Toronto Chinese Baptist Church Front 2025-05-19

The Toronto Chinese Baptist Church is a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

church serving the

Chinese-Canadian Chinese Canadians are Canadians of full or partial Chinese ancestry, which includes both naturalized Chinese immigrants and Canadian-born Chinese. They comprise a subgroup of East Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of Asian Canadians. ...

community 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. It is affiliated with

Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ) is a Baptist Christian denomination in central Canada. The organization's headquarters is based in Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. CBOQ is a partner of Canadian Baptist Ministries. History In 1 ...

History

It was originally built as Beverley Street Baptist Church in 1880 as an outreach of

Jarvis Street Baptist Church The Jarvis Street Baptist Church is a Baptists, Baptist church located at the intersection of Gerrard Street (Toronto), Gerrard Street and Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto. One of the oldest churches in the city, its congregation was founded in 1 ...

while the rest of the church was completed in 1886. The architects were Langley and

Burke Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...

. Funding was largely donated by

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 B ...

and it is a designated historic building. It overlooks The Grange that is today attached to the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

. The church is located just to the east of the heart of Toronto's

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

. Chinese Baptists first met in the basement of the building in 1967. Five year later the church was purchased for the Chinese community with services being held in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

. Today the church offers services in Cantonese,

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. The growing Chinese-Canadian Baptist community has also led to the East Toronto, North Toronto, Mississauga and Scarborough Chinese Baptist Churches being established in Toronto's suburbs as well as the Windsor Chinese Baptist Church. Many of these daughter churches have in turn established daughter churches of their own further into the suburbs.

External links

Official site
Chinese-Canadian culture in Toronto Baptist churches in Toronto Gothic Revival architecture in Toronto Gothic Revival church buildings in Canada {{Baptist-church-stub

History

See also

External links