Presbyterian Church In Canada Research Articles

Women’s Protestant foreign mission work and settler state formation in Canada: A re-examination of the Scottish diaspora

ABSTRACT Renewed interest in empire and colonialism has transformed our understanding of transnational networks and processes of exchange, entanglement, and globalisation. However, colonial entanglement still conceals some significant players in globalising cultures. The Protestant women’s foreign missionary movement pioneered transnational activism by interweaving women’s empowerment in “foreign” and “home” environments into a single mission. Essential in developing conceptual and organisational frameworks to address “global issues,” the movement’s impact upon state formation was also profound. This case study of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (1876–1914) combines global diaspora frameworks with local, regional, national, and gendered settler lenses. Close review of Scottish diaspora scholarship and a multi-scale approach to the WFMS’s engagement with social reform helps integrate siloed scholarships, revealing how local and foreign mission environments intersected and collaborated to fortify structures of Anglo-Protestant hegemony in Canada and globally.

Independent Greek Church in Canada, 1903–1912

The Independent Greek Church in Canada, 1903–1912, was a middle ground between The Presbyterian Church in Canada, which desired to bring the growing Ukraine diaspora into the Presbyterian fold, and the Ukrainian immigrant intelligentsia, who imagined an independent, Protestant, and culturally and linguistically Ukrainian church. Using the work of Richard White on middle ground and the work of Lamin Sanneh on non-dominant cultures’ agency in missionary contexts, the paper offers a new interpretation of the Independent Greek Church in Canada, an interpretation that valorizes the agency of the Ukrainian participants in the denomination. Yet, as a middle ground, the denomination was too unstable to survive long. The growing uniformity of Canadian Presbyterianism ended this unexpected pairing on the Canadian Prairies. (PB)

“Very clever and yet too highly flavoured”: Why Robert Grierson’s History of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission in Korea and Manchuria was Unfit to Print

In the fall of 1921, R. P. Mackay, the secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (FMB), informed Dr. Robert Grierson, a pioneer of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission in Korea and Manchuria and its most talented author, that his booklet on the history of the Korean/Manchurian Mission was problematic and could not be published. Grierson’s booklet pushed the boundaries of the missionary literature genre, and, like the more radical proposals championed by missionary reformers, was considered subversive by missionary administrators. Similar to these proposals, it could have compelled a “re-thinking” of the very purposes of the missionary enterprise. It was seen as going beyond the bounds of decorum in terms of tone and content and practicality in regard to its goals. Grierson sought out a new audience — an audience in which the FMB had little interest.

Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places and Things in the Digital Age

Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places and Things in the Digital Age

The Accidental Modernists: American Fundamentalism and the Canadian Controversy over Church Union

This article looks at confessional family resemblances between the fundamentalist controversy in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the church union controversy in Canada. These resemblances have been obscured by focusing on the doctrinal dimensions of the former and the socio-institutional features of the latter. The role of the prominent American fundamentalist J. Gresham Machen in the transformation of Canadian unionists into modernists sheds light on the underlying tensions that sparked the two controversies, as well as the distinctive dynamics of the resistance to church union that shaped the confessional identity of both the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada after 1925.

Protestant Christians of the Arabic-Speaking Diaspora and the Presbyterian Church in Canada

Arab Protestants are an understudied group in Canada, and this paper seeks to address that gap by describing the religious transnationalism of Arab Protestants in The Presbyterian Church in Canada. The six Arabic-speaking congregations explored have sought to negotiate space for an Arab Protestant identity within a Euro-Canadian denomination. They have done this not by being an enclave separate within the denomination but through engagement with the denomination. In the negotiation process, the Arabic-speaking congregations have been shaped by the Canadian church and the Canadian church has been shaped by the presence of an Arab identity in its midst.

