Baptists In Canada

Baptists arrived in what would become Canada in the mid-eighteenth century, and from those early arrivals Baptists from a wide variety of backgrounds planted churches in every region of the vast nation. This book traces that history of Baptists in Canada, and provides historical antecedents and theological rationales for their church polity. Written in a generous spirit, it recognizes what Baptists share with other Christian communities and how they differ among themselves on some matters. It places Baptists in Canada in the larger historical and global context, and concludes with commentary on opportunities and challenges ahead.

How are Baptists distinctive as a Christian denomination? Canadian Baptists, confronted with the question of discovering a common identity from the welter of strands of influence that make up their heritage, may infer several answers from the essays in Memory and Hope. Focussing on Baptist history in central and western Canada, Memory and Hope discusses individuals, institutions and issues that have stirred Baptists in North America for two centuries, including confessionalism and eucharistic theology and fundamentalism vs. modernism. Recurring themes include the Baptist role in education in Canada, the establishment of new churches, overseas missions and social responsibility. Essayists also examine the powerful forces that have influenced Baptist history: immigration, theology and society. Studies of missionary Samuel Stearns Day, fundamentalists Aberhart, Maxwell and Shields and social gospellers Sharpe and Shaw illustrate the diversity of ideas and personalities that have shaped and been shaped by the Baptist Church. Memory and Hope is an important resource for the history of the Baptist Church in Canada. In the issues it raises on the role of churches in the twenty-first century, it will also make a significant contribution to the study of religion in general.

ÒIn this age of hi-tech, impersonal living, our individual identities are in danger of being submerged and our collective past is easily forgotten. History is therefore more important now than it has been in any previous time. It is a corrective that insists we are not defined as a number in a data bank, but as people who have lived in relation to time and circumstances. Our roots lie not in a code but in interactions with other people and in the flow of daily events. ÒCanadian Baptists have eagerly awaited the day that someone would produce a comprehensive, candid and faithful report of who we are and what major events helped shape our identity. This book can only strengthen Canadian Baptist relationships, as it brings to mind our common or similar beginnings. ÒThe author of this history, Dr. Harry A. Renfree, has done us an immense service by giving us a history worth reflecting upon and one which ought to spur us on to glorify God in His church's mission. Well qualified to share his gifts as writer and interpreter, Dr. Renfree is a Canadian Baptist who has given lifelong leadership in the cause of Christ in this country. ÒMy hope is that the readers of this book will come to understand how Canadian Baptists have sought to serve Christ throughout their history and right up to the present day. May God's leading in this historic endeavour cause us to grieve over the errors of the past, to rejoice in the grace of God that has marked our joyful times and to firmly resolve to go forth in this day in our land to honour the Baptist name through true humility and servanthood.--R. C. CoffinGeneral SecretaryÐTreasurerCanadian Baptist Federation

To the pioneer folk of Upper and Lower Canada—Loyalists, "late" Loyalists, and the hordes of land-seekers—living in what seemed like religious destitution, various American Baptist missionary associations in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York State sent missionary preachers in the decade after 1800. Numerous small churches were established, but the War of 1812 disturbed these efforts, and much of the missionary activity itself had to be abandoned for an interval. This may well have stimulated the co-operation which had already appeared before the war between Canadian Baptist communities. Out of this co-operation were to develop conferences and associations of Canadian Baptist churches, until by 1820 all were members of Canadian groups. By 1818 travelling missionaries from the United States had almost ceased to visit; the Canadian churches had begun to raise up ministers from among their own members. In this very complete investigation of early Baptist history in Canada, assembled from a wide variety of sources, every separate group has been recorded and its development traced, and all available information has been coordinated for the missionaries and ministers who served the groups. The book is a veritable encyclopaedia of early Baptist history and will be invaluable to future students of Baptist history in general. This study of a developing cultural tradition strikingly parallels the struggle to master the physical features of a new land.

Public discussion about the relationship between religion and public life in Canada can be heated at times, and scholars have recently focused on the historical study of the many expressions of this relationship. The experience of Canada's smaller Protestant Christian groups, however, has remained largely unexplored. This is particularly true of Canada's Baptists. This volume, the first produced by the Canadian Baptist Historical Society, explores the connections between Baptist faith and Baptist activity in the public domain, and expands the focus of the existing scholarship to include a wide range of Canadian Baptist beliefs, attitudes, perspectives, and actions related to the relationship between Baptist faith and practice and public life.