Find a church in Fergus

Fergus has been a church-going town since the Scots who founded it in 1833 built their first kirk. Today its congregations range from the historic stone churches near the Grand River to newer buildings on the edge of town. This guide lists all of them so you can find a service this Sunday.

Fergus was laid out in 1833 as “Little Falls” by Adam Fergusson and James Webster on the limestone banks of the Grand River, about 18 km north-northwest of Guelph. The settlers who followed were overwhelmingly Scottish, and a church and school stood by 1835. The village was incorporated in 1858, became a town in 1953 and joined the amalgamated Township of Centre Wellington in 1999. The 2021 census counted 23,210 residents, up from 20,767 five years earlier, and new subdivisions keep growing around the historic grid of tree-lined streets and stone buildings.

Church life is as old as the town. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian was established in December 1834, and its Gothic Revival stone church of 1862, designed by David Murray of Guelph, still overlooks the centre from St. George Street West. When the Disruption split the Scottish church in 1845, most of St. Andrew’s congregation left with their minister to form Melville, whose Credit Valley stone church at Tower and St. Andrew Streets opened in 1900 and holds the largest stained-glass collection in Centre Wellington; Melville joined the United Church in 1925. St. Joseph parish was founded in 1854 and worshipped in a small downtown church from 1869 until 2011, when it moved into a 515-seat church beside St. Joseph Catholic School at the north end of St. David Street. Anglican records in Fergus begin in 1867; St. James the Apostle worships in a church opened in 1948 on Queen Street East beside the river.

The twentieth century added a second wave. Maranatha Canadian Reformed Church, part of a federation organized by Dutch immigrants after the Second World War, was instituted in 1956 and worships on Belsyde Avenue East; its growth produced a daughter congregation, Fergus North, which opened its own building on First Line, north of town, in 2015. Faith Lutheran was planted in the south end about forty years ago; Bethel Baptist, which says it has been in the community for many years, is on Victoria Terrace; Grace Christian Fellowship gathers on Farley Road on the west side; the New Apostolic Church meets on St. Andrew Street West (Wellington Road 18) west of the centre; and The Bridge, a Christian Reformed church plant, began in 2015. The Township of Centre Wellington’s list of places of worship also records Spirit-Life Christian Centre, an Open Bible fellowship downtown on St. David Street South.

The pattern is simple. The three oldest congregations, St. Andrew’s, Melville and St. James, sit within a few blocks of St. Andrew Street, the main street; Melville, St. Andrew’s and the former St. Joseph’s church are stops on the self-guided walking tour of downtown Fergus, and a riverside trail links the downtown shops to Templin Gardens. Downtown parking is on a three-hour program in the core, with a municipal lot on St. Patrick Street. The newer churches, St. Joseph, Maranatha, Fergus North, Faith Lutheran, Bethel, Grace, New Apostolic and The Bridge, are away from the core and most easily reached by car; Fergus North is north of town on First Line.

Several congregations that serve Fergus families are just past the town line toward Elora: Central Church (Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada) on Colborne Street between the two towns, Grand River Community Church on Wellington Road 18, and the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Colborne Street, all with Elora addresses. Belwood, on the lake north-east of town, has its own United church. Most churches in town livestream or post their services online, and several describe their dress code as “come as you are”; Fergus North notes that its members usually dress quite formally for worship.