About St. Matthew’s

When you come to St. Matthew’s you will find open hearts, open minds and open doors. About 150 people worship at the choral Eucharist on Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM.

Read how you can join us for worship.

Take a virtual tour of our beautiful worship space. Read more in a short guided tour of the church interior, including its icons created by the late Heinrich Schlieper.

History of St. Matthew’s: The Anglican Church in the Glebe

When in 1898 Ottawa had a population of just 58,000, a little group of Church of England followers founded a parish in the expanding south part of town known as the Glebe. They built a small, wood-frame church just west of Bank Street. The Bishop of the Diocese of Ottawa, Charles Hamilton, named it St. Matthew’s after the Quebec City church he had served at a decade earlier. The Glebe’s present-day St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, a handsome stone structure that opened in 1930, sits in much the same location as its predecessor between what are now First and Glebe Avenues. And for many in the community, it is still the same spiritual and social cornerstone that it was for those nine founding families more than a century ago.

In the late 1890s, Ottawa was struggling to turn itself from a brawling lumber town into a capital fit for an emerging nation. The Rideau Canal was cleared of unsightly old sheds and piles of lumber. The swampy area in the Glebe where Patterson Creek entered the canal was drained and public gardens laid out. A driveway was built along the canal from downtown Laurier Avenue to Dow’s Lake. Read more about St. Matthew’s history.

St. Matthew’s War Memorial Project

Between 2014 and 2018, St. Matthew’s completed a project to create profiles of the 48 parishioners who died in military service during the two world wars. The profiles of all were read out during a special service in 2018 marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

The names of the 16 parishioners who were killed in the First World War and the 32 who were killed in the Second World War are displayed on wall plaques in the southeast corner of the church. As a result of the War Memorial Project, detailed profiles are now also found in a large display in the southeast corner.

Read some of the detailed profiles of these men.

Last updated: February 3, 2022