About Springdale Church
Springdale Church is an independent spiritualist church affiliated with the Spiritualist Church of Canada. We are located in the Topham Park neighbourhood of Toronto. In a weekly Divine Service held on Sundays from 10:30 am to 12 noon, Springdale celebrates and practices spiritualism as a philosophy, a religion, and a science in the pursuit of truth, light, and love. Members develop and demonstrate the gifts of Mediumship through the communion of Spirits and the Ministry of Angels.
All are welcome! We invite you to learn more about our services and upcoming special events.
History
A national organization is born
The Spiritualist Church of Canada (formerly the Spiritualist National Union of Canada) was established on April 27, 1929 with an aim toward connecting the activities of Spiritualist churches across the country. Today, it also educates and ordains ministers in the Spiritualist faith.
Springdale Church was founded in 1939 as a Spiritualists’ National Union (SNU) Church. Since then, it has followed the pattern of teaching established by the SNU, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom. The SNU’s teachings are similar those of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC), which is based in the United States; however, NSAC’s Nine Principles of Spiritualism differ slightly from the Seven Principles that we at Springdale Church and the Spiritualist Church of Canada follow.
Rev. Partridge seeks to build “Lily Dale North”
More information on Springdale Church’s history will be added soon. Keep checking this section for updates.
Springdale comes to the Big City
Coming soon.
Springdale Church Today
Coming soon.
Pastors
Reverend William Charles Partridge, 1939 – 1976
Reverend Partridge was the Founding Pastor of both the Springdale Park Spiritual Association of Ontario (1938) and Springdale Church, Toronto (1939). Reverend Partridge advised and urged his successors to move forward and upward in their understanding and levels of service within Spiritualism, that they might do more to educate the public in the true meaning of its philosophy. We bless him for the example he set, and the opportunities of service he opened before all who would succeed him.
Should prayers be said for me
Why fear the flight o’er yonder
If the soul is deathless, free?
Like the warbling lark, soaring, sings
I shall say farewell to earth
No mourners sigh, man cannot die
It’s the Spirit’s second birth”
Reverend Ruth Ann Dyke, 1976 – 1993
Ruth Ann Dyke was born in Portland, Maine ca. 1917. She began to attend church services at Springdale Church, Toronto, in 1967, and became president of the church board in 1970, as well as a member and regular Church Representative in the Spiritualists’ National Union of Canada (SNU), later being elected as Governor and then as Second Vice-President. She was ordained in 1973 at the request of Reverend William C. Partridge, her teacher and friend, to become assistant pastor of Springdale Church. She became the pastor of Springdale Church in or before 1976, when Rev. Partridge left Toronto to live with family in Vancouver, and she became increasingly active in the SNU as well, becoming president around 1976 and locating its head office at Springdale Church. During Rev. Dyke’s tenure as president (ca. 1976-1981), the SNU (now renamed as the Spiritualist Church of Canada (SCC)) secured for its ministers equal rights and all forms of recognition enjoyed by other churches, including an accreditation course and marriage rights. She remained pastor of Springdale Church for many years, until within months before her passing on 16 January 1993 at Scarborough, ON. She was also active in the Springdale Park Spiritual Association (SPSA), and owned a lot in Springdale Park at Bracebridge, ON.
Reverend Doreen Bauld, 1993 – 2013
Died May 16, 2013. Rev. Bauld was assistant pastor at the Church of Universal Love. She left to become Pastor at Springdale Church. More information on Rev. Bauld will be added to this section soon.