Jarvis Street Baptist Church
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The Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
church located at the intersection of Gerrard Street and
Jarvis Street Jarvis Street is a north-south thoroughfare in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, passing through some of the oldest developed areas in the city. Its alignment extends from Queens Quay East in the south to Bloor Street in the north. The segment s ...
in downtown
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. One of the oldest churches in the city, its congregation was founded in 1818, and the present church constructed in 1875. It is a member of the
Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada (SGF) is a fellowship for Reformed Baptist churches in Canada holding to either the Baptist Confession of 1644 or 1689. History The Fellowship was founded in 1983 by William Payne, pastor of Trinity Baptist ...
.


History

Early records indicate that by 1827, church meetings were held at the
Masonic Hall A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...
on Colborne Street. The congregation then bought property on Lombard Street and constructed a small chapel in 1832. It was then known also as the Baptist Church of York. By 1848, the congregation had moved to Bond Street and became known simply as Bond Street Baptist Church with a membership that grew to 400 by the late 1860s. Beginning with Bond Street and continuing through at Jarvis Street an outreach was begun further west which was established in 1880 as Beverley Street Baptist Church. (See also Toronto Chinese Baptist Church.) The present church was erected on Jarvis Street in 1875, with a large donation to the construction costs from the Canadian
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and banker,
William McMaster William McMaster (24 December 1811 – 22 September 1887) was a Canadian wholesaler, senator and banker in the 19th century. A director of the Bank of Montreal from 1864 to 1867, he was a driving force behind the creation of the Canadian ...
. The newly formed Baptist Union of Canada held its first meeting at Jarvis Street in October 1880. In 1882, William McMaster, William Elliot (a member of Jarvis Street and a Toronto pharmacist and businessman), and others established the Standard Publishing Company, which published the ''Canadian Baptist'', transferring that enterprise from private ownership to a denominational enterprise. "In 1888 the Western Convention, while in session in Jarvis St. Church, Toronto, passed the following resolution:
Whereas this question of Union has been carefully considered, both by the Society in the East and by us, therefore, resolved, that we do now receive the Eastern Society into union with us.
The new convention was to be called, 'the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec.' " Less than 40 years later the same Convention passed a resolution calling for the dismissal of Jarvis St. and a number of other like-minded congregations during the " Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy". From 1925 until 1943, the church owned and operated a radio station in Toronto under the call letters CJBC. The station went off the air when the federal government terminated all religious radio licenses. The station is unrelated to the current CJBC which is the French-language station owned by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
.


Pastors

The congregation's past ministers include John Harvard Castle (1830–1890), who became pastor in 1873 (while at Bond St.) and later played an instrumental role in founding the Toronto Baptist College (later McMaster) serving as its first President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics. Benjamin Daniel Thomas (1843–1917) served from October 1881 to July 1903 and was once referred to as "the best-loved Baptist minister in Canada." Henry Francis Perry (1861–?) served from 1903 to 1909, leaving for a pastorate at First Baptist Church Vancouver, British Columbia. During his pastorate he also taught at McMaster. He was followed by Thomas Todhunter Shields who held the pastorate from 1910 until his death in 1955. It was during Shields' tenure that a disastrous fire severely damaged the building in 1938. Shields supervised the rebuilding and insisted that the new spire be an exact replica of the old one. A list of pastors: * 1818–1820 Alexander Stewart * 1826–1836 Alexander Stewart * 1840–1841 W.H. Coombs * 1842–1844 James Campbell * 1844–1848
Robert Alexander Fyfe Robert Alexander Fyfe (October 20, 1816 – September 4, 1878) was a strong church builder, writer, and first Principal of the Canadian Literary Institute (later Woodstock College). Background Fyfe was the son of James Fyfe a Scottish Immigrant ...
* 1848–1855 James Pyper * 1855–1860
Robert Alexander Fyfe Robert Alexander Fyfe (October 20, 1816 – September 4, 1878) was a strong church builder, writer, and first Principal of the Canadian Literary Institute (later Woodstock College). Background Fyfe was the son of James Fyfe a Scottish Immigrant ...
* 1860–1869 Thomas Ford Caldicott * 1869–1872 William Stewart * 1873–1881 John Harvard Castle * 1882–1903 Benjamin Daniel Thomas * 1903–1909 H. Francis Perry * 1910–1955 Thomas Todhunter Shields * 1955–1974 Harold C. Slade * 1975–1981 Eric T. Gurr * 1981–1982 John R. Boyd * 1982–1993 Norman H. Street * 1994–1997 Daniel Lundy * 1998–present Glendon G. Thompson


Notable Members

*
Alexander Mackenzie (politician) Alexander Mackenzie (January 28, 1822 – April 17, 1892) was a Canadian politician who served as the second prime minister of Canada, in office from 1873 to 1878. Mackenzie was born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland. He left school ...
*
William McMaster William McMaster (24 December 1811 – 22 September 1887) was a Canadian wholesaler, senator and banker in the 19th century. A director of the Bank of Montreal from 1864 to 1867, he was a driving force behind the creation of the Canadian ...
* William Kirkpatrick McNaught * Samuel Platt


