With its combination of Norman and Gothic Revival architecture, Knox Presbyterian Church at 120 Lisgar Street is both robust and stately. Built in 1932, the Norman-inspired square bell-tower is reminiscent of a sturdy fortress and an embodiment of Psalm 18: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress…” I visited on July 12, joining around 50 members of the multi-generational congregation for the 10:30 AM Sunday service. While the exterior features the heavy stone masonry that is a signature element of Norman architecture, the interior has the lighter and soaring touch of English Gothic Revival. Knox would stand its ground among any late nineteenth or early twentieth century Collegiate Gothic Church in Britain, even while it features the simplified, more functional interior preferred in the Presbyterian tradition.
Prior to the opening of the new church at the corner of Elgin and Lisgar, the faithful worshiped just a few blocks north — at Elgin and Albert — where the National Arts Centre now stands. The old church was built in 1872 and held its last service on December 4, 1932. The land had been expropriated by the City of Ottawa, in order to widen Elgin Street, and the congregation received $342,000 in compensation for the loss of their church. The old church was demolished in 1938 and the site was excavated to a depth of 14-feet. On August 3, 1938, The Ottawa Journal reported on a minor mystery, when the demolition’s superintendent noted that his men never managed to find the old church’s corner stone, which the City had promised to deliver to the congregation. The cornerstone had vanished.
The new church opened its doors to the congregation on December 11, 1932, with the first Sunday service held in the hall, as the completion of the nave continued.
In a letter to The Ottawa Journal published on June 15, 1933, F.A. McDiarmid, Clerk of the Kirk Session, wrote: “The people of Knox Church in planning the new church attempted to carry into effect the thought that this new building was not for its own membership alone, but to add to the beauty of Ottawa and be an integral part of the Confederation Park scheme.”
Reverend Jim Pot serves as the Pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church. On this Sunday, while he was away, Guest Minister Blair Bertrand led the worship and offered the sermon. Rev. Bertrand is an academic, author and missionary who teaches at Zomba Theological University in Malawi. He teaches both in person at the college, as well as remotely from his home in Ottawa. He returns to Malawi three times each year for several weeks at a time. In his sermon, Rev. Bertrand spoke of the Presbyterian Church’s vibrancy in Malawi and the enthusiasm with which the locals express their Christian faith life. There are millions of Presbyterians in Malawi, he observed. The Presbyterian Church of Canada has partnered with the Church in the southeast African nation since the late 1960s. He shared how deeply the Church in Malawi is involved in prison ministry, providing both food and spiritual nourishment to some of the most abandoned and shunned in society. In fact, a Presbyterian church was even built inside one of Malawi’s prisons. Rev. Bertrand shared with this Ottawa congregation the warm greetings of their Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Malawi.
Rev. Bertrand explored the decline of the Church in the West. Why does one bother to go to church, when it seems possible to lead a good life without an explicit faith in God? Is this continued decline inevitable and linear? He told the story of a large conference of missionaries in Edinburgh in 1910. The missionaries and theologians asserted that Africa was a thoroughly heathen continent. Asia was seen as the hope for the spread of Christianity. “How wrong were those missionaries,” exclaimed Rev. Bertrand, pointing to the dynamism of Christianity today in much of Africa. “They were totally wrong! The place where Christianity is growing the most is not Europe and it’s not North America. It’s Africa,” he added.
“The growth that is happening in Africa is not because of good missionaries. The growth is happening because somehow the seed has fallen on fertile ground. When North Americans visit congregations in Malawi, they almost always find that there’s such joy…There’s a sense that God is present, and roiling and doing something right now,” Rev. Bertrand noted, connecting his sermon to the day’s readings from Isaiah 55 and Matthew 13.
In many cases, the missionaries didn’t bring Jesus or the Gospel to these foreign cultures. The seed of the Gospel, the seed of goodness was already there. Their ministry helped that seed grow, Rev. Bertrand observed.
So what’s one of the key differences between the religious imagination in Africa and that which exists in North America? Rev. Bertrand noted that in Africa, people don’t accept that the visible and palpable material world is the only thing that exists. “Almost universally, there’s an imagination that says that the world that we see isn’t all that there is,” Rev. Betrand said. He added that western society’s relative disbelief in the invisible is a recent phenomenon. Both Knox and Calvin believed firmly in both demons and angels. “We are the ones that are weird. We are the ones that have changed our imaginations. To believe in God and that He is present in the world, one must have a spiritual imagination. The soil in the West is perhaps hard, because we have difficulty imagining what God is trying to do,” Rev. Bertrand suggested.
Knox Presbyterian Church is known for its solid music ministry and a repertoire of traditional hymnody, which was evident at this Sunday service. Susan Toman served as the Lead Musician and Pat Beckett as the Cantor. The hymns sung included “Oh That I Had a Thousand Voices,” “Lamp of Our Feet,” and “Lord Thy Word Abideth.” They featured accompaniment on the pipe organ. The lyrics of “Oh That I Had a Thousand Voices,” vigorous in temperament, served well as the service’s Opening Hymn. Particularly memorable was the verse: “All creatures that have breath and motion, that throng the earth, the sea, the sky, now join me in my heart’s devotion, help me to raise his praises high. My utmost pow’rs can ne’er aright declare the wonders of his might.”
Following the service, the faithful were invited to gather in Geneva Hall — a bright community space adjoining the church — for a glass of cold lemonade on this hot mid-summer Sunday. Knox Presbyterian has not only a rich past, but it’s also woven into Centretown’s present fabric. The church is actively involved in the community. Each Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Knox’s doors are opened wide, welcoming anyone looking for a quiet space for personal reflection and meditation. From November through April, the Out of the Cold Ministry — launched in 1995 — serves a warm meal to over 80 people every Saturday afternoon at 4 pm. And in 1982, Knox Presbyterian Church was a co-founder of Daybreak Housing. The congregation continues to support this housing initiative for some of the most vulnerable in Ottawa.
Christopher Adam
Born in Montreal, Christopher Adam has called Ottawa home for the past twenty years. He received his MA from Carleton University, with a thesis focusing on twentieth century European church history, and a PhD in History from the University of Ottawa. Over the years, he has published widely and works in the faith-based charitable sector in Ottawa.