Calvin and Canadian Protestantism: The Thought and Influence of W.W. Bryden

Abstract: Walter W. Bryden (1883–1952), the sixth principal of Knox College (1945–1952), was arguably one of the most important Calvinist theologians in the history of Canadian Protestantism. In light of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth (1509–1564) in 2009, this article explores Bryden's thought and influence as a Reformed Protestant theologian and Church leader in the Calvinist tradition and legacy that shaped Canadian Presbyterianism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bryden's own thinking about the significance of Calvin and Calvinism for the Presbyterian Church in Canada after Church union in 1925, especially in relation to the theology of Karl Barth, is explored in some detail. The Scottish theologian T.F. Torrance once remarked that Bryden was a truly remarkable theologian: “I can't help but think that he is more like John Calvin than anyone I've ever known.” This article tests Torrance's impression by offering a critical examination of both the Calvinist tradition in Canada and Walter Bryden's interpretation of that tradition. The article argues that by the end of the nineteenth century there were three quite distinct (and competing) interpretations of Calvinist theology in Canada. By the 1930s Walter Bryden had forged a fourth trajectory in Reformed theology, one that became dominant in Canadian Presbyterianism and influential in other parts of Canadian Protestantism. The article concludes that there were, to be sure, many problems and limitations with Bryden's Calvinism. Nevertheless, Walter Bryden championed the essential insights of the Genevan Reformer and was able to leverage them in the Canadian context in ways that were important for the identity of post-union Canadian Presbyterianism.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission to Canada's Native Peoples, 1900–2000

The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission to Canada's Native Peoples, 1900–2000

Missionaries for the Record: Letters from Overseas to the Presbyterian Church in Canada: 1846-60 - By Geoffrey Johnston. Belleville, Ont.: Guardian, 2005. $25.00 paper.

Missionaries for the Record: Letters from Overseas to the Presbyterian Church in Canada: 1846-60 - By Geoffrey Johnston. Belleville, Ont.: Guardian, 2005. $25.00 paper.

Early Presbyterianism in Canada (review)

Reviewed by: Early Presbyterianism in Canada David B. Marshall Early Presbyterianism in Canada. John S. Moir, edited by Paul Laverdure. Gravelbourg, SK: Laverdure & Associates, 2003. Pp. xix, 264. $26.00 This volume of John S. Moir's seminal essays on the history of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is testimony to his status as the pre-eminent historian of the Scottish Presbyterian experience in Canada. In an original introductory essay, 'The Writing of Canadian Presbyterian History,' Moir offers some reflections. Not surprisingly, he is very modest about his contribution to Presbyterian history. He was a member of an innovative generation of church historians who integrated church history with the political, social, and intellectual currents of Canadian national history. Moir and his contemporaries were the bridge between denominational church history, which was cloistered from the concerns of Canadian historiography, and the current emphasis on the social and cultural history of religious beliefs and practices. The current flowering of religious historiography in Canada, to an important extent, is built on the foundations established by John Moir. As a result, this volume of his essays, capably edited and briefly introduced by Paul Laverdure, allows the reader to focus on Moir's numerous insights into Presbyterianism. The essays in this volume were not designed as a defence of the Presbyterian church or an apology of Presbyterian doctrine. Moir's explorations into Presbyterian history included numerous observations relating to the relations between church and state, Catholics and Protestants, and the French and English. Topics such as Scottish immigration, biblical studies, and temperance and social reform movements are also covered. [End Page 599] He recognized that in Canada Presbyterianism was shaped by its Calvinist heritage, Scottish roots, Canadian national experience, and North American setting. Highlights of this volume include 'Loyalties in Conflict,' an essay outlining the waxing and waning of the interplay of Scottish and American influences on the Canadian Presbyterian character and sense of identity. 'A National Vision' is a cogent study of a generation of Maritime Presbyterian leaders, including George Grant, Sir Robert Falconer, Daniel Miner Gordon, George Bryce, Arthur S. Morton, and Walter C. Murray, who had a remarkable impact on Canada's national development and the Presbyterian church. Perhaps of greatest value is Moir's clear and insightful exposition of the complicated church-state questions that have swirled around Canadian Presbyterian history. The intricacies of the Kirk and the Free Church position on state involvement in religious and church matters are explained in a trio of essays. Moir also extends his analysis to the period after the Second World War, when the Presbyterian church redefined its historic Free Church commitment to the principle that church and state must be mutually supportive but not have dominion over each other. In light of the issues emerging from the Second World War and the Cold War, especially the spectre of the atomic bomb, the Presbyterian Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation, adopted by the General Assembly in 1955, asserted that the church should act as the conscience of the nation. Most analysis of the church-state question in Canada stops with the settlement of the Clergy Reserve question in the 1850s, but Moir's pioneering work demonstrates that much more research into this complicated issue is necessary. Readers are also treated to some of Moir's groundbreaking essays on the social history of Presbyterianism, such as 'The Stool of Repentance: The Disciplinary Role of the Presbyterian Courts of Session in Victorian Canada.' This essay provides a glimpse into the life of Presbyterian communicants beyond the pews and outside the church, but not away from the purview and discipline of the church elders. These lucidly written essays clarify a host of issues surrounding Presbyterian history and therefore can profitably be consulted by anyone interested in church-state questions and the role and character of the Scottish Presbyterianism in Canadian society. For anyone interested in the historiography of the 'national school' of religious historians, this volume is indispensable. Along with Moir's essays in Christianity in Canada: Historical Essays (2002), also edited by Paul Laverdure, this collection demonstrates both the originality and enduring value of John S. Moir's fine historical scholarship. David B. Marshall University...

