Please contact: email@duloth.ca with concerns about this site
Pastor: Rev. Mark Chester
Sunday Services: Worship: 10:30 a.m.
Sunday School: 9:15 a.m.
Telephone: Office: 519-
No doubt many of you wonder about Elgin's background, where it came from and how it got its name. There have been many name changes and this is our fourth location, but for over years, this church has been faithfully proclaiming the Gospel to Stratford and district.
It all began on Oct. 21, 1906 when the Mennonite Brethren in Christ began a new work
in Stratford. The meetings were held on the second floor at 35 Market Place.This
new work was staffed by two city mission workers, women who worked in pairs until
there was sufficient membership to support a full-
The first mission workers here were Edith Evans and Diana Shantz, who lived in rooms back of the mission. They were under the supervision of Presiding Elder H.S. Hallman, President of the City Mission Workers' Society. The church on Market Square was known as "Stratford City Mission", and there were many open air meetings and much house to house visitation.
In 1927 we had our first move. 
A house was purchased at 122 Downie St. (now a lawyer's
office, formerly St. Anne Adoption Centre and Beth Israel Synagogue). The main floor
served as a place of worship, while the mission workers lived upstairs. The facility
was known as Grace Chapel.
In 1939 the congregation could finally support a full-
The next name change came in 1947 to Stratford United Missionary Church, following a name change by the entire denomination.
Now for a few minutes we need to digress. In 1919 the Fusee family moved to Stratford from Winchester, Ont. Among their family was a daughter named Edma. She obtained her education here and later became a teacher.
In June 1939 she married Elgin Brubacher, son of a pastor, who transferred his membership to Stratford. In Dec. 1939 Elgin and Edma left for the Nigerian mission field. In Nov. 1943 Elgin went to be with the Lord as a result of a tropical fever.
Edma continued to serve the Lord in Nigeria until her retirement in 1977. Edma is still a member of the congregation today.
Meanwhile back to Stratford United Missionary Church at 122 Downie St. The facilities
there were becoming increasingly cramped and new property was purchased at 55 and
56 Charles St. A new parsonage was completed at 56 Charles St. in 1950 and a new
house of worship (currently St. John Ambulance) in In 1955 the congregation decided
to honour the memory of the late Elgin Brubacher by renaming the church Elgin Memorial
United Missionary Church. This rather lengthy title was simplified slightly in 1969
by the merger of the United Missionary Church and the Missionary Church Association
to form the Missionary Church. So we became Elgin Memorial Missionary Church.
By the late 1970's the Charles St. building was running out of room and there were severe parking problems. In 1977 a 100 acre farm here at the corner of Quinlan and O'Loane was purchased and a new parsonage was completed in the fall of 1979.
Then the former parsonage at 56 Charles became the church annex used for youth group and added Sunday School space. Due to zoning and severance problems, construction of a new church building did not begin until Sept. 1984 and we had our first service here March 3, 1985.
Still the name changes continue. Due to confusion with Memorial Baptist Church here in the city, our name was shortened to Elgin Missionary Church in 1994. Meanwhile in Aug. 1993 the Missionary Church of Canada and the Evangelical Church of Canada joined to form the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada.
We, at Elgin, opted to leave our basic name alone and are now simply known as Elgin Missionary Church, with a byline added "a member congregation of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada" to identify fully with our denomination.
The location has changed, the name has certainly changed, but God's Word and the Good News it contains definitely have not. We are still proclaiming God's love today just the same as in 1906 at Stratford City Mission on Market Square.
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