1. William O'Grady

William O’Grady was a colourful and controversial Roman Catholic priest, journalist and political activist. Born in Ireland, O’Grady was secretary to the Bishop of Cork before relocating to Upper Canada in 1828. There he received a warm welcome from Bishop Macdonell of Kingston, who was in desperate need of experienced and capable clergy. O’Grady was soon appointed priest at St. Paul’s Parish in York (Queen Street East, Toronto), where he immediately set about establishing more stringent church regulations, organizing a catechetical society for poor children and clearing the parish debt. O’Grady quickly became a leading civic figure – equally popular with his own, mainly Irish immigrants, parishioners and York’s elite. The plight of his impoverished flock, however, led O’Grady to befriend Reform politicians, such as William Lyon Mackenzie. At that time a schism was developing between the Church’s elite – who allied themselves with the Tory Family Compact – and the poor, urban, Irish parishioners at St. Paul’s. O’Grady’s increasing support of the latter caused him to fall out of favour with his Church wardens and with the bishop. In 1832, O’Grady and the reform element in his parish took control of the church and locked out the wardens. O’Grady was suspended by Macdonell and excommunicated in 1833. O’Grady then bought the newspaper, The Correspondent, and devoted himself to political journalism. Disillusioned by the violent turn the reform movement took in 1837, O’Grady retired to a farm north of Toronto where he died in 1840.

2. Humanism

Humanism is a broad term applied to philosophies and intellectual attitudes that focus on human experience, values and concerns. The pursuit of knowledge through the structured use of reason and empirical evidence is generally considered to be a fundamental aspect of humanism. Though humanism is not antithetical to religion, secular humanism is characterized by a rejection of religious belief.

3. Ottoman Conquest of Constantinople

4. Spanish Inquisition established

5. Martin Luther writes the Ninety-Five Theses

The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences was a repudiation of clerical abuses written by Martin Luther in 1517. It is considered to be the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.

6. Publication of Tyndale's Bible

William Tyndale’s New Testament was the first of its kind printed in the English language. He also translated many books of the Old Testament before being executed for heresy in 1536. His were the first English Bible translations to draw directly from the Hebrew and Greek texts. They substantially informed the creation of the King James Version (1611).

7. Jacques Cartier erects cross in the Gaspésie

8. Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits) is the largest men’s religious order in the Roman Catholic Church. Known for their widespread missionary work and commitment to education, Jesuits are characterized by a combination of discipline, academic rigor and religious zeal. A marked devotion to the papacy is another distinguishing feature of the Jesuit order. Jesuits first arrived in present-day Ontario in 1634 when they followed the route established in 1615 by Récollet missionaries (and Champlain soon thereafter) that led from Montreal to the south shores of Georgian Bay via the Ottawa and French rivers. In 1639, they founded the mission-village of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons near present-day Midland. There they hoped to develop a Christian community comprised of both Europeans and aboriginals. The village, however, was a casualty of the Iroquois Wars and its residents were forced to burn and flee the mission in 1649. Eight Jesuit missionaries who died during the Iroquois Wars have been canonized – including Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalement, Antoine Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noël Chabanel, René Goupil and Jean de la Lande. Despite events at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, Jesuits continued to establish missions throughout present-day Ontario. As the region’s Catholic population grew, so did Jesuit institutions within it. The first major Jesuit outpost to be established in the province after the fall of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was the mission of the Assumption at La Pointe de Montréal (Windsor). This mission served both the area’s sizable French-speaking population and Huron who had relocated there after the Iroquois Wars. It became the Parish of the Assumption in 1767 and is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in Ontario. Bowing to pressure from secular European rulers, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuit order in 1773. This decision hampered Jesuit activity in Upper Canada until well after the society’s restoration in 1814. There remained, however, a Jesuit presence in the region because Bishop Briand of Quebec decided against informing the Jesuit pastor at the Assumption (Father Potier) of the order’s disbandment. In the mid-19th century, Jesuits resumed operations in the province and established a number of missions in remote communities, including Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island in 1844, Sault Ste. Marie in 1846 and Fort William (Thunder Bay) in 1849. They were also the first order to serve Roman Catholic Germans in the Waterloo region. Throughout the following century and a half, Jesuits founded missions, parishes, schools and seminaries throughout Ontario. In 1924, the Jesuits of Ontario gained a large degree of administrative autonomy with the creation of the Jesuit Vice-Province of Upper Canada. At the time, the order had 30 missions, nine parishes and six colleges under their direction. Often working in close co-operation with diocesan clergy and religious women’s orders – as well as other Christian denominations and secular organizations – Jesuits have continued to play a key role in the education of countless Catholic youth and in the development of many of Ontario’s social institutions.

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9. Act of Supremacy

The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared King Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England.

10. Founding of the Church of England

11. Founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order)

12. Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was an ecumenical council convened by the Roman Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation. The council defined the Church’s positions on a number of important doctrinal and administrative issues. The resulting canons and decrees refuted Protestant teachings and largely reaffirmed the traditional beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

13. First English Book of Common Prayer Published

14. Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker was an Anglican priest and theologian. He is considered to be one the key developers of Anglican doctrine.

15. French Wars of Religion

16. Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion established by the Church of England

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, established in 1563 after decades of religious turmoil in England, were the defining doctrinal principles of the Church of England.

17. Samuel de Champlain

Known as the “Father of New France,” Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635) was a French explorer, cartographer, chronicler and administrator. From 1633 to 1635, he served as Governor of New France. Beginning in 1603, Champlain made numerous voyages to New France in order to explore and map the land, foster trade and establish French settlements in the colony. He founded Quebec City in 1608 and was the first European explorer to map the Great Lakes region. Champlain formed an alliance with the Huron, located in present day Ontario, and supported them in their wars against the Iroquois. A devout Catholic, Champlain brought four Récollet priests with him on his 1615 voyage. One of these priests, Father Joseph Le Caron (c. 1586-1632), was the first Catholic missionary to reach what is now Ontario.

18. Father Joseph Le Caron

Born near Paris, France in 1586, Joseph Le Caron (c. 1586-1632) was among the first Roman Catholic missionaries to New France. Le Caron joined the Récollet order in 1611 and, four years later, he and three other Récollet missionaries accompanied Samuel de Champlain on his voyage to New France. Shortly after his arrival in New France, Le Caron set out for the Huron country in what is now Ontario. Travelling by canoe and accompanied by native guides, Le Caron journeyed westward, becoming the first European to reach Georgian Bay. On August 12, 1615 at the Huron village of Carhagouha (near what is now Lafontaine, near Penetanguishene in Simcoe County) he presided over the first mass held in present-day Ontario. Le Caron spent almost a year living among, and evangelizing, the Huron before briefly returning to France in 1616. From 1618 until the English captured Quebec in 1629, Le Caron continued his missions both in Huron country and among the Montagnais in the eastern part of New France. He compiled dictionaries of the Huron, Algonkin and Montagnais languages. These and Le Caron’s other writings chronicling his experiences in New France have largely been lost. Le Caron died of the plague in France in 1632.

19. Jean de Brebéuf

Jean de Brebéuf (1593-1649) was a Jesuit missionary, author and linguist who was martyred during the Iroquois Wars. Canonized in 1930, Brebéuf is considered the primary Catholic patron saint of Canada. He was born in Normandy and entered the noviciate in Rouen at the age of 24. In 1625, Brebéuf came to New France as a missionary. The following year, he travelled to the Huron communities south of Georgian Bay. In order to evangelize the Huron more effectively, Brebéuf learned their language and began compiling a Huron dictionary. Forced to return to France because of the English occupation of Quebec in 1629, Brebéuf was back among the Huron by 1634. A large man, Brebéuf’s imposing size was balanced by his gentle nature and eloquent speech. Throughout the following 15 years, he lived among the Huron, wrote extensively about their culture and his own experiences, and baptized thousands of Aboriginals – not only Huron, but also neighbouring Neutral and Petun as well. Brebéuf’s teachings, however, and his efforts to alter native customs and social structures left Aboriginal communities deeply divided. In 1649, when the Iroquois invaded Huron territory, Brebéuf and his fellow Jesuit missionary Gabriel Lalemant were captured, tortured and killed. Brebéuf’s bones are buried at the Martyrs’ Shrine, near Midland, Ontario.

20. Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued by King Henry IV of France in 1598, granted substantial rights to the country’s Protestant Huguenot population. It marked the end of the French Wars of Religion.

21. Franciscan Récollets (Recollects)

Established in the early 17th century, the Récollets were a reformed branch of the Roman Catholic Franciscan order. They were named for the recollection houses or monasteries to which friars would retreat for prayer, penitence and spiritual recollection. Known for their fortitude, piety and austerity, Récollets were often called on to be chaplains in the French army. A group of Récollet fathers arrived in New France with Samuel de Champlain in 1615. Later that same year, the Récollet Father Joseph Le Caron became the first priest to visit present-day Ontario when he travelled to the Huron village of Carhagouha, near the southeast shore of Georgian Bay. During the 1620s, a number of Récollet fathers conducted missions throughout Huron country. Included among these was Gabriel Sagard who wrote three important tomes on the history of New France and the culture and language of the Huron people. The Récollets vacated New France between 1629 and 1632 when the territory was in the hands of the English. When Catholic missionary activity resumed in the colony, it was largely directed by Jesuits. After the British conquest of New France, the Récollets were prohibited from recruiting new members, but continued to do so covertly. The last Canadian Récollet, Father Louis, died in 1848 in Quebec City. The Récollets were subsumed by the Order of Friars Minor in 1897.

22. King James version of the Bible published

23. Ultramontanism in Ontario

Ultramontanism is a movement within Roman Catholicism that exalts papal authority and seeks to centralize power in the hands of the Pope. A fundamental aspect of ultramontanism is the belief that the state should be subordinate to the Church, especially in matters of education and social welfare. Ultramontane concepts and sentiments have informed much of the history of Catholicism in Ontario. Before Catholic institutions were established and integrated in the province, clergy and laity could look to Rome for guidance, stability and support. As Catholic immigrants arrived in Ontario from all parts of the world, devotion to the Bishop of Rome was a unifying force that crossed cultural barriers and countered ethnic segregation. Furthermore, the influence of ultramontanism on architecture has given the movement a visual presence in the province. Catholic churches in Ontario – especially those within Italian communities – that desired to create strong visual ties with Rome often wanted their buildings to be executed in the Renaissance or baroque styles. In Ontario, most ultramontane churches were built between Confederation and the First World War. For the most part, these churches were executed by one of two architects – either Joseph Connolly or Arthur W. Holmes.

24. Huronia

Huronia refers to the region occupied by the Huron prior to the Iroquois Wars. The region was bordered by Nottawasaga Bay to the west and Lake Simcoe to the east – in the northern part of what is now Simcoe County. The term did not come into common usage until the 19th century and is generally applied to the period of contact between the Huron and the French.

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25. First Mass celebrated in Ontario

The first Christian missionary to reach present-day Ontario was the Récollet priest Father Joseph Le Caron (1586-1632) who accompanied Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635) on his 1615 voyage to New France. Travelling by canoe and led by native guides, Le Caron made his way from Quebec City to the Huron village of Carhagouha, a few kilometres northeast of Nottawasaga Bay. Champlain, who was travelling the same route, reached Carhagouha shortly thereafter. On August 12, 1615 – in the presence of Champlain – Le Caron held mass and chanted the Te Deum. This was the first mass celebrated in present-day Ontario.

26. Thirty Years' War

27. Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith

Founded in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) was a branch of the Roman Curia responsible for the direction of missionary activity throughout the world and for the promotion of the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries or territories. Canada came under the jurisdiction of Propaganda Fide until 1908. The congregation was renamed the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 1982.

28. Iroquois Wars

Throughout the 17th century, a series of conflicts – often called the Iroquois Wars or Beaver Wars – pitted the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy against several of their neighbouring tribes as well as the French. The Confederacy, armed by their Dutch and English trading partners, broke and dispersed all surrounding native groups in an effort to expand their territory and control the fur trade in the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley. The wars concluded with the Great Peace of Montreal, signed by the French and 40 First Nations groups in 1701.

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29. The Jesuit Relations

The Jesuit Relations were a series of documents written by Jesuit missionaries in New France and sent annually to their Paris office between 1632 and 1672. The Relations consisted of letters, reports, narratives and ethnographic analyses chronicling the Jesuits’ attempts to convert First Nations communities to Catholicism. Compiled and edited by Jesuit Superiors in Quebec City – then further edited in France – the Relations were avidly read by the French public in the 17th and 18th centuries. Despite the embellishments, inaccuracies and prejudices contained in some of the works, they remain extremely valuable historical sources.

30. Ursuline Convent founded in Quebec City

31. Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons

Sainte-Marie, the first French mission centre west of the Ottawa River, was established in 1639 as the headquarters for the Jesuits in Huronia (Wendake) and as a refuge for Christianized Huron Indians. It was constructed by skilled artisans and members of the community directed by Father Jérôme Lalemant, superior of the Mission (1638-45). Sainte-Marie eventually comprised a hospital, church, chapel, residences, workshops, farm buildings and minor fortifications; at times, it housed some 60 Europeans. By 1649, the centre served 12 mission villages. Following the defeat of the Huron by the Iroquois, Sainte-Marie was burned by the Jesuits and abandoned in the spring of 1649.

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32. Founding of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

33. Peace of Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia is a series of peace treaties, signed between 1648 and 1659, that ended the European Wars of Religion (Thirty Years’ War, Eighty Years’ War and Franco-Spanish War). The treaties redrew several political boundaries and reconstituted the vast Holy Roman Empire. Protestants and Catholics within the empire were defined as equal before the law and the ruler of each imperial state was given the right to choose their state’s religion.

34. Jesuit Mission to Manitoulin 1648-50

The Jesuit Mission of St. Pierre on Manitoulin Island was established in 1648 in order to reach the Algonkian-speaking First Nations of Lake Huron’s north shore. Father Joseph Poncet (1610-75) was the first known European resident of Manitoulin Island – then called Ile de Ste. Marie by the missionaries and Ekaentoton by the Huron (Wendat). It is not known in what part of the island he worked, but it is understood that he journeyed from village to village to meet and convert the Huron to Christianity. As Huron communities across Upper Canada became split between converts to Christianity and those maintaining traditional Huron spiritual beliefs, the Huron of Manitoulin Island were similarly divided. Poncet returned to the Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons mission (Midland) in May 1649 in the midst of ongoing attacks on the Huron by the Iroquois. Weakened by European diseases and internal conflicts over the increasing influence of the Jesuits, the Huron could not withstand the superior weapons of the Iroquois. In June 1649, the Jesuit priests and their followers burned Sainte-Marie and abandoned the site in anticipation of further Iroquois attacks. Poncet returned to Manitoulin in the fall of 1649 to continue the mission, but abandoned it to join the remaining Sainte-Marie priests as they fled by canoe for Quebec in June 1650.

2 record(s) found

35. The Protectorate

The Protectorate was the period following the English Civil War during which Oliver Cromwell (and afterward his son Richard Cromwell) was Lord Protector of England.

36. Kenté (Quinte) Mission

The mission at Kenté (Quinte) was established in 1668 by priests from the Order of St. Sulpice, based in Ville-Marie (Montreal). In 1649-50, the Five Nations Iroquois attacked and defeated their Huron enemies, and Iroquois communities expanded into the Great Lakes region. By 1665, Iroquois bands had established villages on the north side of Lake Ontario, including a Cayuga Nation settlement called “Kentio” by the Iroquois and “Kenté” by the French. In 1668, Claude Trouvé (1644-1704) and François de Fénelon (1641-79), Sulpician priests who had studied the Cayuga language, established a mission at Kenté. Buildings were erected in the village and livestock brought from Ville-Marie (Montreal). Letters written by missionaries indicate that their Christianizing efforts met with indifferent success at best. Following the establishment of nearby Fort Frontenac (Kingston) in 1673, the Kenté Mission collapsed due to heavy costs and the gradual dispersal of the Iroquois from Kenté in search of new hunting grounds. The mission was abandoned in 1680.

37. Hudson's Bay Company receives Royal Charter

38. William Penn founds Pennsylvania

William Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682. Penn, a Quaker, established laws that promoted tolerance and ensured religious freedom for the colony’s inhabitants.

39. Gallicanism

Gallicanism is a movement within Catholicism that seeks to place limits on Papal authority. At odds with ultramontanism, Gallicanism advocates a diminishment of Papal influence and jurisdiction in favour of state, episcopal or parochial governance. The doctrine, developed within the French Church over several centuries, was articulated in the Declaration of the Clergy of France (1682). Gallican movements have occurred not only in France, but also in the Netherlands and North America.

40. Khalsa established in Sikh Faith

41. Society for the Propagation of the Gospels

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospels in Foreign Parts (SPG) was a missionary society affiliated with the Church of England. It was created in 1701 to support the establishment of the Church in Britain’s American colonies and to evangelize the continent’s Native population. After the American Revolution (1775-1783), the SPG withdrew from the United States and focused its attention on British North America, where they became hugely influential. They sent missionaries, paid clergy, supported the construction of churches and provided advice and expertise to the colonial church. Between 1702 and 1900, the SPG sent nearly 400 clergymen to Ontario. Despite the fact that they saved the colonial church from numerous crises, the SPG’s activities in Canada were fraught with difficulties. The society was directed by a secretary who was based in London and usually had little understanding of the hardships that faced the colonial church. Friction between colonial bishops and SGP secretaries was common. Colonial bishops were continually frustrated by the fact that although they had jurisdiction over activities in their dioceses, the SPG often held the purse strings. The SPG’s influence in Canada began to wane in the later half of the 19th century as their funding declined. It wasn’t until 1940, however, that the Anglican Church in Canada decided to forgo all further SPG grants.

6 record(s) found

42. Father Pierre Potier

Born in Blandain, Belgium, Pierre-Phillippe Potier (1708-81) led a Jesuit mission at La Pointe de Montreal (Windsor) in western New France (Ontario). Potier was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1743, and sent to New France as a missionary. Potier was sent to the Jesuit mission at Bois Blanc (Boblo) Island (Amherstburg, Ontario), established in 1728 to serve approximately 600 Christianized Huron settlers. In 1747, Potier led his followers to a mission site less vulnerable to attack at La Pointe de Montréal, across the river from Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit). In 1767, there were some 60 families living in the area, and the parish of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption was formally established. Today, Potier’s linguistic studies – Radices linguae huronicae (1751) and Façons de parler proverbiales, triviales, figurées, Ec des Canadiens au XVIIIe siécle (1758) – provide the best key to 18th-century Huron and French dialects spoken in New France.

1 record(s) found

43. George Whitefield

Considered to be one of the fathers of evangelicalism, George Whitefield was an itinerant Anglican preacher instrumental in the religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s known as the First Great Awakening. Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England and studied at Oxford where, along with John and Charles Wesley, he was a member of the Holy Club – a religious society wherein the first tenants of Methodism were established. Whitefield then moved to the North American colonies where he gained wide renown as an open-air preacher. It has been estimated he preached more than 18,000 sermons in his lifetime.

44. Rev. Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger

The first Lutheran minister to settle in Upper Canada (Ontario), Johann Samuel Schwerdtfeger (1734-1803) was born in Burgbernheim, Bavaria and studied theology at the University of Erlangen. He emigrated to America in 1753 and served as pastor of congregations in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Persecuted for his allegiance to the Crown during the American Revolution (1775-83), Schwerdtfeger moved to Dundas County, Upper Canada in 1791. He settled in Williamsburg Township and became pastor of a congregation of German settlers that had been established in 1784. By the end of the 18th century, Schwerdtfeger had organized Lutheran congregations in several neighbouring townships. He died in 1803 and was buried in the St. John’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Riverside Heights, near Williamsburg.

1 record(s) found

45. The First Great Awakening

The First Great Awakening was a religious revival movement that occurred in the British North American colonies (United States) throughout the 1730s and 1740s. The movement was inspired by evangelical Protestant preachers, such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, who often preached open-air sermons to audiences that, at times, numbered in the tens of thousands. It was the first in a series of Great Awakenings that galvanized American Christians in the 18th and 19th centuries.

46. Founding of Hasidic Judaism

47. Rev. John Stuart

Born in Pennsylvania, John Stuart (1740-1811) was an Anglican missionary at Cataraqui (Kingston). In 1770, Stuart was ordained and sent to Fort Hunter, New York, as missionary to the Mohawk residents of the Fort. After refusing to sign the oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress during the American Revolution (1775-83), Stuart escaped to Canada with his family in 1781. They eventually settled at Cataraqui in 1785, and Stuart became the first resident Anglican clergyman in Upper Canada (Ontario). He ministered to European settlers and First Nations communities in the Cataraqui area, and visited as far west as Niagara and the Grand River. Stuart was responsible for the building of Cataraqui's earliest church, St. George's Anglican Church, where in 1792 the new lieutenant-governor of the province of Upper Canada – John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) – took his oath of office. Stuart died in 1811 after his eldest son George succeeded him as rector of Cataraqui.

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48. Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant, or Thayendanegea, was a prominent Mohawk war chief, scholar and statesman. Brant was born near Akron, Ohio. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was living in the Mohawk Valley in what is now New York State. He and many other Iroquois supported the British during the Revolution and, after the war, he led a group of nearly 2,000 Iroquois to a tract of land on the Grand River in Upper Canada. At Brant’s request a chapel was built there in 1785 to serve the community’s Anglican population. Known as the Mohawk Chapel, it is the oldest surviving church in Ontario. Brant himself was a devout Christian. As a young man, he was sent to the Indian Charity School (a forerunner to Dartmouth College) in Connecticut, where he received a religious education. Throughout his life, Brant befriended missionaries, evangelized among First Nations groups and translated hymns, catechism, Anglican liturgy and portions of the Gospels into the Mohawk language. For years, he worked unsuccessfully to procure a regular pastor for the Mohawk Chapel. On his death, Brant was buried in Burlington, Ontario. In 1850, his remains were moved to a tomb at the Mohawk Chapel.

2 record(s) found

49. John and Charles Wesley establish General Rules

In 1743, John and Charles Wesley compiled a set of General Rules that reflected their methodological approach to Christian devotion. This became the nucleus of Methodism.

50. Rev. John Langhorn

Born in Wales, John Langhorn (1744-1817) was an Anglican minister who served parishes in western Quebec (present-day Ontario). In 1787, he was appointed resident missionary to Loyalist settlements by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Langhorn’s territory comprised Ernestown and Fredericksburg, which had been settled in 1784 by disbanded soldiers of the King's Royal Regiment of New York. The two townships contained a large majority of Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Lutherans and Methodists, and Langhorn often faced hostility from other denominations. Langhorn was the first resident Anglican clergyman in the Bay of Quinte region. He travelled throughout the area, calling at various preaching stations he had established. Langhorn was largely responsible for the erection of St. Paul's Church at Sandhurst in 1791, St. Warburg's in Fredericksburg in 1792 and the second St. John's at Bath in 1793-95. The continuous travel Langhorn undertook throughout Upper Canada was a strain on his health, and he returned to England in 1813.

2 record(s) found

51. Battle of Culloden

52. Bishop Jacob Mountain

Born in Norfolk, England in 1749 and educated at Cambridge, Jacob Mountain was an Anglican cleric appointed first bishop of the Diocese of Quebec in 1793. Prior to the creation of the Quebec Diocese, all of British North America fell under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Nova Scotia. The creation of a new diocese was necessitated by the influx of Loyalists arriving in Upper and Lower Canada. When Mountain arrived in Quebec, he faced the difficult task of consolidating and developing the vast new diocese. His mandate to make the Church of England the official state religion of the Canadas led to conflict with both Lower Canada’s overwhelmingly Catholic francophone population and the ethnically and religiously diverse inhabitants of Upper Canada – who were accustomed to the separation of church and state. Despite these difficulties, Mountain managed to lay the foundations on which the Anglican Church in Canada was built. In 1793, the Quebec see contained only nine Anglican clergymen and about as many churches. At the time of Mountain’s death, the number of clergymen had risen to 60. Undeterred by distance, arduous travel and war, Mountain made numerous trips to Upper Canada, where, in the last decade of his episcopate, he established 19 new missions.

