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St. James Bond Church

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Country
  
Canada

Architectural type
  
Norman-Gothic

Status
  
Cathedral

Functional status
  
Active

Province
  
Ontario

St. James-Bond Church

Location
  
1066 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario,

Denomination
  
United Church of Canada

Address
  
1066 Avenue Rd, Toronto, ON M5N 2C6, Canada

Similar
  
Deer Park United Church, Intrepid Park, Camp X, Lake Saint‑Louis, Assiniboine Park Zoo

St. James-Bond United Church, 1066 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario, was a United Church of Canada Congregation from 1928 to 2005, when it merged with Fairlawn Heights United Church (now Fairlawn Avenue United Church) in the Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue area.

Contents

Prior to the 1928 merger, these were downtown congregations of the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions. The St. James-Bond building was vacated on February 28, 2006. The building was torn down in the summer of 2006 and the site is now used for a senior's centre.

The building had been used by Elections Canada for a polling place. In 2008, some voters were mistakenly told to vote at the church, instead of at the new polling place at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School.

Bond Street Congregational Church

Located east of Yonge Street on Dundas Street, moved uptown in 1927, to a growing suburban development north of Eglinton Avenue. The Bond Street building was acquired by a pentecostal Church, Evangel Temple. The building was destroyed by fire after Evangel Temple moved to the Hoggs Hollow area, near Yonge and York Mills on September 19, 1981.

St. James Square Presbyterian Church

Located on Gerrard Street, just east of Yonge, on the present site of Ryerson University's St. James Square Campus, this was the third building of the Second United Presbyterian Church of Toronto. It was built in 1879, replacing a much smaller building on nearby Gould Street that had been built by architect William Hay in 1855.

The United Presbyterian Church's Canadian Synod approved the division of their Toronto, Canada West Bay Street United Presbyterian Church congregation in 1853 to assist in the move of their Divinity Hall from London, Ontario to Toronto. In 1861, the merger of the UPC to the Free Church, saw the Divinity School merge with Knox College, and Gould Street Church grew under the leadership of:

  • Professor John Taylor (1853–1861), who returned to Scotland; his son, Sir Thomas Wardlaw Taylor remained in Canada, and was later Chief Justice of Manitoba.
  • Rev. Robert Burns (1861–1863), a Knox College professor, formerly of Knox Free Church,
  • John Mark King (1863–1883), later the Principal of Manitoba College in Winnipeg,
  • S. H. Kellogg (1885–1892), a former missionary to India), who returned there,
  • Louis Jordan (1894–1900),
  • Alfred Gandier (1901–1908), later Principal of both Knox (1909–1925) and Emmanuel College (1925–1932).
  • Andrew Robertson(1910–1916),
  • D. N. Morden (1917–1926).

    • St. James-Bond United Church

    Both congregations joined the United Church of Canada in 1925. Each had declined as Toronto grew, and parishioners joined congregations closer to their homes; some started by the respective congregations.

    St James Square was the "parent" of College Street United Church and St John's Presbyterian Church, Toronto.

    Bond Street was the parent of Birchcliff Church in Scarborough Township (now Birchcliff Bluffs United Church).

    Bond Street was the first to move into a new area, joined by their former downtown neighbour a year later.

    References

    St. James-Bond Church Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA