At a point in the southerly limit of Queen St. Distance 583
and 4 inches measured westerly along the same from the westerly
limit of Broadview Ave. the main point being in the center line
of the partition wall between the buildings now known as 651
and 655 Queen St. The Partition will be between the stables and
the rear of the said number 651 and 655 and all the distance of
130 feet to the lane vents then so.
24 degrees West, parallel to the set limit of Queen St. 20 feet,
6 inches, more or less, to the appointing of the center line of
the partition wall between the store or the lands hereby
described in the store as on the lands and the median of the
West. There from N 16 degrees, 21 minutes W along the last
mentioned centerline and production of the same, all in a
distance of 130 feet to the southerly limit of Queen Street
at 4. Set. Now I know what you're thinking. Stop.
This is too riveting, but these are not mere measurements.
Within this dry civil description, a powerful
spiritual presence occurred.
It took place for within these measurements, the spirit of God
first of course Touch Canada and the modern day Pentecost. Well,
they touch Toronto anyway, but for everybody here from Toronto,
obviously same difference.
These are the measurements on the deed for 651 Queen St. East
in Toronto, and this is where the Pentecost came to Canada,
and I can even tell you the exact date it came to Canada,
the 17th of November 1906. I can tell you the exact time
Pentecost came to Canada 10:10 PM and I could actually tell you
the exact person to whom the spirit descended, for her name
was Ellen Hebden.
This is a story about the Canadian Jerusalem, as the
Hebdon mission was called, and like the actual temple in
Jerusalem, I hear and what I just read echoes of the Old
Testament measurements for the temple itself. Now granted, this
deed between Elizabeth Ball and James and Ellen Hebden lacks the
the spiritual gravitas of the Old Testament, but I think we
can all agree it is equally boring. So what happened in that
piece of Toronto real estate is an important tale within the
larger corpus of Canadian Christianity.
Now, as a historian that tends to look at the larger picture of
Canadian Christianity I really do enjoy these days. It permits
me a chance to to dive deeper into certain people, certain
denominations. It offers correctives to me and greater
understanding from those of you who really know this
denomination, know the legacy, and are proud of it. That's
great. The the story of Ellen Heddon offers numerous exciting
avenues to explore, but I want to be careful because I don't
want to overstate her influence.
Has Pentecost origins are notoriously messy, and that can
be frustrating for historians like myself. We want to find
semblance in order to communicate, but frequently we
fall into caricature. And one of the great exciting things about
being and looking at early Pentecostal history is the the
polyphyllus, the the complexity, the messiness of it, the fact
that it it was kind of doing a whole bunch of different things.
So I want to be careful. I'm I'm not sure I'll succeed in this,
but I really don't want to underwhelm.
Or overwhelm Ellen's influence because she is important. She is
worthy of study. She is widely viewed and defended as the first
person to receive the outpouring of God's spirit in Canada. She
was an influential theologian, shaping sections of what would
become Pentecostals. She was a gifted leader. She was a gifted
administrator. She formed a community that would also
influence future Pentecostalism. She was a good teacher. Many of
her students brought what they learned from her all around the
globe but the title of this paper.
Includes the words fall and decline, and that is
unnecessarily dramatic, but it got you here, so here we are.
I do want to look at how the Canadian Jerusalem did end,
because in this I see something in the tale of Ed Ellen Hebden,
excuse me, that is also uniquely Canadian and that I think is
important as well.
For I see in Ellen the somewhat, to borrow from the words of
William Blake, a little bit of a universe and the grain of sand.
And by that I mean one thing. History shows us that all
revivals throughout history have in common is that they
eventually end.
This paper hopes to show that while the headband experience
was unique in many ways, it was also a quintessential Canadian
Christian experience. I will explore the ways in which Ellen
helped form Pentecostalism, but also show how Ellen's
experiences were indicative of larger impulses. That's we focus
both on her as formative and indicative, and one of the major
themes of Canadian Christianity revolves around, and I think
this is important for us today, what is the importance and right
of revivals in the development?
Of the faith here and the account of Ellen Hebdon,
historians of early Pentecostalism and sincere
Christians alike can confront the question.
Why did Jamie not plan his slides better? There we go.
Ohh, well done school. Alright, I'm done with that.
How important are revivals to the development of Canadian
Christianity?
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna gamble here this is.
You probably can't see this, but says E ended mission here. This
is never what it looked like. This was a later artistic
rendering, but it kind of gives you a sense of what the building
this is where the building was. And there it says East End
mission on the bottom. So this next slide doesn't work, then
we're just going to leave it here.
