Who We Are
Small, Inclusive, Diverse, and Non-Traditionalour congregation
Bathurst United Church is a spiritual community in the Christian tradition.
Our services reflect the values of social justice and respect for people’s rights, especially the rights of equity-deserving groups. We strive to strengthen connectedness among people and with Earth and all its creatures.
The congregation has about 45 members. We worship on Sunday mornings in the chapel at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre near Bloor and Spadina.
Our services encourage participation. We are congregation led. Our members developed the services through the Worship Committee, including delivery and the reflection. We offer an embrace of welcome to people of diverse backgrounds. We nurture the Spirit by honouring and respecting individual needs and gifts.
Bathurst United is also an Affirming Congregation. People who identify as LGBTQ2S+ are invited to participate fully in all aspects of our ministry.
Affirming congregation
Bathurst United Church is a welcoming space for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
We became an Affirming Congregation in 1996 after a two-year journey of dialogue, study, and reflection. The journey included a weekend retreat to consider the implications of becoming an Affirming Congregation.
Bathurst United has approved the celebration of same-sex marriages. The first same-sex marriage ceremony at Bathurst took place in June of 2003, just two days after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that such marriages are legal. Previous ministers have been members of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Celebrating Pride with the rest of Toronto at our service on Pride Sunday is one way of being an Affirming Congregation.
Mission & value
Bathurst United Church aims to become an inclusive, participatory, and non-hierarchical community which invites and uses the gifts of all its members.
We seek to nourish the Spirit within each of us and among us and within our world by strengthening our connectedness with one another and with all people, particularly the poor and marginalized, and with Earth and all creatures.
We understand the Spirit to be revealed in Jesus and in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, as well as in the world of nature and in the spirituality of other traditions.
We recognize and celebrate a wide diversity of ability, gender, origin, age, income and sexual orientation among us, and we welcome all those who seek to grow with us, and encourage them to live out their gifts in the life and work of the congregation.
