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PICKERING UNITED CHURCH Picture: 69 KINGSTON ROAD E. PICKERING THE PICKERING UNITED CHURCH was formed by the Union of the former St. Andrews and St. Pauls United Churches on March 28, 1930. Prior to Church Union in 1925, St. Andrews was Presbyterian and St. Pauls was Methodist and both churches date their beginnings to the early 1800's. Records show that in 1835, Rev. Robert Thornton, D.D. of the Secession Church of Scotland founded the first Presbyterian congregation in Pickering Village or Duffins Creek as it was called then, followed shortly after in 1841 by Rev. James Lambie of the Church of Scotland and in 1843 the "Stone Church" was built on the site of the present Pickering United Church. Meanwhile, also in the 1940's the Wesleyan Methodists had built a small frame church on Elizabeth Street at the north end of what is now known as the old Methodist Cemetery. In 1857 the Canton United Presbyterians, successors to the 1835 congregation of Rev. Robert Thornton, had built a brick church in the centre of the Village almost opposite to where the I.G.A. store stands to-day. Also in the 1850's the Bible Christians had erected their brick church across the street from the present United Church on the site of the Gulf Service Station. This building was in use until the Methodist Union of 1883. It was sold to the Past or Progressive Quakers (Friends) who continued to use it as their place of worship for almost another thirty years.