When the Rev. J. Peter Holmes made his first official visit to Chautauqua in July 2017, he said he was honored and humbled to preach during Fourth of July week at Chautauqua Institution. “I had never done that in America before,” he said. “We Canadians are much quieter on those things.”
Holmes, minister to the congregation of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto, will be the chaplain for Week Eight at Chautauqua. This is his second official visit to the Institution. Holmes co-conducts tours of sacred spaces both in and outside Toronto. In May 2017, he brought a tour from Toronto to Cleveland and stopped at Chautauqua as a sacred space. They enjoyed a tour and had lunch at the Athenaeum Hotel.
He will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title will be “One Lord, One Faith, One Hospital?” He will also preach at the 9:15 a.m. worship services Monday through Friday in the Amp. His sermon titles include “Beautiful Strangers,” “Rounding Third,” “Fire and Rain,” “Just Like That” and “Alive to Hope.”
Holmes has served on the ministry team of Yorkminster Park since 1995 and as the minister of the congregation since 2001. Yorkminster Park is the largest Baptist church in Canada and is located at the corner of Yonge and St. Clair Streets.
“Some people call Yonge Street the main street of Canada,” he said in 2017. “No two days are the same.”
Holmes believes it is important for clergy to be in relation to and community with people of other faiths.
“Many in my congregation work with people from other faiths, and they look for someone to take the lead in fostering understanding,” he said. “I won’t speak for other faiths, but I will listen and walk together with them.”
During his time with the congregation, it has grown into an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural family. While the church has a long history of excellence in music, liturgy and preaching, it has also become a community center for culture and the arts as well as many missional endeavours focused on relieving food insecurity, providing shelter and offering housing for those who are homeless and support for refugees.
While Holmes’ family roots are in Ontario, as a child of the manse he spent most of his formative years in Victoria, British Columbia, where he graduated from the University of Victoria and served as ombudsman of the university. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto and a Doctor of Ministry from Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Prior to his call to Yorkminster Park, he served churches in Toronto and Montreal.
Holmes approaches the pulpit as a gifted storyteller with a pastoral heart. He is the host of Yorkminster Park’s Lester Randall Preaching Fellowship, which attracts clergy from far and wide. He has contributed to Biblical commentaries and preached in churches in Europe, the Middle East and in both Canada and the United States.
In recognition of Holmes’ leadership in ecumenical and interfaith endeavours in the city and beyond, the Toronto Commandery of the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem named him as the recipient of their 2022 Marjorie McKinnon Ecumenical Lifetime Achievement Award. Holmes was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee Medal and the King Charles Coronation Medal, both awarded to “honor significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.” In 2016, he was named an Honorary Lifetime Fellow of Acadia Divinity College. He serves as chaplain to the Royal Commonwealth Society and a board member of the House of Compassion.
