Welcome to St. P&P’s Audio Tour

Welcome to St Peter and St Paul’s Anglican church. Formerly St George’s Anglican church. Christian worship has been happening at this corner since at least 1880, when a Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal congregation built a church on this site. In 1884, they moved a few blocks away and in 1885 this church became St. George’s Anglican church. Our records show that we paid fourteen-thousand, five-hundred dollars for the building. It was a pretty good deal.

The church was well attended right from the beginning. In the first year it was reported that 425 pew rentals had been taken. All who have read Jane Austen or other older English authors know that churches met their revenue needs by renting their pews. But don’t worry, you can now attend and sit where you like for free.

It’s hard to believe, but in 1886 by our first Easter, we squeezed 198 families and 750 people into the church. While it’s true that our balconies were a lot bigger back then, it must have been a tight fit! Recently, the congregation has averaged a little under 300 people and feels quite full with that many people.The church was growing fast and it wasn’t long before the leadership were calling for renovations. Sir William Ritchie, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, chaired the meeting that adopted the renovation plan. The chief justice was just one of many eminent Canadians who have attended this church.. Dr. W. F. King, Chief Astronomer and Head of the Dominion Observatory, and Sir Charles Tupper, Prime Minister of Canada, were involved in the men’s ministry in their time.

Church attendance has ebbed and flowed with the demographics of the city. During its first 30 years, Centretown was filled with large family homes and big families, but in the 1920s, families began moving outside the downtown to places like the Glebe. Centretown’s population declined, and with it church membership numbers. The church adapted to the changing population of Centretown, and through the years provided a variety of social services to the community. The church hall, for example, was turned over to the YWCA and their work during the Second World War, much like Downton Abbey fans will recall the repurposing of that building during the Great War. You can imagine congregants singing our praises in the church and Sunday school children worshiping together amidst the bustle of busy war relief work. By the 1950s, with few families left downtown, the church

turned to further social services such as care for seniors living in downtown apartments. Now the church continues to evolve as the population of Centretown has begun to grow again.

This memorial is called the Soldier Memorial. The church maintains a soldier's memorial chapel built in the back of the nave. Above the altar is a scroll that records the names of those who served in the two world wars. The memorial is located at the entrance to the nave on your left hand side as you enter through the doors. The memorial is a simple wooden panel with names listed. If you believe that someone in your family is listed on the panel, or you would like to see the panel, you are warmly welcomed to viewit. The memorial panel was installed in the 1950s.

Situated on the North side of the Sanctuary, the King David window pictorial depicts a scene from Second Samuel chapter 23 in which an older King David pours out water that his “mighty men” had fetched for him while he and his army were under siege. King David had longed for a drink of water and his men had broken through enemy lines to fetch water for him. King David refused to drink the water which had been obtained at the peril of his soldiers’ lives.

The Stained Glass window reads, “To the honour and glory of God and in grateful tribute to the men of this parish who gave their lives in the Great War for the maintenance of honour, justice,and Liberty. The window is erected A.D 1918.” The window is erected to the memory of the members of the parish who died in the First World War.

The pulpit on the south side of the church is the raised-up platform from which the preacher would deliver his or her sermon to the congregation. The pulpit's height made for better sound and allowed parishioners sitting anywhere in the church to easily see the preacher.

The high pulpit was also a symbol of the authority of the Word of God under which the congregation and the preacher together exist. The high pulpit is an architectural symbol not meant to elevate the preacher, but to elevate God’s Word. This is a reminder that the architecture of a church is designed to reflect sacred things; little happens without careful thought and design. The high pulpit symbolizes the important and unique nature of the Bible as God’s revelation to God’s people.

It is infrequent now, in the life of this congregation, for a preacher to deliver a sermon from this elevated position. Today, preachers at St. Peter and St. Paul’s deliver their sermon from a lectern at the front of the church, to symbolize God’s word at work among God’s people.

At the West end of the church behind the altar is a stunning stained glass window. It depicts Jesus Christ and the four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. TheThe window is stunning on sunny afternoons when the sun streams through, illuminating the coloured panels. These are just a few of the highlights in our church. There are many plaques dedicated to the memory of men and women who have worshiped and served in the church over the years.
One plaque of particular interest is dedicated to Mrs. Roberta Tilton who founded the Anglican Women’s Auxiliary. This national organization was a pivotal source for women’s ministry in the church throughout the history of Anglicanism in Canada and helped define the growing work of women in the Canadian church.

One of the great improvements of our renovation was the installation of a lift that reaches every floor in our building. Until the renovation, many spaces in the church and hall were only accessible by stairs. This was a constant challenge to our ministry. We are grateful that we can now better serve our community and that all parishioners can fully participate in our activities, wherever they occur in the building.

In addition to being a transition space between the church proper and our church offices, the lobby houses an art gallery. The history of the church is linked to artistic expression. Beauty has always been valued by the congregation, as we have already seen on our tour, and we continue this tradition by holding regular rotating art exhibitions of sacred Christian art in our gallery space.

Rounding out our available meeting space is our library. The lighting and flooring have been updated pending a future full renovation. In the meantime, it is fitted with video equipment and is a suitable venue for small group of between 5 to 10 individuals.

One of our most significant investments was in the complete renewal of our electrical, plumbing and heating and ventilation systems to meet current building codes and the functional needs of a modern inner-City church and its surrounding community. These include a state of the art fire detection and alarm system, automated building comfort controls, energy efficient and effective lighting, modern washrooms with full accessibility, safe and modern electrical services and a building security system.

As part of our renovation, we installed a professional kitchen. We are a church that loves hospitality and the kitchen permits us to prepare meals for our various ministries and church social events. The kitchen features the industrial ovens and dish-washing and drying equipment needed to safely and efficiently serve large groups such as our large congregation and the many guests of our Christmas dinner and Place to Go ministries. Like our hall and chapel, the kitchen is air conditioned.

As part of our renovation, we peeled back our walls to the original stonework. What we found was so beautiful we decided to make it a feature of our church hall. The hall can accommodate large groups and it‘s where we hold our annual Christmas dinner. It is equipped with modern lighting and a high tech audio-visual system for multimedia presentation. The Hall contains modern washrooms.

Like the Hall, our lower chapel features the original stone walls of the church foundation. The chapel is a smaller meeting space used for teaching series, worship and smaller meetings of 20 to 30 people.

Thanks for taking the time to view our building. What is remarkable to us as a congregation is the changes our beloved old church has seen through the ages. It started as a Methodist church and shortly afterwards was acquired by Anglicans and renovated accordingly. In its first decades, hundreds of families, adults and children filled our church. After the First World War, the church began to serve the residents of Centretown who replaced those families living in apartment buildings or in the carved up spaces in Centretown’s mansions, re-purposed to house the younger and more transient civil service that grew with Canada. As the downtown population shrank, so did our church’s congregation. For many years it struggled to remain downtown, but faithful parishioners worked to maintain this space for worship and service, and by the 1990s, we found Ottawans returning to Centretown in growing numbers. Once again we find ourselves surrounded by residents, and our renovated building is ready to grow with Centretown.