Latest Posts
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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
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The Evangelical United Brethren Connection Part 1
One of the fascinating stories of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada in Ontario is the presence and influence of people and congregations of the former Evangelical United Brethren (EUB). The EMCC includes “Evangelical” in its name mainly because the… Continue reading
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Music in the early EMCC Part 3: Song leaders and musical instruments
There is nothing new under the sun, according to The Preacher in the biblical book Ecclesiastes. Some EMCC congregations in recent generations created a staff position called the “minister of music,” though this was possible only in larger congregations. Now… Continue reading
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African-origin People in the Early EMCC in Ontario Part 2:
Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church In this blog I track Ontario MBiC connections with African-Canadians up to the 1940s. The interactions were not many, which reflects the rural nature of the MBiC that isolated them from urban Black populations. No… Continue reading
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African-origin People in Ontario: Part 1
Morley Callahan wrote of “Two Solitudes” in a novel about Canada by that name, but Canada actually has dozens of solitudes beyond English and French—groups that act and think separately in the political unit called Canada. The early EMCC churches… Continue reading
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Music in the Early EMCC Part 2: Church song and hymnbooks
The music you listen to, or the songs you sing in church, say something about your relation to God and the body of Christ. It was no different with music in the early EMCC. The public music used reflects community… Continue reading
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Music in the Early EMCC Part 1: Eldon T Sherk Collection
Have you ever heard of the “worship wars”? It seems we can’t please everybody as musical styles of western churches fragment ever more. Everybody has their own preference. Most evangelical revivals in recent centuries have produced new music praising God,… Continue reading
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Women Preachers Part 1: Mennonite Brethren in Christ
Why did a small Mennonite body suddenly start licensing female preachers in 1884, the first Mennonite group in North America ever to do so? How did the percentage of women in the MBiC Ontario Conference, in particular, reach 29% in… Continue reading
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Missionary Stirrings in the New Mennonite Church (1859)
What a congregation or denomination does about Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is a fair measure of its maturity in Christ. The organization does not need to be super-active in the mission of the Church–it may be beginning from zero–but… Continue reading
EMCC History 