Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada
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Blessed Assurance Part 2
I wrote a lot about John Wesley (1703-1791) and his theology of assurance in EMCC History, “Blessed Assurance Part 1.” But the forebears of the Missionary Churches and the EMCC in the 19th century did not learn of Wesley’s teaching… Continue reading
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EMCC church buildings Part 5: interesting real estate
Enjoying worship includes feelings about the physical surroundings: often, the building. This is a luxury; for many of our brothers and sisters in the world, persecution takes away any choice in the matter. I have not seen anyone else collect… Continue reading
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EMCC church buildings Part 4: Rented or Bought
The Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada in Ontario, throughout its history, has made use of buildings constructed by others. We have few unique architectural needs, if any, so we can adapt a worship space fairly easily. In this two-part post,… Continue reading
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EMCC church buildings Part 3: the Living Room or the Theatre
When the 1960s opened, EMCC congregations started building worship spaces that firmly turned away from the Gothic ideal that had dominated Canadian church buildings since the 1850s. I should mention that in Ontario, the EMCC almost never used the white… Continue reading
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Self-Denial Days
Years ago, researching other things in the Gospel Banner, I noted letters to the editor about “self-denial.” It sounded like a Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church institution of some sort which had not survived by that name into the era… Continue reading
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How Sunday Schools Progressed in the Ontario Conference
As I mentioned in the previous blog about EMCC Sunday Schools, the United Mennonite merging conference in Bloomingdale, Waterloo County, Canada, in 1875, resolved “That Sunday schools shall be organized and supported by all our power.”1 As early as the… Continue reading
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Early EMCC Sunday Schools: Background
The EMCC Sunday School is in decline at this writing, judging by annual reports, or lack of them, from congregations. (Beginning in 1986, more and more EMCC congregations failed to report their statistics, especially their Sunday School numbers.) The form… Continue reading
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Christmas in the Church
Since my family didn’t begin attending the United Missionary Church until I was 11, my earliest memory of a Christmas church celebration is from the United Church of Canada. If the United Churches my family attended held Christmas pageants or… Continue reading
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Lodges and Fraternal Societies
North American Mennonites and Brethren in Christ1 mainly applied non-swearing of oaths2 to rejecting membership in “oath-bound secret societies.”3 In Ontario, this put them at odds with their non-Mennonite neighbours. Nearly every settlement in the province had one lodge or… Continue reading
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Non-swearing of Oaths
On a choir tour from Emmanuel Bible College, I was billeted with a family that did not attend a Missionary Church. In the bathroom, getting ready for bed, I noticed a small black book on the window sill. I am… Continue reading
EMCC History 