Growing Vital Religious Communities In Canada

Canadian Unitarians and Universalists A Short History	Joseph Workman
MARITIMES 1811 Earliest Unitarians in "Canada" settled in St. John's, Newfoundland. During the 1800's and in to the first half of the 1900's the nonconforming church was mainly Universalist in the Maritimes proper. MONTREAL 1819 - 1829 Entire Workman family immigrated from Northern Ireland (Belfast) to Montreal. John Frothingham and the Workman family established a Unitarian Congregation in Montreal in 1832. It lasted only a few years. 1842 The present congregation was founded. 1843 Rev. John Cordner was settled as the minister of the Montreal Unitarian Congregation and stayed for over 25 years. 1845 Dedication of Montreal's first Unitarian Church. TORONTO 1846 Under the guidance of Joseph Workman, the Unitarian Congregation had a constitution and a minister in William Adam. 1854 Opened a new church building on Jarvis Street. Rev. William Hincks was a professor and filled in as their minister for a few years. 1870's The POST OFFICE MISSION run by Montreal and Toronto Unitarians. "The Unitarian," "Green's Rational Christian," had subscribers all across Canada. WINNIPEG 1890 Bjorn and Jennie Petursson moved from "New Iceland" to Winnipeg and started holding Unitarian services. 1891 First Icelandic Unitarian Church of Winnipeg formed with 22 members. 1908 Frank Wright Pratt sent to Winnipeg by the American Unitarian Association (AUA) and British and Foreign Unitarian Associations (BFUA). Rev. Pratt was to develop congregations in Western Canada. He worked very hard in all the larger centres, eg. Regina, Moosejaw, Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Brandon, Calgary, Lethbridge and Edmonton. VANCOUVER and VICTORIA 1909 Albert J. Pineo, a science teacher in Victoria, launched a congregation in Vancouver in December. 1910 H. E. Kellington, launched a congregation in Victoria in January. 1993 First Unitarian Church of Victoria moved from Superior Street to West Saanich Road in Saanich, with a new minister, Rev. H. Vann Knight. 1996 A group from First Unitarian Church of Victoria in the spring of 1996 form Capital Unitarian Universalist Congregation in James Bay, Victoria. The inauguration ceremony was held on September 22nd. In James Bay New Horizons Seniors Centre. GENERAL 1961 The Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC) was formed. 1961 After a number of years of pressure from the youth wings and others of both organizations the Unitarians and the Universalists in both Canada and the USA merge to form the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in the USA. In Canada the CUC remained the guiding body and is affiliated with the UUA. Only local congregations are part of the UUA. 1961 "Principles" first formulated as apart of the UUA constitution. 1985 After pressure from the women's wing of the UUA the principles were again revised to better reflect the attitudes within the association. 1970 - 2001 Ongoing discussions between the UUA and CUC to accommodate the desire for more autonomy by the CUC. Abridged by Elizabeth Atchison (Capital UU Congregation, Victoria,BC) from Phillip Hewett's "Unitarians in Canada" Approved by Phillip Hewett. August 25, 2001