History
The first congregation of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church began in 1857. Twenty-nine Presbyterians petitioned the London UPC Presbytery for their own congregation from the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland congregation in Detroit. Permission was granted on July 1, and St. Andrew's elected its first Session on July 12, and met in early August with a charter membership of 32. Alexander Bartlet served as Session Clerk from then until his death in 1910, and Sunday school Superintendent until 1893. St Andrew's was at that time part of the UPC's Presbytery of London, in Canada West.
In the early years, there was no church building. Services were held in a room above the store of John McCrae, the same room that was used as the council chambers by the municipal government until Windsor constructed its first town hall. There were also meetings at the Old Ward School. With such a small congregation it was difficult to secure a permanent minister. The usual practice was to bring in someone from Detroit or a missionary to conduct services. Ministers from around the UPC's London Presbytery were appointed to moderate Session Meetings.
The UPC and the Free Church, Canada Synod merged in July 1861 to become the Canada Presbyterian Church. Rev. William Bennet, a native of Ireland who was ministering in New Brunswick was called to the post, and was the first minister inducted in Windsor, serving from October 22 1861 to November 1863. The first building for St. Andrew's was erected in 1865 on the southeast corner of Victoria Avenue and Chatham Street. In May 1866, the Rev. Alexander Ferrier Kemp was called from St Gabriel's Church in Montreal as its second minister. He left in 1870 when appointed to a professorship at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. Dr. Kemp later returned to Canada as principal of the Ottawa Ladies' College, and was co author of the 1883 Handbook of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
Kemp was followed by the Rev. John Gray, an 1870 graduate of Toronto's Knox College (all subsequent senior ministers are Knox Alumni), during whose pastorate (1870-1893) the congregation built a new brick church at Victoria and Park Street, in 1883. On March 16, 1895, the building burned to the ground. Gray, like his predecessor, left for the United States (Kalamazoo, Michigan), and later retired in Toronto.
Read more about this topic: St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Windsor)
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