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Cathedral Church of St James
St. James' Cathedral
Dedication	Saint James
Denomination	Anglican Church of Canada
Tradition	High church
Administration
Deanery	St James
Diocese	Toronto
Province	Ontario
Clergy
Dean	The Very Rev. Dr Douglas A. Stoute
Vicar	The Rev. Canon Fr David Brinton, OGS
Curate	The Rev. Erin Dewhirst
Assistant	The Rev. Jeffrey Donnelly
Other
Website	www.stjamescathedral.on.ca

Coordinates: 43°39′1″N 79°22′26″W / 43.65028, -79.37389

Sign and main entrance to cathedral, showing the street address, phone number, website, and schedule for church services

St. James' Cathedral

St. James' Cathedral in 1923

St. James' Cathedral original watercolour - ca. 1858-ca. 1860

The Cathedral Church of St James in Toronto, Ontario, is the oldest congregation in the city. Established in 1797, the current structure was completed in 1844 and was one of the largest buildings in the city. The church cemetery was moved in the 1840s to St James-the-Less at Parliament and Bloor, although there are still unmarked graves under the modern parking lot. The church is listed as an Ontario Heritage Property and a National Historic Site and is the episcopal seat of the Anglican Church of Canada's Diocese of Toronto.

At 305 feet (92.9 m), the cathedral's spire makes it the second tallest church in Canada, after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. It was designed by Fredrick Cumberland and is a prime example of Gothic Revival architecture. It opened for services on June 19, 1853, and the clocktower was finished in 1874, with the clock being installed a year later. The total length of the cathedral is 198 feet, with a maximum width of 98 feet.

The cathedral's tower clock has five bells that still ring through the city today, and the chiming clock is "one of the finest examples of a chiming public clock anywhere in the world." [1] The tower also houses a full peal of 12 change-ringing bells, the largest such peal in North America, The Bells of Old York.

At the turn of the 20th century, St James' Cathedral was the tallest building in Toronto, and was often the first thing immigrants noticed when they stepped off the train at old Union Station.

Royal St. George's College, on Howland Avenue, is the church's choir school and is open to boys in grades 3 through 12. The school houses the Chapel of St Alban the Martyr. The chaplain is Fr David Donkin.

To raise money to help pay for rising costs of maintaining the church, part of the grounds were planned to be sold to a condo developer. Part of the land was to been part of the original cemetery, and the developers planned to move the tombs as to clear the land. Public outcry ensued and a deal was made to sell off a parking lot to the north west of the church for the Spire condo development.

The west façade of the Cathedral was the back-drop for several scenes set in Detroit in the 1999 film, Detroit Rock City (film).

• List of oldest buildings and structures in Toronto

• St. James' Cathedral