The Methodistical way: Revivalism and popular resistance to the Wesleyan Church discipline in the Stanstead Circuit, Lower Canada, 1821-52

Abstract

This essay examines the dynamic between the British Wesleyan missionaries and the American-origin population of the Stanstead Circuit within Lower Canada's Eastern Townships. It finds that early revivals were followed by years of slow church growth and stagnation as the missionaries were unable, or unwilling, to develop the lay leadership network that was a central feature of the Methodist system. By the middle of the 19th century, attempts to impose the church discipline on the local population had made relatively little progress in the face of the Rebellions of 1837-38, the Millerite religious revival, the incursion of radical Methodist splinter groups, and ongoing popular resistance to an externally dictated denominational exclusivism that posed a threat to local community bonds.