2 record(s) found

53. Jesuit Mission of the Assumption at La Pointe de Montreal

The Jesuit Mission of the Assumption at La Pointe de Montréal (Windsor) in western New France (Ontario) was established to serve the local Huron population in 1749. In 1702, French fur trader Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (1658-1730) established Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit) on the Detroit River. Cadillac invited the Huron of Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City) to relocate to his newly established community in order to increase the French presence in the Great Lakes region. In 1728, the Jesuits established a mission in a Huron village near Pontchartrain. The Huron settlement was relocated to Bois Blanc (Boblo) Island in 1742, at the mouth of the Detroit River. In 1747, a group of Iroquois and disaffected Huron unhappy with the community’s relocation attacked the Bois Blanc mission and burned the settlement. At the same time, the French government was anxious to increase its presence on the Detroit River to defend its territory from the English and offered land on the south shore to settlers, who soon formed the community of La Petite Côte. In 1749, the Bois Blanc Jesuits were granted land and funds from the French Crown to re-establish the Huron mission. The Jesuits chose La Pointe de Montréal, near Petite Côte, for the new Mission of the Assumption. Despite the fall of New France to the British during the Seven Years War (1756-63), La Petite Côte maintained sizeable French-speaking populations. The mission became the Parish of Assumption in 1767, the oldest Roman Catholic parish west of Montreal.

1 record(s) found

54. Rev. John Bethune

Born on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Rev. John Bethune (1751-1815) established the first Presbyterian congregations in Montreal and in western Quebec (now Ontario). After studying at King’s College in Aberdeen, Bethune was ordained by the Church of Scotland and emigrated to North Carolina with members of his family in 1773. There, he was recruited as chaplain to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Highland Emigrants in the British Army. Bethune was captured at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83); on his release in 1778, he left for Montreal. In 1786, Bethune established the first Presbyterian Church in Montreal, the precursor to the St. Gabriel Street Church. In 1787, Rev. Bethune moved to Williamstown in Glengarry County (commemorated today at Bethune-Thompson House) to minister to the large population of Scottish Highlands immigrants who had settled in the area. Due to his isolated location, Bethune remained friendly with other local religious leaders, including both Father Alexander MacDonnell (1762-1840), later Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, and Rev. John Strachan (1778-1867), later the Anglican Bishop of Toronto. Rev. Bethune continued to minister throughout Glengarry, establishing churches in Lancaster, Martintown and Cornwall.

3 record(s) found

55. Rev. Richard Pollard

Born in England in 1753 and trained in law, Richard Pollard emigrated to the province of Quebec in 1775. He made a living doing legal work and trading goods with Aboriginals in Catarqui (Kingston) and Detroit. By 1792, Pollard had relocated to Essex County, where he immersed himself in civic affairs. Although a laymen, Pollard conducted Church of England services in Sandwich (Windsor) because there were no clerics in the region. He was made a deacon in 1802 and appointed chaplain to the garrison at Amherstburg. In 1804, he was ordained a priest and assigned to Sandwich. There, he raised the money to build St. John’s Church in 1807. The log structure was the only Anglican church in Upper Canada west of Niagara. During the War of 1812, Pollard and his parishioners suffered greatly. In 1813, the invading Americans burned St. John’s Church to the ground, destroyed Pollard’s house and took him prisoner. After the war, Pollard received financial help from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospels to rebuild St. John's and to build other churches in Amherstburg (1819), Chatham (1820) and Colchester (1821) – all called Christ Church. Although based at Sandwich, Pollard visited these churches regularly until his death in 1824.

4 record(s) found

56. Rev. Robert Addison

Born in Westmoreland, England (now spelled Westmorland), Robert Addison was a Church of England clergyman who settled in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1792. At that time, Newark was the seat of the government of Upper Canada. Addison became chaplain of the legislature. The third Protestant clergyman to settle in Upper Canada, Addison was the only Anglican minister west of Kingston, and the sole pastor of any denomination in the Niagara Region. For this reason Addison regularly ministered to communities as far away as the Six Nations settlement along the Grand River, where his friend Joseph Brant translated the sermons he preached in the Mohawk Chapel. Addison oversaw the construction of St. Mark’s Church in Newark, which was completed in 1809. St. Mark’s was the first Anglican church in Upper Canada to hold regular services. Addison’s congregation included many luminaries, such as General Isaac Brock and Colonel John Butler. It was Addison who conducted Brock’s funeral service. During the War of 1812, he added military chaplain to his duties. When Newark was captured by American forces in 1813, Addison was held as a prisoner of war and St. Mark’s Church was partially burned. A highly educated man, Addison contributed significantly to the Common Schools Act of 1816.

3 record(s) found

57. Acadian Expulsion

During the Seven Years War, more than 14,000 Acadians were forcibly expelled from their homeland and dispersed throughout the British colonies. Thousands died of illness and starvation during deportation.

58. Seven Years' War

59. Timothy Rogers

Based in Pennsylvania, Timothy Rogers (1756-1827) was a Quaker settler in Upper Canada (Ontario). Following the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), many Quakers immigrated to Canada, having been penalized for their pacifist standpoint during the conflict. Rogers had visited Upper Canada and arrived in York (Toronto) in 1801. He travelled north along the Don River to East Holland River, where he established a farmstead and encouraged other American Quakers to settle. Quaker services were initially held in Rogers’ home in Upper Yonge Street (today, Newmarket), until a log meeting house was built in 1801. In 1804, the Yonge Street Preparative Meeting was granted official status by the Pelham Monthly Meeting and, in 1806, a Yonge Street Monthly Meeting was established. By 1809, Rogers had helped nearly 40 Quaker families from Pennsylvania to settle in York, and had relocated his family and established a gristmill at Duffin’s Creek (today, Pickering Village). In 1812, Rogers donated a parcel of land for a meeting house and burial ground in the village, today located on Mill Street.

60. Battle of the Plains of Abraham

61. Rev. George Buchanan

Born in Scotland, George Buchanan graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University. He later became a Presbyterian minister and was called to Upper Canada (now Ontario). In 1822, he arrived in Beckwith Township – a largely Presbyterian Scottish settlement that was ministered by Rev. William Bell from Perth. Buchanan became Beckwith’s first resident minister, teacher and physician. In 1833, a stone church was completed and the congregation informed Buchanan that he would be allowed to preach in it only if he joined the Church of Scotland. The demand reflected the bitterness existing between the Church of Scotland and the Secession Church, which had split. Buchanan, a secessionist, refused and was consequently barred from preaching. From then until his death, Buchanan held services in his home for those of the congregation who supported his views.

1 record(s) found

62. Peter Lossing

Born in New York City, Peter Lossing (1761-1833) was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) who established a settlement at Norwich, Upper Canada (Ontario). Lossing moved to Upper Canada with the hopes of founding an agricultural settlement. In June 1810, Lossing and his brother-in-law Peter Delong purchased 15,000 acres in Norwich Township. The Lossings and at least nine other families were settled in the tract by the end of 1811. Many of the newcomers were Quakers from Dutchess County. Prior to the construction of a frame meeting house at Norwich in 1817, Quaker services were held in Lossing’s home. The Quakers built two schools before 1816; the first post office was set up at Lossing’s house in 1830. He was instrumental in the establishment of a mill and ironworks in Norwich. He also assisted leasing smaller lots to poorer settlers. Lossing actively encouraged the growth and expansion of the community until his death in 1833.

63. Bishop Alexander Macdonell

Alexander Macdonell, born in the Scottish Highlands, was a legislator and Roman Catholic priest and bishop. After being ordained a priest in 1787, Macdonell formed a Catholic Highlanders regiment and served in Guernsey and Ireland. The regiment was disbanded in 1802. Father Macdonell petitioned the home government for land grants for his disbanded regiment. In 1803, the veterans sailed for Upper Canada. Macdonell came to Upper Canada in 1804 as chaplain of this disbanded regiment. During the War of 1812, Father Macdonell was a driving force in reforming his regiment into the Glengarry Fencibles for the defence of their new home. The regiment saw much service during the war – with Father Macdonell as its chaplain – and was highly regarded as a fighting unit. Macdonell became the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kingston, formed in 1826. In 1831, he was appointed to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In 1837, he founded Regiopolis College in Kingston.

3 record(s) found

64. Rev. John Dunn

Licensed to preach in Glasgow, Scotland, Rev. John Dunn (1763-1803) was one of the earliest Presbyterian ministers operating in Ontario. After completing theological studies at the University of Glasgow in 1788, he served as a minister in Cherry Valley, New York. In 1794 he travelled to Upper Canada (Ontario), where he ministered alternately in Stamford and Newark (Niagara Falls). In 1794, Rev. Dunn successfully petitioned Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806) for land in Upper Canada to support his ministry, and was granted 1,200 acres in Ancaster and Pelham Townships. Rev. Dunn remained in Newark for two years, preaching in nearby rural communities. In 1796, he abruptly left the ministry, owing perhaps to the isolation of his post. With no presbyteries nearby he found no income. Dunn had never been officially ordained, and so could not perform marriages and christenings. He became a businessman, living in Niagara until 1803, when he drowned on a merchant ship in Lake Ontario.

65. Treaty of Paris (1763)

The Treaty of Paris (1763) ended the Seven Years' War.

66. Rev. John Ludwig Broeffle

Born in Germany, Rev. John Ludwig Broeffle (1765-1815) was one of the first Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada (Ontario). Prior to the arrival of Scottish ministers, Presbyterian communities in Upper Canada turned to the Dutch Reformed Church operating in America for preachers. As a minister from the Dutch Reformed Church preaching in Albany, Rev. Broeffle was brought to Stormont and Dundas counties in 1795. Rev. Broeffle was based in Williamsburgh but established a German-language Presbyterian church in nearby Osnabruck in 1795. By 1800, there were four Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada, only two of whom preached to settlers of the Presbyterian faith from countries other than Scotland. Rev. Broeffle preached extensively throughout Stormont and Dundas, eventually dying in 1815 of overexertion during a 15-mile walk to preach in Osnabruck.

67. Jonathan Doan

Jonathan Doan (1765-1847), a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), came to Upper Canada (Ontario) from Pennsylvania in 1789. Doan was one of many Quakers who emigrated to Canada to escape increasing taxation and harassment as a result of refusal to bear arms during the American Revolution (1775-83). He settled first in the Niagara peninsula at Sugar Loaf (Port Colborne), and then purchased 200 acres in Yarmouth Township in 1813. A few years later, Doan became a land agent for judge and politician Jacques Bâby (1763-1833). Doan acquired 3,000 acres for settlement and revisited Pennsylvania to recruit fellow Quakers. A community known as the Quaker Settlement or Yarmouth Corners developed around Doan's farm, gristmill and tannery. In 1820, he donated the land for a meeting house and burying ground. The community founded by Doan and the Friends became Sparta, Ontario, in 1832.

68. Rev. Robert James McDowall

Born in New York State, Robert James McDowall (1768-1841) graduated from the Union Theological Seminary, Schenectady and was ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church at Albany in 1797. McDowall was then sent to Lennox and Addington Counties in Upper Canada (Ontario) as a missionary to Presbyterian settlers in the Bay of Quinte area. Although area residents had requested a minister from both the Church of Scotland and the Associated Reformed Church in the United States, only the Dutch Reformed Church had preachers available for missionary work. McDowall organized congregations in Ernesttown and Adolphustown Townships and in Fredericksburg Township, where he settled in 1800. Although McDowall attempted to unite the Bay of Quinte congregations into a Presbytery of the Canadas, he was only somewhat successful and became the first Moderator of the newly-formed Synod of the Canadas in 1820. McDowall died in 1841 and was buried in the cemetery of the first church he established in Upper Canada – at Sandhurst in Fredericksburgh Township.

69. Rev. James Magrath

Rev. James Magrath (1769-1851) was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Hoping to establish his sons in a prosperous land while serving the Anglican Church, he applied to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for a colonial missionary post. In May 1827, Magrath arrived at Quebec with his family and was promised a mission in Upper Canada (Ontario). He was appointed to the Toronto Mission on the Credit River, where he served at St. Peter's Church. Magrath acquired land in this area and built his home, which he named Erindale. While carrying out his duties, he also encouraged his sons to become successful; James Magrath was a merchant and postmaster, William managed the family farm and Charles studied law. Rev. Magrath served the parish until his death in 1851. After 1890, the surrounding village of Springfield was renamed Erindale in his honour.

1 record(s) found

70. Rev. Robert Easton

Born in Hawick, Scotland, Rev. Robert Easton (1773-1831) was a Presbyterian minister in Montreal and founding member of the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 1803, he travelled to Montreal to fill in as minister for a small congregation splintered from St. Gabriel Street Church. In 1807, the Secessionist Presbyterian St. Peter Street Church was constructed. The congregation thrived, supplemented by Scottish and Irish immigrants passing through Montreal on their arrival to Lower Canada (Quebec). Several of his sermons were published and, in 1816, he became a Montreal agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Anxious to have a local governing ecclesiological body, Easton – along with Revs. William Smart, William Bell and William Taylor – formed the Presbytery of the Canadas in 1818, transformed into the Synod of the Canadas in 1820, United Presbytery of Upper Canada in 1825, and finally the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in Association with the Church of Scotland in 1831.

71. Quebec Act of 1774

72. American War of Independence

1 record(s) found

73. Bishop Charles James Stewart

Charles James Stewart (1775-1837) was a clergyman of the Church of England and Bishop of Quebec. Ordained in 1798, Stewart travelled to Lower Canada (Quebec) in 1807 to take up his post as rector of Orton Longueville (Orton). He established Trinity Church in Frelighsburg in 1809, the first Anglican church in the Eastern Townships. He travelled to England in 1823 to defend the Anglican Church’s claims to the profits of the Clergy reserves, lands set aside by the colonial government for the benefit of the Church in Canada. In 1826, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Quebec at Lambeth Palace, London. Faced with decreasing funding for missions in Canada, Stewart petitioned the Church of England to continue providing salaries to clergy of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. His continuous appeals for funds to support missionaries throughout Canada led to the establishment of the Upper Canadian Travelling Missionary Fund in 1834, and the Upper Canada Clergy Society in England in 1835. After selecting George Jehoshaphat Mountain (1789-1863) as his successor, Stewart left for retirement in Scotland in 1837, but died in London en route.

74. Peace movement

Since the 18th century, individual Canadians and non-governmental organizations have been active supporters of the cessation of armed conflict, or the peace movement. Following the American Revolution (1775-83), pacifist Quaker and Mennonite settlers from Pennsylvania and Maryland emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) to escape compulsory military service. During the mid- to late 20th century, the peace movement shifted from an individual or minority adoption of neutrality toward vocal efforts by activists to persuade the Canadian public and authorities to promote and practise peace in global relations. The peace movement became increasingly tied to other forms of activism, including women’s and children’s rights and the environmental movement. In the 1970s and 1980s, large umbrella organizations were developed to connect and oversee existing, smaller peace movement groups. These groups actively fundraise to support overseas medical, faith, construction and infrastructure projects, peace and global education in Canada, and federal and provincial lobby efforts.

1 record(s) found

75. Elder Washington Christian

Ordained in Abyssinia Baptist Church in New York, Washington Christian was a refugee slave from the southern United States. Through the 1820s and 1830s, he formed Black Baptist congregations in Toronto, Hamilton, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. He founded the first Baptist church in Toronto in 1826.

76. Evangelism and Evangelicals in Canada

Evangelism began in 18th-century England as a Christian denomination with emphasis on conversion and personal piety. Canadian Evangelism began with Rev. Henry Alline (1748-84), an American preacher who brought the “Great Awakening” religious revival to Nova Scotia. In the 19th century, the Evangelical movement in Canada was divided amongst “radical Evangelicals” (Baptists and Methodists) and “formal Evangelicals” (Protestants and Anglicans). After the War of 1812, anti-American sentiment pushed radical Evangelism to the periphery of Canadian church life, while formal Evangelical Protestantism became the primary denomination in the country. Throughout the 20th century, Evangelism in Canada declined as Christianity slowly lost its dominance in society and increased immigration to Canada diversified the population. New Evangelical denominations arose in Canada, including Pentecostals, the Salvation Army, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. As the Evangelists' dominance in Canadian society waned, previously estranged Evangelical groups banded together over shared beliefs and concerns. In 1964, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada was formed. Despite differences over various points of doctrine and worship, their fundamental concern for doctrinal orthodoxy, belief in the development of personal piety, and commitment to evangelism united the disparate groups.

1 record(s) found

77. Bishop John Strachan

Bishop John Strachan was an Anglican clergyman, legislator and teacher, born in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1799, he came to Kingston in Upper Canada (now Ontario) to be a tutor. In 1803, he was ordained by the Church of England and appointed missionary at Cornwall where he built its first Anglican Church in 1804-05. Shortly after his arrival in Cornwall, he opened a boys' school that became renowned for its high academic standards and prominent graduates. In 1812, he became Rector of York (Toronto) and subsequently a member of the province's executive and legislative councils. In 1839, Strachan was appointed Upper Canada's first Anglican bishop.

3 record(s) found

78. David Willson

David Willson (1778-1866) was a preacher with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Upper Canada (Ontario) who left to lead a new denomination called the Children of Peace, or Davidites. Willson immigrated to Canada from New York in 1801, settling in East Gwillimbury, and soon joined the Monthly Meeting at Upper Yonge Street (today, Newmarket). In 1812, Willson was expelled from the Friends for his interpretation of the Bible and desire to include music in religious services. He was joined by a number of followers, called Davidites, and established the Children of Peace in nearby Hope (today, Sharon in East Gwillimbury). Services were initially held at Willson’s farm until a meeting house was constructed in 1819. Willson became a staunch supporter of political reform in Upper Canada, challenging the reservation of clergy lands for the Anglican Church. His passion for music had a major impact on the Davidites, who became well-known musicians and established the first civilian band in Upper Canada. After Willson’s death in 1866, the membership and activity of the Children began to diminish, with the last service held at the Sharon Temple in 1899.

1 record(s) found

79. Rev. Daniel Ward Eastman

Born in Goshen, New York, Rev. Daniel Ward Eastman (1778-1865) was a Presbyterian minister and one of the first preachers in the Niagara peninsula of Upper Canada (Ontario). After studying at the North Salem Academy, Eastman was licensed to preach in 1800, and emigrated to Upper Canada. Eastman arrived in Beaver Dams, near St. Catharines, where he began preaching. In 1800, Eastman was one of only four Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada; he was ordained in Palmyra, New York. Rev. Eastman preached regularly at Stamford, Drummondville (Niagara Falls) and Beaver Dams, travelling extensively to rural communities throughout the Niagara and Gore districts. He worked continuously, establishing seven congregations throughout Niagara, performing nearly 3,000 marriage services during his career, and ministering to the wounded during the War of 1812 (1812-15). Rev. Eastman continued to preach until his retirement in 1851, and is remembered as the “father” of the Presbyterian Church in Niagara.

80. First Amish Settlement in Ontario

In 1822, Christian Nafziger – an Amish Mennonite from Munich, Germany – came to Upper Canada to find land on which to settle some 70 German families. With the assistance of a group of Mennonites headed by Jacob Erb, who had settled nearby, a petition was made to the government for land in present-day Wilmot Township. Surveyed two years later by John Goessman, this German Block was peopled primarily by Amish from Europe. In 1824-25, Bishop John Stoltzfus of Pennsylvania organized the first congregation and ordained as ministers John Brenneman and Joseph Goldschmidt. Services were held in the homes of members until 1884 when a simple frame meeting house, which served until 1946, was erected.

1 record(s) found

81. William Jenkins

Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, William Jenkins (1779-1843) was a Presbyterian clergyman in Markham Township, Upper Canada (Ontario). Jenkins was educated in Scotland in theology, Greek, Hebrew and learned several First Nations languages while studying in America. He emigrated to Upper Canada in 1817. Jenkins established a congregation at Mount Pleasant (in present-day Richmond Hill), which joined the newly formed Presbytery of the Canadas in 1819. He travelled extensively as a missionary, visiting Peterborough, the Bay of Quinte and the Grand River areas. Along with Robert Baldwin (1804-58) and Egerton Ryerson (1803-82), Jenkins founded the Friends of Religious Liberty committee, which petitioned the British government in 1831 for the removal of clergymen from political office, the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, as well as equal rights for clergy of all denominations.

1 record(s) found

82. Rev. William Bell

One of the most influential Presbyterian clergymen in Upper Canada, William Bell (1780-1857) was born in Strathclyde, Scotland. In 1808, he entered the Congregational Church’s Hoxton Academy in London to train as a minister, and was ordained by the Associate Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1817. Bell worked as an itinerant preacher until he was offered a salary and land grant to minister to the Scottish military settlement at Perth in Upper Canada (Ontario). Bell and his family arrived in Perth in June 1817, where he turned his energy towards organizing a congregation, founding a school, conducting pastoral visits and establishing a church. One of only nine Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada, Bell encouraged the others to organize a presbytery in Canada, eventually forming the United Synod of Upper Canada in 1831. Bell and his congregation left the United Synod in 1835 over complications from the merger and a government grant dispute. Shortly before his death in 1857, however, Bell was able to reunite the divided groups of Presbyterians in Perth.

83. Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes, meeting places and safe houses used by freedom-seeking slaves in their attempts to reach the northern free states, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Desperate to escape the abhorrent conditions of enslavement, followers of the Underground Railway braved many dangers and hardships on their journeys to freedom. Professional slave catchers and federal officials often pursued escaped slaves and, if captured, slaves frequently endured torture and retribution at the hands of their owners. It has been estimated that almost 100,000 slaves used the Underground Railroad in one way or another – and it is believed that about 30,000 of these made their way to Canada. Canadian destinations ranged from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, but most were clustered around the lower Great Lakes. Abolitionists, sympathizers and former slaves – often organized into small groups – helped shelter, guide and provision fugitives along the route. Railroad terminology was used as code to identify elements of the journey. For example, people who helped guide freedom seekers were called conductors and safe houses were called stations. Ontario has several historic sites directly linked to the arrival of refugee slaves from the southern United States. Members and clergy of several Christian denominations took active roles in the operation of the Underground Railroad, and in supporting the freedom seekers upon their arrival on Canadian soil.

14 record(s) found

84. Gordon Riots

The Gordon Riots were highly destructive and deadly anti-Catholic riots that occurred in London, England in 1780.

85. Ezekiel and Ann Dennis Settle in Niagara

Ezekiel Dennis (1753-1810) and his wife Ann (née Heacock, 1751-1813) may have been the first Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) family to settle on the Niagara peninsula. This relocation occurred at the beginning of a massive influx of Loyalist Quaker settlers in Upper Canada (Ontario) who left the United States following the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1782, the couple travelled from their home in Richmond, Pennsylvania to Canada with their six children, settling at Point Albino in Bertie Township (now Fort Erie). For six years, the family farmed and helped establish other Quaker homesteads in the area, including Dennis’ brother, sisters and their families in 1788. Property and tax records indicate that the Dennis family prospered; by 1797, the size of the family farm had increased by 500 acres. The number of Quaker immigrants, encouraged by early settlers like the Dennis family, had grown substantially by 1797, and a Monthly Meeting of the Friends in the Niagara District was organized.

