Harcourt Memorial United Church is a progressive, Affirming, greening church community providing space for people to explore and deepen their spiritual lives and their involvement in social justice.

Our core values include risk, respect, responsibility, vulnerability and trust.
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Our purpose is to welcome and strengthen in community all who wish to serve God’s world and follow the way of Jesus.

We are on a journey from the current Community of Faith organizational structure towards empowering various communities of the faithful to live out their passion, one step at a time, into a future filled with experimentation and learning.

Together the staff and the members of the congregation form a welcoming, caring, and supportive Christian community.

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Land Acknowledgement

As we gather, we are reminded that Guelph is situated on treaty land that is steeped in rich Indigenous history and home to many First Nations, Inuit and Métis people today.

As a community and a church, we have a responsibility for the stewardship of the land on which we live and work. Today we acknowledge the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of the Anishinaabeg Peoples on whose traditional territory we are meeting.

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A brief history

• June 4th, 1887: Sunday school teachers from the Congregational Church on Norfolk Street started a Sunday school mission in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Guelph (south of the Speed River).
• 1905: Chalmers Presbyterian Church became a partner to support the Congregational Church. A new, yellow brick building at the corner of Martin Avenue and Albert Street was dedicated to the venture
• 1923: The former building became cramped, and in 1923, the Brooklyn Sunday School dedicated a large, new building on Martin Avenue.

• 1955: The Brooklyn Mission began holding Sunday morning worship services due to the many young couples building houses in the area following World War II and the development of the three colleges on the hill (that later became the University of Guelph).
• March 4, 1956: Became a congregation within the United Church of Canada. Caroline Forbes Harcourt and Robert Harcourt had been active leaders and benefactors of the mission, and the new church was named after them.
• 1960: The congregation continued to grow and larger facilities were needed. Land was purchased on Dean Avenue.
• January 7, 1962: The new church was dedicated. Additions and renovations were made in 1986.

• 1978-1980: The congregation sponsored its first candidate for ministry and the Refugee Sponsorship Program started. Several families from Vietnam were sponsored, and later other families displaced by war. In 1980, the Student Internship Program began where the congregation and minister agreed to provide practical experience and guidance to future ministers of the United Church.
• 1987: A second ministerial position was added to serve the needs of people of all ages and to assist with community outreach.
• 2005: Harcourt became an Affirming Congregation, welcoming people of all sexual orientations and gender identities into the life of the congregation.