St. James Cathedral (Toronto)

Main entrance and tower of St. James Cathedral

The Anglican Cathedral Church of St. James in the Canadian Toronto belongs to the oldest church in the city. It was founded in 1797; the sacred building was completed in 1844 and was for a long time the tallest building in Toronto. The cathedral stands on the northeast corner of the intersection of Church Street and King Street East. Adelaide Street East runs to the north and St. James Park of the same name extends to the east.

history

Historical representation (around 1858) of St. James Cathedral

Today's St. James Cathedral replaces a wooden church that was built in 1807 and enlarged in 1818. During a visit by the Bishop Steward of Quebec in 1828, he decided to rebuild the Church of the Apostle St. James, as the church was then called. In 1832, after two years of construction, the wooden church was replaced by one made of stone, which, however, burned down in 1839. The congregation met after the fire in the city's first town hall, which is now part of St. Lawrance Market, and in the Upper Canada Collage at the intersection of King and Simcoe Streets. Also in 1839, the Diocese of Toronto of the Anglican Church of Canada was founded, which split off from the Diocese of Quebec. The first bishop of Toronto was John Strachan.

The third sacred building is today's church, built in neo-Gothic style and offers seating for 2000 people. It measures 92.9 meters to its top and is the second tallest church in Canada after the St. Josephs Oratory . The total length of the nave including the tower is 60.3 meters, the maximum width is 29.9 meters. Its architect was Fredrick Cumberland. It was opened for worship on June 19, 1853. The completion of their tower and the installation of the church bells dragged on until 1965, the spire was completed in 1874. The architect of the steeple was William Storm. The tower clock was installed a year later. The church cemetery originally stood east of the sacred building and was relocated to the Episcopal Church of St.-James-the-Less in the 1840s.

In 1999, the west facade was used as the backdrop for some scenes from the comedy Detroit Rock City .

description

Bells

Surname	Weight in kg
Little Trinity	284
St. James	302
St. George	305
Our Lady	315
All saints	322
St. Andrew	344
St. Bartholomew	383
Holy Trinity	423
St. Paul	563
St. Peter	641
St. Simon	807
Redeemer	1089

St. James Cathedral in Toronto has twelve bells, ten of which were cast in 1828. Noteworthy is the fact that the cathedral's bells are not mechanically powered, but that each bell is operated by a bell ringer . Each bell is named after one of the parishes of the old city of York (the old name of Toronto).

Interior and equipment

If you enter St. James' Cathedral through the main portal on King Street, you pass through the anteroom into another room, the square floor plan of which belongs to the church tower. To the right of this room is the St. George's Chapel, to the left of it in the southwest there is a small souvenir shop. In this room there is a bust in a wooden shrine of Henry James Grasett (1808–1867), the first Dean of Toronto. From all three rooms you can go north to the nave , which is divided into the central nave and a western and an eastern aisle. Since the St. James Cathedral has no crossing , it also has no transept. Nevertheless, there are two smaller annexes to the west and east approximately in the middle of the nave, but they are significantly lower than the roof edge of the nave. In the west there is a small anteroom with another door, in the east the baptistery is housed.