St. Bartholomew’s Roman Catholic Church An Early Photo
1878 Meacham’s Atlas showing the location of the original St. Bartholomew’s Roman Catholic Church
July 2, 1869, Kingston News
Dedication of the New Catholic Church September 1872 On Sunday, 15^th inst., His Lordship, the Bishop of Kingston will dedicate the new Church on Amherst Island. The steamer, Rochester, with His Lordship on board, will leave Carruthers’ wharf at 8:30 a.m., calling at Bath and will arrive at Upper Landing about 10 o’clock, where conveyances will be waiting to convey excursionists to Church. The ceremony will be Dedication, mass and Sermon, but a Jesuit Father, after which His Lordship will administer confirmation. Contributions (voluntary) towards paying church Debt will be taken at entrance. The Boat will arrive at Kingsotn on return truip at 4 o’clock p.m.
July 12, 1951 Whig Standard
July 22, 1986 Kingston Whig Standard Island Church Burns A severe thunderstorm hit the island about 4:00 p.m. on July 20, 1986 “Amherst Island fire chief Hans Dehaan says lightning is believed to have been the cause of a fire Sunday which extensively damaged the only Roman Catholic Church on the island. There is no immediate estimate of damage. The wood-frame church, built in 1860 [sic] and located approximately three miles west of Stella, has been closed for several years and was at one time rented to an island family. It was unoccupied at the time of the blaze. A petition seeking to have church services restored was recently posted in Glenn’s store in Stella.”
By 1986, the Roman Catholic congregation on Amherst Island wanted a new church. The following year they were able to purchase the old Christ Church building on the Front Road, at the west end of the village of Emerald.	Notice published September 9, 1988
First St. Bartholomew’s Closed 12 years ago, but ‘the Holy Ghost got Busy’ and Parish Revived September 30, 1988 Kingston Whig Standard The 25 to 30 Roman Catholic families of Amherst Island will no longer have to travel to the mainland to attend Sunday Mass – they now have a newly dedicated St. Bartholomew’s Church. The church is located in the hamlet of Emerald on the island’s North Shore Road. The new house of worship was officially signed, sealed and delivered when Kingston Archbishop F.J. Spence dedicated it in a con-celebrated mass earlier this month. St. Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. As patron the new church, he will pick right up where he left off when the first St. Bartholomew’s on the island closed a decade ago. That building, located east of the new site, had been rented out for some years as a residence; about two years ago, it was destroyed by fire. The new Catholic Church has a history of its own. Built 112 years ago by the Anglican Diocese of Ontario, it served several generations of Anglicans as Christ church until it closed some 20 years ago. More recently, the building was used as a cottage. The Catholic archdiocese purchased it last year. Local carpenter Dennis McGinn, did a great deal of the work needed to put the building in its present spanking new condition.