St. Paul's Presbyterian Church
Hamilton
ON

• Presbyterian Churches in Hamilton, ON
• Presbyterian Churches in Ontario
• Presbyterian Churches in Canada
• Presbyterian Churches near me
• All churches in Hamilton, ON

Our Vision

St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church is a Christian community in downtown Hamilton, embodying Jesus’ acceptance and love of all people and supporting the growth of God’s people in faith and service.


Our Mission

Following Jesus Christ and in His name, we will in humble spirit:

​Proclaim God’s love, mercy, and grace through:

the way we live as a Christian community
our public and private worship
our actions in service for others
our Christian example

Pray

for our world
for our neighbours
for each other
for ourselves

Know our community and respond to the needs of its people

Challenge ourselves to live fearlessly and faithfully


What We Believe

St. Paul's is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Presbyterians are protestants in the Reform tradition.

​We believe we are all sinners but are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. We do not deserve our salvation but God grants it freely to us because He loves us. We respond to God's great love by loving our neighbours as we have been loved. We know these things through the Bible, which is God's Word to us.

​For a more detailed description see the Living Faith, a statement of belief written by the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Presbyterians also summarized their beliefs in the 17th century in the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Download St. Paul's Presbyterian Church vCard with Service Times

Download Minister Reverend Dr. Fred Shaffer vCard with Bio

Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian Churches in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Presbyterian Churches in Ontario, Canada

Presbyterian Churches in Canada

All churches in Hamilton, ON

Presbyterian Church in Canada

https://www.stpaulshamilton.ca/

Reverend Dr. Fred Shaffer

Minister

(905) 522-2792

(905) 522-2791

Rev. Dr. Fred Shaffer is a native of Pittsburgh, PA who came to Canada as a boy with his family and grew up in MIssissauga. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph and of Knox College, the Presbyterian seminary at the University of Toronto. He worked as a minister in new church development in Calgary in the early 1980s, before moving back to southern Ontario where he served several rural and small-town churches. Fred’s own strong academic bent and an increasing interest in the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran theologian of the Nazi period, took him back to Knox College for graduate studies in systematic theology. Once his doctoral dissertation on Bonhoeffer’s theological ethics of the church as Christ existing as community was finished, he returned to congregational ministry in Toronto, serving there until he was called to St. Paul’s in the spring 2010.

Fred’s leadership at St. Paul’s is aimed at helping and enabling the congregation to be what God calls it to be – a disciple community of Christ’s real presence here in Hamilton. What that means in terms of our being together in worship, study, mission, outreach, service and, yes, recreation and fun, is a work in progress. Christian perfection eludes us, but what really matters is our direction toward becoming a people in whom Christ is really present and lives for others, and our actual Christian integrity now – are we rightly representing Christ, or grossly misrepresenting him? We pray that it is and will continue to be the former – and trust that our prayers are heard and answered.

Fred doesn’t actually think about theology all the time. He is married to Susan, and they have an adult daughter. When he has time off, he likes to read history and biography, and he is a sailor and antique car enthusiast.

Rachel Braithwaite

Office Administrator

(905) 522-2792

(905) 522-2791

There is a parking lot behind the church and meters along nearby streets that. We are also across the street from the MacNab bus terminal.

Worship

Sundays 11:00am - 12:00pm

Our worship service is every Sunday morning at 11am and runs to about noon. Afterwards most of us gather in the church hall for coffee, snacks and conversation. You're welcome to join us.

2018 Advent Schedule

December 9th ADVENT II

and PAGEANT SUNDAY with luncheon

December 16th ADVENT III

and in the evening at 7:30 p.m. a service of

LESSONS AND CAROLS

December 23rd ADVENT IV

December 24th CHRISTMAS EVE

Service begins at 11:00 P.M.

Service Times last updated on the 25th of December, 2018

Whatever is comfortable! Some worshipers wear suits or dresses. Others wear jeans and t-shirts. It's a real mix.

St. Paul's History
Serving Christ in Hamilton for 184 years.

Congregation

St. Paul's was established in 1833, originally called St. Andrew's, in connection with the Established Church of Scotland. The first minister was Rev. Alexander Gale who was inducted in 1833.
The congregation first worshipped in the Court House. In 1835 a small frame church was built on James and Jackson and it was twice enlarged. Following the Disruption of 1843 in Scotland, a group including the Rev. Gale, left St. Andrew's and established Knox Presbyterian Church in connection with the Presbyterian Church of Canada (Free Church). In 1855 that large stone church that stands today
was built replacing the frame church. The name St. Paul's was adapted in 1873 following the withdrawal of some members of the congregation who formed a separate congregation with the name of St. Andrew's. This second congregation re-united with St. Paul's in 1876.
In 1925, the congregation voted to remain within the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Building

William Thomas, recognized as one of the founders of the Canadian architectural profession, was the architect of our English Gothic revival building, erected over four years between 1854 and 1857. The building’s grey stone mostly came from Hamilton quarries. The tower rises dramatically to a height of 100 feet to the top of the parapet line, where it almost imperceptibly reduces itself into an octagonal spire. The total height of tower and spire is 180 feet, and it is believed to be the highest of its kind, entirely stone, in Canada.

The many beautiful stained glass windows of St. Paul’s depict the stories of the Bible, with the Lord’s Supper featured in the window at the front of the church.

Bells and Cross of Sacrifice

The Bells of St. Paul’s were installed at a cost of $4,000 and were used first on Sunday, November 11, 1906. Eleven bells make up the chimes, the largest one weighing 2100 pounds (955 k) and the smallest one 300 pounds (136 k). The total weight is 9873 pounds (4488 k). The bells are played every Sunday morning to this day, calling worshipers to church and on other special occasions.

The Cross of Sacrifice, erected in 1921, commemorate the fallen men and women of the congregation. The large Celtic Cross is counted one of the most beautiful war memorials in the country. It was carved in Scotland, and is similar to the ancient crosses in Iona where Christianity was first brought to Scotland from Ireland by St. Columba. The arms of the Cross are truncated, and the column tapers from its base to the apex. A circle symbolical of a crown or wreath surrounds the arms. In Scotland and Ireland some of these ancient crosses still remain. A Service of Remembrance is held at the cross each year on the Sunday closest to Remembrance Day.