Sudbury Bible Fellowship, ON

Sudbury is a good-sized city 180 miles east of Sault Ste. Marie and 250 miles north of Toronto. It is the area of a vast ore body of copper and other metals, discovered in the 1880s. In about 1925, Christians began to Remember the Lord in a home in Copper Cliff, adjacent to Sudbury. In 1929, the Orange Hall at Copper Cliff was rented. The original families were the Patricks, Holditchs, and the Princes. The testimony was maintained through the ministry of itinerant workers such as Sam Taylor, Mr. Bailey, and Mr. Hind. In later years, workers such as John Sommacal, John Martin, James Naismith, and many others have ministered at the assembly. Harold Fiss, who spent his early years in the assembly, was one of these.

As people were saved and added to the fellowship, the group constructed in 1935 the Gatchell Gospel Hall in the community of Gatchell adjoining Sudbury, on land donated by the Holditch family. This was a frame building, 40 feet by 21 feet. Eighteen families were in the assembly then. The work grew, and in 1950 a larger brick building was erected on the same property. Two hundred were in fellowship by the 1950s.

In 1976, the assembly moved to another area, into the Agincourt Public School, because street parking had become nearly impossible where they were. They took the name Sudbury Bible Fellowship at about that time. In 1983, they purchased a lot in this area and constructed a chapel at 1661 Lansing Avenue, largely with volunteer labor. Though numbers are smaller now, with about 75 considered to be in fellowship, the assembly is active with vacation Bible schools, meetings weekly in three retirement homes, and tract distribution. Robert Bibby has been a leading brother in the assembly for many years. Sudbury Bible Fellowship has commended workers to Newfoundland and to local ministry.

Sources

• Canada Ontario history by Robert L. Peterson, 1990's;