Why bother with Church?
That’s a fair question. There are many things you could be doing on a Sunday afternoon. Why bother coming to a meeting with people, most of whom you may not normally hang around during the week, singing songs you may not know?
The Bible has many things to say about what a church is, but one of the helpful explanations is that a church is meant to be a family. To be more precise, a family of God. And like most families, a church is not perfect. Families can be messy. So can a church.
But when a family comes together and its members love, support, and encourage one another, it’s a wonderful place to be. The church is no different. In the same way, as members of the church, we strive to love, support, and encourage one another in our journey of faith.
To the outside world, the church is also meant to be an embassy and each of its members an ambassador. Like an embassy, which represents a country, the church is the visible representation of God here on earth. When the world sees the church and its members, they should get a glimpse of the character of the God of the universe.
It is a wonderful privilege to belong to the family of God, and to be his representatives here on earth.
Who we are
We are Christ the King Anglican Church, Toronto.
Based in downtown Toronto, we are a warm, welcoming, Christ-centered, Bible-based fellowship in the evangelical Anglican tradition.
We are warm and welcoming because we think that’s what a family should be for one another – caring. We also believe it is what we, as good ambassadors, should be to people new to the church – inviting.
We are also Christ-centered and Bible-based. You will realize very quickly when you join us at one of our Sunday services that we take the Bible seriously. We read it, we sing it, we preach from it and we pray it. We want to be a church that’s always learning from God’s word. In addition, Jesus Christ is very much at the center of all we do. He is the reason we meet each week; in fact, he makes it possible for us to gather since he is the one who tore down the wall that separated people of different race, gender, and social status.
Finally, we are a church in the evangelical Anglican tradition. This spells out the beliefs we hold fast. It also guides us in our worship as the Anglican liturgy shapes our weekly services. More importantly, being evangelical and Anglican undergirds our passion for introducing people to God’s truth and helping them grow in maturity as God’s people.
Our aim is that we will epitomize well what “being the church in downtown Toronto” means – helping each other mature spiritually as brothers and sisters in God’s family, and representing God well to those who have yet to know him. Our hope is that you will have an opportunity to visit us.
What we believe
Christ the King Anglican Church, Toronto is part of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America. We describe ourselves in three ways.
Firstly, we are Christian.
We believe in one God who has revealed himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. In our sinful state, we must put our trust in his Son and his death for our sins to know and be reconciled to God the Father. Drawing us to faith in Jesus Christ is the work of God the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to live holy lives for the glory of God.
Secondly, we are Evangelical.
To be evangelical means, first, that we hold the Bible alone to be our ultimate authority. It is the yardstick by which we measure all truth. Secondly, we believe salvation is possible only because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. Thirdly, to appropriate this salvation, we need to make a personal decision to follow Jesus by being born again through the Spirit; we need to repent and put our trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, as evangelicals, we are doers. We believe we should live out our faith by living our lives for the good of others. An important aspect of this is the faithful proclamation of the gospel by our lips and our lives.
Thirdly, we are Anglican.
We are part of the tradition of the Anglican Reformers of the 16th century. We affirm the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008. And as members of ANiC, we believe in:
The supreme authority of the teaching of Holy Scripture as understood within the doctrinal formularies of historical Anglicanism, specifically, the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Ordinal and the Solemn Declaration of 1893.
The triune nature of the one God, and the personal divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The sinfulness of each and every person and the universal need of salvation.
The sinless life, atoning death, bodily resurrection and ascension, heavenly reign, and future return in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The essential realities of salvation encompassing the forgiveness of sins through justification, regeneration, and adoption into the Father’s family, union and communion with Jesus Christ and the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the practice of holiness, moral transformation into the image of Christ, and the future resurrection of the body for eternal life.
The preaching of the word of God, the fellowship of the church, the ministry of the sacraments, and personal prayer – as the principal means of God’s grace.
What to expect at our services
We follow a liturgical style of worship, which means we follow a certain order of service and tend to stand and sit a lot. Our service is based on the Book of Common Prayer, which is rooted in the first prayer book from the beginnings of the Anglican Church, in the 1500s.
If this style of service is new to you, please join in only when you feel comfortable. Our bulletin indicates parts where the congregation responds aloud together by highlighting them in bold. We also indicate when the congregation will stand, sit, or sit/kneel. Generally, we stand to praise, sit to learn, and sit/kneel to pray.
