[PHOTO] The Toronto Spiritualist Temple

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Spiritualist Temple
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Located on 704 College Street in the middle of Little Italy, the Toronto Spiritualist Temple with its modernistic 1960s church architecture is a church that's part of the Christian Spiritual Ministries Inc. The Church's website describes the congregation's history here.

The founder and first Moderator, Rev. Roy F.C. Stoddard, first established the TORONTO SPIRITUALIST TEMPLE, a predecessor organization, October 6, 1963, under the auspices of THE INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUALIST ALLIANCE.

Branch groups were formed in several cities. Those that have continued are in Aurora, Brantford, Burlington and Ottawa. Interest in other cities will be pursued as qualified ministers are available to accept pastorship.

March 1978, the TORONTO SPIRITUALIST TEMPLE INC. was established as an independent charitable corporation of Ontario, Canada. Branch churches are registered accordingly.

In July 1991, the daycare was established, under the registered name “COLLEGE STREET TOTS”, and is fully licensed and subsidized, provincially and municipally. Located at 706 College Street.

The INSTITUTE FOR SPIRITUAL STUDIES, the education division of the organization, was established in November 2000 in order to develop and coordinate study programs, to evaluate achievement and to certify candidates for the ministry.

In November 2002, the new corporate name was decided upon: CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL MINISTRIES INCORPORATED (Inc.), of which there is the following interpretation:

* Christian reveals our link to the Infinite through the Christ Consciousness
* Spiritual denotes the eternal and is limitless
* Ministries portrays our commitment to service
* Incorporated indicates that we are a collective of individuals, functioning in unity, under a common mission

This, coupled with the dictionary definitions of Christian, spiritual, ministry and incorporated, most correctly epitomizes Christian Spiritual Ministries Inc.

On May 1st, 2003, this website, I AM Spirit.org, was launched, as we also commenced the celebration of 40 years of service - 40 years since we opened our first set of doors on October 6th, 1963.

The International Spiritualist Alliance's website's description of its theology makes the wider organization look like one of the Spiritualist Churches of the 20th century, distant descendants of the Swedenborgian Spiritualism that was so popular towards the end of the 19th century.