Reflections on the heritage, life & work of faith communities in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario
At the height of the Cold War, on March 2, 1954 — standing before 500 people gathered at the newly dedicated Westminster Presbyterian Church — Progressive Conservative MP and soon-to-be Prime Minister John Diefenbaker declared that Christianity was “freedom’s finest fruit” and called upon “this wonderful church [to be] the embodiment of freedom.” I visited…
The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, the Macdonald Highland Dancers, the Governor General’s Foot Guards Quartet and the Ceilidh Band joined forces to bring a taste of Scotland to St. Giles Presbyterian Church in the Glebe on Friday, December 5. It was all in support of the Centretown Community Food Centre, a ministry of the Centretown…
Few churches can say that their cornerstone was laid by Canada’s longest serving prime minister. Yet that’s precisely St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church’s claim to historic fame. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King laid the church’s cornerstone in 1947 and the congregation held its first service at the new 579 Parkdale Avenue location in October 1948….
Extraordinary music, both in its quality and diversity, and this congregation’s living connection to its Scottish heritage are what struck me the most during my visit to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Remembrance Sunday. Built in 1872, St. Andrew’s — located on Parliament Hill — is Ottawa’s flagship Presbyterian church. The Gothic Revival church is…
Earlier this month on a hazy Sunday, while visiting an elderly and ailing friend Stateside, smoke from Canadian forest fires drifted across the St. Lawrence. It clung to the humid air over New York’s North Country. After a 45-minute drive down the 416 and having crossed the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, I turned right and drove…