The St. Paul's Story

Contributed by J. Goering & M. Zier

I. Roots

St. Paul's-Avenue Road United Church grew from roots in the Wesleyan and Presbyterian traditions. In the 1860's, when Bloor Street was a country road marking the northern boundary of Toronto, both Methodists and Presbyterians took an interest in providing pastoral care and religious services in the Toronto suburb of Yorkville Village. The Primitive Methodist Mission Church on Alice Street in Toronto sponsored a congregation on Cumberland (then Syndenham) Street in Yorkville Village in the early 1860's. In 1866 the Cumberland Street building was sold for $300, and land was acquired and a new building constructed on the corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road. The dedication service was held 29 September 1867. Some sixteen years later, in 1884, the various Methodist connections united into the Methodist Church (Canada, Newfoundland, Bermuda), and it was at this time that the congregation at Yonge and Davenport was named St. Paul's. After the union, St. Paul's congregation decided to move its ministry further west in Yorkville Village, and they purchased property at what is now 121 Avenue Road — the corner of Avenue Road and Webster Avenue. The dedication service for this new church was held on 7 September 1887.

A local historian commented:

During that year we had a marked revival and a spiritual uplift in the religious experience of our people... Those were strenuous times.

The great building boom in Toronto had broken and nearly every person was hard up. The other flowering branch of this church was the Avenue Road United Church which had its roots in the early Toronto Presbyterian communities. A Sabbath School was opened in the summer of 1868 in the Lodge of "Bellevue" on Poplar Plains Road. Twenty-seven children, "seated upon garden chairs and improvised benches", were present at the opening service. The school was subsequently moved to larger quarters — the dining room of Mrs. G. Allan Arthurs on the "forest hill" at the head of Spadina Road — and then to Sorley Cottage just to the South of Davenport Road. Weekly prayer meetings were held, and the school, supported by Charles Street Church, became known as the Davenport Road Mission. It became the centre of social life in the neighbourhood, and "extended help to many who were ill or in any way unfortunate".

In 1872 an unpretentious wooden structure was built to house the Mission. Twenty-five years later, in 1897, the cornerstone was laid for a new church at the corner of Avenue Road and Roxborough Street. The building itself was dedicated in 1906, and the congregation took the name Avenue Road Presbyterian Church.

Figure 2

II. 1887 - Merger

St. Paul's Methodist Church on Avenue Road was dedicated on November 27, 1887. The congregation of this spacious and well-lighted church worshipped God in the company of a choir of forty and an excellent organ. Seated on concrete benches, they listened to the dedication sermon taken from John 2: "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did".

The entire interior of the Church was decorated during the next few years, largely through the generosity of W.E. Doherty and E.R. Wood. Twin spiral-staircases were installed on either side of the choir where generations of the faithful, descending from the balcony, stood to give their testimony to God's work in their lives. At this same time Gustav Hahn was commissioned to decorate the church's ceiling The resulting paintings in the Art Nouveau style are unique in Canada, if not in the world. They filled the church with lily-bearing angels that gave new meaning to the phrase of the Doxology "Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts" The St Paul's Methodist Sabbath School, like that of the Presbyterian Mission School further west, flourished during these years. It celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1897 in the new building which could accommodate some five hundred scholars.

In 1902 there were 350 scholars on the roll, along with 46 officers and teachers. The average attendance was 396, and 12,954 verses were recited that year — an average of 281 verses per Sunday. In addition the library contained 757 volumes ("including about one hundred of the newest books"). There were 96 girl readers and 55 boys, and the average distribution per Sunday was 54 books. In 1904 the St Paul's Sunday School celebrated its 57th anniversary with an extensive programme that included a performance of "The Water Fairies A Temperance Cantata". It included a duet by "Spray" and "Sparkle" entitled "Temperance Fountains". "Spray and Sparkle, your majesty, Pleading for others, here are we, For sons of toil, who throng the street With roughened hands and weary feet; Oh, let them find refreshing cheer In the cooling waters clear; Freely on the public way Let the temp'rance fountains play"

As Toronto grew and many of its notable families moved north into these new parts of the city, St Paul's becomes something of a Toronto landmark. In 1908 Mrs Timothy Eaton and Mrs E R Wood purchased and donated the parsonage to the Church. The congregation took great pride in being the church home of Timothy Eaton and his family for six months before his death, in the aftermath of the "great furnace dispute" at Trinity Methodist Church on Bloor Street. The United Church of Canada came into being in 1925, and both St Paul's Methodist Church and Avenue Road Presbyterian Church entered into that union. The two United Churches, situated so close together on Avenue Road, decided to join into a single congregation during the Summer of 1930, and Inaugural Services of the St Paul's Avenue Road United Church were held in the St Paul's building on 28 September 1930. St Paul's Avenue Road United continued to worship God in thought, word, and deed under the leadership of Rev W Harold Young (1926-1947), Gordon W Porter (1948-56), and TW Hazlewood (1957-8), but outside the church doors the city of Toronto was changing rapidly, and a new challenge was being prepared for the congregation.

