Christ's Church Cathedral (Hamilton)

Christ's Church Cathedral, the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Niagara

Anglican Diocese of Niagara

The Diocese of Niagara is one of thirty regional divisions in the Anglican Church of Canada. The see city of the diocese is Hamilton with the Bishop's seat being located at Christ's Church Cathedral on James Street North. Located within the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, it borders the...

, is located at 252 James Street North

James Street (Hamilton, Ontario)

James Street is a Lower City arterial road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts off at the base of the Niagara Escarpment from James Mountain Road, a mountain-access road in the city, originally was a one-way street going south throughout but now has sections of it that are two-way...

, in Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Built in 1835 (but see further below), it predates the existing Anglican cathedrals of Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Kingston

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

, London

London, Ontario

London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...

, Halifax, Fredericton and St. John's

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...

and as such is the oldest extant Anglican cathedral in anglophone Canada

Canada

and the second oldest in all of Canada: only Holy Trinity Cathedral in Québec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

predates it..

Construction history

The building has an unusual construction history. Originally a stuccoed wooden Palladian-Baroque structure designed by Robert Charles Wetherall, it was incrementally transformed into stone Decorated Gothic, initially to an 1848 design by William Thomas, with Thomas’s chancel and the first two bays of his nave being added to Wetherall's existing wooden church, the resulting hybrid being dubbed “the humpback church.” The stone gothic nave was completed to a further design by Henry Langley

Henry Langley (architect)

Henry Langley was a Canadian architect based in Toronto. He was active from 1854 to 1907. Among the first architects born and trained in Canada, he was a founding members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880 and was instrumental in establishing the Ontario Association of Architects in 1889...

(the architect of some 70 Ontario churches, including Metropolitan United Church

Metropolitan United Church

Metropolitan United Church is a large neo-Gothic church in downtown Toronto, Canada. It is one of the largest and most prominent churches of the United Church of Canada. It is located on Queen Street East at the corner of Church Street in Toronto's Garden District.-History:The congregation,...

, Toronto and the bell tower and spire of St. Michael's Cathedral, Toronto

St. Michael's Cathedral, Toronto

St. Michael's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada, and one of the oldest churches in the city. It is located at 200 Church Street in Toronto's Garden District. St. Michael's was designed by William Thomas, designer of eight other churches...

(Roman Catholic)) in 1876, the original wooden portion having been demolished in 1872 to clear room for it and, inter alia, the chancel extended in 1924-25. Meanwhile, Thomas, in a state of indignation over the perverse use to which the Anglicans had put his design, took it to the Presbyterians, who built the still-standing St Paul’s Church to Thomas’s plan for Christ’s Church.

Christ's Church has ornately carved west doors and fine stained glass windows.

Music and arts

The Cathedral is a notable arts, concert, recital and recording venue in Hamilton; its Gallery 252, operated by the Cathedral’s arts committee, mounts monthly exhibitions of oils, pastels, charcoal drawings, photography, silk screening and stitchery as a means of introducing to the public artists not yet sufficiently established for commercial galleries.

Controversial matters

The parish has taken notably liberal stands on socially and theologically controversial issues; in 2003 the Dean performed an irregular wedding for a lesbian couple while the national church was debating the issue of blessing of same-sex unions (as it continues to do) and without the diocesan synod having reached any conclusion on the matter, provoking censure by the Bishop. (The diocesan synod did subsequently approve blessing of same-sex unions in 2004 though the Bishop withheld his consent notwithstanding which the local Roman Catholic diocese withdrew from an annual service with the Anglicans and Lutherans to renew and reaffirm recognition of one another's baptismal vows.) It is considered a gay-friendly parish and Integrity

IntegrityUSA

IntegrityUSA is a U.S. not-for-profit organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and straight friends. Integrity was founded by Dr...

, an Anglican/Episcopalian gay and lesbian organisation, conducts monthly worship services in the Cathedral.

External links

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