In 1954, Canon Jackson of St. Jude’s Church, Oakville, attended a meeting with eight other people to decide if another Anglican Church could be established in the Upper Middle Road and Sixth Line area. They all decided that such an undertaking would serve this community well.
Munn’s Public School had just been completed and its auditorium, equipped with its own piano, became the foundation of St. Simon’s Church and the beginning of the Mission of St. Simon’s. St. Simon’s is named for the apostle, Simon the Zealot, who had a very close relationship with the apostle St. Jude.
An orange crate served as our first altar until Jean Bougard, one of the parishioners, carved a new altar out of wood and donated it to the church in memory of his mother.
The congregation of St. Jude’s contributed lots of inspiration and advice as well as many start-up items such as a brass cross and some candlesticks. That cross, wooden altar, and candlesticks are presently still being used at the Lifecare Centre in Oakville.
The local grocer volunteered to buy the prayer books that could not have been purchased otherwise.
Canon Smith, a retired clergyman, and some other clergy from the surrounding area, administered Holy Communion about once a month. It was Canon Smith who gave St. Simon’s our inaugural Lectern Bible. All the other services were either morning or evening prayer celebrations led by a theological student who was one of the original eight people at the initial meeting with Canon Jackson.
The Mission of St. Simon’s was then moved from Munn’s Public School to two small portable buildings by Canon Rigby, who at that time administered the church funds for the Diocese. These portable buildings are still used by the Rod and Gun Club of Oakville. It was about this time that the Mission of St. Simons’s amalgamated with St. Luke’s Anglican in Palermo. Our clergy now had a two-point parish to look after, St. Simon’s was considered a suburban congregation and St. Luke’s a rural community. St. Simon’s had the 9:30 a.m. service, and St. Luke’s the 11:00 a.m. service so everyone could get their chores done in the morning before church. This partnership was to continue for the next seventeen years. Our church continued to evolve.