Church launched in populous Toronto neighbourhood

Tara Bishop

A unique church plant in Canada’s most densely populated neighbourhood launched Nov. 12.

614 St. Jamestown in Toronto is a joint venture of the Ontario Mennonite Brethren Conference and The Salvation Army. It includes other partners as well: the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Toronto City Mission, Liebenzelle Ministries, Marc and Kim Wyatt (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship), and Waterloo (Ont.) MB Church, which has adopted the plant as a daughter church.

St. Jamestown is home to about 27,000 people – more than the entire population of Nunavut – in half a kilometre squared. The area contains 18 high-rises filled with immigrants seeking to create a new life in Canada. Tamil, Filipino and Chinese are the most dominant people groups currently residing there.

The population of this “gateway community” has a high turnover rate – 65 percent of the population changes every five years. The centrally located Rose Avenue School has nearly 1,800 students and is a hub in the community, providing ESL classes, childcare and early morning assistance for mothers with small children.

St. Jamestown is in desperate need of an evangelical church open to all races and creeds. A Saturday evening Bible study has been operating at the local Knights of Columbus hall for two years. This group, consisting of some 25 people, will form the basis of the new 614 St. Jamestown congregation.

The church’s methodology is based on the “614 model” of incarnational urban ministry, pioneered by Geoff and Sandra Ryan, Salvation Army officers who planted a new church in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. Its vision is based on Isaiah 61:4: “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

Leading the plant are Kevin Moore, previously with The Salvation Army, and Tara Bishop, of the Mennonite Brethren. Bishop, who previously worked as short-term ministries resource person for MBMS International in Waterloo and attended Waterloo MB Church, has been on-site since mid-August, with Kevin joining her Oct. 1. An urban mission team from The Salvation Army’s “Ignite” program will join them in serving the community for eight months.

—from 614 release