St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Windsor, Ontario)

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church
View of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Windsor
Address	405 Victoria Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, N9A 4N1
Country	Canada
Denomination	Presbyterian Church in Canada
Website	http://stapc.ca
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)	Rev. Ronald Sharpe

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, is a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation in downtown Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The congregation dates back to 1857, and at one time, was the largest congregation by membership within the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC).

In the 1840's, there was a Church of Scotland mission in Richmond (now Windsor - 1854), connected with their missionary, Rev. Robert Peden, from nearby Amherstberg. He later defected to the Free Church cause, but was deposed from that congregation and denomination for apparent heresy in 1850. A Sunday School was formed in the village, and in 1853 Alexander Bartlet joined in the leadership of this group.

The first official congregation of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was erected in 1857. Twenty-nine Presbyterians petitioned the London UPC Presbytery for their own congregation from the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland congregation in Detroit (The Scotch Church, later Central Presbyterian). Permission was granted on July 1, and St. Andrew's elected its first Session on July 12, and met in early August with a charter membership of 32. Bartlet served as Session Clerk from then until his death in 1910, and Sunday school Superintendent until 1893. St Andrew's, was at that time, part of the UPC's Presbytery of London, in Canada West - three years after the incorporation of Windsor as a village, and exactly ten years before Confederation.

In the early years, there was no church building. Services were held at a room above the store of John McCrae, the same room that was used as the council chambers by the municipal government until Windsor constructed its first town hall. There were also meetings at the Old Ward School. With such a small congregation it was difficult to secure a permanent minister. The usual practice was to bring in someone from Detroit or a missionary to conduct services. Ministers from around the UPC's London Presbytery were appointed to moderate Session Meetings, compounded by a vacancy in Detroit, following Rev. John Hogg's departure to St Andrew's (Church of Scotland) in Guelph later in 1857.

When the UPC and the Free Church, Canada Synod merged in July 1861 to become the Canada Presbyterian Church, Rev. William Bennet, a native of Ireland, and ministering in New Brunswick was called, and was the first minister inducted in Windsor, serving from October 22 1861 - November 1863. The first building for St. Andrew's was erected in 1865 on the south east corner of Victoria Avenue and Chatham Street. In May of 1866, the Rev. Alexander Kemp was called from St Gabriel's Church in Montreal as its second minister. He left in 1870 when appointed to a professorship at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. Dr. Kemp later returned to Canada, as principal of the Ottawa Ladies College, and was co author of the 1883 Handbook of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Kemp was followed by the Rev. John Gray, an 1870 graduate of Toronto's Knox College (all subsequent senior ministers are Knox Alumni), during whose pastorate (1870-1893) the congregation built a new brick church at Victoria and Park Street, in 1883. Unfortunately, on Saturday March 16, 1895, that building burned to the ground. Gray, like his predecessor, left for the USA, (Kalamazoo, Michigan), although he later retired to Toronto.

That fire precipitated the building of the current structure in 1895 with the first service held on June 14, 1896. Originally designed to seat 800, the balconies were added in 1903, allowing the seating of another 400 people. In 1915, Rev. James C. Tolmie (1893-1915) resigned from St Andrew's, having combined the pulpit when elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Windsor in 1914. He also went overseas with the Essex Fusiliers, and was the finalist in the provincial Liberal Party Leadership Convention in both 1919 and 1922. He was designated "Minister Emeritus" at St. Andrew's.

Rev. Dr. Hugh M. Paulin, arrived in late 1915 and served the congregation over thirty-five years, until his death in October, 1952. During the ministry of Dr Paulin, the congregation voted in 1925 to remain within the continuing Presbyterian Church in Canada by a vote of 18 for Union (joining into the United Church of Canada), and 607 against. Despite "planting" new congregations elsewhere in the area, Knox and Riverside, (both closed since 2000), and Westminster (now Westminster United Church [1]), the Membership at St Andrew's exceeded 2000 members the year Dr. Paulin died, and had retained the largest membership in the PCC following 1925, until surpassed by St Andrew's Church in Kitchener.

The Rev. Dr. William Lawson succeeded Paulin, serving from 1953 until his retirement in 1981, followed by Dr. Robert Fourney (1982-1996). The Rev. Dr. Jeff Loach, now Central Ontario District Director of the Canadian Bible Society, ministered from 1997 until 2004.

Following the Induction of Rev. Lawson, another Church plant was started in "West Sandwich", and named Paulin Memorial [2] after Dr. Paulin. Lawson also had a number of colleagues serving with him at St Andrew's as Assistant and Associate Ministers, and deaconesses. This continued into both Fourney's and Loach's pastorates included Donald MacLeod, Les Barclay, Joseph Riddell, James J. Gordon, and most recently, (2002-2006), Jennifer Cameron.

An addition, comprised primarily of the Meeting Place and the Herman-Clark Hall, was completed in 1983, along with significant renovations to the offices and Sunday School rooms in the southern part of the building.

In June 1980, the congregation hosted the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada; the Opening Service was held in St Andrew's, and the remainder was held (as well as accommodations) at the University of Windsor. The Assembly coincided with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America's General Assembly held in Detroit, and there was a joint session held at Cobo Hall. In June 1997, the PCC General Assembly returned to Windsor, repeating the Canadian venues.

The congregation celebrated its 150th Anniversary during 2007, and started the celebrations with the induction of only their ninth Senior Minister, Rev. Ronald Sharpe, who arrived from a ministry in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

The building also hosts a Chinese-speaking congregation, the Windsor Chinese Presbyterian Church, that holds weekly worship on Sunday afternoons.

References

http://www.stapc.ca/History.html
http://www.westminsterunited.com/history.php
http://www.worship-in-windsor.org