It also was a benefit to have support from Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir, and from Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

At the Plains of Abraham outside of the walled Citadelle of Quebec, there was a Scottish Battalion, the 78th Fraser Highlanders, complete with a Presbyterian chaplain, Reverend Robert MacPherson.

In Halifax, St. Matthew's dates back to 1749 as a "Dissenting Protestant Worship House", and adhered to Presbyterian polity at a later date; the Presbyterian Church of St. David is another 1925 "Minority Group" from within downtown Halifax congregations including St Matthew's, and celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2005, meeting in the former Grafton Street Methodist (1869) building, acquired in their early days.

Some of the early Canadian Presbyterians were United Empire Loyalists of Scots descent, and others came directly from Scotland, such as in the 1773 arrival of The Hector in Pictou, Nova Scotia.

Early Clergy represented many strands of reformed theology, and were educated in Scotland, Ireland, and the United States.

Congregations were eventually formed in many communities (initially in townships over towns), and usually after a lengthy period without any supply from clergy (in the Red River Colony in Manitoba, it took thirty years); in many cases, family worship consisted of devotions and catechisms.

In the Maritimes (now the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), the original Scots Presbyterians were from two branches of the Secessionist United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and prior to their union in 1817 which created the Synod of Nova Scotia, there was the Associate Presbytery of Truro, erected in 1786, and the Presbytery of Pictou, erected in 1795.

There were still Church of Scotland congregations and ministers who remained outside this group, before its incorporation in New Brunswick on January 30, 1833 (Synod from 1835) and in Nova Scotia.

In 1834, this group also began to receive a number of United Synod clergy and congregations, which led to the aforementioned union with the Auld Kirk by 1840.

This became the dominant Presbyterian grouping in the Canadas, growing in cities, towns, villages, and even into the United States, including Illinois (Chicago, a French community at St. Anne and a Gaelic-speaking congregation in Elmira) and border cities in Michigan and New York State, as well as into the Canadian Northwest Territories with Rev.

in Hamilton, Ontario, sent out letters at the end of his term (he was moving to serve a Dutch Reformed Church in New York City), for these groups to hold a conference of all strands of Presbyterianism in the new Dominion of Canada.

Although there were a number of Church of Scotland congregations, mainly from the Maritimes, as well as St. Andrew's Montreal, and a few others in Glengarry County Ontario, that resisted this union, many of these eventually entered the PCC in the early 20th century.

As a united group, the PCC consolidated and grew all across Canada in both the established areas, and expanded into newly settled parts.

Manitoba College started in Kildonan in 1871, received support from both Canadian churches prior to 1875, and at the 1883 General Assembly, their moderator, Rev.

Following years of debate, and postponement over World War I, voting on Canadian Church Union took place in the late months of 1924, and into 1925.

St. Andrew's Hall, part of the PCC's presence at UBC since 1956, formally joined with VST in 1984, and in 2006, the General Assembly approved concurrent programmes with Regent College.

As with other mainline denominations in North America, the Presbyterian Church in Canada has been wrestling with social issues and, especially, with human sexuality.

In 1998, the Presbyterian denomination prohibited gay and lesbian pastors and denied licenses to preach to these ministers; in 2012, however, that ban was lifted by the assembly.

"[5] In 2014, the Presbyteries of Waterloo-Wellington, Calgary, and East Toronto voted in favor of an overture asking the Presbyterian Church in Canada to permit the ordination of gay pastors and the blessing of same-sex marriages.

Karen Horst, has issued a pastoral letter calling for gracious and open discussion that listens to both sides of the debate.

The Presbyteries of Calgary-Macleod, East Toronto, and Waterloo-Wellington submitted overtures asking the denomination to support same-sex unions and partnered gay and lesbian clergy.

[13] The Presbyterian Church in Canada has also had an international presence; besides congregations in Newfoundland before that province's entry into Canadian Confederation in 1949, St Andrew's in Hamilton, Bermuda was affiliated with the Maritime churches from 1842 to 1963, when its presbyterial oversight was transferred to the West Toronto Presbytery, and many congregations have people from many other nations and cultures that have come to Canada.

Fellow Oxford County native Jonathan Goforth initially went to Honan China starting the Canadian Presbyterian Mission there, Dr. John Buchannan into India, James Scarth Gale (sponsored by the YMCA) and Robert Grierson went to Korea, Japan saw Caroline Macdonald, "The White Angel of Tokyo" (YWCA), and after 1927, when Luther Lisgar Young and others partnered with The Korean Christian Church of Japan.

Some changes occurred after Church Union, as Goforth left Honan, to conclude his Asian Ministry in Manchuria, the aforementioned L.L.

Since 1954, Nigeria, where Mary Slessor had pioneered a generation before with a Scottish Church, and whose story was well known in many Canadian congregations, opened the door for PCC service in Africa.

Malawi, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Cameroon, Lesotho, and the Indian Ocean Island of Mauritius are other African nations that have also been partnered with the PCC, which also serves in Central America (Guyana is also included here, having been an offshoot of the Mission to Trinidad started by Nova Scotian Rev.

[14] Since 1939, relations with the United Church of Canada have improved, through involvement in ecumenical partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally.

As a result of early settlement, as well as post WWII urbanization, and resistance to the 1925 church union, Southern Ontario has the greatest number of congregations, presbyteries and synods (listed above).

From June 4–9, 2006, the 132nd General Assembly took place in St. Catharines, Ontario, at Brock University, an alma mater (1982) of the outgoing Moderator.

There are congregations, missions, and preaching points in each Canadian province, as well as the aforementioned St Andrew's Church in Hamilton, Bermuda.