Street trio, are visiting 64 cities in 100 days on this celebration tour.

Mainse's son Ron will provide the audience with highlights of the programs from the past quarter-century. The presentation will include some of the shows bloopers.

To what does Mainse credit his success. "Amazing grace," he says.

Admission to the anniversary program is free. It starts at Glad Tidings Tabernacle, 1101 Regent St., at 7:30 pm, April 24. For more information visit www.crossroads.ca

Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.