Our History
St. Cyprian’s, which was initially known as the Anglican Church at Finch and Leslie, began in a portable in 1965. In 1968, we and two other churches, Iona Presbyterian and Hillcrest United, joined together to erect the current facility at 1080 Finch Avenue East. We moved into what became known as the Tri-Church building in 1970.
There are three worship areas in the building. So each church can have its own worship time, but collaborates with the others under Tri-Church .
When Hillcrest United Church disbanded in 2003, its share of the partnership was taken over by St. Christopher's Chinese Anglican Church. The land is owned by the Anglican Diocese of Toronto and the building jointly by the three congregations.
Who Was St. Cyprian?
Cyprian was one of the great heroes of the third-century church, who guided the Christians in the North African city of Carthage through a period of frightening persecution, until he himself was martyred in the year 258.
He was a wealthy fifty-year-old barrister when he converted to Christianity, and he probably viewed his baptism as his retirement from public service. But the Christians at Carthage decided to exploit his social position and political prestige, and they elected him as their bishop in the year 248.
The next decade proved to be very difficult for the Church in North Africa. The pagan government renewed its persecution of the Church and, on the advice of his presbyters, Cyprian went into hiding for two years. When he returned to Carthage, he had to deal with a large number of people who had lapsed from the faith during the persecution but, once it was past, wanted to come back to the Church.
Cyprian refused to slam the door of God’s mercy and the Church’s forgiveness on them, because he understood the weakness of human will and, even more, the infinite compassion of God in Christ. But, by the same token, he was sure that the returning apostates had wounded Christ anew when they took part in pagan sacrifices. So, he opened the arms of the Church to returning apostates, but required them to undergo public penance in order that they might learn something of what it cost to love and be loved by Christ.
Cyprian himself was called to fulfill this love when, early in the year 258, the imperial government began a new round of persecution. He was banished from Carthage, but insisted on returning and surrendering himself. After a brief trial at which he bore unyielding witness to Christ, he was taken outside the city gates and beheaded.
[Edited and adapted from: For All the Saints:
Prayers and Readings for Saints’ Days,
compiled by
Stephen Reynolds (ABC Publishing, 2007), p. 276.]