St. Elizabeth, Queensway

St. Elizabeth, Queensway is a post-war parish but its roots extend back to 1917 when Miss Maud Marian Steel, a member of Christ Church, Mimico) established a Sunday School which met at Queensway Public School. In 1922, the Sunday School moved to the Queensway Community Hall, and the “St. Elizabeth’s Mission” was established (Elizabeth being Maud’s mother’s name.) The first ervice was held on March 5, 1922.

Between 1922 and 1935, services continued to be held in the Queensway Community Hall, often led by students. (These included George Luxton, later Bishop of Huron, and (in November 1929) George Snell, later Bishop of Toronto.

In 1935, owing to lack of community interest, the St. Elizabeth Mission disbanded. A decade later it was revived as the market gardens that populated the area began to give way to post-war housing. Owing to the lack of gasoline and tires, local Anglicans found the drive to Christ Church, Mimico too far, and services were, once again, held at the Queensway Community Hall. A vote was held as to which denomination the gathering should be affiliated with the. The results confirmed the group`s Anglican association (Church of England: 39; United Church: 17; Gospel Mission: 7: Presbyterian: 1; Latter Day Saints: 1.) Again, students lead the service, with the rector of Christ Church, Mimico, the Reverend T. J. Dew, coming once a month for Holy Communion.

In 1946 St. Clair Hilchey (who was to go on to an illustrious ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada) took charge of St. Elizabeth`s and nearby Church of the Atonement. In 1950 sod was turned at 964 The Queensway, just east of islington.

The basement of the new building was dedicated on March 18, 1951 by Bishop Alton Ray Beverley, George Snell (not yet a bishop) being the preacher.

Given parish status in 1954, the building was completed in 1956 and dedicated on May 7th by Bishop Frederick Wilkinson, the preacher once again being George Snell. Geoffrey Parke-Taylor (later Suffragan Bishop of Toronto) was the rector from to 1959.

This picture of the St. Elizabeth`s choir appeared in the Toronto Telegram in 1961.

By the early 1990s, the congregation of St. Elizabeth`s was no longer able to keep the ministry of the parish and its building going. The decision was taken to transfer the building to a Chinese-speaking Anglican congregation, and thus a new St. Elizabeth`s was born. The last English-speaking service was held on December 27, 1992, with Bishop Parke-Taylor present to hand over the keys to the new St. Elizabeth`s congregation.