A Brief History of St. Luke’s
The story of St. Luke’s begins in a small frame building in the heart of Victorian Toronto in the year 1870. Known as the Church of England in Canada, the mostly British congregation brought the traditions of the “old country”. Sunday worship included Morning Prayer at 11 am, Sunday School at 3pm and Evening Prayer at 7pm; a format that would continue for many decades.
It wasn’t long before St. Luke’s moved to a building at the corner of St. Joseph and the newly extended Bay Street, where it remained until the 1930s, when it moved to Westwood Avenue in East York. At that time, East York was considered a rural area and the collegiate even offered a course in “agriculture”. The final move to the present site at Coxwell and Cosburn Avenues took place in 1970.
St. Andrew, which stood on the northeast corner of Pape Ave. and Cosburn Ave. amalgamated with St. Luke’s on Westwood. St. Andrew was uniquely named “the church built in a day” because a work crew showed up in the morning and by sunset, the building was ready for Evening Prayer.
In 1970, St. Luke’s moved to the Church of the Comforter, which had erected the new building a few years previously. The name was changed to St. Luke’s to accommodate the new parishioners. Although the Church of the Nativity did not formally join with St. Luke’s, a number of its parishioners did when their church closed.
St. Luke’s has remained faithful to its Anglican roots and yet embraces the changes that have come with time. Today, St. Luke’s has a multicultural and multigenerational congregation with parishioners from many nations who are integral to our worship and ministry.