The presence of the Youth Centre provided a unique opportunity to the small group of young adults at St Paul's Avenue Road. As members or adherents we participated in the life of the congregation through attendance at worship and in some cases, membership in the choir. As volunteer counsellors at the Centre, John Hannaby, Martha Jane Mowbray, Paul Stott, Marilyn Webb and others had the opportunity to participate in an exciting experiment in social outreach. The rich combination of Dr Berry's preaching, the creative leadership of Jim Smith at the Centre, the opportunities of interacting with the clients of the Centre along with our daily responsibilities at the university or at work provided fertile soil for our maturing Christian faith. We learned that by being involved directly in social action, we had the chance to put our faith to the test, to determine whether what we knew and were learning of Christianity had any real meaning when we had to face situations completely foreign to our previous experience. The fellowship within the group manifested itself in many late nights spent at "Webster's" restaurant, opposite the church, sharing experiences, victories or defeats, working with the Centre clients and trying to work out for ourselves what it all really meant. Although there was some attempt made by Jim Smith to bring the group together for bible study and leadership training, it was the informal interactions that proved most instructive for most of us. The opportunity to work on a regular basis with Jim Smithand other staff of the Centre including Bill Phipps in his student minister days, showed us how faith leads to action, and how dedicated service, provided on an ongoing basis with very little thanks received, can make a difference in the lives of servers and served alike.

Paul Stott

Highlights at St. Paul's

When all of the inner city churches of Toronto were facing social change, St Paul's Avenue Road Church had already become involved in some of the issues. The children of welfare families and of working mothers were dropping out of school and juvenile delinquency was increasing at an alarming rate. Teenage drinking and heavy-handed police action brought increased violence to the streets of the Annex. The church, once famous for its pulpiteers and fashionable church attendance was experiencing a shrinking and scattered congregation. The high cost of maintaining its magnificent sanctuary known for its artistic beauty and its great organ was making it difficult to raise enough funds to meet its social and spiritual challenges. More and more, the social needs required costly changes in the fabric. Victorian architecture with its high balconies around the Sunday School hall and the church itself were being eyed by all kinds of social groups for whom formal worship came secondary to social action. The church was immediately attached to the bohemian Village of Yorkville where the occupants were painting daisies on their streets, celebrating May Days, and raising eyebrows among the proper and the dignified. St Paul's accomplished and experimental Organist was one of the Village innovators. The Church processionals were impressive with colorful hoods and gowns led by the organist's vigorous compositions that were as lively as his own tri-colored robes. The choir always excelled itself under his adventurous spirit but there were always some who wondered if there were not times when he was moving too rapidly from time-honored propriety and ecclesiastical tradition. This was always the concern of the Elders and the Stewards as they chose their leaders and undertook to keep the church and its building relevant to new challenges.

Few members will forget Mr Alexander who led the men in a practical attempt to put the facilities in shape for the new challenges of a changing neighbourhood. During the ministries of Dr Stewart Crysdale and Dr William Berry significant changes were made. The Christian Education Council of Metropolitan Toronto was moved into a set of new offices on the second floor and its Director, Rev James Smith, brought the resources of the Ecumenical Council into a close working relationship with the staff. Crysdale and Smith took on the Ramsden Park Greasers, as they were called, and set up a Youth Centre in the basement hall. The lower kitchen was converted into a canteen offering food free to hungry kids or at a nominal prices to those who could pay. A number of companies later contributed cases of soup, beans and spaghetti. The Board of Stewards led by Mr Alexander raised funds for these alterations but few people knew that much of the work was done by members of the gang. Mr Smith credits Divine Providence for the fact that he had become a carpenter before he became a minister. Mrs Young's Ladies will remember with mixed feelings how he and the gang disturbed their weekly Sewing Club with sawing and hammering when they converted the areas around the Sunday School room balcony into offices.

Sections of the basement were also provided with eating booths, a shower room and storage space for canned goods known as the Wells Fargo Room. The ladies also gave up the lower kitchen when it became a canteen. It was a blessing in disguise for it put their lovely upstairs kitchen out of bounds to the gang. They did however, surrender all of their facilities to the Caravan groups for the annual week of ethnic celebrations. In the middle of his tireless efforts for renovations, Mr Alexander took ill and died but his example lived on.

When the Hippies came in the mid-sixties and the attendance at the Youth Centre increased to 300, 400 and as high as 700 per night the new young people joined in the self-help ventures. The area beneath the main sanctuary had never been excavated. Some of the Hippies were provided with shovels, picks and wheel-barrows, and Smith was provided with a new gang whose members were happy to be fed daily and paid one dollar an hour provided by The Yorkville Area Community Services Organization which D' Berry helped to found. Forty truck-loads of clay were removed and piled like a mountain on the Yardley's property next door where their building had been torn down. There was great consternation over this but Mr Ken Davis of Eglinton United Church removed the clay and brought in the concrete for the floor. All the labour was done by the Hippies. They raised $4000 to cover the cost by charging ten cents a night when the attendance at the centre was running over 400, five times a week. No kid was refused entrance for some friend could always put up a buck "for-the-next-ten-who are broke", they said, and they were as good as their word. There was a lot of sharing among the Hippies and their friends.

