The Church of the Holy Trinity

The Church of the Holy Trinity was built in 1847, funded by an anonymous English donor on the condition that the church never charge pew rents, the standard practice at the time that effectively excluded poorer worshippers from full participation in most Anglican congregations. That founding condition gave the church, tucked just behind what is now the Eaton Centre, a genuinely open, class-blind congregation from its earliest years, similar in spirit to Little Trinity Church in Corktown.

A downtown outpost of social justice work

The church became known through the 20th century for sustained social justice and homelessness advocacy, hosting services and support for people experiencing homelessness in the middle of one of Toronto's busiest downtown shopping districts, an unusual juxtaposition that the church has treated as central to its mission rather than incidental. It has held an annual public memorial for homeless Torontonians who died over the previous year, and remains one of downtown Toronto's most consistently active sites of church-based social justice organizing.

Sources

• Church of the Holy Trinity Toronto — History
• Wikipedia — Church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto

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