James Clare Fuller
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Nonconformity to the World Part 4: What about today?
I have to admit “nonconformity,” as a negative term, is subject to the same weaknesses as other negatives (eg non-resistance instead of peacemaking, anti-abortion instead of pro-life, prohibition instead of temperance) even if the cause is good and even though… Continue reading
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Nonconformity to the World Part 3, Mennonite Brethren in Christ Experience
When I was a young preacher in the Missionary Church of Canada, before the 1993 merger produced the EMCC, I attended a conference promoting a simple lifestyle. I signed a promise to live a simple lifestyle as much as possible.… Continue reading
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Nonconformity to the world Part 2, Wesleyan holiness Background
The EMCC today may seem like a generic evangelical church to some attenders, perhaps teaching therapeutic techniques, listening to non-denominational evangelical podcasts and singing pop evangelical worship songs, but it did not seem so to its first generations. The early… Continue reading
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Nonconformity to the world Part 1, The Anabaptist Background
Practically all Christian traditions recognize the importance of holiness. For the EMCC, the Anabaptist/Mennonite, Pietist,1 and Wesleyan holiness traditions all encouraged their communities to turn away from enticements by the world. The Mennonites who were expelled from the Mennonite Conferences… Continue reading
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Mrs Elizabeth Risdon: Mystery Woman, Part 2
This is the second part of my account of a zealous Christian lady from Michigan (ca 1850-ca 1915) who in widowhood devoted herself to holiness causes in Ontario. Where she began life and where she ended is unknown to me.… Continue reading
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Mrs Elizabeth Risdon: Mystery Woman, Part 1
I am writing this blog to record what I know about Mrs Risdon and to honour her. I don’t know exactly where she came from and when or where she died or where she fits in the life of the… Continue reading
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High Bright Buggy Wheels: a Stouffville Story, Sort of
Browsing one day in the United Missionary Church of Africa Theological College library in Ilorin, Nigeria, I came across a curious book in the fiction section, a 1951 dark red hard cover novel called High Bright Buggy Wheels. It was… Continue reading
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Peace and War and the EMCC Part 2
The remoter wars of the USA and Canada in the second half of the 19th century did not greatly disturb the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church, but the outbreak of a Great War in Europe in 1914 did. By 1917,… Continue reading
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Peace and War and the EMCC
At the close of our youth fellowship meeting in North Bay, a young man came dressed in a uniform of the US Army. Several in our group knew him and gathered around, amazed. He was Canadian, about 19 years old,… Continue reading
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Troubled Borders
Does it matter where an EMCC General Assembly meets? Could the world take interest in any action or teaching of our church today? We grumble in many congregations about issues supported by current Canadian culture with which we disagree, but… Continue reading
EMCC History 