OK, OK, we can work with that. Let's begin at Ellens
Pentecostal beginnings. Very aware of the time.
Suddenly the Holy Ghost fell upon me. My whole being seemed
to be filled with praise and adoration such as I'd never
realized before. I said to the Lord, what does this mean? In a
very quiet yet extinct voice, said tongues. I said, no, Lord
not tongues, then followed. I know it's great right? Then
followed a moment of death like stillness, when the voice again
under the word tongues. This time I felt afraid of grieving
the Lord. And I said, tongues are anything that will please
thee.
And bring glory to thy name. Great peace filled my soul, and
I began to sing very quietly. But to my amazement I was
singing in another language. Later on the Lord gave me 22
languages. Sometimes the Lord gives me the interpretation of
what others are saying, and a month later my husband received
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues. Love that
there's a few interesting items worthy of greater consideration,
but I want to look at Ellen's rejection of tongues. I'm really
glad, 'cause that's the line that made you all laugh.
One, because I too find that funny. She thought God was
mistaken in giving her the gift of tongues. It's the spiritual
version of really.
Two, it does set up, despite the bees and the vows, a very
conversational tone between creator and recipient that also
dominates and was influenced by a lot of Pentecostal evangelical
thinking and forms around what constitutes prayer and speaks to
the various Methodist holiness movements that help spawn
Pentecostalism.
It shows that her outpouring predated her husband, similar,
though less dramatic experience, and provides a fitting example
of one of the differences that makes this quintessentially
Canadian. While acknowledging age, argues Winnipeg revivals
connection to Chicago and Los Angeles, Thomas Miller notes
that the Hebdon experience was, quote, entirely independent of
any other Pentecostal ministry. End Quote.
I'll go to the next one here.
I'm going to, I'll jump around a little bit because I do want to
be aware of time. You're doing fine, man. You got that is
dangerous to say to me.
Building on this, in the afternoon of November 18th, the
next day I went down to the mission and tending to sit
quietly on one side where I would not be seen. But God was
having his way, and when the Holy Ghost again manifested his
power, I could only cry out. This is the power of the Holy
Ghost. Later that night I felt that I was raised from the
couch, and without intending to do so, I hurried down to the
night service. I knew that the time had come when God wanted me
to declare to the people what he had.
Yeah.
And this is another important element from the early days of
Pentecostal writings, a theme of reluctance.
OK, reluctance.
Embodied. Sorry, that was the best picture of elections I
could find.
The FEMA reluctance and Ellen's reluctance. We see her being
moved by the spirit to speak and act in ways that were contrary
possibly to the desires of her flesh. And this team again, was
a frequent theme and other early Pentecostal writings as well, as
we're going to see. But I highlight it now for two
reasons. One, it offers an apology or lens through which to
interpret the admittedly stranger behaviors that would
come to Mark Pentecostalism. People were compelled by the
spirit of God to.
Overthrow the dictates of human norms, rules, or even propriety.
This was a powerful outpouring of God's spirit, and what
separated early Pentecostals from accusations of insanity or
spiritual psychosis was their acknowledgement of the
strangeness. But early Pentecostals would argue they
were in dwelled with the spirit, and the miraculous power was too
mighty to contain quote this is the power of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore, the criticisms of naysayers could be disarmed
because they were validated as understandable. But that allowed
early Pentecostals to go on to say you would understand it if
you were here. Because I used to think like you do, but now I
have seen the Lord.
2.
Coupled with that reluctance was also a sense of antagonism that
was also prevalent in these early days. The spirit had to be
seen as doing something new, which necessitated a new way of
understanding God's church and the nature of worship.
Such beliefs influenced Ellen's eventual rejection of
organization that would bring about the end of the Canadian
Jerusalem.
But antagonism remained an essential narrative in these
early days. Which raises the question, antagonism against
what other section here, this is where we go back to our time in
England. I'll just hit you with the bullet points so that we can
we can go through it. But she was raised by a high church
father. At 15 she had a bright conversion and her words which
alienated her somewhat from her father. She moved to her sister,
then moved to London and became involved with Elizabeth Baxter.
Of course, she was very influenced by the Keswick
movement in England.
And then eventually would live in a place called Best Shan,
which was a House of rest and healing set up by Missus Baxter,
who was definitely a spiritual mentor and mother to her.
