St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Kingston, Ont.)

Collectivité

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Kingston, Ont.)

n.d.

In 1818, King George III granted to the Scottish Presbyterians in Kingston, Ontario a deed for one acre of land on Clergy Street, between Store Street and Grave Street (now Princess Street and Queen Street). In 1820, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church was built on the site. In 1822, St. Andrew’s was opened to the public. The first minister was the Rev. John Barclay, who died in 1826. He was replaced by the Rev. Dr. John Machar, who was the minister at St. Andrew’s until his death in 1863. His successor, the Rev. William Maxwell Ingleis, served as minister until his retirement in 1871; he was replaced in 1874 by the Rev. Thomas G. Smith.

As Kingston evolved from a town into a city during the 1830s, the congregation of St. Andrew’s grew. A notable project of the Kingston Presbyterian community in the mid-nineteenth century was the founding in 1839 of Queen’s University. Also of note is the fact that Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was a member of St. Andrew’s during his years in Kingston.

The growth of St. Andrew’s, however, was not altogether smooth; the Disruption of 1843 in Scotland caused a rift in St. Andrew’s in Kingston. Members of the congregation left St. Andrew’s in 1844 to form what would become the Chalmers Free Presbyterian Church (now the Chalmers United Church). In 1888, St. Andrew’s was destroyed by a fire; it was rebuilt at the same location in 1889. The Rev. John Mackie, the fifth minister of St. Andrew’s, was appointed in 1885 and saw St. Andrew’s into the twentieth century. He resigned in 1911 and died in 1929, a Minister Emeritus, in Coonoor, India. The Rev. S.J. Moore Compton was minister from 1912 to 1915. Members of the Church served in the Great War, and a memorial service and Dedication of Church Windows was held in their honour in 1919. In 1916, the Rev. John W. Stephen became the minister of St. Andrew's. He resigned in 1939 and was replaced by the Rev. J. Forbes Wedderburn, the eighth minister of St. Andrew's. Members of the congregation served in the Second World War, and in 1946 a ceremony was held in their honour. In 1957, Rev. Wedderburn died; he was replaced in 1958 by the Rev. Max V. Putnam, who resigned in 1976 to accept a position at the Scots Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, Australia. He was succeeded by the Rev. William F. Duffy in 1976. In 1987, the Rev. Lincoln Bryant was inducted into St. Andrew’s as assistant minister; in 1996, upon Rev. Duffy’s retirement, Rev. Bryant became the eleventh minister of St. Andrew’s Church.

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