Peter Holmes, was inducted as the Minister of the Congregation in 2001. Up until that time he had been serving as the Minister of Pastoral Care during Kerr Spiers’ tenure as Minister of the Congregation. Peter has always expressed appreciation for those years under Kerr’s leadership and direction. As a preacher and as a minister, Peter seeks to combine the warmth and wisdom of a pastor with the passion and imagination of a storyteller.
Peter completed his doctoral studies in 2006 at Acadia Divinity College and Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. His thesis work was in the area of preaching at funerals. He completed this work under the supervision of Rev. Dr. Paul Scott Wilson from Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto. Along the way, Peter was also mentored by Yorkminster Park’s late Minister Emeritus, the Rev. Dr. John N. Gladstone.
Prior to coming to Yorkminster Park in 1995, Peter served as the Minister of the First Baptist Church, Montreal, an historic urban church with a multiethnic congregation. Peter was born in Ottawa in 1957 and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, where his father, the Rev. Robert D. Holmes, served as a minister for more than twenty years. Peter completed his undergraduate studies at The University of Victoria, following which he worked as a carpenter’s assistant and then as the Ombudsperson of the University of Victoria.
In 1983 he entered seminary at Wycliffe College, an Anglican seminary at The University of Toronto. While there, he came under the tutelage of the renowned preacher Dr. A. Leonard Griffith, and the mentorship of the Rev. William Leach, a former Chaplain’ of the Toronto General Hospital, where Peter served as a student. Following graduation from seminary, Peter served as the Associate Minister at Blythwood Road Baptist Church, Toronto, where he was ordained in 1987. Dr. William Sturgess, Yorkminster Park’s Minister Emeritus (Pastoral Care), served as Peter’s ordination supervisor. Peter has served on committees of both a denominational and ecumenical nature. Currently, Peter is the Chair of the Churches On-The-Hill, an organization which represents the churches in the Yonge & St. Clair neighbourhood of Toronto. Peter is married to Janet and they have three children.
to Peter Holmes
