Unitarianism is a liberal religion with Jewish and Christian roots.
Our theological origins date back to the early days of Christianity, while our institutional roots arein the religious reform movements of Eastern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, and of Britain and the United States during the early 18th century.
In Canada, Unitarians hailing from England, Ireland and New England held their first formal meeting in Montreal in 1828. They wanted a church of their own where they could share a faith without walls or creeds. In 1832, their first minister, the Reverend David Hughes, arrived from England, and conducted the first Unitarian service in Canada on July 29. Within a month, he and many Montreal Unitarians died in a cholera epidemic.
In 1842, the Unitarian Church of Montreal was formally constituted. In the following year, John Cordner came from Ireland as the congregation's first settled minister, and stayed for 36 years. In 1844, the congregation moved into its own new Grecian style building, located on the northeast corner of Beaver Hall Hill and La Gauchetière. This was replaced in 1857 by a building with a steeple on the same site, which was home to the congregation until 1905.
The congregation moved into its third new home, a beautiful Tudor Gothic church in downtown Montreal, in 1907. Eighty years later, the sanctuary was destroyed by fire. The congregation with its minister, the Rev. Charles Eddis, worked tirelessly to replace it, and the present church at the corner of de Maisonneuve and Claremont streets was dedicated on September 29, 1996.
Thanks to them and to many others, past and present, we are alive and growing in the new millennium.