86. Loyalist Settlers in Ontario

Loyalists were American colonists who supported Britain during the American Revolution (1775-1783). During and after the Revolution, Loyalists faced persecution in the United States. They were subjected to harassment, intimidation, imprisonment and many had their property confiscated. The British government offered land grants to Loyalists willing to relocate to British North America. It is estimated that in the years following the Revolution, close to 10,000 Loyalists arrived in Ontario. They were a heterogeneous group that included Catholic Highlanders, Scottish Presbyterians, German Calvinists, German Lutherans, Quakers, Aboriginals, former slaves, Methodists, Congregationalists and Anglicans of English origin. Loyalist settlements were generally segregated according to ethnicity and religion. There were sizable Loyalist communities at Long Point on Lake Erie, in the Niagara Peninsula and in Essex County. Joseph Brant led nearly 2,000 Loyalist Iroquois to a settlement along the Grand River. On its banks, Anglican Mohawks constructed Ontario’s oldest surviving church, the Mohawk Chapel, in 1785. The majority of Loyalists settled in the newly surveyed townships along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. A group of Methodists settled in Adolphustown and, in 1792, erected the Old Hay Bay Church – Canada’s oldest surviving Methodist building. Scottish Catholic Loyalists who settled in Glengarry and Stormont counties formed a parish and constructed St. Andrew’s Church in 1801. Before parishes were established and churches built, Loyalist faithful worshiped in private homes – often with laypeople conducting the services. When most Loyalists arrived, in the 1780s, the territory that is now Ontario was a sparsely inhabited wilderness that was part of the province of Quebec. Its laws and institutions were largely those that had been established under French rule. Loyalists, however, were defined by their desire for a British system of government. To accommodate them, the province of Upper Canada (now Ontario) was created in 1791. Upper Canada was given a legislative assembly and the province operated under British Common Law. Loyalists played a large role in shaping Ontario’s cultural identity and contributed greatly to its religious diversity.

7 record(s) found

87. Sunday school

The history of Sunday school is generally considered to have begun with Robert Raikes’ efforts to educate poor children in Gloucester, England in the late 18th century. The notion of educating the poor and the illiterate on Sundays – often their only day off work – soon spread and church-led organizations were created to teach reading, writing and other basic skills to both children and adults. Though tied to church activity, these organizations were often interdenominational and classes were rarely held within churches. As the movement developed, primarily in England and the United States, it became heavily imbued with Protestant notions regarding the nature of children, the need for personal salvation and the role of education in spiritual life. With the introduction of state-sponsored school systems in the 19th century, Sunday schools’ broad educational programs gave way to religious catechism and Bible study. Sunday schools, therefore, became more closely linked with individual denominations and were increasingly held within churches – often in the basement or in rooms behind the sanctuary. In the latter half of the 19th century, Sunday school administrators in North America were influenced by pedagogical theories emerging out of the education movement and by public school structures. Sunday school classes began to be graded, segregated according to age and achievement. Many feared, however, that these divisions would stifle communication and dialogue regarding lessons between students of different age groups and between family members. In response, the interdenominational American Sunday School Union adopted the Uniform Lessons system in 1872. Within this system, each grade and class in all participating schools followed the same curriculum week by week throughout the year. Every child, therefore, received a lesson on the same topic each Sunday – but one geared toward their particular age group. Sunday schools were an important part of religious and social life among Protestants through the first half of the 20th century. Sunday school was often invoked as a symbol of goodness, integrity, devotion and community.

88. Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) Settlement at Adolphustown

As a result of increased harassment of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the United States following the American Revolution (1775-83), members of the Friends settled in Adolphustown Township in 1784. The first Preparative Meeting of Quakers in either Upper or Lower Canada took place in Adolphustown in 1798 at the house of Philip Dorland (1755-1814). That year, a meeting house and burying ground were built on Dorland's farm at Hay Bay. By 1801, the local Quaker population had grown sufficiently to warrant the establishment of an Adolphustown Monthly Meeting. Although a new meeting house was built in 1868 to replace the original Hay Bay structure, many of the Quakers’ descendants had either moved away or joined the Methodists, greatly reducing the congregation’s size. The Adolphustown Monthly Meeting was discontinued in 1871. The Hay Bay meeting house gradually fell into ruin; all that remains is a small burying ground marking the site.

1 record(s) found

89. Bishop Benjamin Eby

Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Benjamin Eby (1785-1853) was a Mennonite preacher and leader of the settler community in Ebytown, Upper Canada (Ontario). Increased harassment of pacifist Mennonites in the United States following the American Revolution (1775-83) led Eby and a group of German-speaking Mennonite settlers to emigrate from Pennsylvania to Waterloo Township, Upper Canada in 1807. Ordained in 1809, Eby was a leader in the community and helped to erect a school and meeting house (called Ben Eby’s Church). In 1813, he was elected Bishop of Waterloo County. He oversaw religious conferences, mediated local settler disputes and elected new bishops in neighbouring districts. The settlement was named Ebytown, later renamed Berlin (Kitchener) in honour of the community’s German heritage. Eby actively promoted German-language education and religious services, publishing several primers, hymnals and texts in German.

1 record(s) found

90. Highland clearances

During the 18th and 19th centuries, several waves of mass evictions forced Scottish Highlanders off their lands. These clearances resulted in emigration to the Scottish Lowlands, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

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91. First Mennonite Settlement

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a large number of German-speaking Mennonites emigrated from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada (Ontario). Pennsylvania had become crowded with settlers, whereas the Mennonites were offered cheap land and promised exemption from military service by the colonial British government in Canada. In 1786, a small group from Bucks County, Pennsylvania settled on land west of Twenty Mile Creek in the Niagara Peninsula. In 1799, Jacob Moyer (1767-1833), Abraham Moyer and Amos Albright (1759-1833) arrived from Pennsylvania and purchased land in the vicinity of Vineland and Jordan. Within two years, the Mennonite community along the “Twenty” had grown to approximately 30 families. On the advice of their former ministers in Bucks County, the community elected Valentine Kratz the congregation's first minister in 1801. This was the first Mennonite congregation organized in Ontario. Several Mennonite communities in other parts of Ontario were founded by members of this first settlement.

5 record(s) found

92. Establishment of Brethren in Christ Church

A distinctive religious denomination similar in doctrine and practice to Mennonite assemblies, the Brethren in Christ Church emerged in Pennsylvania during the 1770s. It was established in Upper Canada in 1788 when Johannes Wenger (John Winger) – who later became bishop – and Jacob Sider formed a congregation here in Pelham. The denomination advocated adult conversion and baptism, and rejected secular pleasures, fashionable dress and political and military involvement. A small, tightly knit religious group because of these strongly-held views, the Brethren in Christ Church grew slowly, drawing its members, popularly known as Tunkers, primarily from German-speaking rural communities. By the end of the 19th century, however, it was firmly established in Welland, York, Waterloo and Simcoe counties.

93. Rev. William Proudfoot

Presbyterian minister and educator William Proudfoot (1788-1851) was born near Peebles, Scotland. Ordained in 1813, he served as a priest and teacher in Scotland. In 1832, Proudfoot applied for a missionary posting in Canada, and moved to a farm near London, Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1834, he founded the Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas in connection with the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church in Scotland. In 1844, he opened a divinity school in London to train Canadian clergy. Proudfoot also helped create new congregations and founded the Presbyterian Magazine. Despite his fears that the values of the Missionary Presbytery would be compromised by a merger, in 1847 it was joined with the newly formed United Presbyterian Church in Canada. The London seminary was moved to Toronto in 1850, and Proudfoot travelled there regularly to teach while retaining his congregation in London. He died in Toronto in January 1851.

1 record(s) found

94. Rev. William Smart

Born in England, Rev. William Smart (1788-1876) was a Presbyterian minister in Brockville, Upper Canada (Ontario) and one of the leaders of the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. In 1811, he was the first Presbyterian minister to settle in Brockville. He established the first documented Sunday school in Upper Canada that year, with services held in the local courthouse. An adult congregation was established in 1816, and First Presbyterian Church of Brockville was constructed three years later. Smart, along with Revs. William Bell and William Taylor, formed the United Presbytery of Upper Canada in 1825. In 1831, Smart and other ministers of the Church of Scotland met at Kingston to establish the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Upper Canada, called the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland.

95. Rev. Robert Burns

Born in Scotland, Robert Burns (1789-1869) was a Presbyterian minister and educator in Canada West (Ontario). In 1805, he began theological training at the University of Edinburgh, and was ordained in 1811. Burns was active in several colonial evangelical societies, including the French Canadian Missionary Society and Glasgow Colonial Society. He supported the radical wing of the Presbyterian Church and led his congregation to break from the Kirk during the Disruption of 1843 and form Free St. George’s Church of Paisley. Burns visited Canada in 1843 in order to garner support for Free Church missions in North America. He was appointed professor of divinity at Knox College in Toronto in 1845, and as minister at Knox Presbyterian Church. Burns continued his missionary tours of Canada, raising funds for churches, rural parishes and educational initiatives. He was active in community affairs, advocating for the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, for the abolition movement and for public education. Burns resigned as minister of Knox Church in 1856 and became professor of church history at Knox College, until his retirement in 1864.

1 record(s) found

96. French Revolution

97. Establishment of the United States Bill of Rights

The United States Bill of Rights entrenched religious and political freedoms in the American constitution.

98. Constitutional Act of 1791

Created largely to accommodate growing numbers of Loyalists arriving from the United States following the American Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Act of 1791 was an act of British Parliament that divided what had been the province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. While the act preserved existing privileges accorded the Roman Catholic Church, it bestowed large tracts of land – known as clergy reserves – on the Church of England.

99. Clergy reserves

The clergy reserves were lands in Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) that were specifically set aside by the Constitution Act of 1791 to support the Anglican Church. Though the land was intended to support the Church of England (Anglican), the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) was granted a claim in 1824 to a portion of the clergy reserves as an “established” Church in Canada. Income from the lands gave the Anglican and Presbyterian churches economic resources unavailable to other Protestant denominations, whose members petitioned for the redistribution of the lands amongst all Protestant groups in Upper Canada. In 1840, the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada divided the profits of the clergy reserves, with half designated for the Church of England and Church of Scotland, and the remaining half to all other Protestant denominations. In 1854, the Upper and Lower Canada coalition government of Sir Allan MacNab (1798-1862) and Augustin Morin (1803-65) passed legislation that secularized the clergy reserves as Crown Lands, redirecting their profits to regional municipality funds.

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100. Militia Act of 1793

The first protection for those objecting to compulsory military service was provided by John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. This promise became law with the Militia Act of 1793, which stated: ... and it be further enacted, that the persons called Quakers, Mennonites, and Tunkers, who from certain scruples of conscience, decline bearing arms, shall not be compelled to serve in the said Militia. For this exemption, they were compelled by law to pay a yearly tax, which increased in times of war. If unpaid, those exempted from the militia had their property confiscated. After 1809, if fines for unpaid taxes were not paid, a jail term could result.

101. Henry Esson

Born in Balnacraig, Scotland, Henry Esson (1793-1853) became a Presbyterian minister and educator in Upper Canada (Ontario). Educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen, Esson was sent to Canada in 1817 in response to requests for a minister from the Scottish Presbyterian Church in Montreal. He actively supported educational projects and founded the Montreal Academical Institution in 1822, sat on the committee of the École Normale de Montreal and criticized efforts to make McGill College an exclusively Anglican institution. Esson’s first wife, Maria Sweeney, died in 1824; their two sons died in childhood. In 1844, he accepted an instructor position, teaching history, literature and philosophy at Knox College, recently established by the Free Church in Toronto. Esson continued teaching until his death in 1853. He was buried in Montreal’s Mount Royal Cemetery.

102. Rev. William Macaulay

Anglican minister William Macaulay (1794-1874) was instrumental to the organization of Anglican congregations in Prince Edward County and the founding of the community of Picton in Upper Canada (Ontario). Following the American Revolution (1775-83), Macaulay’s family emigrated from America to the Loyalist settlement at Cataraqui (Kingston). Macaulay, the son of a United Empire Loyalist, received a Crown grant of 400 acres near Hallowell. Educated at Oxford (England) and ordained in 1818, Macaulay returned to Upper Canada to serve as minister in Hamilton Township (Cobourg). He then turned his attention to the small settlement growing near his land grant in Prince Edward County. In 1823, he established an Anglican congregation in the area and donated land for the district court house and jail. Through Macaulay’s influence, the settlement was named Picton, after Sir Thomas Picton (1758-1815), a distinguished British soldier, and was incorporated with the adjacent community of Hallowell in 1837.

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103. Rev. John Macher

John Macher (1796-1863) was born in Forfarshire, Scotland and became a Presbyterian clergyman, scholar and administrator in Upper Canada (Ontario). Ordained as a minister by the Church of Scotland in 1819, Macher assisted at parishes in Brechin and Logie while waiting for an assignment. In 1827, he was selected to join Rev. John Barclay (1795-1826) at the Presbyterian mission in Kingston, Upper Canada. Machar was one of 14 ministers of the Church of Scotland who established the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Upper Canada at Kingston in 1831. A noted scholar, Macher helped found Queen’s College in Kingston and was actively involved in school affairs as a trustee and educator. In 1846, he became principal of Queen’s College at a time when the future of the institution was uncertain, his staff temporary and his salary infrequent. Machar retired in 1852, but continued to teach occasional Hebrew language courses at the college until his death in 1863.

104. Rev. Dr. Michael Willis

Born in Greencock, Scotland, Rev. Dr. Michael Willis (1798-1879) was a Presbyterian minister, President of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada and the first principal of Knox College. After completing theological studies in Glasgow, Willis was ordained and began preaching at the Renfield Street Church. He was granted a doctorate by the University of Glasgow in 1839. In 1843, Rev. Dr. Willis sided with those Presbyterian ministers opposed to the system of patronage used to assign ministers to congregations, and joined the newly formed Free Church of Scotland. He was sent to Canada in 1845 to support Canadian ministers who had left the Church of Scotland. That year, Rev. Dr. Willis began teaching at Knox College, established by Free Church theologians in Toronto. An ardent abolitionist, he founded the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada in 1851, in order to provide support for fugitive slaves arriving in Canada from the United States. In 1857, Rev. Dr. Willis was elected the first principal of Knox College, and helped to develop a constitution when the school was incorporated later that year. He retired to London, England in 1870.

105. Rev. Mark Young Stark

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Rev. Mark Young Stark (1799-1866) was a Presbyterian minister in Upper Canada (Ontario), and helped to found the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Free Church). Under the patronage system of the Presbyterian Church, though Stark was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland in 1824, upon arrival in Upper Canada he had to be nominated to a vacant charge by a wealthy landowner. He was unable to find such a patron and eventually offered his services to the Glasgow Colonial Society in 1833, through which he was called to congregations in Ancaster and Dundas. In 1843, Presbyterians in Scotland protested the patronage system, which forced congregations to accept the patrons’ choice of minister. That year, 450 Presbyterian ministers broke from the Church of Scotland and formed the Free Church of Scotland, later called the Great Disruption. In Canada, Rev. Stark presided over the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connexion with the Church of Scotland as ministers debated whether to remain within the Presbyterian Church. Although he feared division within the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Stark sided with those fighting the patronage system and helped form the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Free Church). He continued his duties as clerk of the Hamilton Presbytery, and was actively involved in the recruitment and placement of new ministers. In 1844, Rev. Stark was asked to sit on the College Committee charged with the development of Knox College in Toronto.

106. Rev. Philip James

Philip James (1800-51) was a Methodist minister born in Cornwall, England, who served as a missionary throughout Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1820, James was converted to the Methodist Bible Christian Church in Cornwall and served as an itinerant minister until being sent as a missionary to Prince Edward Island in 1834. He spent seven years preaching across the island to isolated communities, until he left in 1841 to serve the growing number of Bible Christian immigrants in Upper Canada. After serving in Cobourg, Darlington and Whitby, he travelled in 1846 to the Canada Company’s Huron Tract on the southeast shore of Lake Huron to minister to Bible Christians in Mitchell (Perth County). In 1850, despite his declining health, James left the Huron Tract mission and began preaching in Pickering, where he died in 1851.

107. Bishop Alexander Neil Bethune

Alexander Bethune – son of the renowned Presbyterian clergyman John Bethune – was born in Charlottenburg, Upper Canada in 1800. During his youth, Bethune studied under John Strachan first in Cornwall, then in York, where he assisted Strachan with services at St. James’ Cathedral. Bethune was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1824 and given charge of St. Andrew’s Parish at The Forty (Grimsby). Three years later, he was relocated to St. Peter’s Church, Cobourg, where he served as rector until 1867. Although a congenial, peace-loving man, Bethune was a central figure in numerous public conflicts, controversies and debates. He and his mentor John Strachan were identified with the Anglo-Catholic movement at a time when many members of the Church of England in present-day Ontario were moving toward low church evangelicalism. As editor of the church newspaper from 1837-41, Bethune became embroiled in several public debates with Methodist newspaperman Egerton Ryerson – primarily regarding clergy reserves and the privileged position of the Church of England in Upper Canadian society. After Strachan’s death, Bethune was elected the second Bishop of Toronto. He spent much of his episcopate attempting to restrain the low church movement and to unify his divided flock. He died in 1879.

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108. Rev. Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby)

Methodist minister Peter Jones (1802-56) – called Kahkewaquonaby in Ojibwa – was the son of surveyor Augustus Jones and Tuhbenahneequay, the daughter of a Mississauga chief. Jones’ early years were spent with his mother’s Mississauga community at Burlington Heights. When he was 14, Jones was sent by his father to an English school in Saltfleet Township (Stoney Creek). Jones converted to Methodism in 1821 and began to preach in the Grand River area. In 1826, he moved to the Mississauga settlement on the Credit River, and was elected chief in 1829. Jones made several journeys to England to raise funds for the Credit River mission, where he was introduced to both King William IV (1765-1837) and Queen Victoria (1819-1901). He petitioned Queen Victoria for titles to the land occupied by the Mississauga along the Credit, but these were later withheld by the Indian Department in Upper Canada. Jones later facilitated the band’s relocation to New Credit (Brantford), where the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation exist to this day. Jones died at his home, Echo Villa, in Brantford in 1856.

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109. Enoch Wood

Born in Gainsborough, Scotland, Enoch Wood (1802-88) was a Methodist minister and mission superintendent in Upper Canada (Ontario). Although he was baptized as an Anglican, Wood converted to Methodism and was accepted as a Wesleyan missionary to Canada in 1826. Wood served in several parishes throughout New Brunswick before he was appointed Superintendent of Missions of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada in 1847. Wood continued as superintendent until 1874, when the Methodist Church of Canada was formed through the union of the two Wesleyan conferences of British North America and the Methodist New Connexion Church of Canada. Wood was also involved in the establishment of Victoria College in Cobourg, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1860.

110. Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel

Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91) was a Roman Catholic priest from France who became Bishop of Toronto in 1850. Charbonnel studied at the Séminaire de Saint Sulpice in Paris before he was ordained in 1825. He arrived in Montreal in 1839 as a missionary and was consecrated in 1850 as Bishop of Toronto in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). As bishop, Charbonnel established St. Michael's College, the House of Providence shelter, instituted the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Toronto Savings Bank. He laid the foundations for a separate Catholic school system with his support of the 1855 Taché Act. Charbonnel, however, felt disliked by his parishioners and clergy and petitioned Rome in 1856 to be relieved from his post. He left for France in 1860 to preach throughout the country, and was made titular Archbishop of Sozopolis (Sozopol, Bulgaria) in 1880 in recognition of his work in Toronto. Charbonnel died at a Capuchin friary in Crest, France in 1891.

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111. Bishop Benjamin Cronyn

Born in Kilkenny, Ireland, Benjamin Cronyn (1802-71) emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1832 as an Anglican missionary with the Society of the Propagation of the Gospel. Cronyn began preaching in London and the surrounding areas, and oversaw the construction of St. Paul’s Church in 1834. He was able to supplement his income by becoming chaplain at the nearby Royal London Military Institute, preaching to military troops and students. In 1857, Cronyn became the first Bishop of the Diocese of Huron, and was consecrated in London, England by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Cronyn established Huron University College in 1863 with Rev. Isaac Hellmuth (1819-1901), which became the founding college of the University of Western Ontario in London.

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112. Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson

Rev. Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (1803-82) was an education reformer, author and clergyman born near Vittoria, Upper Canada (Ontario). After Ryerson recovered from a prolonged illness in 1825, he became a Methodist minister. He visited parishes throughout York (Toronto) and became a missionary to the Mississauga First Nations along the Credit River. In 1835, Ryerson was instrumental in obtaining a charter for the Upper Canada Academy at Cobourg, and later became the institution’s first principal when the academy was raised to the status of a university (later renamed Victoria College). In 1844, Ryerson was nominated to take charge of the school system of Upper Canada. As head of the Department of Public Instruction, he established the basis of Ontario’s present system of secular public education, building on the non-denominational school system already established by the Upper Canada Schools Act of 1850. Ryerson instituted a single educational system that embraced curriculum, inspection, Canadian-made textbooks, teacher training and certification of the province’s schools. After his retirement in 1876, Ryerson focused on writing several monographs. He died in Toronto in February 1882.

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113. Bishop Michael Power

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Michael Power (1804-47) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop in Upper Canada/Canada West (Ontario). Ordained in 1827, he served as a missionary in the Archdiocese of Québec and the Diocese of Montréal. When the Bishop of Kingston, Rémi Gaulin (1787-1857), wanted to divide his vast diocese into manageable areas in 1841, he chose Power to serve as Bishop in the newly created Upper Canada portion. Gaulin felt that Power, due to his own Irish ancestry, would be able to reach the large numbers of Irish immigrants arriving in Upper Canada in the 1840s. As Bishop of Toronto, Power began construction on St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto in 1845. He also actively promoted the expansion of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Canada West, encouraging Jesuit priests to oversee missions in First Nations communities in his diocese. With the onset of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-49), Power campaigned for relief funds from his congregations, drawing massive crowds to St. Paul’s Church in Toronto. In 1847, Power travelled to Europe to raise funds and recruit new priests for the missions in Canada, and saw first-hand the effects of famine in Dublin. Upon his return to Toronto, Power ministered daily to the large influx of Irish immigrants, despite outbreaks of typhus. Power cemented his reputation as an “Irish bishop,” despite being born in Halifax, when he defended the immigrants from civic officials seeking a scapegoat for the typhus epidemic. His testimony of seeing healthy Irish board ships in Dublin only to arrive sickly after spending weeks cramped onboard, redirected municipal energies toward combating typhus and creating employment for the immigrants. In 1847, Power died of typhus while ministering to the sick in Toronto.

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114. Bishop Joseph-Bruno Guigues

Joseph-Bruno Guigues was born in France in 1805 and entered the noviciate of Oblates at the age of 17. An enthusiastic scholar, Guigues was soon appointed professor of philosophy at the seminary in Marseilles. In 1844, he was made superior of the Oblates in Canada. He directed missionary activities throughout the United Canadas and took a particular interest in the evangelization of First Nations peoples. In 1847, he was made the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Bytown (Ottawa). Bishop Guigues did much to develop the new diocese. A tireless proponent of Catholic education, he brought in male and female religious orders to establish Catholic schools. These orders also created hospitals and a variety of charitable institutions. Bishop Guigues actively encouraged francophone Catholics from Quebec to settle in the Ottawa Valley, and he did much to aid the development of francophone communities in that region. When Guigues assumed the position of bishop, the Diocese of Bytown had an unfinished cathedral, three stone churches, 15 chapels made of wood, seven secular priests and seven Oblates. At the time of his death, it comprised of 67 churches, 48 chapels, several schools and institutions, 53 secular priests, 37 Oblates and nearly 100,000 Catholic faithful.

