A church in Toronto is taking requests for prayers and people have a lot to say

Ever called in a request to a radio station so you could dedicate a song to someone? Well, now you can do the same thing with prayers at a church in Toronto, with the man upstairs filling in as disc jockey.

A photo of a mailbox with "prayers" written on it was recently posted to a Toronto Facebook group, with a sign reading "Would you like someone prayed for? Put their name in the mailbox and the parish will pray for them on Sunday."

The caption to the photo reads, "Cool Toronto. I am not religious, but thought this was sweet. On the Danforth."

Out of over 100 comments, some suggest it's at Danforth Church near Chester station, others Eastminster, though the original poster doesn't make it clear where exactly they took the photo.

Reaction to the church taking requests for prayers ranges from touched to sarcastic to outright joking in response, saying Boaty McBoatface and Mike Hunt desperately need to be saved by the power of prayer.

Others are going the usual prank route of suggesting dropping drugs into the mailbox like joints and mushrooms, with one commenter suggesting: "Someone throw some psilocybin in there for the church' goers! That'll answer a lot of their questions, prayers and problems lol."

Most of the commenters remark that while they don't consider themselves religious, they find the gesture sweet, saying things like, "The good side of religion," "That is very kind. Regardless of what you believe this is a nice gesture," and "Regardless of who and what you believe in, this is beautiful."

While the notion of prayer as an actual effective measure for change is doubtful, there are more supporters of the idea than detractors on the thread, some suggesting that you actually don't even need to be religious at all to engage with prayer in some way. Someone even went so far as to post a definition of prayer as "an earnest hope or wish."

"There have been many legitimate scientific studies that prove that prayer, as well as meditation, (semantics, anyone?) lowers heart rate and blood pressure, releases endorphins, and stimulates pleasure centres in the brain, causing feelings of well being and relaxation. That's science, too," wrote one commenter.

While of course there are the typical snarls in the conversation that occur when topics turn to belief systems, overall people in Toronto seem to be enjoying the wholesome initiative and cracking innocent jokes about it, like: "Put in God and warp their minds!" "I pray for anti maskers" and "#prayforkanye that boy needs jesus."

But perhaps the simplest comment that we can all relate to in 2020? 

"I mean....what could it hurt??"