Whitney Memorial Church is the earliest Protestant church built in the colony, and the first church in the Diocese of Ottawa but it was built by Lutherans.
It was eventually transferred to the Anglicans…
Lutheran pastors serving this congregation included: The Rev. Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger 1791-1803 The Rev. Frederick Augustus Meyers 1804-1807 The Rev. Johann Gunter Weigandt 1807-1835.
Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger
According to a brief history compiled by the late George F. Jowett, The Rev. Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger was an eminent Lutheran Pastor. He was born in Bavaria, educated in Germany, and served in the United States.
As a Loyalist he had endured imprisonment for declaring his satisfaction with British rule. He was a pacifist and although he had not served in the Loyalist forces, his loyalty to the Crown was well-known and he was granted United Empire Loyalist status.
In the fall of 1791, Jowett records, he arrived with his wife and eight children by covered wagon. During those early years, it appears that the first church was built as a co-operative, community effort with a congregation of Anglicans, German Calvinists (later Presbyterians) and German Lutherans worshipping together under the leadership of The Rev. Samuel Schwerdtfeger, a Lutheran pastor. The first worship service in the new church occurred on September 17, 1792.
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