The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Pope: One denomination's struggle with its confessional history

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), a subordinate standard of The Presbyterian Church in Canada, makes harsh, even offensive, statements about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. This paper explores how The Presbyterian Church in Canada has sought to balance the confessional nature of the church with its changing views of the Roman Catholic Church. Choosing not to amend the Westminster Confession of Faith, the church has adopted explanatory notes and declaratory acts to help Presbyterians understand the Confession in a new time.

Comptes rendus / Reviews of books: Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885-1925 Peter Bush Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000. 272 p. The Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896-1914 George Emery Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. xxx + 259 p

Comptes rendus / Reviews of books: Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885-1925 Peter Bush Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000. 272 p. The Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896-1914 George Emery Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. xxx + 259 p

Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885–1925. By Peter Bush. Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000. 272 pp. 14 b/w photos. $24.95 paper.

Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885–1925. By Peter Bush. Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford, 2000. 272 pp. 14 b/w photos. $24.95 paper. - Volume 71 Issue 3

Folk Religion in a Calvinist Context: Hungarian Models and Scottish Examples

Introduction President, members of The Folklore Society, and friends: I am deeply conscious of the honour which the Society has bestowed on me by its invitation to deliver the Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture for 2001. This annual lecture was instituted in order to commemorate the life and work of a scholar who made a lasting contribution to our subject, to its wider understanding and its extending horizons. She worked tirelessly to ensure respect for folklore among the disciplines which have the study of human experience as their focus, and took a broad, inclusive and comparative approach to all she did. We remember Katharine Briggs with gratitude and affection. In my lecture tonight I wish to pay tribute to research in the field of folk religion carried out by a dedicated team who have also been inspired by a scholar with very special qualities, whose work deserves to have our attention. The Reverend Doctor Ambrus Molnar (see Figure 1), who was born in 1922 and died in 2000, gave encouragement to others in the study of religious life both within and beyond the bounds of officially recognised denominational practice by his own commitment and dedication, often at risk to his own personal safety. Since the late 1980s I have had the privilege of a growing acquaintance with, and limited participation in, the work of Dr Molnar and his team, carried out in a part of Europe where East meets West in the lands of Greater Hungary. The fact that the research findings of the group are published almost entirely in Hungarian means that they are not widely known to international folklore scholars. And because of their relevance to the study of religious phenomena in countries such as Scotland, where I am based, I have chosen them for the focus of this Katharine Briggs Lecture. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Some Personal Reflections But first of all, in a reflexive mode, let me say something about my own background which will help to place my interests in this conjunction of cultures in context. I was born in 1945 in the Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan to parents who would not have called themselves anything but Canadian, but whose heritage was, in both cases, Highland, Scottish and Calvinist. My mother was born in Scotland, in the Badenoch community of Kingussie, and emigrated as a small child with her parents after the First World War. My father was a descendent of emigrants of an earlier period, Mackays from Sutherland in the north of mainland Scotland, who settled as part of a group migration in what is now Western Ontario--then known as Upper Canada or Canada West--in 1831. Like his father, his uncle and several cousins, he was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Growing up in a manse, in a ministerial household, provided me with experiences which I could recognise later in my life for their folkloric significance. There was exposure on a regular basis to the events in the human life cycle, and responses to them, among members of the congregation and community. Consciously or unconsciously came a growing awareness of the multiple meanings associated with foodways and expressive genres such as the in-group humour of the clergy, to select but a few examples. Life in a western Canadian city, Saskatoon, provided the multicultural context of a province which had been settled by Europeans within seventy-five years of my own birth, where Ukrainian and German could be majority mother-tongues and where the population of my primary school classroom in the early 1950s bore witness not only to several generations of settlement, but also to the influx following the Second World War of so-called New Canadians from Europe and from Asia. My acquaintance with the phenomenon of Hungarian Calvinism can be said to date from this period. There were Hungarian families in the St Andrew's Presbyterian congregation. …

