The first Congregational Church was opened for service on St. Maurice Street on the second Sabbath of February, 1833. This was sold and in 1846 Zion Church was erected. The third church dates to 1868 and was erected at the corner of Amherst and Craig streets. Other churches of a later date are Calvary Church (302 Guy Street), Emanuel Church (Drummond Street, near Sherbrooke Street, West), Zion Congregational Church, Point St. Charles (185 Congregation Street), Bethlehem Congregational Church, corner of Western Avenue and Clark Avenue.
UNITARIAN
The history of the Unitarian movement in Montreal dates from the year 1832, when on the 29th of July the Rev. David Hughes of England preached in the Union School Room at the corner of St. Sacrament and St. Nicholas streets the first Unitarian sermon ever delivered, it is believed, anywhere in Canada. This was the year in which Montreal was devastated by the Asiatic cholera, 1,900 persons dying in four months, out of a population of little more than thirty thousand. Mr. Hughes was one of these victims of the plague, but the work which he had inaugurated survived him. A small band of Unitarian believers secured a place to hold services in a building which was known on account of its location as St. Joseph Street Chapel. Here the Rev. Mr. Angier, an American minister, took charge of the services, and a Sunday School was inaugurated by Mr. Benjamin Workman. A movement was begun by the infant society to acquire land, and erect a church, but the times were unpropitious. A return of the cholera in 1834, together with the subsequent depression of business and the political disturbances which culminated in the Riel Rebellion of 1837, caused so much discouragement that interest flagged, and for a while even the regular services were discontinued. Occasional meetings were, however, held until, in 1841, the movement was definitely renewed under the inspiration chiefly of a few devoted women, prominent among whom were Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Hedge, whose conviction that the time had come for a new and more vigorous Unitarian propaganda was shared by a group of men whose names have been synonymous with good citizenship and philanthropy in Montreal during more than one generation. Mr. John Frothingham, Mr. Benjamin Workman, Mr. Luther Holton, Mr. William Molson, and Doctor Cushing, were actively interested in the formation of the second Unitarian congregation of Montreal, and their efforts were stimulated by the eloquent preaching of an English minister, the Rev. Mr. Giles, who for several months conducted services in a small building situated at the corner of Fortification Lane and Haymarket Square. Subsequently an invitation was extended by this small company of worshippers to the Rev. John Cordner, of Belfast, Ireland, to become their first settled pastor. Mr. Cordner, who preached his first sermon in Montreal in November, 1843, had been ordained by the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster, and his congregation remained for several years in official relation with the Irish Synod. In 1858 this alliance was dissolved, and the Montreal Church united in fellowship with its nearest neighbor, the American Unitarian Association, having headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. During its early years of struggle financial aid, as well as friendly interest and the service of visiting ministers, had been given by this Association to the Montreal congregation, and it was with their assistance that, in 1844, a piece of land was purchased and a church building erected on Beaver Hall Hill on a site once occupied by the old Frobisher mansion, historically connected with the early development of the fur-trade in Canada, and with the pioneer days of the North West Company. In the following year the Unitarian congregation received legal status by Act of Parliament, and its ministers were authorized to keep record of civil acts required of all settled pastors under the laws of the Province. By 1857 the congregation had outgrown its first building, and a new place of worship was erected which, with its simple dignified architecture, and beautiful spire, remained for fifty years a well-known landmark of the city, under the name at this time adopted, the Church of the Messiah.
In 1869 this building was seriously damaged by fire, and during the time when it was undergoing repairs its congregation worshiped in the hall of the St. Patrick’s Association in response to the generous invitation of the Rev. Father Dowd.
Towards the end of his long pastorate of thirty-six years Doctor Cordner was assisted, first by the Rev. Edward Hayward for a period of one year, and afterwards, by the Rev. J.B. Green, during three years. In 1879 when Doctor Cordner’s advancing years made it desirable for him to retire from the active duties of the ministry he was succeeded by the Rev. William S. Barnes, of Boston.
Like his predecessor Mr. Barnes enjoyed a long pastorate, serving his congregation faithfully for thirty years. Of each of these ministers it may truly be said that he gained a unique place in the affection of his congregation, combined with one of honor and respect from the community at large. Each was distinguished by a life of constant devotion to the service of his ideals, and the duties of his pastorate, by unusual intellectual gifts, and by great pulpit eloquence. The University of McGill recognized the ability and public services of both ministers by awarding to them the degree of LL. D. The story of the growth and unification of the Church of the Messiah is largely the story of the devoted lives of the two ministers who occupied its pulpit for a combined period of nearly seventy years.
In 1905 the congregation decided that, owing to the movement of the population uptown, and away from the old-time centers, the situation of its place of worship had become inconveniently remote, and the property was therefore sold, and a new church building erected at the corner of Sherbrooke West and Simpson streets. The new building, considered to be architecturally one of the most successful erections of the city, owes much of its harmony of design and execution to the artistic taste and culture of Dr. Barnes, who felt its erection to be the culmination of his life-work.
HEBREW SYNAGOGUES
Jewish settlers arrived in Canada towards the close of the period of French rule. Among the officers and soldiers who fought in the armies of Amherst and Wolfe were a number of men of the Hebrew race who did their modest share towards assisting in the conquest of the country and making it a part of the British Empire. When they became sufficiently numerous to establish their first Jewish congregation in Montreal, Canada, in 1768, they followed the ritual of the Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardic Jews. This congregation took the name of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, “Shearith Israel,” and the Congregation has continued ever since in existence, being one of the most ancient of the Jewish congregations in America. It at present worships on Stanley Street above St. Catherine. The first place of worship was in a room or hall on St. James Street, but in 1777 there was built the first regular synagogue building on a lot of land belonging to David David, son of Lazarus David, the first Jewish settler in this city. The building was described as a low walled edifice of stone with a red roof and high white-washed wall enclosing it. It stood on Notre Dame Street at the junction of St. James Street adjoining the present Court House and had an entrance on either side. Shortly after the erection of this synagogue the Congregation bought its first lot of land for a cemetery on St. Janvier Street near what is now known as Dominion Square.
The first synagogue built near the Court House had to be abandoned on account of the land on which it was built reverting to the David family after the death of David David, and after worshipping temporarily at the south-west corner of St. Helen and Recollet streets, the second synagogue building of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation was erected on Chenneville Street in 1835 and completed in 1838. It was a small but dignified stone building with a Doric portico and quasi-Egyptian interior. The work was mainly carried out under the direction of Moses J. Hays, a son of Andrew Hays, one of the earliest Jewish colonists, and he was at that time a trustee of the Congregation.