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115. Rev. Dominick Edward Blake

Born at Kiltegan in the Republic of Ireland, Dominick Edward Blake (1806-59) was a Church of England clergyman who emigrated to Canada in 1832. He was quickly appointed to Caradoc Township in Middlesex County, Upper Canada (Ontario). In 1833, Blake and his family relocated to Adelaide (Adelaide-Metcalfe), where he served as clergyman to neighbouring communities and at St. Ann’s Anglican Church. Blake had two sons with his wife Louisa Jones – Dominick Edward and John Netterville. In order to supplement his income after the Church of England discontinued its funding of the colonial missions, Blake kept diaries of his activities to be published in journals of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1844, Blake was appointed superintendent of common schools for Adelaide Township, but soon left to serve at Trinity Church in Thornhill. He was actively involved in the administration of the church and the establishment of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. In 1859, Rev. Blake collapsed and died suddenly after speaking at Trinity College in Toronto.

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116. Laura Haviland

Born in Kitley Township, Upper Canada (Ontario), Laura Smith Haviland was a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) abolitionist who helped transport slaves from the United States to Canada. Her Quaker family emigrated to Cambria, New York in 1815, where she met and married her husband Charles Haviland, Jr. The couple moved to Raisin Township, Michigan, where she founded the first racially integrated school in Michigan – the Raisin Institute. At the same time, the Haviland home became the first Underground Railroad station in Michigan. She made trips to the South to escort escaped slaves to freedom and had a bounty of $3,000 set for her capture by several slave owners. In 1849, she helped establish the Refugee Home Society in Puce, Canada West (Ontario), with a church and school for fugitive slaves. During the American Civil War (1861-65), Haviland toured the country to deliver supplies to troops, work as a teacher and nurse and petition for the release of imprisoned slaves.

117. Rev. Thomas Greene

Rev. Thomas Greene (1809-78) came to Canada from Ireland in 1836 through the Upper Canadian Travelling Mission Fund. The fund was established by Bishop Charles J. Stewart (1775-1837) of Quebec to ensure Anglican missionary presence in Upper Canada (Ontario). Arriving at Quebec City in 1836, Greene was assigned as a missionary to the London District of Upper Canada. Greene travelled constantly to nearby communities, and his letters and journals provide invaluable information on life among the early settlers in the London area. In 1838, Greene became the first rector of St. Luke's Church in Burlington, perhaps due to the increasing cost of missionary travel after the Mission Fund was discontinued following Bishop Stewart’s death in 1837. During his rectorship at St. Luke's (1838-78), Greene and his family contributed substantially to that parish; Greene is buried in the church cemetery.

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118. Rev. Thomas Brock Fuller

Rev. Thomas Brock Fuller (1810-1884) was born in the garrison at Kingston to a distinguished Church of England family. His father was an army office and his godfather – after whom he was named – was the famous General Sir Isaac Brock. Fuller was ordained a deacon of the Church of England in 1833 and a priest in 1835. He was then sent to Chatham where he ministered to the congregation of what is now Christ Church. In 1840, Fuller was appointed to the rectory of Thorold, where he served for 21 years. Shortly after being relocated to St. George’s Church in Toronto in 1861, he forgave $11,000 of debt owed to him by the congregation at Thorold for the construction of St. John the Evangelist Church. An astute and pragmatic man, Fuller foresaw the disestablishment of the Church and wrote influential tracts urging the Church to become more self-sufficient. Fuller was also respected for his moderation and ability to create consensus between high and low Church factions. Upon being elected the first Bishop of Niagara in 1875, Fuller took up residence in Hamilton and made Christ Church his cathedral. He died in Hamilton at the age of 74.

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119. William McMaster

Born in County Tyrone, Ireland, William McMaster (1811-87) was a wholesaler, banker and senator in Ontario, and established McMaster University. In 1833, McMaster emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) to work as a clerk in a wholesale firm, which he later took over and successfully managed. McMaster had no children, although he was close with his nephews from Ireland, whom he brought to work at the firm – named William McMaster and Nephews. McMaster was elected as Liberal representative in the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada in 1862, and became a senator of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. McMaster’s banking success also enabled him to contribute to educational institutions in Ontario, both secular and theological. A firm believer in the value of education, McMaster financially supported several instructional institutions, including the Toronto Mechanics’ Institute. He founded the Canadian Literary Institute (Woodstock College) as a training site for Baptist preachers, and the Toronto Baptist College in 1881. Dissatisfied with the proposed federation of local colleges with the University of Toronto, the Toronto Baptist College and Canadian Literary Institute were joined to form McMaster University in 1887.

120. Norwich Quaker Settlement

In 1809, Peter Lossing – a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) – came to Upper Canada from Dutchess County, New York. William Willcocks deeded 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) of land in Norwich to Lossing and his brother-in-law Peter De Long in 1810. The purchasers returned to Dutchess County to recruit settlers and bring their families to Upper Canada. In 1811, the Lossing and De Long families settled on land they purchased. By 1820, a group of about 60 had settled within the tract. The arrival of the Quaker settlers in 1811 marked the beginning of progress in Norwich Township – building stores, schools and mills and operating successful dairy farms. Lossing reserved a small plot of land to construct a Quaker meeting house, which was erected in 1817.

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121. Hannibal Mulkins

Hannibal Mulkins (1812-77) was a Methodist preacher and Anglican clergyman in Upper Canada (Ontario). He was ordained by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada in 1838 and served congregations in Toronto Township, Whitby, Cobourg, Belleville and Brockville. In 1840, however, he joined the Church of England (Anglican) and was ordained as a priest in 1842. Mulkins was appointed a travelling missionary in Fitzroy and Pakenham (Mississippi Mills) and extended his territory to include the area west of Bytown (Ottawa) and the townships of Torbolton, McNab (McNab/Braeside) and Horton. In 1851, he was appointed by Lord Elgin (1811-1863) – Governor General of the Province of Canada – to the chaplaincy of the Provincial Penitentiary in Kingston. He produced detailed reports and statistical analyses of prisoners’ lives and the impact of the prison mission, despite contemporary reports that he frequently neglected his duties as chaplain. In 1871, Mulkins married Lavinia Mary Bromehead of Yorkshire, England. Due to his advancing age, Mulkins left the penitentiary in 1875 and emigrated to England where he became the vicar of Stapleford in Salisbury.

122. Rev. William King

Born near Newton-Limavady, Ireland, Rev. William King (1812-95) was a Presbyterian minister, abolitionist and founder of the community of Buxton in Canada West (Ontario). King travelled to America in 1833 and settled in Louisiana as a teacher, but returned to Scotland to study and was ordained as a Presbyterian preacher in 1846. That year, he also accepted the call for ministers in Toronto. In 1848, he returned to Louisiana to settle his late wife’s estate, which included a number of slaves. Forced to admit that he now owned a plantation and slaves, Rev. King convinced members of the Presbytery of Toronto that he could establish a colony of fugitive and freed slaves in Canada. He returned to Louisiana and gathered a number of Black families willing to join his new community in Canada. In 1850, the Elgin Association was incorporated to purchase land near Chatham, which was named Buxton. King oversaw the establishment of a frame church, Sunday school and day school in early 1850. Despite opposition from the local white population, the Buxton settlement thrived, at one point home to nearly 1,200 escaped slaves from America. King stayed on as a minister in the settlement until his death in 1895.

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123. War of 1812

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124. Founding of the Children of Peace

Established by David Willson (1778-1866), the Children of Peace was an offshoot of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and included well-known musicians and political advocates. Willson immigrated to Canada from New York in 1801, and soon joined the Monthly Meeting at Upper Yonge Street (today, Newmarket). In 1812, Willson was expelled from the Friends for his interpretation of the Bible and desire to include music in religious services. He was joined by a number of followers, called Davidites, and established the Children of Peace in nearby Hope (today, Sharon in East Gwillimbury). The Children became well known for their instrumental band (the first civilian musical group organized in Canada) and their youthful singing chorus, who travelled with Willson to York (Toronto) and Philadelphia. A meeting house (1819), study (1819) and Temple (1825-31) were erected in Sharon, while the establishment of a credit union and shared-land system brought prosperity to the Davidite farmers. The Children were also active supporters of William Lyon Mackenzie (1795-1861), campaigning for his election as representative of their riding and later supporting the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. After Willson’s death in 1866, the membership and activity of the Children began to diminish, with the last service held at the Sharon Temple in 1899.

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125. Rev. Henry Scadding

Born in Devonshire, England, Henry Scadding (1813-1901) was a scholar, author and Anglican minister in Toronto. Scadding emigrated to Canada in 1821 after his father arrived in 1792 to work as a clerk for Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806). Educated at Cambridge University, Scadding was ordained in 1838 as an Anglican priest at Toronto’s St. James Church. In 1847, he was appointed first rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, where he served until 1875. A founder of the Royal Canadian Institute, he served as librarian for the institution from 1862 to 1870, and as president from 1870 to 1876. Scadding was a noted scholar, writing religious, literary and historical works, including Toronto of Old (1873) and Toronto: Past and Present (1884). Scadding became president of the York Pioneer and Historical Society, and encouraged the organization of several local historical societies. Rev. Henry Scadding died in Toronto on May 6, 1901 and was buried in St. James' Cemetery.

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126. Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was an international conference that reorganized Europe's political landscape following decades of war and upheaval.

127. The Battle of Waterloo

128. Bishop Pierre Adolphe Pinsoneault

Born in Saint-Philippe-de-Laprairie, Lower Canada (Quebec), Pierre Adolphe Pinsoneault (1815-83) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop in Canada West (Ontario). Following completion of his studies in Montreal and Paris, in 1840 he was ordained as a priest in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. Pinsoneault returned to Canada East (Quebec) to preach at St. Patrick’s Church in Montreal. Due to his brief role as secretary for Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91), in 1856 Pinsoneault became bishop of the newly created Diocese of London in Canada West. In 1859, Bishop Pinsoneault relocated his see to Sandwich (Windsor), a larger community with a cathedral and greater number of both clergy and worshippers.

129. Archbishop John Joseph Lynch

Born in County Fermanagh, Ireland, John Joseph Lynch (1816-88) was a Catholic priest and archbishop in Canada West (Ontario). Following completion of his studies in Ireland and France, Lynch became a missionary in 1841 and served in Ireland, Texas and Niagara Falls. Lynch was nominated as successor of Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel (1802-91) of Toronto, and was consecrated as Bishop of Toronto in 1860. Lynch’s Irish heritage enabled him to connect with the Toronto’s Irish Catholic immigrants who had fled Ireland’s Great Famine (1845-49). Lynch worked to improve conditions in Roman Catholic separate schools and advised the provincial government on educational legislation, but was often drawn into disputes between Catholic and Protestant groups over the schools’ funding. In 1870, while attending Vatican Council I (1869-70) in Rome, Lynch was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto. He also expanded the ranks of clergy in his territory, ordaining 70 priests during his term, and established 40 churches throughout the Diocese of Toronto. Lynch continued to serve as Bishop until his death in 1888.

130. Oblates of Mary Immaculate

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate is a Roman Catholic men’s religious order founded in 1816 by Saint Eugene de Mazenod in France. They are primarily a missionary order dedicated to working with the poor. The Oblates’ constitution cites the “evangelization of the most abandoned” as a central focus of their ministry. Oblates are known for their work with immigrants, minorities and First Nations communities. Pope Pius XI called the Oblates “specialists in difficult missions.” The order came to Canada in 1841 at the invitation of Bishop Bourget of Montreal. Seven years later, Oblate Fathers founded Bytown College, which became the University of Ottawa in 1866. Oblates currently operate Saint Paul University within the University of Ottawa federation. Saint Paul University has a pontifical charter to grant ecclesiastical degrees. Oblates have been particularly active in western Canada and were responsible for establishing the Catholic Church in the northwest. From the 1870s to the 1980s, Oblates operated numerous residential schools for First Nations children across the country, including several in northern Ontario. The residential school system – run by many different religious groups and denominations – has since been the subject of much criticism and contention. Oblates are particularly active in Canada’s Polish immigrant communities. The Oblate’s Assumption Province – created in 1956 to serve Polish-Canadian Catholics – has its headquarters in Toronto.

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131. American Bible Society Founded

132. Founding of the Presbytery of the Canadas

In 1817, there were nine Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada (Ontario), working in often inhospitable conditions with little available support from the Church of Scotland. There was no formally organized local court for the debate and approval of theological and logistical decisions, forcing ministers to appeal to Scotland or the United States. In 1818, Rev. William Bell (1780-1857), Rev. William Taylor, Rev. William Smart (1788-18??) and Rev. Robert Easton (1773-1831) applied for permission to form a presbytery, but decided to organize the Presbytery of the Canadas as an independent body with no official ties to the Church of Scotland. This would allow congregations of non-Scottish ancestry and ministers from other Presbyterian churches – including the Dutch Reformed Church – to amalgamate smoothly into the new association. After an initial meeting in Cornwall, the ministers met at St. Peter’s Church in Montreal and agreed that this new presbytery would recognize the doctrine and discipline of the Church of Scotland. The Presbytery was later absorbed into the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland (1839), leading toward the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1875.

133. Rev. Henry Pahtahquahong Chase

Born near Belleville, Upper Canada (Ontario), Henry Pahtahquahong Chase (1818-1900) was a Methodist minister, Anglican priest and Ojibwa interpreter. Known in childhood as Pahtahquahong, Chase was raised by William Case (1780-1855), Superintendent of the Methodist missions in First Nations communities throughout Canada. Chase served as an Ojibwa interpreter for several Methodist missionaries in Upper Canada and the United States, and in 1843 became an interpreter for the Indian Department at Port Sarnia (Sarnia). He married Annie G. Armour of Scotland in 1852, with whom he had four children. In 1856, Chase became a Methodist preacher at the Lake St. Clair and Muncey (Strathroy-Caradoc) missions. Chase became an Anglican priest in 1864, and began preaching in Delaware, Oneida and Ojibwa reserves near Muncey. Chase was present at the Council of the Six Nations and different bands in Ontario and Quebec in 1870, and was selected to meet with Governor General Sir John Young (1807-76) to discuss the rights and roles of the First Nations in Canadian government.

134. Élizabeth Bruyère

Born in L’Assomption, Lower Canada in 1818, Élisabeth Bruyère was the founder of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa. Extremely devout and well educated, she worked as a teacher before joining the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns) in 1839. Six years later, Bruyère was asked to establish a community of Sisters of Charity in Bytown (Ottawa). At that time, Bytown was a burgeoning lumber town with sizable Irish and French-Canadian Catholic communities, but with few amenities and no Catholic schools or hospitals. Within three months of her arrival, Bruyère had overseen the creation of a bilingual school for 120 pupils, a small hospital and a relief organization. Often working in collaboration with Oblate priests, Bruyère and the Sisters of Charity established numerous schools throughout the following decades. In 1860, they constructed a new, larger hospital that eventually became the Ottawa General Hospital. Soon, the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa extended their reach beyond the region. By the time of Bruyère’s death in 1876, they operated schools throughout Ontario, Quebec and New York State. Bruyère’s efforts created a strong foundation for the development of Roman Catholic healthcare, educational and social services in Ottawa and throughout eastern Ontario.

135. Founding of the First Congregationalist Church in Upper Canada

The first Congregational Church in Upper Canada (now Ontario) was gathered by Joseph Silcox in the town of Frome in 1819. Silcox had come from Wiltshire, England and followed the independent stream of Congregationalism.

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136. Black Settlement in Oro Township

Oro Township in Simcoe County was established in 1819 by the Executive Council of Upper Canada to help secure the province's northern frontier against a possible American invasion. The community was the first government-sponsored Black settlement in Upper Canada (Ontario). Land along the Penetanguishene Road was divided into 200-acre lots, which were offered to Black veterans of the War of 1812. By 1831, nine families had taken up residence along Wilberforce Street. They were later joined by Black settlers from Ohio and the Wilberforce Settlement in Biddulph Township, who were offered land grants by the Commissioner of Crown Lands. The settlers were only marginally successful in farming the land – which was remote, of poor quality, swampy and difficult to clear. The settlement eventually declined as farmers were discouraged by the harsh climate. Descendants of these settlers continue to live in the area, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church erected near Edgar in 1849 remains a testament to this early Black community in Upper Canada.

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137. Bishop John Farrell

Born in Armagh, Ireland, John Farrell (1820-73) emigrated to Upper Canada in 1803 and settled in Kingston with his family. Ordained in 1845, Farrell became pastor at L’Orignal (Champlain Township) in Canada West (Ontario). After several years of preaching, in 1856 he was consecrated the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Hamilton. As Bishop, Farrell encouraged the education of Canadian clergy, supported the German-speaking Roman Catholic community of Hamilton and established several area schools. He also petitioned local politicians to approve effective school legislation for Roman Catholics, opposing the education reforms advocated by his long-time critic George Brown (1818-80), owner of the Toronto Globe newspaper. Farrell supported several religious orders in Hamilton and their establishment of Catholic schools, including the Ladies of Loretto, the Fathers of the Resurrection and the Basilian Fathers.

138. Bishop Willis Nazrey

Born in Virginia, Willis Nazrey was a minister, bishop in the American Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and first bishop of the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church. He was admitted into the New York Conference of the AME Church in 1840, then appointed to the Lewistown Circuit in Pennsylvania. In 1852, he was elected Bishop of the AME Church. Soon afterward, he took up residence in Canada. Bishop Willis Nazrey led many AME congregations into a new Canadian-based BME Church. From 1856-75, Nazrey was bishop of the BME Church of Canada. The denomination was established by Underground Railroad refugees so that they could govern their own church from Canada. He continued to travel extensively until the autumn of 1875 when he died in Nova Scotia. His body was returned to Chatham where he was buried.

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139. Founding of the first Black Baptist congregation

The Baptist Church in Colchester (Essex County) was the first Black Baptist Congregation, organized in October 1821. It was founded by Elder William Wilks, who came from the United States in 1818.

140. Rev. Richard Baxter

Born in Carlisle, England, Jesuit priest Richard Baxter (1821-1904) emigrated to Canada in 1830. He studied at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in Montreal and at St. Francis Xavier College in New York City, where he was ordained in 1854. After serving at various missions in the United States and Canada, Baxter was sent to Fort William (Thunder Bay) in 1872 to assist Father Dominique du Ranquet (1813-1900) at the Mission of the Immaculate Conception on the Kaministiquia River. Baxter travelled along the Dawson Road and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), establishing churches at Fort William, White River and Schreiber. He also visited isolated mining communities at Silver Islet, Isle Royale (Michigan), Silver Harbour and Vert Island to give sermons and visit Catholic settlers. In 1877-78, he was a frequent correspondent to the Thunder Bay Sentinel on the progress of CPR construction. Baxter died on May 8, 1904, in Montreal.

141. Greek War of Independence

142. Congregation of St. Basil (Basilians)

The Congregation of St. Basil (Basilians) was established in France in 1822 as a clandestine organization devoted to the education of priests following the dissolution of seminaries during the French Revolution. In 1850, Basilian Fathers were invited to Canada by Bishop Charbonnel of Toronto – himself a former student of the Basilian school in Annonay, France – to undertake the education of Catholic youth within the diocese. Two years later, they founded St. Michael’s College in Toronto, which taught boys at the high school and university levels. In 1881, St. Michael’s College affiliated with the University of Toronto. St. Michael’s is one of the oldest colleges within the University of Toronto’s federation; it continues to have a distinctively Catholic character. In 1929, Basilians at St. Michael’s College created the world-renowned Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies that houses one of the largest collections of medieval documentation in North America. Basilian Fathers have also had a significant presence in Windsor. In 1870, the Basilians took charge of both the Assumption College in Sandwich (Windsor), which had previously been run by Jesuits, and of the historic Assumption Parish – the oldest Catholic parish west of Montreal. Assumption University continues to be run by Basilians. It is now affiliated with the University of Windsor. Basilian Fathers have also established parishes in Amherstburg, Chatham, Owen Sound and Toronto, and have been active in communities throughout the province. They have educated numerous future priests, bishops and archbishops, as well as thousands of lay people. In addition to running parishes and schools, Basilian Fathers have chaplaincies in many Ontario universities. Though founded in France, the Congregation of St. Basil now has its curial offices in Toronto.

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143. Alexander Ferrie Kemp

Alexander Ferrie Kemp (1822-84) was born in Strathclyde, Scotland; he became a Presbyterian clergyman and educator in Canada. Kemp attended the University of Edinburgh and Presbyterian College in London, England and was ordained in 1850 by the Free Church of the Presbytery of Lancashire. Kemp was appointed as chaplain to the 26th Foot Regiment (Cameronians or Scottish Rifles) stationed in Bermuda. In 1855, Kemp accepted a position at the St. Gabriel Street Church in Montreal, and as the clerk of the Presbytery of Montreal. He left Montreal in 1865 to serve at St. Andrew’s Church in Windsor, Canada West (Ontario). He was a noted scholar, an editor of the Canadian Presbyter newsletter, and published several articles on the botany of Bermuda, the United States and Canada. Criticized for his views on the lack of progress in the Canada Presbyterian Church since its formation in 1861, he resigned and began teaching at colleges throughout Canada and the United States. In 1878, he became principal of the Ottawa Ladies’ College and retired in 1883.

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144. The Glasgow Colonial Society

A chief concern of early 19th-century Scottish settlers was the lack of ordained ministers in their new community. In 1825, “The Society, in connection with the Church of Scotland, for Promoting the Religious Interests of Scottish Settlers in British North America” was established. Formed by Glaswegians, the name was shortened to the Glasgow Colonial Society. The goal of the Society was to provide religious instruction to Scottish immigrants, manage the applications of Scottish ministers hoping to work in Canada, and apply for government funding to provide stipends and land for ministers abroad. Its patron was General George Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie (1770-1838), then Governor General of British North America, and its secretary was Rev. Robert Burns (1789-1869) of Knox College in Toronto. The Society actively recruited ministers for service in Canada and, by 1844, had sent 28 missionaries to established centres of Presbyterianism such as Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry in Upper Canada (Ontario). With the establishment of Presbyterian seminaries at Queen’s University in Kingston (1841) and Knox College in Toronto (1844), the need for Scottish missionaries decreased as more Canadians were ordained. Through the efforts of the Glasgow Colonial Society, Presbyterian immigrants to Canada were able to establish an extensive network of congregations and rural preaching circuits.

145. Rev. Fidelia Gilette

Born in Nelson Flats, New York, Lucia Fidelia Wooley Gillette (1827-1905) was ordained as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church and arrived in Ontario in 1888. The daughter of a Universalist minister, Gillette was likely the first ordained woman of any denomination in Ontario. Rev. Gillette wrote and contributed to several national and Universalist publications, and compiled a memoir of her father, Rev. Edward Mott Woolley, in 1854. She travelled throughout the Great Lakes region, preaching to various Universalist congregations before serving as minister in Bloomfield, Ontario from 1888-89. By 1900, Rev. Gillette had left Bloomfield and settled in Rochester, Michigan, where she continued to preach in neighbouring communities.

146. Bishop John Horden

Born in Exeter, England in 1828, John Horden apprenticed as a blacksmith and tutored at a boarding school before being sent to Moose Factory as a Church of England missionary. Moose Factory, near James Bay, was the site of an important Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) trading post and the home of a large Cree community. Desperate for a resident Protestant clergyman, HBC Chief Factor Robert Miles wrote to the company’s governor for support. Horden arrived with his wife in 1851 and was ordained a priest the following year. He promptly established a grammar school and began mastering the Cree language. He oversaw construction of St. Thomas’ Church, which was begun in 1864, and established a number of mission stations in the region. Horden served both the HBC employees and the region’s Protestant Cree for more than three decades, and translated portions of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Cree. In 1872, he was elected the first Bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee. He died in 1893 and is buried in the HBC cemetery.

