St Andrew's United Church

Story

St. Andrew's United Church is an historic congregation of the United Church of Canada in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located in the city's downtown core near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor it is a combination of five other downtown Toronto congregations. The church originated from St. Andrew's Church, founded in 1830 as the first Church of Scotland congregation in what was then the town of York. The original St. Andrew's was located at the corner of Adelaide and Church Streets. By the 1870s it had become clear that a new church was needed. The downtown core had moved westward, and most of the congregation wanted to shift in that direction as well, but a minority staunchly opposed the idea. With the congregation thus split, the majority moved to a new structure at King and Simcoe in 1876 that still exists today as St. Andrew's Church.The smaller part of the congregation stayed in the eastern part of town and became known as "Old St. Andrew's" and this church gave rise to the current St. Andrew's United. In 1878 the Old St. Andrew's congregation built a new church at the corner Jarvis and Carlton Streets. With the formation of the United Church of Canada in 1925 Old St. Andrew's elected to join the new union, while St. Andrew's on King remained Presbyterian.Over the next decades the number of United Church supporters in the downtown area decreased dramatically and a number of congregations were consolidated. St. Andrew's is today the descendant of four other congregations. Westminster-Central United merged with St. Andrew's in 1950. The name was established as St. Andrew's, but the congregation left the Church Street building and moved to the location of Westminster-Central which was on Bloor near Yonge. The Church Street building was sold to two Baltic Lutheran congregations, which were then quickly increasing in number in Toronto. They kept the St. Andrew name and continue to operate as St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church.