St. Andrew's Anglican Church

St. Andrew’s is the Anglican parish on Main Street West, a stone church set back from the street in its churchyard, with the parish office and hall at 7 St. Andrew’s Avenue. It belongs to the Diocese of Niagara. The rector is the Rev. Stephen Vail, and the Rev. Deacon Jean Ruttan-Yates also serves the parish.

The congregation goes back to the Loyalist settlers of the Forty, as Grimsby was known until 1816, for whom Andrew Pettit led worship in their homes. The parish’s own history records a log church built in 1794 on Nelles land, a frame church completed at the end of 1804, and the present stone church, whose foundation stone was laid on 19 May 1819; it was completed in November 1825 and consecrated as St. Andrew’s on 27 July 1828, a name the diocesan archives say honours Andrew Pettit. The churchyard, consecrated by Bishop John Strachan in 1843, is still an active cemetery, and its many species of trees are labelled.

The Town of Grimsby designated the church, its churchyard and the 1906 rectory under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2024. The by-law describes the church as Georgian-Classical with Anglo-Norman influences, its arches of Grimsby sandstone, and calls it one of the first four Anglican churches built in Ontario; three of its stained-glass windows are by the artist Yvonne Williams, and the lych gate in front was built in 1916. Sunday services are at eight and ten, the later one livestreamed.

What to expect

The rector invites visitors to come dressed as they want and to ask as many questions as they have. Sunday worship centres on the Eucharist; all are welcome to receive communion, gluten-free wafers are available, and dipping the wafer in the wine is not permitted. Refreshments are served after the service.

What Anglicans believe and how they worship