Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Kirk McColl United Church (St. Stephen, N.B.)
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
Active since ca. 1785
History
Kirk-McColl United Church in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, was created by the union of McColl Methodist Church and the Kirk (Presbyterian Church). The Methodist part of the church can trace its origins back to 1785 when Duncan McColl and his wife arrived in St. Stephen. McColl came from a Scottish Episcopal background while his wife had been a member of the Methodist Society in New York. In St. Stephen, the McColls invited people to their home for prayer and Bible study. By 1790, the growing group was so large that a meeting house was built. Duncan was ordained a Methodist minister in 1795. He served the area's circuit until 1829 and died the following year. New, larger churches were built in 1816 and 1870 by which time the congregation was well over a thousand. In 1925 the congregation joined the United Church of Canada as the McColl United Church
It is generally believed that John Cassills, the principal of the grammar school at St. Andrews in 1818, was the first Presbyterian cleric to minister to St. Stephen. A Presbyterian church was organized there in 1834 and around 1853 the Kirk was completed. A resident minister was in place by 1854. In 1925, most of these Presbyterians joined the newly formed United Church of Canada, but a few remained separate and established a new Presbyterian church. The two United Church congregations remained separate until 1944 when they merged to become the Kirk-McColl United Church. They worshipped in the former McColl church until it was destroyed by fire in 1980. A new church was dedicated in 1982.