History

  • This page features a downloadable list of past service leaflets by calendar year. Unless otherwise noted, the format is PDF (if you do not already have a PDF reader, get Adobe Reader here or choose from a list of alternative software). Leaflets...

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  • All photos courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

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  •   George Horatio Ryder 1838-1922 George H. Ryder was born in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on May 9, 1838, the son of Thomas Philander and Sarah Perry Albee Ryder. His father, a Harvard graduate, was a school teacher; however, there is...

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  • The Lady Chapel was the original choir and sanctuary which was turned 90 degrees to make room for the new and much more impressive sanctuary in the mid 1880’s.

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  • All that we know about Stephen the Protomartyr — that is, the first martyr of the early Christian Church — is found in the Book of Acts. The early Christian congregations, like the Jewish synagogues, had a program of assistance for...

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  • From 2004 to 2014, the parish was served by four priests-in-charge — the Reverend David Neelands (2004-5), the Reverend Christian Swayne OHC (2005-2011), the Reverend David Bryan Hoopes OHC (2011-2013), and the Reverend Maggie Helwig, who...

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  • The original 1858 interior was plain, neat and comfortable. The nave, built to accommodate four hundred people, was 72 feet long by 34 feet wide. The main entrance was on the west through a small porch and one entrance was at the northeast corner of...

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  • 1857 Col. Robert Brittain Denison (1821-1900) builds the church near the old Bellevue Homestead. At that time it was in a field which extended to University College. On July 1, the First Bishop of Toronto lays the cornerstone of the...

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  • Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields is a fine example of a parish church built in 1858 in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The architects were the newly-formed partnership of Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones. A year later the firm was awarded the...

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  • World’s First Radio Broadcasts of Religious Services In 1927, at the very beginning of the Age of Radio, The Rev. James Edward Ward pioneered radio broadcasting of religious services on CFRB and short-wave station VE9GW from St. Stephens. It...

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  • Profiles of church founders Frederic William Cumberland, Robert Brittain Denison, Thomas Fuller, and Georgina Broughall, mainly from previously published sources. There is also a long essay on Canon James Edward Ward (d. 1958), written by his...

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  • Ontario Heritage Act St. Stephen’s was designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act on the recommendation of the Toronto Historical Board in 1977: “The church is recommended for historical and architectural reasons… The...

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