St Clair Avenue Baptist Church

THE BEGINNING

St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church has its beginning early in 1808 when some members of Olivet Baptist Church and their minister, Rev, John McIntosh, held prayer meetings in the home of Mr. And Mrs. Albert Scholfield on Wychwood Avenue. The meetings led to the formation of a Sunday school on July 12, 1908 and on November 11, 1908 a meeting was held by those interested to form a Baptist Church. This led to an organizing meeting and Mr. George S. Brodle was called as pastor. Deacons were chosen and clerk and treasurer appointed. Financial aid from Home Mission Board was requested. A lot at the northeast corner of St. Clair and Wychwood was secured and a temporary building erected on a lot to north.

On September 23, 1909 Recognition meeting was held in the frame church on the back lot. A brick church was to be built on the corner lot. On vote of the delegates, Wychwood Baptist Church was fellowshipped. Dr. W.E. Horton gave the charge to the church. The first recorded Sunday school consisted of forty scholars and eight devoted teachers who met in a workshop at the rear of 12 Kenwood Avenue, later the pastor's home. The Sunday school superintendent was Mr. Hopecraft.

An ordination service was held, on June 30, 1910, for pastor George S. Brodie. Dr. Sowerby was moderator. The council proceeded to ordination. Dr. Brown preached the sermon and Rev. John McIntosh gave the charge to the candidate.

1910 - CHURCH PLANNED

Plans for the church, were drawn by Mr. Burke, and were approved by the church. The church was given right-of -way to collect $4,000 from sister congregation in the Toronto district. In 1910 other churches raised $2,000. The setting of the corner stone took place on September 9, 1912 and the opening service was held on February 4, 1913. The Rev. W. A. Cameron was in the pulpit for the morning service and Chancellor A.L McCrimmon of McMaster University at the evening service. A call was extended to Rev. James A. Grant, July 2, 1913. On September 1, 1913, he began his ministry in the church and served for seven years.

1919 - CHURCH NAME CHANGE

After ten years of existence, the church became self-supporting. In April 1919 the name of the church was changed from Wychwood Baptist to St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church. A parsonage had already been purchased at 12 Kenwood Avenue, which had been associated with the church's earliest history. The Anniversary preacher on May 10, 1920 was Rev. J. L. Campbell of New York, a memorable event in the history of the church.

NOVEMBER 1924 -LAYINGTHE CORNERSTONE

When it was reported that the lot on the northeast corner of Wychwood and St Clair and the lot immediately north was for sale, the church responded and a purchase was made. At this time a building committee was formed to obtain suitable plans for the future building. It was decided to proceed with the Sunday school building first, with the main church building to fellow later. The ceremony of laying the cornerstone took place November 15, 1924. The church company moved across the street to the new lot carrying the box and it's contents. Mr. S. J. Moore laid the stone. The opening and dedication services were held Sunday, May 10, 1925. Rev. Bowley Breen of London, Ontario preached both morning and evening services and a week of ceremony followed.

ST. CLAIR THE CHURCH THAT OVERCOMES

In 1939 the front lot, the northeast corner of Wychwood and St.Clair, was sold to reduce an existing mortgage and the dream of a large church was given up. Although the dream of a large physical structure was lost, the spiritual church grew. In 1947 there was a peak in baptism, 21 in all. The church enjoyed a membership of 484. To the delight of all, the mortgage was burned. In 1953 many of Toronto's central churches began to face difficult times because of great exodus to the suburbs. In 1957 the true-recorded membership fell to 269. This was mostly attributed to the fact that there were names that remained on the rolls even though their owners no longer attend and in some cases the individual could not be located. However, it was an indication of Rev. Crossman's sincere and successful leadership that attendance was as good as ever and St.Clair moved forward to greater service for the Master led by many wonderful pastors.

ST. CLAIR AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH THEN AND NOW

In the spring of 1910, the women's Mission Circle was organized with program and activities. Missions is full our focus. Among our church family we recognize the late Edith Jackson as one who was faithful to missions and the women's missions groups. Edith mentored and encouraged the women of St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church in supporting missions and missionaries through their finance and prayers. She had a real love for missions. In her honor the Women's mission Circle of St. Clair changed it's name to the Edith Jackson Mission Circle. More recently we are proud to have one of our youth, Freda Soltau accept a teaching position in China. There is a history of young students who served at St. Clair and have gone on to become pastors. To name a few, there's Rev, Isaac Amoran, Rev. Michael Blair, Rev. Michael Green, Rev, Livingstone huff and John Wiseman.

Researching the archives I have found that St. Clair has been blessed with many wonderful Directors of Music and Music Groups. Our dedicated Choir leader Brian Wallace is among them. For over twenty years Brian has faithfully led our Senior Choir to even greater heights in it's expression of worship through music. We have also enjoyed the voices of such youth groups as "Ascension", "The A.C.T.S. Group", a wonderful 'Praise and Worship Team", and we can't forget our Sunday school children Choir "Little Praises". We have victoriously experienced and survived the change of music in worship throughout the times. We have made the transition from Bach played on the Pipe Organ to include in our service today's upbeat songs of praise and worship accompanied by keyboard, guitar and drums. Music has played and important roll in the history and survival of St. Clair.

God's people are now at our doorsteps and thereby transforming our community. Major nationalities of the world now reside in the city of Toronto. We seek to reach the unbelievers within our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In order to accomplish this task, we have also engaged ourselves in local mission and have partnered with other churches in the provision of love and grace to the community. We have encouraged participation from members in all church programs. A new nursery was built for the young ones, and our Sunday school programs grew as well. The spiritual growth has resulted in the return of some members who had stopped attending church.

St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church is celebrating its 97th anniversary. In 1997, the board of management sat down and drew a list of repairs the church needed. We realized that as an old building, there would be on going repair to the physical structure. By summer of 1997, the church had to put in a new roof because of on going leaks. In 1998, we discovered that the furnace was not cost efficient and so we had to replace it with a modern one at the cost of $48,000.By 2000, we realized that the windows of the church were in bad shape and needed immediate attention. The result was that 54 windows throughout the church were replaced at the cost of $62,000. It is our joy at this point to report that the window have been paid for. This is another testimony of the dedication and commitment of the members. They have continued to give material gifts as well as spiritual towards the encouragement of one another. In the midst of celebrating our blessing, we realized that the ceilings of some of the rooms were falling and needed some fixing. Once again, the members rose to the occasion in a gracious way.

Realizing that the world is at our doorsteps, we opened our door to our community. We have the Heritage Singers who use the building for their rehearsal. The Filipino Christian Church also uses the facility for their church service. A group from the community whose focus is prayer also uses our facility.

At the moment, we are seeking to understand further what God is doing within our community and join him in that ministry. To achieve this goal, we dedicated the month of February, our mission month, as a time to prepare our members for ministry within our community.

We are indeed grateful for what God is doing amongst us. We have come a long way considering the challenges we faced, but those challenges mage us strong in the lord. A new chapter in the life of St. Clair Avenue Baptist has started. It is a place where people worship God, and leave feeling encouraged and empowered in their ministry. "There is no doubt that there is love in this place," remarked one of our many visitors from around the globe. May your sense of service be blessed as you engage in the work of the Lord?