The new basement was divided into a number of areas. One long stretch on the south wall was turned into a slot-car race track by Wayne Smith who had been in charge of Jungle J Nelson's Slot-Car Emporium. Experienced race car drivers from Mosport joined the Hippies to race their model cars and often declared that the thrill was equal to the real thing at Mosport. An area was set up for body building exercises and weight-lifting where the Community Police participated every evening. There was a music nook on the North side near the boiler-room equipped with a Hi-Fi and a large collection of quality records. A grotto chapel was installed at the back end with a water fall and screen for showing slides and films including Montreal's Expo, the Moon walkers and hundreds of slides showing the kids in the centre back to its beginning. There was also a paint room where Jim Short painted portraits of many of the young people and shared his talents with the other painters and played ping pong with any challenger between sittings. The largest room served many purposes including crafts and round-table discussions. The Grotto Chapel was often called the Think Tank because soft music was piped in and a lonely run-away could sit and meditate for hours away from the rowdier activities.

In the meantime Dr Berry and the Elders met with a group of men of means who provided the sanctuary with a beautiful stained glass partition, a new set of glass doors and a fine social room at the foyer. The great neon Cross was placed on the steeple top which is still visible from the North end of Avenue Road and South to the City. It became a beacon of mercy to lost kids during the sixties and seventies. St Paul's also became the home of the Unique Training School organized by Mrs Lottie Vowles. Each Saturday for a number of years over 100 teachers and church school workers were given courses in Christian Education. It was a city-wide operation which provided the leadership of professors and experts for all of the age groups. It was a fine follow-up for the previous five years of leadership training courses given by the Ecumenical Council which was phased out when the New Curriculum came in.

By 1972, changes were blowing in the wind. The Greasers were long gone and the Hippies had scattered and the scene had changed to the Yonge Street Strip. The Youth Centre was taken over by children from Jesse Ketchum School and the Federal Government was getting ready to finance YACSO in a valiant attempt to keep the kids from becoming drop-out delinquents. The old gang had always said, 'If you think we are tough, wait until you meet our younger brothers and sisters'". During its support of the work, the United Appeal experts had always maintained that we should not wait until they become juvenile delinquents but start when they are ten years old. Food services and vitamin supplements were being offered and all of the crafts were being led by a youthful staff. It was a viable programme because the kids themselves had discovered the Centre. It was said that the local kids were taking back their territory and things were getting busy again.

In a survey of churches done by the United Church of Canada, St Paul's report showed that its building was being used every day of the week as few church buildings were. Nevertheless, official meetings were being held to phase out the church. St Paul's was to be associated with St Andrew's and later with Trinity Church. St Paul's is not the first church, nor the last, to face the agony and the ecstasy of valid attempts to serve followed by a phasing out. What is most important is that we should learn from the courageous attempts that were made to keep the church relevant to the times by the practical application of the teaching of Jesus Christ. Faith and Order must be balanced with Life and Work. The pulpiteers and the Christian Education workers must unite their forces to bring comfort and help to the alienated. Self aggrandizement must give way to servant oriented people and congregations that no longer worship buildings. In their adoration of God, they must turn to the people and provide a healing community. At St Paul's, when rebelling youth would no longer let us preach to them, or write for them, we learned to live with them. It was a two-way street and there was much for us to learn. And in the learning there was infinite self-satisfaction and genuine fulfillment. And never let it be said that the people that were helped did not contribute. They left a building so well-equipped for social services that the building itself is still preserved as a public centre. St Paul's was sold to people who would perpetuate its beautiful architecture and something of its service to the public. Could this have been a form of stewardship too?

James E Smith

Worship and mission continued in the church on Avenue Road until 1980. The last wedding held there, one which filled the sanctuary with people and joyful noise, united Norah McMurtry and Dennis Howlett in matrimony. The last service was held in the historic building on 1 June 1980.

In 1979 St Paul's Avenue Road had entered into discussions with Trinity United about the possibility of moving the congregation and the St Paul's Centre groups to Trinity. The result was a unique experiment in which two congregations shared the same building, Official Board, Board of Trustees, and a management board, but each maintained its own distinctive ministry. The St Paul's congregation worshiped in the Trinity Chapel with part-time ministerial assistance from Sue (Mabey) Miller, a graduate of Emmanuel College and member of Trinity. Throughout these many vicissitudes of place and style, the congregation of St Paul's could look back to the prayer of an unidentified Trustee who had been a member of the church in 1887, as he completed his account of the earliest history of St Paul's.

"Should not our Church be a great Dynamo by which the forces of the Kingdom of Christ may be made available for the uplift of humanity and for a quickening effect upon the whole city and Nation, and as such take upon ourselves the work of fostering a young cause and so follow the good example of our forebears, as has been done in connection with this Church "