Our History

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?