Welcome to our church

Enter the church by the wide front doors or by the western driveway to the porte cochère, which permits wheelchair access, to the lobby, or Narthex, where you'll find a Welcome Table and Book Stall.

In the Memorial Tower are the Church's Book of Remembrance, various memorial plaques, and numerous stone carvings including peacocks feeding on grapes (a symbol of the spiritual refreshment of Holy Communion), the angel Gabriel, the Harp of David, the Anchor of Faith, and the Crown of Thorns. The windows in the Memorial Tower and the east wall of the Narthex are from St. Andrew's Church.

The Sanctuary is spacious and airy, 220 feet long, 48 feet wide and seating 1100. The vertical thrust of pillars and arches representing the trees of sacred groves in which pre-Christian religions frequently worshipped, and point to the ascending dimensions of praise and prayer. Discreetly painted emblems of the universe may be seen on the ceiling: sun, moon, stars, earth, water, trees, flowers, birds, fish and beasts.

Many visitors linger long, inspecting the stained-glass windows, the intricate carvings in the Chancel. The Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul is the regimental church of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada, the nation's oldest Highland regiment, whose colours hang in the Sanctuary.

To your left as you face the pulpit, a hall leads to Church House with staff offices, choir dressing rooms and the Church School. There are three meeting rooms: the formal Kirk Session Room, the Iona Room and, upstairs, the large Kildonan Hall with a well-equipped kitchen.