Dean of Rupert's Land
| St. John's Anglican Cathedral | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Coordinates: 49°55′14″N 97°07′31″W / 49.920488°N 97.125230°W | |
| Location | 135 Anderson Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R2W 5M9 |
| Country | Canada |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Cathedral |
| Functional status | Active |
| Architect(s) | Parfitt and Prain |
| Architectural type | Norman-Gothic |
St. John's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada which is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rupert's Land. It is located in Downtown Winnipeg on Anderson Avenue near Main Street and the Red River. St. John's Cathedral marks the birthplace of the Anglican Church in Western Canada.
In 1812, the first group of Selkirk Settlers established a burying ground immediately south of the present cathedral. It is the oldest Canadian Anglican parish west of the Great Lakes, which was established in October 1820 when the Rev. John West, the first Anglican priest in Western Canada, arrived from England under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society and the Hudson's Bay Company in the Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement) to serve as chaplain to the Hudson's Bay officers and men, missionary to the aboriginal people in the area, and pastor to the Selkirk Settlers. The site for the church was chosen by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, during his visit to the settlement in the summer of 1817. The majority of the Selkirk Settlers were Presbyterians, but they attended Anglican services until the first Presbyterian minister arrived in 1851.
There have been four churches on the site. The first was a Church Mission House constructed in 1822 by the Rev. John West near the south-east corner of the present cemetery; however, it was washed away in the great flood of 1826. In 1833 it was replaced by a second church, a stone building built on the site of the present Cathedral. This second church became the first Anglican Cathedral in Western Canada soon after the first Bishop of Rupert's Land, the Rt. Rev. David Anderson, was consecrated in 1849. The building was severely weakened by the flood of 1850, and thus a third building, also of stone, was erected on the same site from 1862 to 1863. The fourth and present Cathedral was reconstructed in 1926 using most of the stone from the previous building under the guidance and inspiration of Archbishop Samuel P. Matheson. It was regarded by him as a tribute and memorial of his predecessor, Archbishop Robert Machray. Archbishop Machray, who succeeded Bishop David Anderson in 1865, is regarded by many local Anglicans as having given unsparingly of his time and talents to St. John's and the Diocese of Rupert's Land for almost forty years. In 1893 he became the first Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
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