St. Peter's Anglican Church (Sheguiandah, Ont.) was a church in the former three-point Anglican Parish of Sheguiandah and Birch Island Reserve on the Manitoulin and Cockburn islands.
The first Anglican service was held in Sheguiandah in 1862 by Rev. Peter Jacobs in a birch bark wigwam. Following Rev. Jacobs' death missionary work in the region was taken up by Rev. Jabez Waters Sims.
St. Peter's was built in 1883 by the Atkinson, Dunlop, Keatley, and Stringer families. This building was consecrated by the Right Reverend Edward Sullivan on September 18, 1884. In the early years a long shed was attached to the church. This shed housed horses during services and was also used as a community hall. The parsonage for St. Peter's was located at the east end of the Sheguiandah village.
In 1941 the Mission of Sheguiandah was added to the mission of Little Current (which it had separated from in 1897). Between the 1940s and 1950s many renovations and improvements were done to the church, as well as some redecorating. In 1984 the church celebrated their centennial year.
In 2003 the church congregation voted to close St. Peter's. Rev. Rhonda Hurst, the minister of St. Peter's at the time, contacted Right Reverend Ronald C. Ferris, Bishop of Algoma, about the church and the possibility of the Diocese turning the building over to the Centennial Museum of Sheguiandah Board. On April 29, 2004 the Service of Deconsecration was held. In 2005 the ownership of St. Peter's was transferred to the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) under the care of the Centennial Museum of Sheguiandah. In 2014 the Town was discussing the possibility of creating a replica church using components (pews, stain glass windows, bell etc) from St. Peters and tearing down the original building.
Early incumbents include: Rev. P. Jacobs (1862-1864), Rev. J. W. Sims (1864-1869), Rev. R. Hill (1870-1877), Rev. F. Frost (1877-1897), Rev. W. J. Eccleston (1898-1902), Rev. G. Prewer (1902-1913), Rev. W. H. Trickett (1913-1915), Rev. H. F. Hutton (1915-1918), Rev. J. D. Granger (1918-1922), Rev. R. M. Fairbairn (1923), Rev. J. S. Rhodes (1925-1929), Rev. L. F. Hardyman (1930-1936), Rev. F. E. Jewell (1937-1940), Rev. W. R. Tindle (1940-1941), Rev. C. R. Haines (1942-1951), Rev. A. E. Haldenby (1951-1953), Rev. Canon D. Dixon (1953-1978), Rev. S. G. Tomes (1979-1983), Rev. W. G. Dobinson (1983-1986).
Sources:
- The History of St. Peter's Anglican Church, The Manitoulin Expositor, https://www.manitoulin.ca/history-st-peters-anglican-church/ [accessed 2020 May 12].
- "Deanery of Manitoulin", 1941, Journal of Proceedings of the Thirteenth Session of the Synod, Algoma University Archives, 2009-078_002_011.
- "Faithful Missionary Century Ago Lived and Died Among His People", The Algoma Anglican 13, no. 11 (1969): 2A. Algoma University Archives, 2013-086_001_005_1969Dec.
- “The first draft of ‘Down the Century’ a History of Holy Trinity Church and Parish 1886-1896. Little Current, Ontario”, 1985, Diocesan Heritage Centre Parish History collection, Algoma University Archives, 2014-019_001_020.