Why do we do this? We believe that when Christians gather to pray, their theology is shaped and revealed by the words they use. A lot of thought has gone into the words of this service! We follow this order to focus ourselves on the wonderful story of redemption through Jesus Christ, in a sequence that emphasizes God’s grace to us.
We are excited for you to visit and look forward to worshipping together with you!
A bit of our history
Christ the King Anglican Church, Toronto (CTK) started life in May 2009 as the “Toronto Centre Project,” an Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) church planting project under the care of St. George’s Anglican Church, Burlington. A multicultural group of 13 people, led by Claus and Heather Lenk, began in the Lenks’ living room for its first monthly meeting. It then transitioned to the board room of a business office in North York. Not too long after that, the meetings became bi-weekly in September 2009. A leadership team developed with Rev. Ray David Glenn (Rector of St George’s Anglican Church), Claus and Heather Lenk, Raymond Leung and Marion Karasiuk. Shortly after, Raymond Leung left, and Robin and Sandra Guinness joined the leadership team.
On September 26, 2010, Sunday services began in the afternoon at 4:00 p.m. at the premises of Blythwood Road Baptist Church. It was during this time that a new name was chosen for the church – the Toronto Centre Project became Christ the King Anglican Church, Toronto.
In January 2011, Rev. Robin Guinness became the Priest Associate appointed to oversee the church while a search was made for a rector. In September of that year, Rev. Jonathan Wong, from the Diocese of Singapore, became our rector in a part-time capacity. Jonathan had come to Toronto to work on his Ph.D. at Wycliffe College.
Hospitality has been and continues to be an important aspect of CTK right from the beginning. Every service was followed by a time of fellowship over refreshments, and parishioners stayed a good hour after service to catch up with one another. This helped form a sense of real community among the members. Any excuse for a party, BBQ, or reception with food was a good time to celebrate God’s goodness.
In the fall of 2013, CTK became incorporated, attained its charitable registration, and moved officially from plant to parish. The congregation then had a core attendance of about 22 parishioners. The following year, in June 2014, Rev. Jonathan Wong moved back to Singapore for family reasons.
Rev. Len Finn, who started attending CTK a year earlier and had been appointed the Assistant Pastor, took over the mantle from Jonathan and became our rector in March 2014. Like Jonathan, Len had started a Ph.D. programme at Wycliffe. In March 2015, Len left CTK to focus full-time on his doctoral studies, and Robin Guinness took over as the interim pastor.
A rector search committee ensued, and after much prayer and consideration, Rev. Keith Ganzer began as the first full-time rector of CTK in September 2015.
In April 2016, Marion Karasiuk initiated a discussion with members of Christ The Redeemer (an ANiC church plant in downtown Toronto) to come together in an experimental joint venture to hold services on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. in downtown Toronto. Services began at Crimson Teas, a teashop run by Phillip Chan, who generously allowed the premises to be used for the joint venture.
Our first Sunday service at Crimson Teas was held on April 24, 2016. Initially, CTK continued to hold afternoon services at Blythwood. However, a decision was taken to discontinue the service at Blythwood in November 2016.
In January 2017, CTK and Christ The Redeemer were formally merged into one under the name Christ the King. Weekly Sunday services were held Sunday mornings, and in three years the congregation grew to 3 services under Keith’s leadership.
During the pandemic, CTK moved to a Zoom service. In July of 2021 we were able to resume meeting in person, now at Wycliffe College, though we continue to offer a hybrid model with a Zoom link. In December of 2021 Keith left to pursue Ph.D. studies and since then we have been led by our interim rector, Rev. Prof. Glen Taylor.
Our Staff
Rev. Dr. Benjamin Wall
Rector
benjamin@ctktoronto.com
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Rev. Logan Gates
Honourary Assistant
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Logan is a PhD Candidate in Political Theory at the University of Toronto, studying the emergence of human rights in early modern political thought. Originally from Northern Virginia, Logan trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, before moving to Toronto in 2015 to work as an apologist, speaking on tough questions about the Christian faith at universities across Canada and the US. He is an ordained presbyter in the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC).
