Tweedsmuir Memorial Presbyterian Church
Tweedsmuir's mission is 'To Know Christ and Make Him Known.' It believes in one triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and holds that the Bible, given by the inspiration of God, is 'the rule of faith and life' through which the church is bound only to Jesus Christ, its King and Head; it celebrates two sacraments, baptism and communion. It sees its members as called to serve others 'in love, compassion and justice', and describes itself as an affirming congregation that welcomes people of all gender expressions and sexual identities.
Tweedsmuir Memorial Presbyterian Church dates its founding to 1837, when the Presbyterian Synod of Upper Canada sent the Rev. Alexander Lewis to minister to the settlers of what is now Dufferin County; he made his home at Mono Mills. Lewis built Bethel, Orangeville’s first Presbyterian church, in 1840, and a stone church replaced it in 1858. Bethel, the ‘Old Kirk’, and Zion, a congregation of another Presbyterian branch, united in 1880 as St. Andrew’s, in the church at 247 Broadway that is now Westminster United. When St. Andrew’s voted in 1925 to join the new United Church of Canada, members who wished to remain Presbyterian left and formed the Continuing Presbyterian Church in Orangeville. It met first in the Gem Theatre on Broadway and from 1926 in a storefront church at 205 Broadway, the former Orangeville Business College.
The congregation bought a manse at the corner of John and York streets in 1939 and in 1940 began building the present stone church just north of it; it opened on 1 May 1941. The Kirk Session’s minutes of 2 April 1940 record that Lady Tweedsmuir had given permission for the new church to be named after her husband, Lord Tweedsmuir, the Scottish author John Buchan and son of a Presbyterian minister, who was Governor General of Canada and died in office in 1940. The sanctuary was enlarged and a Christian education wing added in 1959, and the narthex was extended in 1979. When Waldemar Presbyterian Church closed in 1995, its remaining members joined Tweedsmuir, bringing the stained-glass windows on the south wall of the sanctuary.
Tweedsmuir belongs to the Presbytery of Brampton. The Rev. Bonnie Sutherland has been its minister since 2024, and Julia Breen is director of music, leading a choir and a praise team. Worship is at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays, with a relaxed Café Church in July and August, and the congregation describes itself as affirming. Its groups include a Ladies’ Fellowship started in 1950, the Women’s Missionary Society, a men’s breakfast and a monthly song circle, and it holds free community meals and an annual Christmas bazaar.
What to expect
Services begin at 10:30 a.m. and usually last about an hour. Greeters meet people at the north and south doors, where printed orders of service, including large-print copies, are available, and song words, readings and announcements are also shown on a screen. The music mixes contemporary Christian songs led by the praise team with traditional hymns from the Book of Praise, and the choir sings an anthem each week, accompanied by the Conn pipe organ, keyboard, piano or guitar. Children are welcome in the service; Sunday school begins after the children's story and prayer, a nursery is provided, and coffee, tea, juice and treats are served in a social hour afterwards.
About this listing
Sources: tweedsmuirpresbyterian.org, web.archive.org, inthehills.ca, orangeville.ca.
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