Latest Posts
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City Mission Workers Society (Ontario)
Approved Ministering Sisters and Presidents. Janet (Douglas) Hall was the first accredited woman preacher in the EMCC’s antecedent churches. She was licensed in Indiana and Ohio in 1884, and in Ontario in the following year. During the next dozen years… Continue reading
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Huffman and Biblical Archaeology
Jasper Abraham Huffman’s book, Voices from Rocks and Dust Heaps in Bible Lands,1 was probably the first book of biblical archaeology I ever read. I was likely less than 14 when I read it, but by then I had certainly… Continue reading
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Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 4: Mariah Parr
Forgotten Women Preachers series [Dec 5 2025: I finally found the obituary for Maria Parr: see the end of the text for the summary.] Out of the 133 women who participated in the official ministry of the early EMCC in… Continue reading
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Harvey Weber Stauffer, Pastor
Like Harvey Stauffer, I did not last long in the pastorate. All fired up about church planting after Bible College, I and a handful of others tried to start an English-language church in Sudbury, ON, 1981-1984,1 and later I served… Continue reading
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Music in the early EMCC Part 4: Music of Evangelical Association and Church and the EUB
The way congregations are increasingly isolated in the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, the music we sing no longer generally unifies the Church, even inside a congregation. Unless worship leaders deliberately educate the churches, the default is the lowest common… Continue reading
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EMCC Bishops?
The position and powers of ecclesiastical officials called (in English) “bishops” has gone through a lot of variation in history. The word in English is descended from the Greek word “episkopos” which meant foreman, overseer, one who watches over, or… Continue reading
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The Strange Case of the MBiC East End Mission
Parliament St, Toronto. [Banner: Grace Memorial EM Church, Toronto, ca 1999. Courtesy Glenn Menard Collection MCHT] Students of Canadian Pentecostal history are familiar with a storefront mission in Toronto at 651 Queen St East sometimes called the East End Mission,… Continue reading
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Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 3: Sarah McQuarrie
Forgotten Women Preachers series Among the numerous women preachers (I count 133 from 1884 to 1945) of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Canada Conference is a lady called Sarah McQuarrie (b 1863), who entered city mission work in 1900. Not… Continue reading
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Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 2: Edith Abbott
Forgotten Women Preachers series According to my reckoning, 133 women in Ontario were recognized by the Canada/Ontario Conference of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church as Christian workers who could evangelize, preach and lead worship from 1885 to 1945.1 Keeping… Continue reading
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The Evangelical United Brethren Connection Part 2: since 1968
The more I learn about the denomination called the Evangelical Association (Evangelische Gemeinschaft), the more I thank God for it if only from the point of view of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada. Starting in Pennsylvania about 1800, a… Continue reading
EMCC History 