Saint George, Ottawa — Deanery of Central Ottawa

Saint George’s Church in downtown Ottawa seemed almost fated to be a centre of controversy. To begin with, this house of worship was built as a Methodist Episcopal church in the late 1870s, only to be purchased in 1885 by a handful of Anglicans who wanted to attend church close by their homes. Thus, it was that Saint George’s emerged as a church named after England’s patron saint.

The first era of controversy at Saint George’s was immediate, in that the newly acquired building was judged to be highly unsuitable for Anglican worship. The Methodists had built their house of worship according to the Akron plan, that is to say, what amounted to a semicircular or amphitheatre arrangement of pews on a grade with the highest seats on the perimeter and converging at the pulpit in the centre. Moreover, the newly acquired building had no chancel.  These deficiencies were readily solved, with the lofty chancel we see here built at one end and new pews installed so an almost straight centre aisle led to the altar. As we see it here, the main centre aisle appears almost straight until, sooner or later, someone points out that it deviates slightly, due in part to the original design of the church.

There were two exceptional features on the exterior of the church. The first consisted of elaborate terra cotta panels in an archway on the south wall leading down to the basement Sunday School. The second was the soaring landmark spire boasted by this church at the intersection of Metcalfe and Gloucester streets. Too soaring by far, as it turned out, for it was struck by lightning twice on the same day, resulting in it being cut down to the top of the brick tower. Lightning may be exciting, even dangerous, but it is not necessarily controversial.

A major controversy at Saint George’s came in the early 1890s when the Rev. J.M. Snowdon made himself and Saint George’s a household name across the Diocese of Ontario for his attacks on ritualism and the high church practices he perceived to be encouraged at the highest levels. Such attacks on ritualism met with enthusiastic support in rural parishes, thereby roiling the entire diocese in controversy that extended on into the early years of the Diocese of Ottawa. Such controversy seems ironic given the ornate decoration of Saint George’s itself.

Saint George’s provided a bastion within which Roberta Tilton organized the Woman’s Auxiliary into a major force across Canada, and it was within its walls the Good Companions provided a ministry to seniors in the 1950s. The larger demographic flight to the suburbs in the mid-20th century raised the spectre of Saint George’s being closed as its congregation dwindled.

At the beginning of the 21st century, yet another era of controversy arose, over the issue of gay inclusion. This resulted in a schismatic action on the part of the clergy and lay leaders, who were firmly opposed to affirming and accepting the rights of 2SLGBTQI+ persons. After considerable conflict, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa wisely chose to end the dispute by selling the property, which was facing costly repairs, to the breakaway group for a considerable sum.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs and paintings, scrapbooks, parish newsletters, and unusual documents