Who we are
Calvin is a warm, welcoming and caring community.
We are called to claim Christ by grace through faith.
We believe God’s word addresses the heart and it compels us to go and witness for Him in every area of life!
Mission
As people called by God,
We gather to praise God, listen to him, and respond.
We nurture each other in faith and obedience to Christ.
We love and care for one another as God’s people.
We commit ourselves to serve and to tell others about Jesus.
We pursue God’s justice and peace in every area of life.
beliefs
Our Foundational Documents
We affirm the historic ecumenical creeds: The Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. We also adhere to three Reformed Confessions: The Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort.
Our Key teachings
Calvin is heir of the five Solas of the Protestant Reformation:
Sola scriptura: Scripture alone
Sola fide: faith alone
Sola gratia: grace alone
Solo Christo: Christ alone
Soli Deo gloria: to the glory of God alone
The Scriptures
We believe the Old and New Testaments are the written and inspired Word of God, the infallible, inerrant, and authoritative rule of faith for the direction of all of life.
God
We believe in the one True God who reveals himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the Maker of all things. He sustains and governs all things by the power of his Word and Spirit.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is both fully God and man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. After a life of suffering, Jesus died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice to pay for our sin. Three days later he rose from the dead to proclaim his victory over sin and death. Today he sits on heaven’s throne. He reigns as our heavenly High Priest and eternal King. On the last day, he will return to usher in the fulness of God’s kingdom upon the earth.
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit. His ministry is to apply God’s saving work to our hearts and lives. He regenerates, indwells, teaches, comforts, and empowers God’s people for godly service in his church and kingdom.
Salvation
Without God’s saving grace in our lives we are dead in sin and worthy of judgement. Salvation is wholly of God. It is planned in eternity, bought and paid for through the death and resurrection of his Son, applied to our hearts by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and kept until the day of Christ. Our prayers and obedience are our thankful response to his saving grace.
Covenant, baptism and Kingdom
God works his grace through families. Believers and their children receive the sign of his covenant relationship with us through baptism. Receiving his promises, God’s people are obligated to walk by faith and obedience for God’s glory in all areas of life. There is not one square inch of this creation that Christ does not say, “This is mine.” That we may be equipped for service in his coming kingdom as his covenant partners, Calvin church strongly supports Christian education.
communion
Calvin celebrates the Lord’s supper typically once a month, usually in our morning services, occasionally in our evening services. All guests who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are members in good standing in a Christian Church are welcome to celebrate the Lord’s supper with us.
Marriage, sexuality and gender
We believe that marriage is created by God to be shared between one man and one woman. Marriage is designed to be a lifelong holy covenant for the purpose of companionship, sexual intimacy and procreation. Our created gender, sexuality and sexual fulfillment are gifts from God to be embraced with gratitude, reverence and awe. Calvin whole heartily affirms the “Human Sexuality Report” of the Christian Reformed Church approved by synod in 2022 and affirmed in 2023.
affiliation
Dundas Calvin is a member congregation of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
The CRCNA is a bi-national denomination with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Burlington, Ontario.
worship Music
Music is an important part of our worship services. We love to sing! Our hymns and contemporary music are led by a variety of musical instruments and members of the congregation.
ORGAN
The primary musical instrument of our church is its century old R. S. Williams and Sons pipe organ. Originally purchased for $3,500.00 in 1958, at the time our facilities were built, it has been refurbished and enlarged over the years. At just under 1,000 pipes, it is a modest, but adequate instrument for the robust singing for which our congregation is known.
PIANO
In 2003 our congregation acquired a small Kawai grand piano. It is used regularly to lead the singing, along with the organ, as the lead instrument of our praise team, or on its own. We are blessed to have a number of talented pianists who contribute regularly to our worship experience.
PRAISE TEAM
The members of our praise team focus on teaching the congregation to sing new and contemporary worship songs, adding a dimension to our worship, which allows us to express praise to our God from the context of today’s cultural experience.
our history
Calvin Church was formally organized as a congregation in the Christian Reformed Denomination in November of 1954. The church family was made up of 37 families, all of them recent immigrants from the Netherlands. Their first place of worship was the old West Flamborough Township Hall in Greensville. In 1956, the church called its first pastor, Reverend Adam Persenaire and, in 1958, the dream of their own church building was realized, complete with a wonderful 50-year-old pipe organ.
The congregation grew rapidly during the sixties, both from new families moving into the area and from internal expansion as children married and started their own families. Adaptation to the new culture was not without tension at times but, by he early seventies, services were conducted entirely in English as most families established themselves in the greater Hamilton area.
Continued growth led to overcrowding of the facilities so, in 1985, a daughter congregation named Calvary Christian Reformed Church was formed in Flamborough.
In 1998, the well-used education wing of the church was torn down and replaced with a beautiful new education facility and fellowship hall.
In 2024, the church celebrated its 70th anniversary.
Our current pastor, Rev. Ken Benjamins, arrived in August of 2016.
Dundas Calvin continues to be a church that is firmly rooted in the Word and worships together faithfully. All of its members strive to be a witness of the saving grace of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.