St. Andrew's United Church

St. Andrew's United Church
St. Andrew's United Church
Location	117 Bloor Street East Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A9
Country	Canada
Denomination	United Church of Canada
Previous denomination	Church of Scotland
Website	www.standrewsunited.com
Architecture
Status	Cathedral
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Norman-Gothic

St. Andrew's United Church is an historic congregation of the United Church of Canada in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located in the city's downtown core near the intersection of Yonge and Bloor it is a combination of five other downtown Toronto congregations. The church originated from St. Andrew's Church, founded in 1830 as the first Church of Scotland congregation in what was then the town of York. The original St. Andrew's was located at the corner of Adelaide and Church Streets. By the 1870s it had become clear that a new church was needed. The downtown core had moved westward, and most of the congregation wanted to shift in that direction as well, but a minority staunchly opposed the idea. With the congregation thus split, the majority moved to a new structure at King and Simcoe in 1876 that still exists today as St. Andrew's Church.

The smaller part of the congregation stayed in the eastern part of town and became known as "Old St. Andrew's" and this church gave rise to the current St. Andrew's United. In 1878 the Old St. Andrew's congregation built a new church at the corner Jarvis and Carlton Streets. With the formation of the United Church of Canada in 1925 Old St. Andrew's elected to join the new union, while St. Andrew's on King remained Presbyterian.

Over the next decades the number of United Church supporters in the downtown area decreased dramatically and a number of congregations were consolidated. St. Andrew's is today the descendant of four other congregations. Westminster-Central United merged with St. Andrew's in 1950. The name was established as St. Andrew's, but the congregation left the Church Street building and moved to the location of Westminster-Central which was on Bloor near Yonge. The Church Street building was sold to two Baltic Lutheran congregations, which were then quickly increasing in number in Toronto. They kept the St. Andrew name and continue to operate as St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Westminster-Central was itself the combination of three historic Toronto churches. Westminster Presbyterian was the first established on the site in 1891. It merged with Grosvenor Street Presbyterian in 1921 when the latter church's building was demolished as part of a plan to extend Bay Street. When the United Church was formed, Westminster then merged with Central Methodist Church, which was located just across the street. This created Westminster-Central, which continued until the merger with St. Andrew's in 1950. The final merger was with Yonge Street United Church in 1973, which was originally located at Yonge and Summerhill, but was destroyed by fire in May 1971.