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147. The Great Separation

In 1828, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) split between followers of evangelical minister Elias Hicks (1748-1830) and Orthodox Quakers committed to following traditional doctrine. This split was known as the Great Separation. This event followed an 1827 split among the Quaker meetings of the United States, beginning at the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. At issue was the role of external authority within the Quaker faith, with the Hicksites arguing for the importance of personal spirituality and Orthodox Quakers advocating for the supreme authority of scripture. This disagreement was transported to Canada by American Quakers and soon Hicksite sympathizers appeared at meetings across Ontario. Records vary in their interpretation of the separation, with Hicksite Quakers claiming to have left the church and Orthodox Quakers describing the expulsion of seceders. Both the Canada Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) and Genesee Yearly Meeting (Hicksite) branches suffered a lack of membership and resources. Though the Friends collaborated when sending funds and medical aid to Europe during the First World War (1914-18), they were not reunited until the formation of the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Newmarket in 1954.

148. Moses Bilsky

Born in Kuvno, Lithuania, Moses Bilsky (1829-1923) was a merchant and Jewish community leader, and is believed to be the first Jew to settle in Ottawa. In 1845, Bilsky first emigrated to Montreal, before coming to Ottawa in 1857. He left for the Cariboo Gold Rush in British Columbia (1859), and joined the Union Army in San Francisco during the American Civil War (1861-65). He returned to Ottawa in 1874, where he opened a watch, jewelry and optician’s shop. Bilsky became a leader in Ottawa’s growing Jewish community, welcoming newcomers and offering space for prayer in his home. He was instrumental in establishing Ottawa’s first Jewish congregation, Adath Jeshurun, and travelled to New York City in 1894 to secure Rabbi Jacob Mirsky (1859-1942). Outside the Jewish community, Bilsky was well known as a philanthropist and community leader, and belonged to several fraternal societies. Bilsky retired from business in 1915. His funeral in 1923 demonstrated his impact on all residents of Ottawa, being one of the largest memorials held in the city at that time.

149. Rev. Silas Huntington

Methodist missionary Silas Huntington (1829-1905) was born in Kemptville, Upper Canada (Ontario). Ordained in 1854, Huntington served various congregations in Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) until 1882, when he was posted to Mattawa. Using this mission as a base, Huntington travelled extensively, visiting settlements along the Canadian Pacific Railway as far west as Schreiber, near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay). Reportedly the first Protestant missionary to reach many northern communities, Huntington is credited with preaching the first Protestant sermons in Mattawa, North Bay, Sturgeon Falls and Sudbury. He also helped found the Nipissing Masonic Lodge in 1886, establishing Freemasonry in northern Ontario. In 1905, at the age of 76, he took charge of Widdifield Mission near North Bay, but died later that year of typhoid fever. He was immensely popular and respected throughout the North. In 1960, Huntington University – now Huntington College in Laurentian University Sudbury – was named in his honour.

150. Richard Randolph Disney

Born in Maryland, Richard Randolph Disney (1830-91) helped to establish the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church in Canada. Disney attended a seminary in Massachusetts and was licensed to preach in 1857 by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. That year, he emigrated to Canada West (Ontario) to serve as a minister for African-American settlers who had fled from slavery in the United States. Disney supported the formation of a separate BME Church in 1856 in Canada West. He served as the BME Church General Secretary, and was elected BME Church Bishop of Ontario, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, the West Indies and British Guiana (Guyana) in 1875. By 1880, however, it became evident that the church could not support its missions in the Caribbean. The BME Church re-joined the AME Church in 1881, although several congregations rejected the reunion, re-formed the BME Church and expelled Disney as Bishop. He continued to serve the remaining AME Church congregations in Ontario until he was assigned to congregations in Arkansas and Mississippi in 1888.

151. Archbishop John Walsh

Born in Mooncoin, Ireland, John Walsh (1830-98) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Ontario. After studying at the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice in Montreal, he was ordained in Toronto in 1854, and in 1860 became rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral. Walsh proved adept at negotiating disputes between the city’s Catholic and Protestant communities, diffusing a potential clash over the use of Orangemen’s arches during a visit by the Princes of Wales. In 1867, he was consecrated as Bishop of Sandwich (Windsor), the youngest Catholic bishop in Ontario. Addressing his diocese’s existing financial debts, Walsh economized operations and moved his residence from Sandwich to London, a more accessible location. By 1881, the diocese’s debt had been reduced and Walsh began construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in London. After the death of Archbishop John Joseph Lynch (1816-88), Walsh became Archbishop of Toronto. Prior to his death in 1898, Walsh established the Mount Hope Cemetery, the Sacred Heart Orphan Asylum and the St Vincent de Paul Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.

152. First Publication of the Book of Mormon

153. Orange Order

The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternal society formed in Ireland in 1795 to commemorate the victory of Protestant William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In British North America, the Grand Lodge of the Orange Order was founded in 1830 in Brockville. Throughout the following century, members of the order held key positions in many of Ontario’s institutions, such as governments, school boards and police forces. They were also leaders of industry. Orangeism was devoted to propagating Protestant values and strengthening ties with the British Empire and the monarchy. Although members of the order were predominantly Irish and Scottish, other ethnicities – such as Italians and Aboriginals – had Orange lodges in Ontario. Orangemen organized many benevolent activities and helped newly arrived Protestant immigrants transition to life in Ontario. The order, however, has been accused of inflaming sectarian antagonism and promoting anti-Catholicism. Orangemen held elaborate parades – most notably their annual parade on July 12 – which, at times, led to violent clashes with local Catholics. Orangeism reached the peak of its influence in Ontario in the early decades of the 20th century when an estimated 60 per cent of the world’s Orangemen were Ontarians. Since the mid-20th century, Orangeism has declined significantly in Ontario.

154. First Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada

In the early 19th century, multiple Presbyterian denominations were established throughout Upper Canada (Ontario), each tied to the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada were entirely dependent on the church in Scotland for funds, administration and arbitration; they had little control over their rural missions. In 1831, 14 ministers and five representative elders of the Church of Scotland met at Kingston to establish the first Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Upper Canada (Ontario), called the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Church of Scotland. The Synod was thus able to appoint ministers, arbitrate local disputes and oversee the activities of the Church of Scotland in Canada, giving Presbyterian Canadian ministers a greater degree of control in their Church.

155. Macarios Nasr

Born in Zahleh, Lebanon, Macarios Nasr (1831-1908) was the first Melkite priest in Toronto. He helped establish the Syrian Catholic community in the city. In Syria, Nasr entered the Eastern Christian Melkite monastic order of St. Basil of the Holy Saviour and was ordained as a priest in 1861. While serving in Damascus, he was appointed an apostolic missionary to the Melkites in Toronto and western Ontario. The Melkite community in Toronto was established by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in the late 19th century. Upon his arrival in Toronto in 1897, Nasr preached in St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church until he secured the use of St. Vincent de Paul Hall for Melkite services. The hall became the centre of activity as the Melkite community in Toronto continued to grow. Nasr died in 1908 before the completion of the Toronto Melkite Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which opened in 1913.

156. Patrick Boyle

Born in County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland, publisher Patrick Boyle (1832-1901) emigrated with his family to Toronto in 1846. An advocate for Irish Home Rule and removal of the British colonial authority in Ireland, Boyle began publishing the Irish Canadian in 1863. The newspaper became the tool of the Hibernian Benevolent Society of Canada, a working-class Irish Catholic association. Boyle and the Hibernian Society were criticized by moderate Irish Catholics in Canada for their alleged ties to extremist Fenian associations in America. He became president of the Hibernian Society in 1866, and in 1867 began to align Irish nationalist policies with the politics of Canada, using the Irish Canadian as his forum. Boyle criticized government policies that he felt impoverished or disadvantaged Irish Catholics in Canada, and soon gained funding support from Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-91) and the Conservative Party. The Irish Canadian merged with the rival Catholic Weekly Review in 1893. Boyle continued to advocate for Irish Catholic rights in Canada until his death in 1901.

157. Jewish Emancipation in 1832

In the early 19th century, Jewish residents of Canada were unable to obtain legal status as citizens, and were not allowed to serve as elected officials. This discrepancy was exacerbated by the “Hart Affair,” when Jewish businessman Ezekiel Hart (1767-1843) of Trois-Rivières, Quebec was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1807. Hart was dismissed from the Assembly over his inability to swear the oath of office “as a true Christian.” He was re-elected in 1808, swore the Christian oath, but despite voter support in his riding was dismissed again. The right of Jews to keep and legally use birth, death and marriage records brought Jewish religious rights in Canada to the forefront in 1832. Faced with a petition for equal rights from Jewish community leaders and businessmen, the Parliament of Lower Canada passed “An Act to Grant Equal Rights and Privileges to Persons of the Jewish Religion” in 1832. When Upper and Lower Canada were joined in 1841 to form the United Province of Canada, this legislation became effective in Canada West (Ontario). The act was the first in the British Empire to provide equal rights to Jewish citizens, and a major step forward in guaranteeing universal religious freedom in Canada.

158. Albert Carman

A commanding figure in Canadian Methodism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Carman was born an Iroquois and educated at Victoria College, Cobourg. He worked briefly as a teacher and was then appointed principal of the Belleville Seminary, later Albert College, in 1858. A masterful administrator and, after entering the Methodist Episcopal ministry, a militant advocate for Methodist education, Carman spearheaded the successful development of this Methodist school during his 17-year term. Following his election as a bishop in 1874, Carman gained increasing prominence in church affairs, particularly as an ardent supporter of union among the Methodist denominations. When union was achieved in 1884, Carman became a General Superintendent of the Methodist Church, a post he held until his retirement in 1914.

159. The Oxford Movement

The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Anglicans led by John Henry Newman (later a cardinal of the Catholic Church), who wanted the Church of England to revive many of the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The movement, which developed in Anglo-Catholicism, sought to bring the Church of England into communion with the Church of Rome.

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160. Ramakrishna

161. Roberta Elizabeth Tilton

Born in Maine, Roberta Tilman moved to Ottawa with her husband in 1868 and became an important social reformer and active member of the Anglican Church. Imposing and indefatigable, Tilton devoted her life to the temperance movement and campaigns to curb what she perceived to be the excesses of commercialism and secularization. In addition to being a founding member of the National Council of Women, she served as vice-president of the Ontario Women’s Christian Temperance Union and director of the Protestant Orphans’ Home and Refuge for Aged Women. She is best known for being the founder of the Women’s Auxiliary (WA) – a branch of the Anglican Church’s Missionary Society. In 1908, when Tilton retired as president of the WA after 22 years of service, the organization had grown to include 23 diocesan boards with 1,300 senior branches and a total of 32,057 members. It was the largest women’s organization in the Anglican Church. Now named the Anglican Church Women, it is the Church’s oldest continuous national organization. In recognition of the important role she played in helping to redefine the role of women in the Anglican Church, Roberta Tilman has a day of observance devoted to her in the Canadian Calendar of Holy Persons.

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162. Reign of Queen Victoria

163. Rebellions of 1837

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164. Regiopolis College

Regiopolis College was established in 1837 by Bishop Alexander Macdonell (1762-1840) at Regiopolis in Upper Canada (Kingston, Ontario). Macdonell saw the need for a school where a strong sense of loyalty to church and state would be instilled in students. Although plagued by a severe shortage of funds, the new secondary school began to be built in 1839. In 1866, the college was incorporated as the University of Regiopolis, but it became obvious that the Diocese of Kingston could not maintain it. The Jesuit Order purchased the university charter in 1931 and took control of the school. Enrollment at the university level was low; only two graduating classes – in 1941 and 1942 – were granted degrees. Further financial difficulties led to the union of the college and a nearby girls' school run by the Sisters of the Congregation de Notre Dame. All university-level courses were discontinued and the two schools united to become Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in 1967.

165. Evangelical United Brethren

Formed in 1946, the Evangelical United Brethren in Canada had its roots in German-speaking settlements of 19th-century Pennsylvania. In 1800, Pastor William Otterbein (1726-1813) of the German Reformed Church in Baltimore, along with Mennonite preacher Martin Boehm (1725-1812) from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, formed the United Brethren in Christ. In 1807, Methodist preacher Jacob Albright (1759-1808) of Pottstown, Pennsylvania formed the Evangelical Church. In the early 19th century, many German-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania emigrated to Waterloo County, Upper Canada (Ontario). Because of a lack of spiritual leaders in the community, a missionary tour from the Evangelical Church was organized in 1836 throughout the Niagara peninsula. In August 1839, Bishop Joseph Seybert (1791-1860) and five other preachers met near Hillside Park in Waterloo and formed the first Evangelical Church congregation in Upper Canada. In 1946, the Evangelical Church joined with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren. In 1968, with the decline of German-language religious services, the Evangelical United Brethren Church of Canada joined with the United Church of Canada.

166. Nathanael Burwash

Nathanael Burwash (1839-1918) was a Methodist minister and president of Victoria College, born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (Saint-André-Est, Quebec). He received a license to preach in Cobourg, and was ordained in East Toronto in 1866. That same year, Burwash began teaching science at Victoria College in Cobourg and, in 1873, became Dean of the Faculty of Theology. In 1884, after Victoria College merged with Albert College of Belleville, Burwash became president of the newly formed Victoria University. Though opposed by many in the Methodist Church, Burwash supported the merger of Victoria (among other colleges) with the University of Toronto as a means of separating theological and scientific studies between denominational colleges and the government-funded university. In 1892, Victoria became a federated school of the University of Toronto and moved to the city, where Burwash remained as president and chancellor. Though he retired in 1913, Burwash continued to teach at Victoria and attend Methodist conferences abroad before his death in 1918.

167. Archbishop Denis T. O'Connor

Born in Pickering, Canada West (Ontario), Denis T. O’Connor (1841-1911) was the first Canadian-born Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto. Following completion of his studies at St. Michael’s College in Toronto, O’Connor entered the Congregation of St. Basil in 1859, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1863. O’Connor was appointed as superior of Assumption College in Sandwich (Windsor) in 1869, where he served for 20 years and enlarged the campus, curriculum and tripled the number of students. In 1890, he was consecrated as Bishop of London, where he maintained tight control of diocesan finances, and insisted on a highly-trained clergy. His tenure as Bishop of London was a success and, in 1899, he was elevated to Archbishop of Toronto. O’Connor’s control of parochial funds and strict adherence to church doctrine in an increasingly pluralistic society stabilized the growing archdiocese. His legacy remains that of an educator and prudent financial manager during a period of great adjustment in the Catholic community.

168. Creation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toronto

Initially part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Quebec, Upper Canada (Ontario) was established in 1826 as a separate diocese under the control of Alexander MacDonell (1762-1840), Bishop of Kingston. The vast territory included all of Upper Canada. Continued immigration in the mid-19th century made the need for a division of the diocese apparent. In 1841, MacDonell’s successor Rémi Gaulin (1787-1857) named Michael Power (1804-47), a missionary from the Archdiocese of Quebec and of Irish descent, as candidate for the new diocese. After his appointment was approved by Pope Gregory XVI (1765-1846), Power was consecrated and moved to Toronto. The Diocese of Kingston was formally partitioned to include the Diocese of Toronto. The newly-created diocese encompassed the west and north of Upper Canada, from Oshawa past Penetanguishene towards James Bay. It included both isolated rural communities and increasingly crowded urban centres. In 1870, Toronto was elevated to the status of Archdiocese.

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169. Founding of Queen's Theological College

By the mid-19th century, the Presbyterian community in Canada was growing exponentially as a result of Scottish and American immigration. There was a need for trained, licensed Presbyterian preachers throughout Canada West (Ontario). In 1841, a seminary and college was established at Kingston with a charter from Queen Victoria (1837-1901). Queen’s College began under Rev. Thomas Liddell (1800-80), with only 15 students. The Faculty of Theology was a training ground for Moderate Presbyterian ministers, allied to the Church of Scotland. In 1844, with the Great Disruption and splintering of the Church into the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connexion with the Church of Scotland and the Free Church in Canada, some of the theological students left the College to form Knox College in Toronto. In 1912, Queen’s University separated from the Faculty of Theology in order to become eligible for provincial funding, and the small seminary was renamed Queen’s Theological College. In 1925, the Theological College allied its students and teachings with the newly formed United Church of Canada. The college remains closely tied with Queen’s University, allowing the Senate of the University to confer degrees on college graduates.

170. Ontario's Catholic School System

Generations of Ontario Catholics have considered education and religion to be inextricably linked. Catholics in the 19th and early 20th centuries believed that a state-supported, accessible Catholic education system was integral to the very survival of their faith in Protestant-dominated Ontario. The Catholic school system in Ontario had its beginnings with the Schools Act of 1841. This act created a public school system in the United Provinces of Canada and contained a clause allowing Catholics and other religious minorities to establish their own denominational schools. The following decades witnessed a proliferation of Catholic schools and institutions throughout the province. Despite the sectarian hostility, linguistic conflict and chronic lack of funding that plagued its development during the latter half of the century, the Catholic school system persevered, largely because its right to exist had been entrenched in the British North America Act (1867). During the 20th century, Ontario’s Catholic school system faced a number of challenges. The influx of Catholics from southern and central Europe who arrived after the Second World War and the baby boom that occurred simultaneously put a severe strain on the school system’s resources. Furthermore, suburbanization necessitated the creation of numerous new schools in new neighbourhoods and a decline in religious orders meant that many lay teachers had to be hired. A combination of political agitation and community support enabled the school system to overcome these issues. In 1997, the provincial government assumed sole responsibility of the funding of Catholic schools.

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171. Act of Union of 1841

The Act of Union of 1841 united Canada West (formerly Upper Canada) and Canada East (formerly Lower Canada) under a single government. Called the United Province of Canada, this governmental structure lasted until Confederation in 1867.

172. The Great Disruption

Throughout the 19th century, the Church of Scotland employed a system of patronage in order to match ministers with vacant pulpits, requiring preachers to have the support of a local wealthy landowner in order to secure a calling and be ordained. In 1843, Presbyterian ministers in Scotland protested against the patronage system, arguing that the church should be funded and supported by the state, but not under its control. That year, 450 Evangelical Presbyterian ministers broke from the Church of Scotland and formed the Free Church of Scotland, later called The Great Disruption. In Canada, the United Synod of Canada met at Kingston in 1844 to debate whether to break from the Church of Scotland. Twenty-three of the 96 Presbyterian ministers present decided to leave, forming the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Free Church). Many congregations were splintered, and new Free Churches established across Upper Canada (Ontario) with minimal funds and little property. The Free Church continued to maintain close ties with the Church of Scotland, and the two groups amalgamated in 1875.

173. YMCA-YWCA

The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) were established in 19th-century England to provide physical and spiritual help to young urban men and women . The first YMCA in North America appeared in Montreal in 1851. By 1912, a National Council of YMCAs in Canada was established to oversee some 45 branches throughout the country. The YMCA provided residences, skills training, physical training facilities and opportunities for social interaction amongst young men. In order to provide services to increasing numbers of young, single working women in urban areas, the first Canadian branch of the YWCA was organized in New Brunswick in 1870 by Agnes Blizzard and Adelaide Hoodless (1857-1910). The organization provided libraries, workplace training, camping experiences and residences for women. Although the YMCA and YWCA were initially affiliated only with Protestant churches, with the increasing diversity of Canadian society during the 20th century, the YMCA-YWCA adopted a secular approach to their programming and promotional materials in order to make their facilities accessible to all members of the community.

174. Founding of Knox College

Following the controversy in the Church of Scotland in 1843, and because the Presbyterian Seminary at Queen’s in Kingston decided to remain with the Church of Scotland, a number of students left the seminary and sought to create their own education centre for Presbyterians that followed the ideals of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1844, they founded Knox College in Toronto. In November of that year, the first class of 14 students began training in the home of John Esson before moving to a larger building in 1846. In 1875, they moved to the building at Spadina Crescent and, finally in 1914, to the current building on St. George Street in Toronto.

175. First Unitarian Congregation in Toronto

Following the establishment of the Unitarian Church of Montreal in 1842, the First Unitarian Congregation in Toronto was formed in 1845. Though a number of ministers for the congregation came from the United States, the Unitarian movement spread to Canada from England. The pastor of the new Toronto Unitarian Congregation was Scottish Baptist missionary Rev. William Adam (1796-1881). For several years, the congregation met in an unused Wesleyan chapel on George Street, later moving to a purpose-built church on Jarvis Street. As early as 1846, the Unitarian Congregation of Toronto adopted a constitution that, among other articles, proclaimed equality between male and female members of the congregation. A number of prominent Torontonians were members of the Unitarian Congregation, including women’s rights activist Dr. Emily Stowe (1831-1903), politician Sir Francis Hincks (1807-85) and artist Arthur Lismer (1885-1969). In 1949, the congregation moved from Jarvis Street to its present location on St. Clair Avenue West.

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176. Founding of the Sisters of Charity in Ottawa

In 1845, Father Adrien Telmon of Bytown (Ottawa) petitioned Bishop Patrick Phelan of Kingston (1795-1857) to establish an order of the Sisters of Charity in the city to provide medical and social services lacking in the community. Led by Mother Elizabeth Bruyère (1818-76), the Montreal-based sisters travelled to Bytown that year. The Sisters were commonly known as the “Grey Nuns,” in reference to the colour of their habits. The Sisters in Bytown were initially a small group of six, and continued to follow guidelines set out by the Grey Nuns of the Hôpital Général of Montreal. The Sisters of Charity opened a bilingual school for girls in 1845 and St. Joseph’s Orphanage in 1865. Soon, the order in Bytown began to grow as new postulants were admitted in 1846 and land was purchased to enlarge the hospital. In 1856, Father Pierre Aubert (1819-90) wrote a new Rule for the Sisters of Charity in Ottawa, formally separating the Ottawa group from the control of the Montreal order.

177. Great Irish Famine

178. Edmund Scheuer

Born in Moselle, Prussia (Germany), Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943) was a Jewish educator and jeweller in Ontario. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Scheuer emigrated to Canada and lived with his sister Camilla Scheuer-Levy (1845-1916) in Hamilton. He became a business partner with his brother-in-law, Herman Levy, and established the jewelry wholesale firm Levy Brothers & Scheuer, Ltd. Scheuer also joined the Anshe Sholom Congregation and began teaching Hebrew classes in 1872, establishing the first Jewish religious school in Hamilton. From 1873-86, Scheuer served as President of Anshe Sholom, where he successfully introduced Reform Judaism and renamed the synagogue Temple Anshe Sholom. Scheuer relocated to Toronto in 1886, opened his own wholesale jewelry firm and joined the Holy Blossom Temple. Scheuer continued to advocate for Reform Judaism, and attracted a succession of rabbis to Holy Blossom who introduced Reform practices at the synagogue. While in Toronto, he taught at the Holy Blossom Sabbath School and the Zionist Jewish Free School for Girls. Scheuer was elected Honorary President of the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto in 1934.

179. Rev. Charles Alfred Marie Paradis

Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest in 1881, Paradis was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis' travels as a missionary provided the information for his pamphlet, From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay. In it, he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in the region of Verner and even took up farming himself. He prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake where he wrote, painted in watercolour and worked on the compilation of an Ojibwa dictionary.

