Who We Were, Who We Are

The United Church Observer is one of the oldest and most respected church publications in Canada. Its origins date back to the first half of the 19th century, when Canadian Methodists decided to found a weekly newspaper. They called it The Christian Guardian and named Rev. Egerton Ryerson editor.

Ryerson earned a reputation as a "doughty controversialist who, by his facile pen, fought the battle of civil and religious liberty." His passion and determination were his greatest strengths — and often his worst enemies: in his first 11 years as editor he was voted in and out of office three times by the Methodist Conference.

Starting out with the barest of resources, Ryerson guided The Christian Guardian to a circulation of 3,000 in its first three years. It came to be regarded as the leading newspaper of Upper Canada, a tireless defender of religious freedom, democracy and education. Ryerson went on to serve in government, and is credited with founding the public school system in Upper Canada.

His counterpart in the Presbyterian Church in Canada was Peter Brown, editor of The Banner, begun by the denomination in 1843. Brown’s son George was the paper’s publisher; he went on to found the Toronto Globe, now known as The Globe and Mail, and is a father of Canadian Confederation.

When Canadian Methodists, Congregationalists and most Presbyterians merged into The United Church of Canada in 1925, the three denominational newspapers also joined forces as The New Outlook. The publication became The United Church Observer in 1939. In the early 1950s, as the United Church began two decades of unprecedented growth, The Observer shifted from a newspaper to a magazine format. Under a plan that encouraged congregations to give every member a subscription, circulation peaked at over 300,000 readers in the early 1970s.

Like the Church Union that brought together three Canadian Protestant traditions, The New Outlook was the amalgamation of long-running Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist journals. In 1939 it was renamed The United Church Observer. Pictured above is the inaugural edition of The New Outlook, published on the occasion of the founding services of The United Church of Canada, June 10, 1925.

The magazine has had just five editors in the years since The New Outlook became The Observer: Rev. A.J. Wilson (1939-55); Rev. Al Forrest (1955-79); Hugh McCullum (1980-90); Muriel Duncan (1990-2006); and the current editor, David Wilson.

The Observer began life as an official organ of The United Church of Canada. However, even at its inception it was expected to maintain a degree of editorial independence. That principle has evolved over the years; the magazine now sets its own editorial policy and is overseen by its own board of directors, accountable to the United Church’s top decision-making court. Although not the official voice of the United Church, the magazine continues to report on issues affecting denominational and congregational life, as well as covering a wide range of general-interest issues of concern to people of faith today. The Observer consistently wins the recognition of its peers in church and secular magazine competitions in Canada and the U.S.

Today's Observer is published out of an old house in downtown Toronto that is owned by Bloor Street United Church. On the periphery of the University of Toronto and connected by subway to The United Church of Canada's national offices in Toronto's western suburbs, the house is named after Very Rev. George Pidgeon, the first moderator of The United Church of Canada.

The magazine operates out of a renovated old house owned by Bloor Street United Church in downtown Toronto and named after the first moderator of the United Church, Very Rev. George Pidgeon. The Observer’s editorial staff of eight full- and part-time employees is complemented by a large roster of experienced freelance writers, photographers and illustrators in Canada and abroad. •