In 2018 Logan married his bride Samantha -- a native Torontonian! They live in the Beaches neighbourhood in the city's east end. Logan loves running and spending time on, in, or near the water, especially windsurfing, sailing, and surfing. He enjoys a hot cup of tea and talking about the big questions in life.
Rev. David Alenskis
Honourary Assistant
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David is a priest, missionary, and PhD candidate in historical theology at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto. He first sensed while growing up as a teenager in Indiana that the Lord was calling him to pastoral ministry, and after graduating from Cedarville University he got his first taste of long-term cross-cultural ministry by volunteering at a Christian orphanage on the northern coast of Peru.
After completing his theological studies at Westminster Seminary California in 2009 and undertaking a curacy at a parish in the San Diego area, he was sent to serve as a full-time missionary with the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (USA) in 2011: first in Buenos Aires, Argentina and then in western Belize, where until December 2020 he served as the pastor of two rural Anglican churches and three primary schools.
In 2016 he married his wife Mary Beth, and together they have three spirited young children: Austin, James and Lily. Their family is now dually supported by SAMS and the Canadian missionary society Into All the World.
Roger Ong
Assistant Minister
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Roger is the assistant minister at Christ the King. He started coming to the church in 2015 when the family moved to Toronto. Prior to that, he spent four years in London, UK as the assistant minister of an anglican church. Roger received his theological training in Regent College, Vancouver. Before entering full-time ministry, he worked in the Singapore civil service, an equity research firm and a land transport company. As an undergraduate, Roger studied economics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan.
Originally from Singapore, Roger is a first-generation Christian putting his faith in Christ as his Lord and Saviour when he was twelve. Married to Corrina, they have three children, Maegan, Shaina and Timothy. Roger enjoys reading, taking walks with their dogs, Autumn and Maisie, playing tennis and a good conversation over coffee or tea.
Roger is passionate about discipleship and is excited to be part of the team at Christ the King growing a congregation of disciple-making disciples who love Jesus.
Rev. Robin Guinness
Honourary Associate
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Robin has ministered within the Anglican Church, initially in England but most extensively in Canada, for over 50 years, working in three different Canadian dioceses. For 25 years he was Rector of St. Stephen’s Church Westmount, Montreal. For six years he was Associate Rector of Little Trinity Church, Toronto. He also worked for two years with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Toronto.
After his retirement in 2005, Robin taught part-time at Wycliffe College, Toronto, for 5 years, and joined the Anglican Network in Canada in January 2011. Since then he has been an honorary associate at Christ the King.
The roots of ANiC can be traced in part to the Canada-wide Anglican Essentials Conference that took place in Montreal in 1994. The 700 bishops, clergy, and laity that attended that conference produced the Montreal Declaration of Anglican Essentials. As chairman of Barnabas Anglican Ministries at that time, Robin was one of the architects of the Montreal conference.
Robin gives thanks for the rich partnership in ministry with his wife Sandra that has been a gift and blessing over the years. They rejoice to see that the work of the gospel is a high priority in the lives of their three sons and of their families. Robin and Sandra are blessed with nine grandchildren.
Rev. Dr. Glen Taylor
Honourary Associate
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Although a regular visitor to Christ the King since 2017, Glen recently decided to become a member of Christ the King and also to become an honorary assistant priest. Now approaching retirement, Glen has for the past three decades been a professor of Old Testament at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. Previously (from 2002–2020) he was ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.
Glen was reared in a Christian family in Calgary, Alberta. He accepted Christ as his Saviour while a youngster. While attending university there he fell in love with the academic study of the Old Testament, a logical complement to an interest he also has in preaching and pastoring. After completing an MTh degree from Dallas Theological Seminary he attended Yale University where he completed his PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, specializing in Hebrew and the Old Testament. There he met another Canadian PhD student, Marion, whom he married and with whom he has taught alongside at Wycliffe since 1987. Marion and Glen have three adult children, David, Catherine, and Peter, the former two of whom are married. They live in the downtown area and have a large woolly dog named Seamus. In retirement Glen hopes to teach for short periods of time overseas, including the Gambia, where he helped found a Bachelor of Christian Religious Studies degree at the University of the Gambia.
Glen enjoys spending time at the cottage and returning to the Rocky Mountains to hike and ski. Other interests include collecting antiques (including a 1962 Ford Thunderbird), scull-boating, and horseback riding.