180. European Revolutions of 1848

181. First Jewish Cemetery in Canada West

In 1849, the Trustees of the Toronto Hebrew Congregation purchased a plot of land at Pape and Gerrard avenues (Leslieville), close to one of the city’s earliest Jewish immigrant communities. The land was used to establish the first Jewish cemetery in Canada West (Ontario). This purchase was spearheaded by local jeweller and optician Judah G. Joseph (1798-1857), who despaired at burying his fatally ill son in one of the nearest Jewish cemeteries at Montreal or Buffalo. The burial of Samuel Joseph is believed to be the first Jewish burial in Toronto. After acquiring the cemetery land, the Toronto Hebrew Congregation became known in 1856 as the Holy Blossom Congregation and took over the management of Pape Avenue Cemetery, by then known as Holy Blossom Cemetery. By the 1930s, the cemetery had little available burial space remaining, and the Holy Blossom Congregation created Holy Blossom Temple Memorial Park on Brimley Road as their new burying ground.

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182. The Buxton Settlement

In 1849, Rev. William King (1812-95) established a community for both fugitive slaves and free Blacks under the protection of the British government near Chatham, Canada West (Ontario). Under Rev. King's guidance, and with the assistance of the Presbyterian Church and Canadian abolitionists, nearly 9,000 acres of land were purchased. The initial settlers included a family of former slaves from Rev. King’s wife’s family plantation (brought to Canada from Louisiana) and Isaac Riley, the first Black man to purchase land in the settlement. The newly formed settlement was named Buxton. Rev. King oversaw the establishment of a frame church and the Buxton Mission School in early 1850; the school became so successful that many white settlers sent their children there for classes, creating one of the first integrated schools in North America. By 1852, nearly 350 acres of wilderness had been cleared and was being farmed for corn, tobacco and hemp. The community thrived, with nearly 2,000 inhabitants by the mid-1860s. Following the American Civil War (1861-65) and the abolition of slavery in the United States, a number of Buxton residents returned to America, but many of the original inhabitants’ descendants still live in the area.

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183. Mission of the Immaculate Conception

The Mission of the Immaculate Conception was founded in 1849 on the banks of the Kaministiquia River by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in order to visit and convert First Nations communities along the north shore of Lake Superior in Canada West (Ontario). Competition for furs had depleted resources of the area, which pushed the fur trade further north and west and seriously affected the hunting practises and income of the Ojibwa. In 1849, two Jesuit priests – Father Jean-Pierre Choné (1808-78) and Father Nicholas Frémiot (1818-54) – established the Mission of the Immaculate Conception on the Kaministiquia River. From there, Jesuit missionaries travelled the north shore of Lake Superior, encouraging First Nations groups to settle rather than continue their traditional nomadic lifestyle. The Jesuits also supported Ojibwa demands for compensation for First Nations lands acquired by the Crown in the region. After the site was purchased in 1908 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, the mission was moved to the nearby Fort William First Nation Reserve. In 1972, the last of the mission buildings on the original site were destroyed by fire.

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184. Temperance Movement

The Temperance Movement was formed by a series of Christian social reform groups in Canada and the United States during the mid-19th century. These groups sought to control alcohol consumption in their communities, which they tied to a number of social issues including poverty, education, family planning, children’s labour reform and women’s suffrage. Temperance groups – including the Sons of Temperance and Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Canada – petitioned provincial and federal authorities to legislate prohibition. In 1878, the federal government passed the Canada Temperance Act, which enabled individual municipalities to opt in to a prohibition scheme. This act led to the adoption of prohibition legislation by 1916 in all provinces except Quebec. The temperance victory was short-lived, however, and in the 1920s most provinces repealed the prohibition legislation in favour of government-controlled alcohol sales. Changing social attitudes toward alcohol forced temperance groups to focus their efforts on convincing individuals to abstain from alcohol, and promoting the dangers of tobacco and drug use.

185. Hugh T. Crossley

A Methodist and revivalist, Hugh Thomas Crossley (1850-1934) was born in King Township, Canada West (Ontario). He was converted to Methodism at a camp meeting in 1867 and began working as a teacher and lay preacher in Toronto. Crossley studied theology at Victoria College in Cobourg, Ontario where he began preaching with John Edwin Hunter (1856-1919). Crossley was ordained in 1880 and served congregations in St. Catharines, Hamilton and Brantford. Hunter and Crossley became partners in 1883, and travelled across Canada and the United States as preachers. They were designated as Conference Evangelists by the Methodist Church in 1884, meaning they were free to preach on invitation, rather than settling with a single congregation. Hunter and Crossley were recognized as Canada’s leading evangelists and recorded over 110,000 “decisions for Christ,” or conversions to Methodism. In 1891, the Crossley Hunter Methodist Church was opened in South Dorchester Township (Elgin County), Ontario. Crossley continued to preach until his death in 1934.

186. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Known as the bloodhound law for the dogs used to chase freedom-seeking slaves, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made federal officials throughout the United States (including free states) legally bound to return runaway slaves to their masters and provide financial rewards for those who did. Furthermore, any person aiding a runaway slave could be subject to imprisonment or a fine of up to $1,000.

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187. Founding of Trinity College

Trinity College was founded by the Anglican Bishop of Toronto, John Strachan, in 1851 as an alternative to the secular University of Toronto. Strachan had received a royal charter more than two decades earlier to create King’s College – the first institution of higher learning in what is now Ontario; he became its first president. In 1849, after much debate, the newly elected responsible government of Canada West (Ontario) decided to make King’s College public – divesting it of its ties to the Anglican Church – and to rename it the University of Toronto. In response, Strachan withdrew his support for the school and obtained a royal charter to create a new university. Initially, Trinity College was a private, Anglican university devoted to training the province’s elite. Throughout the later decades of the 19th century, however, Trinity became increasingly inclusive and its academic program expanded. In 1904, Trinity joined with the University of Toronto and, in 1925, moved from its original location on Queen Street West to the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. There the Trinity College Chapel was constructed in 1955. The smallest college in the University of Toronto federation, Trinity is renowned for its tradition of academic excellence.

188. Archbishop Neil McNeil

Born in Hillsborough, Nova Scotia, Neil McNeil (1851-1934) was a Roman Catholic priest, professor and Archbishop in Toronto. Ordained at the Propaganda College in Rome in 1879, McNeil became rector and professor at St. Francis Xavier College in Nova Scotia until 1891. After serving in West Arichat and Descousse in Nova Scotia and St. George’s, Newfoundland, he was consecrated as Bishop of St. George’s in 1904, and became Archbishop of Vancouver in 1910. McNeil continued to administer St. Augustine’s Seminary and the Canadian Catholic Church Extension Society, both founded by his predecessor Archbishop Fergus McEvay (1851-1911). Archbishop McNeil advocated for the fair distribution of taxes to separate schools in Ontario, promoted improved relations between Catholics and Protestants in his diocese and supported the establishment of some 30 new parishes. He also established the China Mission Seminary and Newman Club.

189. Archbishop Fergus McEvay

Born in Lindsay, Canada West (Ontario), Fergus McEvay (1851-1911) was a Roman Catholic priest and archbishop in Toronto. After completing his studies at St. Michael’s College in Toronto, McEvay was ordained to the priesthood in 1882. He served in the dioceses of Peterborough and Hamilton and, in 1899, was consecrated Bishop of London. McEvay advocated for separate Roman Catholic schools and more clergy for the diocese. He also acted as mediator, between 1904 and 1907, between the provincial government and Catholic leaders during debates over separate school teacher certification and funding. Elected Archbishop of Toronto in 1908, McEvay actively recruited clergy and established several parishes for new immigrants of specific nationalities. In 1908, he helped found the Catholic Church Extension Society to found missions for Catholic immigrants across the country. In 1910, McEvay established St. Augustine’s Seminary at the Scarborough Bluffs as a training institution for English-speaking Canadian Catholic clergy.

190. Founding of the University of St. Michael's College

In 1852, this college was established as a Roman Catholic boys' school in the palace of the Right Reverend Armand, Comte de Charbonnel, Bishop of Toronto and a vigorous opponent of the public school system in Canada West. The minor seminary opened by Basilian priests that year was combined with the school in 1853 and, in 1855, St Michael’s College was incorporated. A new collegiate structure and the adjoining parish church of St. Basil’s were built here on Clover Hill. On September 15, 1856, classes commenced with the Rev. Jean Mathieu Soulerin, C.S.B., as superior. The college progressed gradually. In 1881, it affiliated with the University of Toronto. St. Michael’s formally became an arts college within the university in 1910.

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191. Rev. Ralph Cecil Horner

Rev. Ralph Cecil Horner (1853-1921) was born near Shawville, Lower Canada (Quebec). He converted to Methodism in 1876. Horner became a lay preacher with the Methodist Church of Canada in 1882. After studying theology at Victoria College in Cobourg, he was ordained by the Methodist Church in Montreal in 1887. Though his sermons were successful in securing Methodist converts, church authorities disagreed with Horner’s energetic and unorthodox preaching style. Criticizing institutional Methodism, Horner incorporated Wesleyan doctrine into his sermons and formed the Holiness Movement Church in 1897 as a Canadian offshoot of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection in America. The Movement spread across Ontario and Horner opened a publishing house and seminary in his Ottawa home. Because of conflict between Horner and other ministers in the Holiness Movement, he left the Church in 1916 and formed the Standard Church of America. Despite his advancing age, Horner continued to preach. In 1921, he died at a camp meeting he was conducting near Belleville.

192. Crimean War

193. Founding of Temple Anshe Sholom

In 1853, a group of German-born Jewish residents from Hamilton, Ontario gathered together to form the Hebrew Benevolent Society Anshe Sholom. Initially a social service society, Anshe Sholom began holding religious services in 1856. Land was purchased for a cemetery and, in 1863, the “Jewish Congregation Anshe Sholom of Hamilton” was officially formed with 19 members. Anshe Sholom services were held in private homes or businesses until, in 1882, a synagogue was built and referred to as the Hughson Street Temple. Under the leadership of President Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943), the congregation began to adopt the practices of Reform Judaism, introducing English-language services, removing the separate gallery for women, and using modern music in services. Throughout the early 20th century, Anshe Sholom continued to maintain a steady membership, despite the establishment of Conservative and Orthodox congregations in Hamilton. In 1952, the downtown synagogue was closed and a new temple erected west of Hamilton, to support the shift of the congregation to the suburbs.

194. Founding of Holy Blossom Temple

Toronto’s oldest Jewish congregation began with the establishment of a cemetery. In 1849, Abraham Nordheimer (1816-62) and Judah G. Joseph (1798-1857) purchased land on Pape Avenue for use by Toronto’s Jewish population. This meant that Jewish residents could bury their dead in accordance with the Torah, encouraging Jews to settle permanently in Toronto. In 1856, the Sons of Israel Congregation was established, the first organized Jewish congregation in Canada west of Montreal. In 1858, the congregation was renamed the Toronto Hebrew Congregation – Holy Blossom. A Cheder (Hebrew school) was established in 1859, and the congregation built its first synagogue in 1876 on Richmond Street. Holy Blossom’s numbers swelled with the arrival of Eastern European immigrants, many of whom had fled anti-Semitic Russian pogroms in 1881-84. A new synagogue was constructed in 1897 on Bond Street to house the congregation of 116 families. By the end of the 19th century, Holy Blossom had made changes to its services and become a Reform congregation, leading to the formation of Conservative and Orthodox Judaism congregations in Toronto, including Goel Tzedec (1883) and Beth Jacob (1889). During the height of the Great Depression (1929-39), the congregation grew to 250 member families, and a new synagogue was constructed on Bathurst Street in 1938. Holy Blossom continues today as one of Toronto’s leading Jewish congregations, with more than 7,000 members.

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195. John Edwin Hunter

A Methodist evangelist, John Edwin Hunter (1856-1919) was born near Bowmanville, Upper Canada (Ontario). He converted to Methodism in 1871 and began touring as a lay preacher in Woodslee and Thamesville. Hunter studied at Victoria College in Cobourg, and was ordained in 1882. He volunteered for service in western Canada and was appointed to Dominion City, Manitoba. Hunter became partners with a like-minded evangelist, Hugh Thomas Crossley (1850-1934), and the two travelled across Canada and the United States as preachers. Hunter and Crossley were designated as Conference Evangelists by the Methodist Church, meaning they were free to preach on invitation, rather than settling with a single congregation. They were recognized as Canada’s leading evangelists and recorded over 110,000 “decisions for Christ,” or conversions to Methodism. Among the pair’s converts was Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-91), Prime Minister of Canada.

196. First Jewish Congregation in Canada West

Regular Jewish religious services were not held in Canada West (now Ontario) until 1856 when 17 Jewish families from England and continental Europe formed a congregation known as the Toronto Hebrew Congregation – Holy Blossom. They held services in a building on the southeast corner of Yonge and Richmond streets until the construction of their first synagogue in 1876 at 25 Richmond Street East. Since its official inception in 1856, Holy Blossom Congregation has been in continuous existence to the present day.

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197. Formation of Canadian Literary Institute

The Canadian Literary Institute was incorporated in 1857 and opened in 1860 in Woodstock, Ontario. Sponsored by prominent Baptists, the school was largely the result of its first principal, Rev. R.A. Fyfe. It was a co-educational facility, providing training in both theology and the arts. At one time, it was expected to attain full university status. In 1881, its theology faculty was moved to the Toronto Baptist College and, in 1883, it changed its name to Woodstock College.

198. The Basilian Order in Windsor

In the mid-19th century, the Basilian Fathers, a Roman Catholic order, took on the former charges of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Windsor, including Assumption College. The Jesuits had established the Assumption Parish in 1787 but were unable to maintain Assumption College after its opening in 1857. The Basilian Order had been created in France in 1822 to educate priests following the closure of many French seminaries during the French Revolution (1787-99). In Windsor, under Father Denis O’Connor (1841-1908), the Basilians took control of Assumption College in 1870 and created a more permanent home for students by constructing new school buildings. By 1919, the college was affiliated with the University of Western Ontario (UWO). The Basilians struggled to preserve Catholicism throughout their instruction and content, but the college became increasingly secularized through its affiliation with the UWO. In 1953, the college broke from the UWO and became a fully accredited university. Assumption University of Windsor amalgamated with the University of Windsor in 1962.

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199. Lady Aberdeen

Born in London, England, Ishbel Maria Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair (1857-1939) was a Presbyterian advocate for women’s rights and welfare, and founded the Victorian Order of Nurses in Canada. In 1877, she married politician John Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen (1847-1934). From 1893-1936, Lady Aberdeen served as President of the International Council of Women, an advocacy group for women’s rights and international peace. While living in Ottawa during her husband’s service as Governor General of Canada (1893-98), Lady Aberdeen’s interest in women’s and family health led her to establish the Victorian Order of Nurses in 1897. Despite criticism from Canada’s medical establishment, the Order was created to provide medical service, education and support to women living in rural areas throughout Canada. In 1931, Lady Aberdeen presented the Church of Scotland with a petition calling for the ordination of women by the church. She was confident in their natural ability to organize, educate and lead, though it was not until 1968 that the first woman was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Lady Aberdeen was invested in the Order of the British Empire in 1931.

200. Rabbi Jacob Mirsky

Born in Mir, Russia, Rabbi Jacob Mirsky (1859-1942) was the first rabbi to settle in Ottawa. Mirsky travelled from Minsk to New York City in 1893 to study at a Jewish seminary. Less than a year later, he was invited to relocate to Canada by a delegation from Ottawa’s Jewish community who were in New York to locate a suitable rabbi for their group of 35 Jewish families. Rabbi Mirsky settled in Ottawa in 1894 as leader of the newly formed Congregation Adath Jeshurun. He also performed kosher slaughtering of animals as a shoichet, and performed ritual circumcisions as a moyel for the local Jewish population. Rabbi Mirsky was a trained musician and, as hazzan, wrote many songs for use by the congregation. Once in Ottawa, Rabbi Mirsky had his wife and four children join him from Russia. Not only a spiritual leader, Mirsky provided support and advice to younger members of the Jewish community in Ottawa, particularly young businessmen and newlyweds. Ottawa’s first Jewish congregation, established by Rabbi Mirsky, eventually became Congregation Beth Shalom in 1956, an amalgamation of three of the oldest Jewish synagogues in the city.

201. Formation of the Canada Presbyterian Church

In the mid-19th century, several Presbyterian synods and groups coexisted throughout Ontario. Formed by the merger of Secessionist Presbyterian and the Relief Church in 1831, the United Presbyterian Church in Canada had close doctrinal ties to the Free Church of Scotland in Canada, formed by Evangelical Presbyterian ministers during the Great Disruption of 1844. Both United and Free Church Presbyterians argued against the patronage system used by the Church of Scotland to match newly licensed ministers with congregations. In 1861, the Free Church of Scotland in Canada and the United Presbyterian Church amalgamated to form the Canada Presbyterian Church. This body became the dominant Presbyterian group in the Canadas, part of a gradual consolidation of Presbyterians in Canada leading to the formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1875.

202. Formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Canada

In the 19th century, congregations of the Evangelical Church were organized into synods, based throughout the United States. As the Lutheran population of Canada grew, its congregations remained relatively small and were concentrated in German-speaking communities like Berlin (i.e., Kitchener), so that Canadian Lutherans were grouped into existing American synods. In July 1861, Lutherans in eastern Canada, formerly part of the Canadian Conference of the Pittsburgh Synod, organized the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Canada (Canada Synod). The Synod was founded at the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Vaughan, a church established by German-speaking settlers from Pennsylvania. The Canada Synod slowly took control of affairs in Lutheran churches in the Maritimes and Central Canada, while still part of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America. In 1962, the Canada Synod was reorganized as the Eastern Canada Synod of the Lutheran Church in America.

203. American Civil War

204. Founding of the Salvation Army

In 1865, William and Catherine Booth founded the East London Christian Mission. The organization was renamed the Salvation Army in 1878.

205. Ellen Hebden

In 1906, Ellen Hebden (1865-1923) co-founded the Church of God on Queen Street East in Toronto, a Pentecostal mission known locally as the East End or Hebden Mission. The Church of God was the first Pentecostal place of worship in Toronto, and included a Faith Home residence for mission visitors. Pentecostals stress personal interaction with the Holy Spirit as essential to spiritual fulfilment. Contemporary newspaper reports from the Church of God suggested several congregation members experienced powerful visions, often speaking in tongues. Hebden herself reportedly underwent such revelations and maintained that 60 to 70 parishioners at the mission had spoken in tongues from 1906-07. The rumour of these proceedings encouraged greater numbers of attendees and a visit from American Evangelical preacher Albert S. Copley. Hebden also published a newspaper, The Promise, used to spread Pentecostal teachings and organization information. Her work as a church leader helped establish the Pentecostal movement in Canada, and spread throughout southern Ontario.

206. Fenian Raids

The Fenian Brotherhood, a militant organization of Irish-Americans dedicated to the establishment of an Irish Republic independent from Great Britain, made several raids on British North America between 1866 and 1871. Their aim was to capture key sites in British North America in order to pressure Britain into withdrawing from Ireland. The Fenian movement divided Irish-Canadian communities, exacerbated antagonism between Catholics and Protestants, and strained relations between the United States and Canada. The Fenian threat, however, and the resulting desire for a strong, centralized defence was a significant impetus for Canadian Confederation.

207. Akron Plan

The Akron Plan is an architectural design for the Sunday school area in church buildings consisting of a central rotunda (or auditorium) with individual radiating classrooms on one or two levels encircling a podium or lectern. These classrooms are separated from the rotunda by large sliding or folding doors that, when open, expose the classrooms to the central space. The design is named for the city of Akron, Ohio, where it was first used at First Methodist Episcopal Church (1866-70). Developed in response to the needs of the mid-19th-century Sunday school movement, the Akron Plan is a versatile design that allows Sunday school students to participate in elements of the service or receive communal instruction when the doors are open – or undertake individual class instruction when they are closed. This dual function was well suited to the Uniform Lessons system, adopted by Sunday schools throughout the United States and Canada in the latter part of the 19th century. Within this system, each grade and each class in all participating schools followed the same weekly curriculum throughout the year. As in public schools, students were separated into graded classes. Every child, therefore, received a lesson on the same topic each Sunday – but one geared toward their particular age group. The Akron Plan allowed classes to participate together during some portions of the lesson, then efficiently section off during others. The Uniform Lesson system declined in popularity throughout the course of the 20th century and Akron Plan churches, expensive and complicated to design and build, dwindled in number.

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208. British North America Act of 1867

Enacted by British Parliament in 1867, the British North America Act created the Dominion of Canada. The act structured the operation of the Government of Canada, established the division of powers between central and provincial legislatures and outlined what has become the basis of the Canadian Constitution.

209. Canadian Confederation

210. Bishop Michael Francis Fallon

Born in Kingston, Ontario, Bishop Michael Francis Fallon (1867-1931) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of London and advocate for education reform in Ontario. Ordained in 1894, Fallon became pastor Holy Angels Church in Buffalo, New York in 1901, and was consecrated as Bishop of the Diocese of London in 1910. He expanded the diocese during his time as bishop, creating new parishes and establishing St. Peter’s Seminary and Brescia College in London, and the Catholic Women's League in 1921. A strong critic of bilingual education, he supported the Ontario Department of Education’s 1912 regulation to make English the primary language of instruction in the province’s schools, angering local francophone groups in the process. Although Fallon argued that learning English would promote progress among Ontario’s Catholic communities, the provincial government determined that the schools provided a valuable resource to a minority population and continued their operation. Fallon continued to serve as Bishop of London and advocate against bilingual schools until his death in 1931.

211. Bishop John Thomas Kidd

Born in Athlone, Simcoe County in Ontario, John Thomas Kidd (1868-1950) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of London. After studying at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, Kidd spent several years working at a lumber firm in Toronto, then left to study theology in Rome. Ordained as a priest in 1902 in Toronto, he was assigned to St. Ann’s Church in Penetanguishene. In 1925, Father Kidd was made Bishop of Calgary, overseeing a diocese of 29 priests. In order to cater to francophone parishioners, Bishop Kidd performed French services and established Sainte Famille Church for Calgary’s French-speaking community. In 1931, he was consecrated as Bishop of London. Bishop Kidd supported the establishment of religious orders and groups throughout the diocese – including the Legion of Mary (1944) and Catholic Youth Organization (1946) – until his death in 1950.

212. First Vatican Council

The First Vatican Council was summoned by Pope Pius IX to confront perceived threats to the Roman Catholic Church – such as rationalism, liberalism and materialism. The most notable decree to emerge from the council was the assertion of papal infallibility on matters of faith and morality.

213. Red River Rebellion

214. Northern Ontario's Resource Communities

As railways, and then highways, opened up remote areas of the province to industry and settlement from the late 19th century onward, there emerged a number of communities in northern Ontario that developed around the exploitation of a single natural resource. These communities were created for the purpose of mining one of the many metals and minerals embedded in the Canadian Shield – such as gold silver nickel, copper and uranium – or logging the region’s vast boreal forests. Whether they were built around the extraction of minerals or forest products, these single-resource communities shared several common features. The communities’ economies were not diversified enough to encourage growth and they therefore remained relatively small. This was primarily due to the fact that raw materials were typically sent elsewhere for processing. Additionally, the costs of developing adjunct industries were high in these usually isolated areas. The extraction or development of the resources upon which these communities relied was usually the initiative of an outside corporation or government. The communities’ inhabitants, therefore, had little control over their own economic development and were largely excluded from decision-making processes. Key decisions were often made in the economic interests of the controlling enterprises rather than the health of the local community. Because these communities tended to arise in sparsely inhabited areas, the workforce/population was not drawn from local communities but was brought in from further abroad – often from outside the county. Therefore, pockets of ethnic groups existed within the communities – such as Poles, Ukrainians, Italians and French-Canadians – who brought with them their customs, religions and languages. Religion was typically a central aspect of their national identities and religious institutions played an integral role in helping newcomers establish themselves in Ontario. Churches were built and clergy was brought in to meet the specific needs of these ethnic groups. Unfortunately, the narrowness of their economies made these single-resource communities especially susceptible to the boom and bust of market fluctuations. Over time, many of them have diminished significantly in size or vanished altogether.

