Cathedral Church of St. James (Toronto)

The Anglican St. James Cathedral in Toronto, Canada, belongs to the oldest church in the city. It was founded in 1797; the sacred building was completed in 1844 and has long been the tallest building in Toronto. The cathedral stands on the northeast corner of the intersection of Church Street with King Street East. To the north runs the Adelaide Street East, east of it extends the same St. James's Park.

History

Today's St. James Cathedral replaced a wooden church, which was built in 1807 and enlarged in 1818. During a visit of Bishop Stewart of Quebec in 1828 decided that the construction of the Church of the Apostle St. James, as at that time the church was called. 1832, the wooden church was replaced by a stone, which, however, burned down in 1839 after two years of construction. The congregation met after the fire in the first town hall of the city, which is part of the St. Lawrance market today, as well as in Upper Canada Collage at the crossroads between King and Simcoe Street. Also in 1839, the Diocese of the Anglican Church was founded in Toronto, which split from the Province of Quebec. The first Bishop of Toronto was John Strachan.

The third religious building is today in neo-Gothic style church and provides for seats 2,000 people. It measures up to its tip 92.9 meters and is named after the Saint Joseph's Oratory is the second tallest church in Canada. The total length of the nave, including the tower is 60.3 meters, the maximum width amounts to 29.9 meters. Your architect was Fredrick Cumberland. It was opened on 19 June 1853 the service. The completion of its tower and the installation of church bells dragged on until 1965, the spire was completed in 1874. The architect of the church tower was William Storm. A year later, the tower clock was installed. The cemetery was originally east of the sacred building and was relocated in the 1840s in the Episcopal Church of St. James -the -Less.

In 1999, the western facade served as a backdrop for some scenes of the film comedy Detroit Rock City.

Description

Bells

The St. James Cathedral in Toronto has twelve bells, ten of these bells were cast in 1828. Noteworthy is the fact that the bells of the cathedral are not mechanically driven, but that each bell is operated by a bell-ringer. Each bell is after one of the municipalities of the old city of York (the old name of Toronto ) named.

Interior and equipment

As one enters the St. James Cathedral through the main entrance on King Street, you pass through the entrance hall to another room, the square form part of the church tower. Right in this room, the St. George's Chapel closes to the left of them in the southwest is a small souvenir shop. In this room there is a bust in a wooden shrine of Henry James Grasett (1808-1867), the first dean of Toronto. Of all the three rooms you can go north to the longhouse, which is divided into the central nave and a western and an eastern aisle. Since the St. James Cathedral has no crossing, it also has no transept. Nevertheless, there are approximately in the middle of the nave to the west and to the east two smaller messages, but these are significantly lower than the edge of the roof of the nave. To the west is a small anteroom adjacent with another door, to the east of the Baptistery is housed.