The Presbyterian Church in Canada and Native Residential Schools, 1925-1969

In 1990 the subject of the church-run Residential Schools for Native Canadians reached the front pages of our national newspapers. In Manitoba, students of the Residential School system were heard clearly for the first time as individuals like Phil Fontaine, Chief of the Manitoba Assembly of Chiefs, spoke forcefully on the issue. Even the CBC played a role by broadcasting the movie, “Where the Spirit Lives.” This discussion in the public media led the churches to examine their role in the running of these schools. The Roman Catholic Church in Manitoba has committed itself to providing financial support to those hurt by the Residential system, while other denominations are still struggling with how to respond to this emotional issue. At last year’s General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada, there was an extremely emotional debate about how the Presbyterian Church should respond to the fact that the Women’s Missionary Society (Western Division) (WMS-WD) operated two Native Residential Schools from 1925 to 1969. These schools were the Birtle Residential School in Birtle, Manitoba and Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School located near Kenora, Ontario. The proposed report and confession were defeated by the Assembly, primarily because the proposed document failed to recognize the context in which the schools were run, and substantially downplayed any good that might have come from the schools. As I witnessed this debate, I was struck by the fact that the debate was taking place in an historical vacuum. Very few of the commissioners at the Assembly

READING COMPREHENSION: A KEY TO CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsWilliam R. McEachernWilliam R. McEachern (Ed.D., University of Virginia) is a member of the Reading Education Department of the University of British Columbia. He has had teaching experience in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and in the United States. Recently, he has been involved in a curriculum development project for the Presbyterian Church in Canada

Enduring Witness: A History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. By John S. Moir. Don Mills, Ontario: Presbyterian Publications, 1975. xii + 311 pp. $9.95 cloth. $3.95 paper.

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The Federal Government and Canadian Universities: A Review

Involvement with institutions of higher education began with the Act respecting Queen's College at Kingston passed by the federal parliament in 1874. Queen's College had, of course, been originally chartered by the legislature of Upper Canada in 1841. But the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, which concerned several provinces, had to be effected through federal legislation. This in turn necessitated amendments to the original charter of Queen's. Consequently, the constitution of Queen's was revised first by the provincial legislature and later confirmed by the federal act.

Presbyterian Church in Canada approves liturgical revisions

Presbyterian Church in Canada approves liturgical revisions

NEEDED LESSON CHANGES

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsA. J. W. Myers∗∗Dr. Meyers is Educational Secretary for the Board of Sabbath Schools and Young People's Societies of tie Presbyterian Church in Canada. Office: Confederation Life Building, Toronto. He is the author of a significant study of the method of selecting the biblical material, “The Old Testament in the Sunday School,” (Teachers College, 1912). ∗Dr. Meyers is Educational Secretary for the Board of Sabbath Schools and Young People's Societies of tie Presbyterian Church in Canada. Office: Confederation Life Building, Toronto. He is the author of a significant study of the method of selecting the biblical material, “The Old Testament in the Sunday School,” (Teachers College, 1912).