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215. Founding of the Deborah Ladies' Aid Society

Formed in 1870 by members of Temple Anshe Sholom in Hamilton, the Deborah Ladies’ Aid Society was the first Jewish women’s philanthropic group in Canada. Led by Camilla Scheuer (1845-1916), sister of Jewish community leader Edmund Scheuer, the Society eventually became an auxiliary of Anshe Sholom. Initially, the Society raised funds to support the less fortunate of Hamilton’s Jewish community, largely composed of German-speaking Jews. With the increasing influx of Russian and eastern European Jewish immigrants following the outbreak of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia in 1881-84, the Society broadened their outreach to include the new arrivals. The Society continued to expand during the 20th century, shifting its focus from immigrants toward supporting activities at Anshe Sholom, the Cheder (Hebrew school) and education and settlement outreach efforts to Hamilton’s Jewish population. The Society was later renamed the Deborah Sisterhood, and remains active in the community and within Anshe Sholom.

216. Founding of Jehovah's Witnesses

In 1871, Charles Taze Russell founded a Bible study group that became known as Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society. In 1931, they adopted the name Jehovah’s Witnesses.

217. Bismarck's Kulturkampf

The term kulturkampf (culture struggle) refers to Otto von Bismarck’s imposition of state controls on Roman Catholic activity in the newly created German Empire. Restrictive policies ensured that clergy who discussed politics from the pulpit faced imprisonment, religious teachers were forbidden to hold public office, and some Catholic orders – such as Jesuits – were banned from operating in Germany. Subsequently, thousands of Catholic priests and laypeople were imprisoned or forced into exile and many monasteries and convents were closed.

218. German Unification

219. Formation of the Methodist Church in Canada

Established in 1884, the Methodist Church was the largest Protestant denomination in Canada during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its formation marked the culmination of a long series of mergers between groups of British and American origin. Methodism had been established in Canada in 1791 when the Methodist Episcopal Church of Baltimore sent missionaries to Upper Canada (Ontario). The first union of Methodist congregations in Canada occurred in 1874 when the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada united with the Methodist New Connexion Church of Canada to form the Methodist Church in Canada. At their general conferences held in 1882, representatives of the Methodist Church of Canada, Methodist Episcopal, Primitive Methodist and Bible Christian Churches approved the formation of a joint committee to prepare a Basis for Union. On July 1, 1884, the four groups formally amalgamated to form the Methodist Church in Canada.

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220. Women's Christian Temperance Union

In 1874, Canada’s Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Picton, Ontario by Letitia Youmans (1827-96). Modelled on the American Temperance Union, the WCTU was the largest non-denominational women's organization in Canada at the time. The Union advocated for prohibition as a means towards social reform, while promoting Christian values and the expansion of women’s roles in society. Public support for prohibition grew across Canada and in the early 20th century, individual provinces began adopting prohibition. Though this was a major victory for the WCTU, it was short-lived. In the 1920s, Canadian provinces began the repeal of prohibition legislation. As attitudes to alcohol changed in Canadian society, the WCTU refocused its efforts on encouraging individuals to lead lives of temperance, advocating for social reforms and publicizing the dangers of tobacco and drug use. The WCTU actively promoted improved social conditions for women in Canada and established women’s hospitals and residences for single working women. By the late 20th century, the Union faced declining membership and financial difficulties, but continued to petition provincial and federal governments to restrict the advertisement and retail availability of alcoholic beverages.

221. B'nai Brith in Ontario

Established in New York City in 1843, the B’nai Brith began as a Jewish fraternal and social service organization, spreading to Canada in 1875. The first Canadian branch, Canada Lodge No. 246, was opened in Toronto in June 1875 by members of Holy Blossom Temple. This led the way for subsequent branches in Montreal (1881), Ottawa (1921), Hamilton (1921), Windsor (1925) and London (1925). A new Toronto Lodge No. 836 was established in 1919 with 500 members, including Jewish leader Edmund Scheuer (1847-1943) and Toronto Mayor Nathan Phillips (1892-1976). Activities focused on providing financial and social support to the Jewish community, including access to medical care, summer camps and the Toronto Hebrew Free Loan Association. Lodges in Ontario were initially under the jurisdiction of the District Grand Lodge No. 1 in New York City until District Grand Lodge No. 22, the first solely Canadian District, was established in 1964. Today, B’nai Brith acts as a Jewish advocacy organization, focusing on social service, human rights issues, anti-Semitism and strengthened relations between Israel and Canada.

222. Growth of the Presbyterian Church in Ontario

In 1875, the four major branches of Presbyterianism in Canada were amalgamated, and the new Presbyterian Church in Canada was divided into four Synods: Maritime Provinces, Montreal and Ottawa, Toronto and Kingston, and Hamilton and London. As the Presbyterian community continued to expand, the synods’ boundaries were revised to reflect population growth, and new synods were added in Western and Northern Canada. The Presbyterian Church in Ontario expanded to the north, and new presbyteries were developed to reflect population growth in the south. Numerous Scottish and Irish Presbyterian communities were established in eastern Ontario through extended family and community immigration, as a result of unstable economic conditions in Europe at the Napoleonic Wars (1800-15). Between 1901 and 1921, more than 3.5 million immigrants entered Canada, many from Britain and the United States, considerably increasing the size of various Protestant denominations in Canada. By 1925, there were 380,000 Presbyterians in Canada. Between 1875 and 1925, over 200 Presbyterian churches were constructed across Ontario to meet the needs of new congregations.

223. Founding of the Presbyterian General Assembly

Prior to the 1875 formation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, various synods and presbyteries across the country met regularly to decide on theological, legal and administrative matters. With the Presbyterian Union, an annual General Assembly was established, composed of one-sixth of the number of ministers in Canada, as well as church elders, Presbyterian youth representatives and theological students. At the 1925 General Assembly, 79 Commissioners voted against joining the United Church of Canada, electing to remain with the Presbyterian Church as Continuing Presbyterians. In 1966, the General Assembly passed an act making women eligible for ordination. Today, the General Assembly acts as the highest council of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, with annual meetings during the month of June. The assembly reviews and disposes of petitions, overtures, references, complaints and appeals from other courts of the church, passing acts that determine the policy and actions of the Church.

224. Presbyterian Church Union of 1875

In 1875, there were four major Presbyterian groups in Canada: the Canada Presbyterian Church, the Free Church of Scotland in Canada, the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces of British North America, and the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces. These groups stretched from the Maritimes to Ontario, and oversaw the spiritual needs of approximately 88,000 Presbyterians in Canada. In 1870, Rev. Dr. William Ormiston (1821-99) and Rev. Dr. John Jenkins (1813-98), former moderators from the Canada Presbyterian Church and the Church of Scotland respectively, encouraged other Presbyterian ministers to consider a union of the four groups based on doctrinal similarities and physical proximity. Committees were appointed to examine the prospect of a union; negotiations were begun in 1871. Despite several theological differences, the union took place in 1875, and the Presbyterian Church in Canada was divided into four Synods: Maritime Provinces, Montreal and Ottawa, Toronto and Kingston, and Hamilton and London. As the Presbyterian community continued to expand, the synods’ boundaries were revised to reflect population growth, and new synods were added in Western and Northern Canada.

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225. Founding of Wycliffe College

Wycliffe College was founded in 1877 to prepare men of evangelical conviction for the Anglican ministry. Four years earlier, a group of Anglican clergy and laity committed to evangelical principles had formed the Church Association of the Diocese of Toronto. This Association brought a noted theologian and administrator, the Reverend James Paterson Sheraton, from Nova Scotia to establish the Protestant Episcopal Divinity School and serve as its principal and first professor. It opened on October 1, 1877 in St James’ Cathedral Schoolhouse in Toronto. In 1882, it moved to a newly constructed building on College Street near the University of Toronto. The school, renamed Wycliffe College in 1885, federated with the University of Toronto in 1889 and moved to its present location on Hoskin Avenue in 1891.

1 record(s) found

226. Rabbi Jacob Gordon

Rabbi Jacob Gordon (1877-1934) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and educator. Rabbi Gordon was ordained in the Yeshiva of Volozhin in Russia (now Valozhyn, Belarus). Arriving in Toronto in 1904, he was immediately called to serve as rabbi for several congregations founded by newly arrived eastern European Jewish immigrants. Rabbi Gordon's Orthodox training in Russia made him invaluable to the Jewish immigrants trying to preserve religious practices from their homelands. He served as rabbi to the Goel Tzedec, Beth Hamidrash Hagodol, Tzemach Tzedec, Anshei Lida, Yavne Zion and Knesseth Israel congregations. In 1907, Rabbi Gordon helped Goel Tzedec found the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah (today, the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto) – the first Talmud Torah (Hebrew school) in the city – where he became the first rabbi in North America to teach the Talmud in Hebrew. By the First World War (1914-18), he had become the Dean of the Orthodox rabbinate in Toronto. Rabbi Gordon actively enforced Halakha (Jewish law) among Toronto’s Orthodox Jews, regulating the observance of the kashrut (dietary laws) and the Shabbat (day of rest), and establishing a Kehillah (municipal council) with other local rabbis.

227. Prohibition

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the prohibition of alcohol was promoted and enforced in communities across North America. Pressure to ban the sale of alcohol was fuelled by the Temperance Movement, championed in Canada by the Dominion Alliance for the Total Suppression of the Alcohol Traffic and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. These groups sought to control alcohol consumption, which they tied to a number of social issues including poverty, education and women’s suffrage. In 1878, the federal government passed the Canada Temperance Act, which enabled individual municipalities to prohibit the sale of liquor in their communities. By 1919, each Canadian province and Newfoundland had passed some form of legislation restricting the manufacture and sale of alcohol. The temperance victory was short-lived, though, as the illegal smuggling of alcohol continued to supply consumers. In the 1920s, most provinces repealed prohibition in favour of government-controlled alcohol sales. In 1927, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario was established.

228. Founding of the Ladies' Montefiore Society

In 1878, members of the Holy Blossom Temple formed the first Jewish women’s social service group in Toronto – the Ladies’ Montefiore Benevolent Society. Initially, the group had little charitable activity, given the small size and relative wealth of Toronto’s Jewish community. With the arrival of Russian and Eastern European immigrant Jews fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms (1881-84), the need for settlement services and fundraising grew. Members of the Society visited the sick, taught sewing and raised funds to provide support to poor immigrants. This institution arose from a Victorian-era moral and religious revival among the affluent of England and North America, with the goal of improving the lives of the less fortunate through charitable and spiritual care. In 1916, the Society became affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in New York City.

229. Rabbi Meyer Levy

Born in Galicia (today, western Ukraine), Rabbi Meyer H. Levy was a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Toronto during the early 20th century. Rabbi Levy immigrated to Detroit, Michigan in the early 1900s, but was unable to secure a rabbinic post. In 1906, the Shomrai Shabboth in Toronto lost its rabbi and several members due to internal disputes, and so invited Rabbi Levy to serve as leader. At the same time, he served the Romanian Adath Israel congregation and Russian Shaarei Tzedec. The sharing of rabbis was common in Toronto, where numerous small Orthodox congregations were established in the early 1900s as a result of an influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants fleeing anti-Semitic pogroms (riots) in Russia (1903-6). In 1916, Rabbi Levy became the Rav (rabbi) of Congregation Anshei Minsk until he left to lead the Hebrew Men of England Synagogue in 1930. Rabbi Levy was active in the Orthodox Jewish community, serving on the Va’ad HaKashruth (dietary law regulation board) and leading congregations in Toronto for over 50 years.

230. Edith Magee

Edith Magee (1881-1971) is credited with bringing the Bahá’í faith to Canada, following her conversion in Chicago while visiting her uncle Guy Magee in 1898. Guy, a local journalist, had covered the 1893 Parliament of Religions held in Chicago and become fascinated with Bahá’í beliefs. Upon her return to London, Edith spread her newfound faith to her mother, aunt and two sisters. This was likely the first group of Bahá’í believers in Canada, although the requirements for conversion were liberal and allowed the women to continue attending local Methodist services. By 1902, Edith Magee had moved to New York City, and the fledgling Bahá’í community in London dwindled in her absence. Magee continued to participate actively in Bahá’í services and activities, visiting the Green Acres Bahá’í School in Eliot, Maine in 1912 to meet Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), head of the Bahá’í faith.

231. Founding of the Toronto Baptist College

In 1881, William McMaster – a wealthy merchant, banker and Senator of the Dominion of Canada – urged the creation of a Baptist theological school related to the Canadian Literary Institute, which was located in Woodstock, Ontario and had been founded by prominent Baptists. McMaster was generous in his financial support of the new school, called Toronto Baptist College. The College prospered with a growing student body and a useful affiliation with the University of Toronto. Toronto Baptist College was a theological school that stressed the missionary and pastoral labours of its students. In 1887, the College was united with Woodstock College to form McMaster University, which moved to Hamilton in 1930. The original buildings now house the Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music on Bloor Street West.

232. Anti-Semitic Pogroms in Russia and Jewish Refugees in Ontario

From 1881-84 and 1903-06, a series of anti-semitic pogroms (riots) swept through Russia and eastern Europe, resulting in several waves of mass Jewish emigration to Canada. With the murder of Tsar Alexander II (1818-81) of Russia, rumours of a Jewish assassin heightened existing tensions between Jews and Orthodox Christians. The first riot occurred in 1881 at Elisavetgrad (now Kirovohrad, Ukraine), and pogroms soon erupted in urban centres across Imperial Russia. Thousands of Jewish businesses were vandalized, homes destroyed and Jews themselves injured. The pogroms and apparent indifference of the Russian authorities resulted in a wave of Jewish emigration to North America in the 1880s. Jewish emigration also increased as a result of the May Laws (1882), a series of Russian restrictions on Jewish settlement, employment and education. Arriving in established Jewish communities in Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton, Jewish refugees gathered to form new synagogues. In Toronto, the Goel Tzedec congregation was established by Lithuanians in 1883, transplanting their Orthodox Jewish traditions. A number of Jewish immigrants travelled further west to the Prairies, encouraged to settle and farm by the Canadian government. A second wave of pogroms in Russia broke out in 1903 at Chisinau (now Kishinev, Moldova). The level of violence increased dramatically, fuelling a new wave of mass Jewish emigration. From 1901-11, the number of Jews in Canada rose from 16,717 to 75,838. During this decade, the number of Jewish social service organizations across Ontario grew to meet the needs of these new immigrants. The massive influx of Russian and eastern European Jews to Canada ultimately spread across Ontario, as Jewish populations were established in smaller towns, and Jewish communities in the province became increasingly diversified.

233. The Wilburite Separation

In 1881, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in North America was dominated by a group of conservative Friends called Wilburites. Followers of Rhode Island-based minister John Wilbur (1774-1856), they felt that the Orthodox Quaker reaction to the Great Separation of 1828 was too progressive and Bible-centred. They advocated a more personal spiritual interpretation as closer to the traditional Quaker faith. American Wilburite leaders visited Yearly Meetings at West Lake, Pelham, Pickering and Toronto starting in 1875, and gathered followers of this new form of Quakerism. The Wilburites stressed an individual understanding of scripture. A revised version of the Quaker Discipline, developed by New York Wilburites in 1877, was adopted by the Canada Yearly Meeting in 1879, relaxing strict guidelines on dress, language and religious services. The progressive Quakers began to withdraw from Ontario Meetings, and the Friends were formally divided across Ontario by 1881. Separate meetings of the Canada Yearly Meeting of Conservative Friends (Wilburite) and Canada Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends were established. These groups remained split until the union of Quakers as the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Newmarket in 1954.

234. Creation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough

Prior to the creation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough, Irish Catholic immigrants made numerous requests to the Bishop of Kingston for the services of a priest and a purpose-built place of worship. Roman Catholic priests were sent to the area starting in the 1820s, and services were conducted in a series of log buildings and small structures. In 1836, St. Peter-in-Chains Church was built to accommodate 1,000 worshippers. In 1882, Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) created the Diocese of Peterborough through an amalgamation of the Vicariate of Northern Canada with a portion of the Diocese of Kingston. The territory was vast, stretching from the northern shore of Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay, and from the shore of Lake Superior to the border of the Archdiocese of St. Boniface, Manitoba – incorporating 30,000 worshippers. In 1882, the diocese included 47 churches, as well as 11 Jesuit missionaries in First Nations communities. Rev. John Francis Jamot (1828-86), then-Vicar Apostolic of Northern Canada, was appointed the first Bishop of Peterborough.

235. Lillian Freiman

Born in Mattawa, Ontario, Lillian Freiman (1885-1940) was the founder of the Hadassah-Women’s International Zionist Organisation (WIZO), and with her husband, A.J. Freiman was a Canadian Zionist leader. During the First World War (1914-18), Freiman was active in both Jewish and secular women’s service groups, including: the Ladies’ Hebrew Benevolent Association, the Ladies’ Auxiliary of Adath Jeshurun Congregation, the Ladies’ Auxiliary of B’nai Brith, the Disraeli Chapter of the Daughters of the Empire, the Ottawa Welfare Bureau, Women’s Canadian Club and the Institut Jeanne d’Arc for Catholic girls. In 1917, Freiman began campaigning for the Helping Hand Fund of Hadassah, which provided assistance to homeless and destitute Jews living in Palestine. This later became the Canadian Hadassah-WIZO, a philanthropic collective focused on Jewish welfare and the securing of a Jewish home state. She served as President of Hadassah-WIZO from 1919-40, and was the first Canadian Jew to be awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to immigrants.

236. The Hamilton Jewish Community Centre

The Hamilton Jewish Community Centre existed in its earliest form as the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YM-YWHA), established in 1890. The association was tied to both Orthodox and Reform synagogues in Hamilton, providing a non-partisan community space for learning and activity. With programs available at various locations around the city, the association provided educational, recreational and spiritual activities for young Jewish residents, while donating funds and aid to immigrants and overseas projects. In 1950, the Jacob N. Goldblatt Memorial Building was constructed to house the Jewish Community Centre, supported by both Beth Jacob Synagogue and Temple Anshe Sholom. The centre also housed the local Talmud Torah, Jewish adult organisations, Welfare Fund and Jewish Social Services under one roof. In 1986, the downtown building was sold and the new Hamilton Wentworth and Area Jewish Community Centre was constructed closer to where many of Hamilton’s Jewish families had relocated since the Second World War (1939-45). The centre continues today as the oldest Jewish Community Centre operating in Canada.

237. Social Gospel

The Social Gospel (originally called Social Christianity) is a Protestant movement that applies Christian principles to the promotion of social justice. A strong force in Canadian religious, social and political life in the first half of the 20th century, Social Gospel thought contains elements of evangelicalism as well as liberal progressivism. Canadian Social Gospel leaders were instrumental in the creation of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in 1932.

238. Archbishop James Charles Cardinal McGuigan

Born in Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, James Charles McGuigan (1894-1974) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto and later a cardinal. After completing studies in theology at Université Laval and Grand Séminaire in Quebec City, McGuigan was ordained in 1918. He taught at St. Dunstan’s University in Charlottetown, and earned his doctorate in Canon Law in 1927. McGuigan served as rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta before being consecrated as Archbishop of Regina by Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) in 1930. Archbishop McGuigan was appointed to the See of Toronto in December 1934. While Archbishop of Toronto, McGuigan successfully managed diocesan debt and raised funds for separate Roman Catholic schools. In 1946, McGuigan was created cardinal-priest of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, becoming Canada’s first English-speaking cardinal. McGuigan established several national parishes specifically targeting new immigrants to the city, increasing the population of the Archdiocese of Toronto from 125,000 in 1929 to 750,000 in 1973. After expanding the Archdiocese of Toronto and creating the new diocese of St. Catharines, McGuigan retired from his post in 1971.

1 record(s) found

239. Rev. Clarence Leslie Morton

Born near Chatham, Ontario, Clarence Leslie Morton, Sr. (1897-1962) was a Protestant preacher active in the establishment of the Pentecostal Church in Windsor. After his service as a missionary in West Virginia with the Church of God in Christ (an African American Holiness-Pentecostal denomination), Morton moved to Windsor, Ontario and established a Pentecostal congregation. Beginning in 1936, he actively promoted the Pentecostal movement via a weekly radio program on CKLW AM 800 in Windsor that lasted 42 years. Morton founded several churches in Windsor, Chatham, Buxton, Harrow and Amherstburg, including Mount Zion Full Gospel Church in Windsor in 1939.

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240. First Zionist Congress

241. Zionist Movement in Ontario

The Zionist Movement, dedicated to securing a home state for the global Jewish population, was brought to Canada from Europe during the 19th century. Zionists such as Henry Wentworth Monk (1826-97) travelled extensively to raise funds for the Jewish homeland cause. In Montreal, Clarence de Sola (1858-1920) established the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada in 1899. By 1916, Canadian Hadassah, General Zionist, Labour Zionist and Mizrachi groups had been established throughout the province. Canadian Zionist activities focused on fundraising and education to support Jewish settlement in Palestine. As a result of the Holocaust, political and financial support for Zionism shifted from Europe to North America, accelerating the founding of Israel by galvanizing the cause and securing universal political support. Canadian Zionists directed their efforts toward Holocaust survivor aid. Jewish women were leaders in fundraising to support of women and children in Palestine, led by Anna Selick of the Hadassah Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in Toronto, and Lillian Freiman (1885-1940) of Ottawa for the Palestine Restoration Fund. In 1947, the United Nations partitioned Palestine, creating the state of Israel. Since the establishment of a Jewish state, Zionist activity in Ontario has focused primarily on aiding immigration to Israel, and supporting the defence and self-determination of Israel.

242. Bishop John Christopher Cody

Born in Ottawa, John Christopher Cody (1899-1963) was a Roman Catholic priest and Bishop of Victoria, British Columbia and London, Ontario. After attending St. Alexander’s College in Ironside, Quebec and the seminary of the University of Ottawa, Cody was ordained in 1923. He served for several years as curate of St. Patrick Church in Ottawa and parish priest in Cantley, Quebec and in Eastview, Ontario. In 1937, he was named Bishop of Victoria. As Bishop, he introduced several religious orders to the diocese, created new parishes, opened a diocesan library and, in 1946, raised over $100,000 for the Centenary Education Fund. That year, Cody was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of London, Ontario to assist the elderly Bishop John Thomas Kidd (1868-1950) in his duties; he succeeded as Bishop of London in 1950. During his time in London, Bishop Cody opened 38 churches, created 11 new parishes and opened King’s College (1954) and Regina Mundi College (1962) in London. Bishop Cody died in 1963 and was buried in St. Peter’s Seminary in London.

243. Rabbi Ernest Klein

Born in Szatmar, Hungary, Rabbi Ernest Klein (1899-1983) was a linguistic scholar in Toronto. Klein qualified as a rabbi in 1920 and studied Semitic languages and literature at the University of Vienna. From 1934-44, he served as rabbi in Nové Zámky, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), until he was deported to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, Poland and Allach-Dachau in Germany. After the war, in 1945, Rabbi Klein returned to Nové Zámky to discover that his father, wife and child had died at Auschwitz. He emigrated to Canada in 1952 with his sister and brother-in-law, settling in Toronto. Their friends established the Hungarian-language Congregation Beth Yitshak, and chose Klein to serve as rabbi. He soon began work on a Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1967. This text received international recognition, particularly as Klein chose to include the linguistic origins of “borrowed” English words. In 1978, Rabbi Klein was awarded the Order of Canada for his contributions to the study of language. His Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English was published posthumously in 1986, the first etymological dictionary of the Hebrew language in its totality, including both modern and historical terms.