Architecture

The Jarvis Street Baptist Church was designed in the
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style by the architectural firm of Henry Langley and
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who served for many years at Jarvis Street Baptist Church as a Sunday-school teacher, chair of the choir committee, and deacon. It was one of the first churches in Canada to be built with an
amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
-shaped interior. The ground floor seating is grouped in a semicircle, while the gallery above is horseshoe shaped. The main façade of the building is made out brown stone that is obtained from the regions of Queenstown. The stone is laid unevenly with a pattern that varies in different shades of browns and dark yellows. The material used for the roof is Canadian slate. The roof is constructed from a series of pitched segments that are centrally connected by a horizontally sliced dome. There are eight entrances, each consisting of solid oak double doors framed with pointed sandstone arches. Several of these doors have been blocked off with black cast iron gates. Triangular sets of small rosette windows are placed above every door to fill the space in between the entrance and the top of the arch. The building has number of columns with slim tall shape and different capitals that are loosely based on a
Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
. The capitals are made of gray stone while the columns are of a high quality bronze shaded granite found in
St. George, New Brunswick St. George is an unincorporated former town in the Rural Community of Eastern Charlotte, in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. The population was 1,579 in 2021. It is located where the Magaguadavic River flows into the Bay of Fundy, be ...
. The main entrance is set under the only tower of the building facing the south west side which serves as a vertical axis to the building. A copper spire sits on top of the tower, adding approximately to the existing roof height. In addition to the vertical axis the building also has a horizontal symmetry axis that goes diagonally through the building. The flat-roofed extension of the church, built after the 1938 fire, was constructed with red brick masonry which contrasts with the charred Queenston façade. Tall, thin arched windows cover the walls of the church, with the exception of the extension building whose windows are rectangular. The windows are divided into squares and diamonds of yellow and colourless textured glass. Many of the windows are aligned with one another. However a few of the smaller windows are offset to form a step-like pattern. The white wood framing of the windows contrasts with the colourful exterior stone. The building is heavily decorated with ornaments at the top of every pitched roof and throughout the spire. Gargoyles align with the entrance doors, and rippled arches are engraved in the building. The church has been protected under Part IV of the '' Ontario Heritage Act'' since 1999. The designation notes that it was designed by Langley & Burke. The by-law notes that alterations made in 1938–1939 after a fire were designed by Horwood and White, architects. The text also notes: " heJarvis Street Baptist Church was the first church in Canada designed with a U-shaped galleried auditorium, described by J. R. Robertson as 'the more modern method of seating which bends the audience around the chancel' ".


Context

The building is situated in the centre of a group of fast food restaurants, corner stores, apartment buildings, and townhouses. It is the neighbour of the Allan Gardens Park as well as
Grace Toronto Church Grace Toronto Church is a Presbyterian Church in America congregation worshipping in the historic Old St. Andrew's Church building at 383 Jarvis Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History of the building The original St. Andrew's Church congre ...
(originally Old St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church). The interior of St. Andrew's, also designed by Langley and Burke, is said to resemble that of the original Jarvis Street Baptist Church. In comparison to its surroundings the building is very large on both vertical and horizontal planes. At the time of construction it was very likely one of the tallest buildings in the area.


Beliefs

According to the church's pastor, the congregation adheres in principle to a
Calvinistic Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
theology. It is a member of the
Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada (SGF) is a fellowship for Reformed Baptist churches in Canada holding to either the Baptist Confession of 1644 or 1689. History The Fellowship was founded in 1983 by William Payne, pastor of Trinity Baptist ...
. The
Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College The Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College is a Reformed Baptist theological college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The seminary trains pastors for the Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada, the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Ca ...
is adjacent to the church, and closely associated with it.Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College
General Information
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Library

The church also has its own library known as the Bookroom.


Notes


References

* Fitch, E. R., Editor (1911). ''The Baptists of Canada''. Toronto: The Standard Publishing Company. * Morgan, Henry James (1912). ''The Canadian Men and Women of the Time''. Toronto: William Briggs. * Wilson, Paul Robert (1995). "Baptists and Business: Central Canadian Baptists and the Secularization of the Businessman at Toronto's Jarvis Street Baptist Church, 1848–1921." PhD dissertation, The University of Western Ontario. * Haykin, Michael A.G., and Roy M. Paul, Editors (2018). ''Set for the Defense of the Gospel: A Bicentennial History of Jarvis Street Baptist cHURCH, 1818–2018''. Toronto: Jarvis Street Baptist Church.


External links


Official Website of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church
{{Coord, 43.6608139, N, 79.3773947, W, display=title Churches completed in 1875 19th-century Baptist churches Baptist churches in Toronto