Dear Colleagues,

On October 21, 1896—125 years ago this week—a group of Anglicans and other Christians in Montreal gathered at 3475 University St. They were there to dedicate and celebrate the opening of a new building designed to house the work of theological education in the city.  

The building—the same building we occupy today—was the gift of A. Frederick Gault, a prominent Anglican businessman in the city. Gault was a long-time supporter of the college. Fifteen years earlier, as the college was just getting off the ground, Gault had purchased an existing building on Dorchester St. (now Boul. René-Lévesque) on the site of what is now the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. But the college soon outgrew that and a larger building, closer to McGill, was deemed necessary. In early 1895, Gault offered to build a new building and by autumn of 1896 it was complete. (Gault’s entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is impressively thorough, for those interested.) 

October 21 was a full day, with visiting dignitaries from across the church, services in both the new chapel and in Convocation Hall, and an evening celebration. The celebration was also overshadowed with sadness. Just the previous day, the long-serving principal William Henderson had died after 18 years in the job. In his comments upon opening the building, Gault himself commented on the parallels to the pascal mystery: “We open our new life consecrated and solemnized by death.” 

One hundred and twenty-five years on, Montreal Diocesan Theological College is still here and still in this building. Gault’s gift was probably too large for the college’s purposes. Our work here has never been large—the college’s largest-ever graduating class was 12 students in 1967 and the following year there was a single graduate—which means that at almost no time in its history was the college residence full of theological students. The college also no longer owns the building, having sold it to McGill in 2008 and renting back the portions we now call home. Still, in one way or another the college continues to exist because of his generosity 125 years ago. In addition to the building, he also gave the college an endowment which, along with the proceeds of the sale of the building, continues to support our work today.  

It is no secret to say that we are at a moment of change and transition in the life of the church. Part of the challenge of this moment is, for me, embodied in this building and this question: How do we take the inherited gifts and resources of previous generations of Christians and make them speak to the moment in which we find ourselves today? We may not, for instance, require as much in the way of buildings as previous generations did (or thought they did). But what we inherit in this moment in the life of the church is not insignificant.  

In 1896, Frederick Gault could not have known what the church would look like in 125 years, just as today we cannot know what it will look like in 2146. As we celebrate 125 years in this building, my prayer is that his gift will continue to sustain and nourish ministry in the many and varied forms it may take in the years to come. 

Faithfully yours, 

Jesse Zink 

Principal 

This message was written by Jesse Zink for this week’s Wingèd Ox, a weekly news digest distributed to the college community.