Calvin Presbyterian Church is a

Presbyterian Church in Canada The Presbyterian Church in Canada () is a Presbyterian denomination, serving in Canada under this name since 1875. The United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939. According to the Religion in Canada, Canada 2021 Censu ...

congregation in the Deer Park area of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The church building is located at 26 Delisle Avenue, close to

Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

and St. Clair Avenue.

History

The congregation began as a "Minority Group" from nearby Deer Park Presbyterian Church (subsequently

Deer Park United Church Deer Park United Church is the name of a United Church of Canada congregation, and also the name of this congregation's former church building at 129 St. Clair Avenue West in the Deer Park, Toronto, Deer Park neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, C ...

) that voted against joining the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

in 1925. First known as "Hill District Presbyterians", they later named their congregation after

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

leader

John Calvin John Calvin (; ; ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French Christian theology, theologian, pastor and Protestant Reformers, reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of C ...

. The church building was designed in 1926 by the firm of Wickson and Gregg. Calvin Presbyterian is part of the Churches on the Hill group, an

ecumenical Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

association of congregations, including Deer Park United, that meet regularly for study, fellowship, and local pursuits.

Senior Ministers

* The Rev. Dr. Joseph Wasson, 1926–1955Calvin Presbyterian Church – A New Era
/ref> * The Rev. Dr. Douglas Herron, 1956–1985 * The Rev. Dr. Kendrick Borden, 1987–2000 * The Rev. Ian A.R. McDonald, 2002–c. 2011 * The Rev. Dr. Emily Bisset, 2012–present

Music facility

Musicians and recording engineers value the unique reverberation pattern of the Calvin Presbyterian sanctuary, with its similarity to the

Sofiensaal The Sofiensaal is a concert hall and recording venue located in Vienna, Austria. It is situated on Marxergasse, in the city's third district of Landstraße. The building burned down on 16 August 2001, but it was rebuilt and opened once again in D ...

in Vienna.

References

External links

*
Calvin Presbyterian Church website
Presbyterian churches in Toronto 20th-century Presbyterian church buildings in Canada {{Presbyterian-church-stub