In Canada, hockey is less a sport than a state of being. When you’re growing up in rural Didsbury, Alberta, there is not much to distract from the national obsession and pastime. As a high school kid, Myron Tweed took due advantage, and for a minute there, it looked like the Toronto Maple Leafs might recruit a decent utilityman to help fuel its 1940s dynasty.
Not quite. Life is full of different directions, and for Tweed, that direction was eventually up, courtesy of a tiny Bible college where he was a boarder. One thing led to another and another and then another “” and now, after 27 years as music minister at Point Loma’s First Presbyterian Church, Tweed, 76, has determined it’s time to enter the next phase of professional activity. Chances are it won’t be in hockey “” but amid his tenure and his love of traditional fare, Tweed’s pick of special projects can’t be far behind.
In the first place, Tweed said, his denomination has forged a longstanding relationship with the tried and true.
“The Presbyterian churches,” the longtime Point Loma resident explained, “have stuck largely to more a traditional approach to music and worship. The majority of the congregations choose to go to our later [Sunday] service, with the big pipe organ and the large choir. The parishioners appreciate that and have been raised in that tradition.”
On Sunday and Monday, Dec. 10 and 11, Tweed will have a final chance to connect with his congregation accordingly. He’ll conduct the Westminster Choir in John Rutter’s “The Magnificat,” a choral work steeped in harmonies and fanfares.
Unless you count the Canadian and American national anthems, music isn’t exactly top of mind at hockey games. A younger Tweed understood as much. In fact, music of any genre may not have been on his short list at all. It was all about hockey and maybe a chance to try out for the Leafs “” but soon, an unsettling feeling would blunt his game.
“I got pretty good at hockey in high school,” said Tweed said. “But they started emphasizing the ‘you have to hit ’em and hurt ’em’ approach to hockey. I just didn’t like that physical part of it. That was where I decided I’d go in a different direction.”
With the Christian influence on the small Bible campus, Tweed set off to forge what would become his ministry by the early ’50s.
He earned a Ph.D. in church music from the University of Southern California in 1970, moving to San Diego three years later following an instructional post at a church college in Indiana.He began teaching at Point Loma Nazarene University and helming the First Presbyterian music ministry in 1979, with physical complications setting in only recently. Two surgeries within the last two years had compromised his health, but he’s been back at work since Jan. 1 and is reportedly in fettle.
A future involving church choir workshops, guest conducting and travel with his wife Pauline awaits, he said “” but not before he’d have a chance to reunite with some 85 former Westminster choir members from several states in a farewell event.The Nov. 12 concert featured some 120 voices in several arrangements of African folk music, American gospel songs, anthems and spirituals.
While all that was going on, the Leafs were likely losing. At the moment, they’re ninth in a 15-team NHL conference, their mediocrity coloring the glory days of 60 years ago, when they let one of their own get away. The franchise will never live it down.
First Presbyterian is located at 320 Date St. For more information about the upcoming service, call (619) 232-7513.