The Present Church
The fire precipitated the building of the current structure in 1895, with the first service held on June 14, 1896. The church was originally designed to seat 800. The balconies were added in 1903, allowing the seating of another 400 people. In 1915, Rev. James C. Tolmie (1893-1915) resigned from St Andrew's, having combined the pulpit when elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Windsor in 1914. He went overseas with the Essex Fusiliers, and was the finalist in the provincial Liberal Party Leadership Convention in both 1919 and 1922. He was designated "Minister Emeritus" at St. Andrew's.
Rev. Dr. Hugh M. Paulin arrived in late 1915 and served the congregation over thirty-five years until his death in October 1952. The congregation voted in 1925 to remain within the continuing Presbyterian Church in Canada by a vote of 18 for joining into the United Church of Canada, and 607 against the proposed merger. The membership at St Andrew's exceeded 2,000 members the year Dr. Paulin died, and retained the largest membership in the PCC in the years following 1925, until surpassed by St Andrew's Church in Kitchener.
The Rev. Dr. William Lawson succeeded Paulin, serving from 1953 until his retirement in 1981, followed by Dr. Robert Fourney (1982-1996). The Rev. Dr. Jeff Loach, now minister of St Paul's in Nobleton, Ontario, ministered from 1997 until 2004.
An addition to the building was completed in 1983, consisting primarily of the Meeting Place and the Herman-Clark Hall, along with significant renovations to the offices and Sunday School rooms in the southern part of the building.
In June 1980, the congregation hosted the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada; the opening service was held in St Andrew's, with the remainder of the event held at the University of Windsor. The Assembly coincided with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America's General Assembly held in Detroit, and there was a joint session held at Cobo Hall. In June 1997, the PCC General Assembly returned to Windsor.
The congregation celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2007. The celebrations started with the induction of only their ninth Senior Minister, Rev. Ronald Sharpe, who arrived from a ministry in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
The building also hosts a Chinese-speaking congregation, the Windsor Chinese Presbyterian Church, that holds weekly worship on Sunday afternoons.
Read more about this topic: St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (Windsor)
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