Page 7 - Presbyterian Connection

Connection
LEADERSHIP
History of the PCC National Office
presbyterian.ca
SPRING 2023
From 1950 to 1966, national office was housed at 63 St. George St., Toronto, just north of Knox College.
Staff at the national office during the 1950s.
The Rev. Dr. J.A. Munro, Moderator of the 91st General Assembly (1965), turning the ceremonial first sod in the construction of the new building.
The Governor General of Canada, the Rt. Hon. Roland Michener, is re- ceived at the entrance to 50 Wynford Drive by the Rev. Dr. J. Logan-Vencta, Moderator of the 1967 General As- sembly, and the Rev. G. Deane John- ston, Moderator of the 1966 General Assembly.
All photos have been provided courtesy of the Presbyterian Church Archives.
The national office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada plays an important role in the lives of all those connected to the Presbyterian denomination. National office is not just a place where staff are employed, it’s a place that unites us as nowhere else can. It’s a place of work and a place of worship; a place of conversation and consultation; a workplace where people care for one another; where friendships are born and grow; where there is a sense of loss when people retire or move on; where we witness up close, and share in, the blessings of the hand of God across Canada and beyond.
National office has a long, rich history.
The year 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the national office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. From 1925 to 1928, the national office was lo- cated in what was called the Har- land Smith Building at the corner of Bay and Adelaide Streets.
From 1928 to 1938, our prede- cessors moved a block north to 373 Bay Street and set up their typewriters on the 7th floor of the Sterling Tower building, which still stands today. The PCC was among its first tenants. The Ster- ling Tower, for one year, was the tallest building in Toronto.
In 1938, staff relocated to the Concourse building at 100 Ad- elaide Street West, where they set up on the 8th floor, and remained
Alexander Gow, the grandnephew of Colonel Walter Gow of Willowdale, Ont., is shown at the memorial plaque in the church offices with his wife, Kathleen, and son, James, at the unveiling on Nov. 30, 1967.
ing took place on November 30, 1967.
It is a little-known fact that the office at 50 Wynford Drive is of- ficially the Walter Gow Memo- rial Building. Walter Gow was a prominent Toronto lawyer, war veteran and faithful member of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. When he died in 1959, Walter Gow left a substantial bequest to the PCC. The PCC decided to use this generous donation to help purchase property and construct a building in which to house the national office. We have Walter Gow to thank for what we have today. Alexander Gow, grand- nephew of Walter Gow, was able to attend the official opening, along with his wife and son.
This year, the month of August will mark the 57th anniversary of the current national office build- ing. The city and the neighbour- hood continue to evolve, and the church continues to evolve under the illumination of God’s spirit. As talks are underway regarding the national office’s next move— back into the heart of the city— there’s no doubt excellent work will continue for the PCC in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
there until 1950.
From 1950 to 1966, the na-
tional office was housed at 63 St. George St., immediately north of Knox College. Currently, it is the School of Graduate Studies on the University of Toronto cam- pus. It is also known as the Mac- donald-Mowat house because both Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, andaformerPremierofOntario, SirOliverMowat,andowneditat different times.
In the mid-1950’s, the church began to expand and the office facilities at 63 St. George St. quickly became insufficient for the number of staff. A building committee was struck in 1958 to search out possible locations for a larger office.
During the early 1960s, a num- ber of sites across Toronto were considered for the location of the national office. In terms of prime possibilities, the most popular was to construct a new office building behind St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, which is located at the corner of King and Simcoe, downtown Toronto. However, negotiations broke down in 1964 and that idea was abandoned.
When those negotiations failed, the committee returned to an ear- lier proposal to construct a build- ing on property the church owned in Flemingdon Park, adjacent to the Ontario Hospital Associa- tion on the south-east corner of Don Mills Rd and Eglinton Ave. By 1964, however, the Ontario Hospital Association wished to expand its building, and so they made a deal with the PCC. In ex- change for the Flemingdon Park location, the association offered the church an alternative site: 50 Wynford Drive. On August 11, 1966, the staff moved into their new home. The Official Open-
The national office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1966.
PRESBYTERIAN
7
Ecumenical Shared Ministry
Ecumenical Shared Ministry is people worshipping and serving God in a unified way, while still maintaining their denominational identity and connections. It is any combination of denominations sharing a program, mission, ministry or building.
Ecumenical shared ministries take many forms.
• They may be as simple as sharing programs and/or staff. • Some congregations may share a building only and
otherwise maintain their own denominational ministry
and services.
• Sometimes several denominations may have one
ordained minister and alternate the forms of worship of
the participating denominations.
• Sometimes several denominations may have one
ordained minister and one common service that meet the
needs and requirements of each denomination.
• Sometimes several denominations share and maintain
church buildings in a number of locations, and rotate services.
Ecumenical Shared Ministry:
• may allow a Christian congregation to exist where otherwise it couldn’t.
• provides a more unified Christian witness to a community.
• may be more economical.
• provides more oppor tunity for programs
(e.g., church choirs, Sunday schools)
not always possible in very small congregations.
The Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Churches in Canada have formed (as of November 2006) a national ecumenical shared ministries task force, which collects and disseminates resources about ecumenical shared ministries. Using material initially developed by ecumenical shared ministries in northern Alberta and British Columbia, and reviewed by the Anglican-United Church Dialogue, the task force has prepared a guide: Handbook for Ecumenical Shared Ministries. This material is intended as a resource for those engaged in or contemplating the establishment of an ecumenical shared ministry, and those interested in learning more about the dynamics of ecumenical shared ministries.