St. Matthew's United Church (Toronto, Ont.)

Corporate body

St. Matthew's United Church (Toronto, Ont.)

1966-

St. Matthew's United Church, located at 729 St. Clair Avenue near Rushton Road, was founded in 1966 when St. Clair and St. Columba United Churches amalgamated It was soon joined by Epworth United Church and Oakwood United. It is still an active congregation of the United Church of Canada.

St. Clair United Church was Methodist in origin, starting in 1876 when residents of the Bracondale neighbourhood began meeting in various homes. A meeting house was erected in 1878, and in 1890 a new building was dedicated at the corners of St. Clair and Rushton, known at Zion Methodist. A subsequent rebuilding on the same site from 1914-1924, and a new name, St. Clair, was adopted prior to the congregation joining the United Church in 1925.

St. Columba was originally a Presbyterian Church mission, at the corners of Alcina Street and Vaughan Road in 1890. This work was abandoned in 1896 and a subsequent mission in 1902 developed into a new church at St. Clair and Vaughan (1903), known as Wychwood Presbyterian. In 1918 the name was changed to St. Columba, and new construction in 1924 resulted in a larger church joining the United Church in the following year.

Epworth United, located at the corners of Yarmouth and Christie streets, south of Dupont Street, was erected in 1890 as a Methodist Church. It joined with St. Matthew's in 1981.

Oakwood United Church began life as a mission of the Earlscourt Methodist Church in 1913, and became a separate church in 1917 with a building near the corners of Vaughan Road and Glenora. In 1975 it joined with St. Matthew's as a two-point charge, later being absorbed into the larger congregation.

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