244. Rabbi Avraham Aharon Price

Born in Poland, Rabbi Avraham Aharon Price (1900-94) was a scholar and educator in Toronto, and founder of the Yeshiva Torah Chaim (rabbinical school). In 1931, Rabbi Price applied for a US visa while in Paris – he was in New York City only 10 days when he accepted the invitation of the Chevra Shas synagogue to teach in Toronto. Rabbi Price arrived in Canada in 1937 and established his Yeshiva that year as a study centre of Jewish texts. He published several scholarly works in Hebrew on the Torah (1944, 1946 and 1975) and the Talmud, receiving international academic recognition. Rabbi Price was considered a Talmudic authority, later becoming Chief Rabbi in Toronto – the recognized leader of the Jewish community in the city. In 1965, he was given the Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook Award of Merit in recognition of his scholarly works, the first time the prize was awarded outside Israel. Rabbi Price continued to teach, write and provide kasruth (kosher) supervisory services well into old age.

245. Archbishop Philip Pocock

Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Philip Francis Pocock (1906-1984) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Toronto. After completing theological studies at St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ontario, Pocock was ordained as a priest in 1930 and returned to the Seminary as a professor. Father Pocock was appointed in 1944 as Bishop of Saskatoon and then became Archbishop of Winnipeg in 1952. In 1961, Archbishop Pocock left Winnipeg to serve as Coadjutor Archbishop of Toronto with Archbishop James Charles Cardinal McGuigan (1894-1974). McGuigan retired as Archbishop of Toronto in 1971, leaving Pocock to succeed his post. As Archbishop of Toronto, Pocock established 45 new parishes, and in 1976 established Sharelife, which offers assistance to families in crisis, people with special needs, the elderly, immigrants and refugees, and children and youth. Pocock served in Toronto until 1978 when he resigned and returned to the priesthood at St. Mary’s Parish in Brampton until his death in 1984.

246. Lord's Day Act 1906

The Presbyterian Lord's Day Alliance was formed in 1888. With the support of the French-Canadian Roman Catholic clergy, they convinced Sir Wilfrid Laurier to pass the Lord's Day Act in 1906 (it became law in 1907). The act restricted trade, labour and recreation on Sundays. In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Lord's Day Act of 1906 was an unconstitutional violation of The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and was therefore invalid.

247. Florence Li Tim-Oi

In 1944, R.O. Hall, Bishop of Hong Kong, ordained Florence Li Tim-Oi an Anglican priest. She was the first woman within the Anglican communion to be ordained. Her ordination proved highly controversial and she was forced to resign her priest’s license (but not her Holy Orders). After living through much hardship, Li Tim-Oi emigrated to Toronto in 1983, where she carried out clerical duties at St. John’s Chinese congregation and St. Matthew’s Parish until her death in 1992. She was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity from Trinity College, University of Toronto. Her life has been honoured and celebrated by Anglicans throughout the world.

1 record(s) found

248. The Simcoe Street Talmud Torah

In 1907, the Toronto Hebrew Religious School was established as a joint venture between several synagogues in the city, becoming the first Hebrew school in Toronto. In its first year, the Talmud received over 400 members whose contributions enabled the purchase of a house on Simcoe Street for classes. The school was subsequently known as the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah. B. Nathanson of Rochester, New York, was chosen as principal, and classes on the Bible, Hebrew language and grammar, Jewish history and Talmudic teachings began immediately. The school’s population grew exponentially. The institution was granted a charter by the province of Ontario in 1922. That year, construction began on a new Talmud Torah building on Brunswick Avenue, and the Simcoe Street Talmud Torah became the Brunswick Avenue Talmud Torah. In 1946, the school joined with other Hebrew educational facilities to form the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto.

249. Founding of Knesseth Israel Synagogue

Established in 1909 by Russian Jewish immigrants, Toronto’s Knesseth Israel Synagogue initially held services in a private home on Maria Road. The congregation was founded by Jewish refugees of anti-semitic pogroms in Russia (1903-06) who settled in The Junction neighbourhood of Toronto due to its busy commercial activity. In 1910, the trustees of the congregation purchased a plot of land in an existing cemetery on Royal York Road, and construction of the Maria Street synagogue was begun in 1911. The establishment of Knesseth Israel, known locally as The Junction Schule, fuelled a rise in Jewish settlement in the area, with nearly 200 Jewish residents in The Junction by 1920. From 1924-39, Rabbi Mordecai Lagner led the congregation and was Knesseth Israel’s only fulltime rabbi. Following the Second World War (1939-45), many congregation members left the area and relocated north of the city; services were only offered on high holidays. Knesseth Israel continues today, albeit on a smaller scale, as one of the oldest operating synagogues in Toronto.

1 record(s) found

250. Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-90) emigrated to Canada in 1942 and founded the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) of Canada. In 1935, after completing her PhD in political science and journalism at the Université de Paris’ Collège de Sorbonne, she returned to Prague to work as a journalist. During the Second World War (1939-45), while working in Marseilles, France, she fainted due to malnutrition and was treated by members of the Unitarian Service Committee. In 1942, Hitschmanova emigrated to Canada, where she worked in Ottawa for the Czechoslovakian National Alliance and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Histchmanova was an adult convert to Unitarianism, spurred to action by the devastation caused by the Second World War. In 1945, with the help of the Ottawa Unitarian Congregation, she founded the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada and served as Executive Director. “Dr. Lotta” led fundraising trips in support of European displaced persons and physically disabled children affected by the war. In the 1960s, the USC of Canada expanded its outreach to Asia and the Middle East; Hitschmanova routinely travelled to USC offices in the field to supervise operations.

251. Rev. Addie Aylestock

Born in Glenallan, Ontario, Addie Aylestock (1909-98) was a minister in the British Methodist Episcopal Church and the first Black woman to be ordained in Canada. Aylestock initially worked in Toronto as a domestic servant and dressmaker, before beginning studies at the Toronto Bible College in order to become a missionary. She joined the British Methodist Episcopal Church and was named a deaconess in 1944. After her graduation in 1945, she was sent to work as assistant to the British Methodist Episcopal minister in the Black community of Africville outside Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1951, the Conference of the British Methodist Episcopal Church passed a resolution allowing for the ordination of women, in part due to Aylestock’s work in Africville and Ontario. Aylestock was ordained in 1952 and served as pastor in North Buxton, St. Catharines, Fort Erie and Niagara.

252. Founding of Congregation Anshei Minsk

The Beth Israel Anshei Minsk congregation, also known as the "Minsker," was established by 1912 in Toronto’s Kensington Market district. The congregation was formed to serve a growing number of Jewish immigrants from the Belarusian region of the Russian Empire who had arrived in Toronto at the turn of the century. Many of these Jewish immigrants had fled the pogroms, a series of anti-Semitic riots throughout Russia from 1903-06 that resulted in the restriction of Jewish life, worship and commerce. Anshei Minsk was one of a number of Orthodox synagogues established in Toronto by eastern European immigrants in the early 1900s. The congregation began as a Shtibl, meeting in private homes until 1923, when the Ladies Auxiliary Association began fundraising for a new building. Rabbi Meyer Levy (1872-19??) arrived in 1916 to serve the new congregation. The synagogue, designed by architectural firm Kaplan & Sprachman, was completed in 1930. This Orthodox congregation continues today, though many Jewish families have relocated and the neighbourhood has become part of Toronto’s Chinatown district. The congregation remains the only synagogue in Toronto with daily worship services.

253. Jewish Settlement in Timmins

With the growth of natural resource industries in northern Ontario, successive waves of immigrants to Canada found their way north, seeking employment and creating diverse settlements throughout the province. As a result of increasing silver and gold mining activity around Porcupine Lake in northeastern Ontario in the early 20th century, a community of Jewish immigrant workers from eastern Europe arose in Timmins. Many had arrived to work for the newly incorporated Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway, and several Jewish settlers soon became prominent businessmen and merchants, providing essential services to residents of the mining boomtown. The Jewish community in Timmins became one of the largest in northern Ontario, along with Jewish congregations in Kirkland Lake and North Bay. By 1912, a Jewish cemetery had been established at Kirkesdorf near Kirkland Lake, and the community had secured a rabbi to perform religious services. In 1925, a Hebrew Congregational Hall was erected, and the B’nai Israel congregation established in 1928. By the early 1950s, the town’s Jewish population included some 100 families.

254. Jewish Settlement at Kirkland Lake

With the growth of natural resource industries in northern Ontario in the early 20th century, many immigrants to Canada found their way north, seeking employment and creating unique settler communities throughout the province. Jewish immigrants fleeing anti-Semitic Eastern European pogroms in 1903-06 were drawn to Kirkland Lake by work on the Northern Ontario Railroad and nearby gold mines. By 1912, a Jewish cemetery had been established at Kirkesdorf near Kirkland Lake. Despite harsh economic conditions during the Great Depression (1929-39), the establishment of a new gold standard of $35 per ounce in 1933 by American President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) meant prosperity for many residents of Kirkland Lake. Jewish settlers became prominent businessmen and merchants, providing essential services to residents of the mining boomtown. The Jewish community grew to nearly 125 families by 1937. Jewish service organizations, including a Hadassah chapter and B’nai Brith, were established. In 1929, the Adath Israel Synagogue was opened. After the Second World War (1939-45), gold mining activity decreased in Kirkland Lake, and many residents moved to larger urban centres. By 1967, only five Jewish families remained in the town, and the synagogue was closed in 1980.

255. Sacred Heart College

In 1913, in order to accommodate the growing French-speaking community of northeastern Ontario, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) established Sacred Heart College in Sudbury. This secondary and post-secondary institution was incorporated by the Ontario Legislature in 1914. At first, the college was bilingual but after 1916, courses were taught exclusively in French. The classical college curriculum was based on the traditional study of Greek and Latin, philosophy, the Bible, teachings of the Church Fathers and French literature. The College was affiliated with various Ontario universities until 1957 when the post-secondary section of Sacred Heart College was incorporated as the University of Sudbury, which in 1960 became part of Laurentian University. The Jesuits continued to teach secondary school at Sacred Heart until 1967 when financial considerations forced them to close the institution. Sacred Heart College was the first institution of higher education in northern Ontario. In 2003, after extensive renovations on the original college site, Sacred Heart Secondary School was opened to students.

256. First World War

257. Russian Revolution

258. Founding of the Canadian Jewish Congress

The Canadian Jewish Congress was established in 1919 as a democratic Jewish representative body based on a sense of shared culture and community and a concern for the welfare of Jewish minority groups in Europe following the First World War (1914-18). The Congress created the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society in 1919 in anticipation of mass Jewish emigration to Canada. The Congress became inactive during the 1920s, but saw resurgence during the rise of anti-Semitism worldwide during the early 1930s, particularly in Germany with the rise of the Nazi Party. Despite the Canadian government’s restriction of Jewish immigration in the late 1930s, the Congress lobbied for the acceptance of Jews fleeing from Europe. Following the war, the Congress played a leading role in gathering and funnelling funds, supplies and aid to Holocaust survivors in Europe, and sponsoring young Jewish immigrants. The Congress also lobbied the Canadian government to prosecute Nazi war criminals living in Canada during the 1980s. In recent years, the Congress has broadened its mandate to include non-Jewish groups, providing support for refugees worldwide and promoting anti-racism campaigns.

259. The Scopes Monkey Trial

John Scopes, a high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was accused of violating state law by teaching the theory of evolution; he was brought to trial in 1925. The so-called Scopes Monkey Trial drew intense national and international publicity and generated widespread debate. Scopes was found guilty but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.

260. Retention of Presbyterian Name

The creation of the United Church of Canada in 1925 brought together Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists across the country, but a small group remained who refused to join the new denomination. Disillusioned by the carnage of the First World War (1914-18) and the failure of prohibition as a social reform to take hold in Canada, some Presbyterian parishes saw little benefit in the unification. A battle ensued over which group should retain the Presbyterian name. Both the unionist Presbyterians and those who chose not to join the United Church of Canada wished to continue using the name Presbyterian in their denomination’s title. Relations between the two groups were strained, especially since disputes in naming the denominations quickly complicated the ownership of former Presbyterian Church in Canada properties. Those Presbyterians who chose not to join the United Church in 1925 were known as Continuing-Presbyterians until 1938, when the Supreme Court of Canada awarded them use of the name Presbyterian.

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261. Continuing Presbyterians

In the wake of the establishment of the United Church of Canada (made up of Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists), approximately 30 per cent of Presbyterians chose not to join the United Church. They operated under the name of “Continuing Presbyterians” until 1939 when the Supreme Court of Canada gave them the right to retain the name Presbyterian. For this reason, many new Presbyterian congregations were created in 1925 in towns and cities across Ontario.

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262. Founding of the United Church of Canada

The United Church of Canada was formed on June 10, 1925 in Toronto through the union of the Methodist Church of Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada. The General Council of Union Churches, centred largely in Western Canada, joined at this time as well. This union set out the doctrinal and organizational basis for the union. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and hence received international acclaim. Though the merger was successful, about 30 per cent of the Presbyterian congregations rejected union and continue today as the Presbyterian Church of Canada.

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263. Formation of the World Union for Progressive Judaism

264. Chinese Civil War

265. The Cowley Fathers at Bracebridge

The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, commonly called the Cowley Fathers, is a religious community within the Anglican Church. Founded in 1866 in Cowley, England, the Society began its ministry in Canada in 1927 when Rev. Roland Ford Palmer (1891-1985) and two other Cowley Fathers arrived in Emsdale to take charge of the scattered Anglican missions in the Diocese of Algoma. In 1928, the Society established a chapel and monastery in Bracebridge. The Cowley Fathers held "Sunshine Sales" of food, clothing and household goods, ran programs in agricultural management and weaving, and established credit unions. Their activities peaked in the 1960s. Thereafter, the Cowley Fathers at Bracebridge underwent a steady decline. Improved roads meant that rural parishioners could drive into Bracebridge to attend church, while government hospitals and the introduction of medical insurance reduced the need for the Cowley Fathers' community work. By 1983, the Fathers had left the Diocese of Algoma, and later formed the North American Congregation of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist.

266. Great Depression

267. Founding of the Canadian Friends Service Committee

Founded in 1931, the Canadian Friends Service Committee conducted social service and peach outreach activities for the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Quakers had long been opposed to military service, based on the Peace Testimony, a shared ideology that instructed Quakers to promote peace and actively oppose participation in war. The Quakers’ pacifist beliefs were initially acknowledged with the Militia Act of 1793, and upheld during the First World War (1914-18), exempting the Friends from conscription. The Friends in Ontario provided medical and refugee support during the war, fundraising for and operating the Friends Ambulance Unit and War Victims Relief Committee of the Society of Friends in Europe. As an outgrowth of these efforts and the Quakers, the Canadian Friends Service Committee was established in 1931, collecting funds from Canadians for distribution to international aid and peace societies. The Committee endorsed the practice of international cooperation laid out by the League of Nations, but recommended economic sanctions as a means toward peace. The Committee continues today as an advocacy group for international economic cooperation, environmental concerns, sustainability and peace-building.

268. The Holocaust

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators pursued a program of state-sponsored, systematic persecution, expulsion and mass murder of ethnic, religious and political groups they deemed inferior and undesirable. Since the Second World War, the term “holocaust” has come to refer to the genocide of six million Jews (nearly two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population) and the massive global displacement of survivors. The six to 10 million people from other targeted groups – Poles, Soviets, Romani (Gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled and political opponents – are often included as victims of the Holocaust as well.

269. Spanish Civil War

270. Second World War

271. Partition of India

272. Founding of the State of Israel

273. Korean War

274. Founding of Beth Tzedec Congregation

In the early 1880s, a series of anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe fuelled Jewish emigration to Toronto. Rather than join the existing synagogue (Holy Blossom Temple, a Reform Judaism congregation), many of these newcomers chose to form their own Orthodox congregations. In 1883, the Goel Tzedec congregation was established by Lithuanians, with members meeting in a rented property on Richmond Street. Also formed that year was the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra Tehilla congregation, serving Toronto’s Russian Jewish population. These congregations provided an Orthodox alternative for newly arrived Jewish immigrants, who wanted to maintain the worship traditions of their homeland rather than immerse themselves in Holy Blossom’s Reform practices. With the growth of Toronto’s Jewish community and its integration into Canada society, however, both congregations made changes in order to retain their membership. In 1925, Goel Tzedec began introducing elements of Conservative Judaism – with the introduction of family pews, a revised prayer book, English prayers and the Bat Mitzvah. Beth Tzedec, Toronto’s largest Conservative synagogue, was formed in 1952 by the amalgamation of the Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol congregations in order to conserve resources and maintain a steady membership.

275. Founding of the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Following the Great Separation of 1828 and the Wilburite Separation in 1881, Canadian Friends had split into three groups – the Genesee Yearly Meeting (Hicksite), Canada Yearly Meeting of Conservative Friends (Wilburite) and Canada Yearly Meeting of Progressive Friends (Orthodox). By the end of the First World War (1914-18), many called for a Quaker reunion due to the decline in membership and close doctrinal similarities between the denominations. Delegates from each group began attending the others’ meetings and, in 1921, the Pelham Brick Church Meeting invited the local Genesee Yearly Meeting to use their meeting house for services. With the onset of the Great Depression (1929-38), the separated Friends groups banded together to raise funds and provide medical aid and social services, forming the Canadian Friends Service Committee in 1931. In 1944, the Conservative, Hicksite and Wilburite Friends held concurrent Yearly Meetings in Pickering and established a Committee on Closer Affiliation to examine the question of reunion. Though met with some opposition, the three Quaker denominations were reunited in 1954 as the Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. They held their first joint service at Newmarket in 1955.

276. Liberation theology

Developed by Roman Catholic priests in Latin America, liberation theology is a movement that seeks to unite Christian theology with political activism and sociopolitical concerns. Its aim is to liberate victims of political, economic and social injustice. Proponents of liberation theology assert that Christ’s teachings demand that action be taken to alleviate poverty and to aid the oppressed.

277. The Church of England in Canada is renamed the Anglican Church of Canada

278. Vietnam War

279. Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council was convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962. Its aim was to reconcile the Church with changes in modern culture and foster greater lay involvement in Church life. The most immediate effect of the council was the granting of permission to celebrate Mass in the vernacular.

280. Founding of the Hindu Prarthana Samaj

As a result of the gradual relaxing of racial barriers to immigration and the introduction of a points-based immigrant qualification system in 1967, large numbers of South Asian immigrants began to arrive in the Greater Toronto Area. Prior to the late 1960s, organized Hindu services in Toronto were held in private homes and rented spaces, including a Christian church on Queen Street West. In 1967, the Hindu Prarthana Samaj settled at 62 Fern Avenue in Toronto, becoming the first organized Hindu congregation in Ontario. While this congregation initially provided services to all nationalities of Hindus, a number of temples were established during the 1970s and 1980s to cater to West Indian, African-Indian, South Indian, Malaysian and Singaporean Hindu communities. The Hindu Prarthana Samaj continues to offer Hindu services, and is the oldest Hindu temple and congregation in Ontario.

281. Commencement of Friday Prayers at Hart House

Following the demand for labour in the post-Second World War Canadian economy, large numbers of South Asian immigrants came to Canada, particularly to urban areas like Toronto. Long-standing racial barriers to South Asian immigration, including the 1908 Bill of Direct Passage, which barred all Indian immigrants unless they had travelled to Canada directly from India, were slowly removed following the creation of Canadian citizenship application procedures in 1947. Due to an increasing Muslim student population at the University of Toronto, the Muslim Students' Association was founded in 1963, and began holding Friday prayer services in the Hart House Debates Room in 1967.

282. Ordination of Women by the Presbyterian Church in Canada

Women had long been recognized for their contributions to Presbyterian life as lay preachers, educators, administrators and fundraisers, but had been excluded from official designation by the church to lead others in prayer. With the growth of the women’s rights movement in post-Second World War North America (1939-45), Presbyterian leaders in Canada began seriously to debate the ordination of women. In 1953, the Committee on the Place of Women in the Church was formed to interview leaders of each Canadian presbytery on the ordination of women, but was met with mostly negative feedback. Despite this, in 1966, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada passed an act enabling women to be eligible for ordination. In Appin, Ontario, Rev. Shirley Jeffrey became the first female minister ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament by the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1968. The ordination of women by the Presbyterian Church was a major change for many congregations and ministers, and the General Assembly continued to receive petitions against the ordination of women well into the 1980s. Gradually, however, female ministers have become increasingly common and accepted within the Presbyterian Church.

283. Founding of Jami Mosque

As a result of increased demand for labour in the post-Second World War Canadian economy and gradual relaxing of long-standing racial barriers to immigration, large numbers of South Asian immigrants began to arrive in the Greater Toronto Area throughout the 1960s. Until then, Muslim services in Toronto were performed in private homes or rented facilities, in the absence of a permanent place of worship. In 1969, a group of Muslims in Toronto purchased the vacant High Park Presbyterian Church and renamed it Jami Mosque. Although the masjid (mosque) initially faced financial problems, the Islamic Services of Canada charitable trust was soon established by the University of Toronto’s Muslim Students’ Association to own and manage the property. Several mosques throughout the Greater Toronto Area originated at Jami, which is known within the local Muslim community as Umm Al-Masjid (the mother of all the mosques) in Toronto.

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284. Organization of the Islamic Conference established

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is an international Islamic organization comprised of 57 member states. Its mandate is to protect and uphold Islamic values while promoting global peace, tolerance and solidarity in conformity with Islamic teachings. The OIC is represented by a permanent delegation to the United Nations.

285. Founding of the Shiromani Sikh Society

The growth of the Toronto Sikh community began slowly, with members of the larger Sikh settlements in Vancouver, British Columbia making their way east in the mid-1950s. By 1965, there were at least 400 Sikhs living in the Greater Toronto Area; monthly religious services were held in an Eglinton Avenue community centre. In 1969, the quincentenary of the birth of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh faith, Sardar Jimiyat Singh Gill led the establishment of the Shiromani Sikh Society. The Society established the first Sikh gurdwara (temple) in Toronto. It is still located at 269 Pape Avenue.

286. Chilean Coup of 1973

In 1973, a military coup brought Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile.

287. Immigration Act of 1976

The Immigration Act of 1976 was created to foster immigration that would strengthen Canada’s economic development and eliminate outdated discriminatory immigration policy. Another aim of the act was to promote immigration that would reunite families. To this end, four categories of immigrants were defined: refugees, families, assisted relatives and independent immigrants. All but the independent immigrants were exempt from applying for citizenship through the points system established by the federal government in 1967. In 2001, the act was replaced by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

288. Ordination of Women by the Anglican Church

Women had long played active roles within the Anglican Church of Canada prior to the Church’s ordination of female priests. Especially after the Second World War, a plethora of local women’s groups were formed in parishes throughout the country. Influenced by the burgeoning women’s rights movement, the Anglican Church of Canada began to rethink the nature of its Church structures during the 1960s. Many within the Church wanted to move toward a Church model that would see men and women working together and include women as full and equal partners in all levels of ecclesiastical life. This sentiment was echoed by many within the worldwide Anglican Communion and, at the 1968 Lambeth Conference, bishops from around the world supported the ordination of women to the diaconate. This position was officially adopted by the Anglican Church of Canada the following year. In 1975, after much debate and consultation the General Synod of the Church of Canada passed resolutions allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood. On November 30, 1976 six women were ordained priests of the Anglican Church of Canada. Three of these ordinations occurred in Ontario: Rev. Mary Mills at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and Revs. Mary Lucas and Beverley Shanley at Grace Church in St. Catharines.

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289. Iranian Revolution

290. Grand Mosque Seizure

291. Falklands War