History of our Parish

Church of the Ascension - Remembering Our History

Anglican worship in the Port Perry area began in 1832, when circuit rider clergy traveled occasionally on horseback from Oshawa to Uxbridge. From 1840 to 1847, monthly services were held in Deighton's Corners (currently Prince Albert), in people's homes. In 1847 the services became weekly and were held at the J.W. Davis Furniture Shop (Waggs Funeral Home) and later at the Mechanics' Institute Building in Port Perry.

In 1860, Robert and John Perry donated the corner of John and North Streets to the Church Society of the Diocese of Toronto, and Henry Seal gave notice in the local newspaper that he was collecting subscriptions for a Building Fund for an English Church. Just as the brick church neared completion in December 1866, newspaper reports described how "a storm of unusual severity prostrated the building and left … a shapeless mass of ruins." Special services were held on Christmas Day at the Presbyterian and Baptist churches with their collections going to repair the damage to the new Anglican Church.

The Church was completed and officially opened on February 28th, 1869 by Archdeacon Fuller and Rev'd Fornieri who had to 'battle their way through the snowy mountains'. In 1886, the building was "free from all legal liability for debt," and at the request of the Reverend John Carry and the Churchwardens was consecrated on May 5th.

The original church had a pump organ and a potbelly stove along the front, box pews along the side (for which people paid) and center pews (for those who did not pay). A stone font stood in the northeast corner. The old Greenbank Church bell tower was added in 1921, where the stove once stood. The rectory was built next to the church in 1905 at a cost of $2 200 and the first portion of the parish hall was built in 1927. New pews from were added from the Catholic Apostolic Church in Toronto and arranged to form a center aisle. Renovations have continued over the years including a kitchen, new pews, a new entrance and moving the altar, choir and organ.

Beyond the physical aspect, the Church of the Ascension has grown in its ministry. It once shared clergy with Uxbridge, St. Thomas' Church in Brooklin, (ending in 1965), and the Cartwright parish. The Ascension family thrived to become an independent parish in 1996 and continues to passionately serve the mission of Jesus Christ in the Port Perry community today.

• Gordon Bruton
• John Coneybeare
• Henry Swabey
• Ken Scott
• Edgar Fuller
• Reg Stackhouse
• Pat Orr
• Reg Rose
• Ansley Tucker
• Charles Bull
• Gary van der Meer
• Brent Stiller