The original congregation of Toronto's First Baptist Church fled slavery and took the Underground railroad to this city for freedom of body and soul. Today, the church celebrates 170 proud years of existence - older than Toronto, older than Ontario and older than Canada.
"We are first on several counts," said church historian Penelope Hodge.
"We are definitely the oldest black congregation in Toronto. We are the longest continuing congregation in Toronto."
"We are the first Baptist church, black or white, in Toronto, probably in Ontario and likely in Canada."
The congregation, in fact, was formed long before members had a church to worship in. In the early 1820's, a number of slaves who had escaped the slave masters in the southern states of America - via the system known as the Underground Railroad - into what was then Upper Canada, gathered to thank God for their escape from bondage.
It was the first meeting of Baptists - the religion was well known in the slave states of America - in what was then York, now Toronto, and they were soon joined by white Baptists who had no church of their own.
In 1826, Elder Washington Christian, a native of Virginia, who was doing missionary work among the refugee slaves, organized the First Baptist Church. Christian was born in 1776 and was ordained in the Abyssinia Baptist of New York in 1822.
Father Christian, as he was known, worked as a missionary in Boston and Connecticut before arriving in Upper Canada to work among the refugee slaves in 1825. Christian remained as the First Baptist pastor until his death in 1850.
There have been 40 pastors at the church in 170 years, including Christian and the current interim pastor, Rev. Joseph Samai.
The exact month or day of 1826 that the church was started was never recorded, Hodge said. But a tradition developed of celebrating the church's anniversary in November of each year. Celebrations of the 170th anniversary started at the beginning of the month and the finale is planned for November 24th at 6 pm, in the church at 101 Huron St., in the Dundas St. W. - Spadina Ave. area.
A cast of 15 voices will stage a historical narrative based on the life and times of African Canadians in early Ontario and the church's beginnings, Hodge said.
"We know the church was linked to the Underground Railroad and therefore to those seeking freedom," historian hodge said. "But there was a black population here already. "Canada had slaves. It may be something we don't want to talk about, but they were here." British officers serving in Canada were allowed to bring their slaves with them, as were merchants.
In 1793, John Graves Since, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, managed to push a partial emancipation bill through his council. "He was a Christian man and did not believe in slavery," Dodge said.
Simcoe wanted total emancipation, but his council, almost entirely made up of wealthy white men who owned slaves, would only accept a compromise. There were to be no new slaves in Upper Canada and any slaves setting foot in the land was automatically free.
In addition, the children of Canadian slaves became free at 25. But their parents remained in servitude until "manumitted - freed - by their masters. Once the current generation of slaves died, there would be no new slaves.
Initially, Christian and the congregation worshipped out of doors, or in members' homes. Then in 1827, they leased St. George's Masonic Lodge for their Sunday services. Between 1834 and 1841, services were held in a school house on Richmond St. W., but in 1841, the congregation, moved into its own church built on land donated by the wealthy Squire McCutcheon's family on the north east corner of Victoria and Queen Sts.
After 65 years of worshipping in that church, the building was sold in 1905 and new property purchased at the corner of University Ave. and Edward St. The church weathered the Great Depression in this location, despite members being out of work.
Hodge says the survival effort was led by Annie Mustean Griffith, "Whose genius for organization and raising money was unparalleled."
In 1955, the church on University Ave. was sold to Shell Oil Co. and the current location was purchased for $33,500.
"A lot of our congregation today is from Nova Scotia, people who can trace their roots in Canada back 300 years," said Merlin Cain, one of the church's ushers and the church videographer. Cain, who himself hails from Nova Scotia, has been a member of the congregation since 1968.
Today, we the Canadian descendants of the runaway slaves have been joined by congregation members from the West Indies, from the United States, from Africa, from the Philippines - we are truly multicultural.
by Phillip Mascoll (Staff reporter - The Toronto Star (November 24, 1996))