Importantly, Michael Wilkinson notes this too. What we see in
some of the differences between Canadian and, for example,
American Pentecostals is a greater connection to England,
which I argue is also very normative and indicative of
Canadian Christianity the influence, despite Canada and
America being close both geographically and culturally.
You see Anglicanism, you see the influence of the Keswick
movement in greater amounts in Canadian Pentecostal movements,
especially when contrasted with American ones. And then what
brings her to Canada is she actually meets a widower by the
name of James Hedden. So Ellen Whorton becomes Ellen Hebdon.
She ** *** becomes a mother now to his two previous his two
children from the previous marriage. And then she bears
children of her own, but one of the one of the core tenants of
Bashan. And and you can see this a lot in early Pentecostalism.
Is this push for missions influenced and and undergirded
by this belief in Jesus imminent return and therefore we're going
to go out into the missionary world, we're going to have the
languages provided to us, we're going to share the gospel and
move on. So they were very much focused on divine healing, acts
of healing, miraculous accounts and missions which brought them
to Jamaica 1st and then after a year up to Toronto in 19 O 4.
7 pages I just did there, which leads me to believe this article
might be a touch wordy. So good to know. So now we have to bring
Toronto into the equation.
Yeah, good shot in Toronto, because it's the larger context
within the within where the Canadian Jerusalem grew. Earlier
the same year, 1904, a fire had ripped through a large section
of the city, and the headbands came during a time of expansive
reconstruction. It was also, in the years following the 19th
century, programs of building explain and John Webster grants,
a profusion of Spires and any of us who have read it. No, this is
not a history of architecture, but of architecture
representing.
And service to the worldviews, dreams, ambitions and ethos of
Ontario Protestantism.
I would like to build on that pun fully intended, because the
mission was part of a time when the skyline was properly spired.
But we're beginning to see what I like to refer to as a
profusion of shops. In her inaugural article, inaugural
article for the Promise Ellen wrote quote on May 20th, we
opened the mission. We intended to make the whole building a
faith home. End Quote. The printed schedule of the East End
mission is, in its early days, reflected a commitment to being
an open space.
Dedicated to Christian renewal. Three services on Sunday. Perish
the thought.
Bible readings, Monday nights all day, prayer on Wednesday,
divine healings on Fridays. The Hebdon mission offers us a
reminder that there were popular, literally ground level
expressions of the faith that were gaining influence and
strength. And we're also beginning to shape Canadian
Christianity. Some of these storefronts were designed for
and by smaller groups of immigrants, but others, like the
mission, came as a result of growing concern that modernism
was spreading through formerly great evangelical stalwarts.
Like the Methodists.
The home our mission offered a remedy to the spiritual drought
that was seen to be taking place in Toronto at that time, quoting
fame Pentecostal missionary George Slager. Slager. Slager.
Euler. Which one, Caleb, you would know.
Slogger. He's Dutch. Go with that. No offense to any of my
Holland people here. I hope I didn't just offend, but he would
write in the early 20th century, Canadians were, quote, really
spiritually hungry. Why? Well, a contemporary issue at that time
of the American publication Word and Work offers the answer in a
section that detailed the Lord's work in places all around the
globe. And this one focused on Toronto. The following was
written quote, higher criticism and all other shades of
infidelity.
And anti Christian religions are shown no quarter in these
meetings. Again, he's specifically talking about the
mission but then does reference meetings that are similar
happening throughout Ontario. The article goes on to note
quote the Holy Joy in the hearts and upon the faces of these
spirit baptized people brings conviction to all honest hearted
persons present. All but the scribes and the Pharisees, true
to their instincts, still cry out this fellow doth cast, not
doff.
Take 2. This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by
Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils. End Quote.
Again we see another dichotomy or antagonism narrative of
institutional or rational faith being cast in the role of
Pharisee. While the Holy Joy display displayed by the Spirit
baptized allowed any honest hearted person there to see the
true work of the Lord, Higher criticism of the Bible was a
great enemy of the faith in 1907. It robbed the Bible of its
power and its warmth and undermined the authority of
scripture. The University of Toronto along with Queens.
University and other big schools were seen to be centers of such
teaching and that made the Academy suspect. Canadian
denominations have been wrestling with the impacts of
higher criticism for decades. By this point, careers were made
and broken based on whichever side of these issues one fell.
Heresy trials of the Presbyterian Church, firings in
the Methodist schools, tensions growing in Baptist circles all
testify to the presence of the fly of higher criticism and the
ointment of Canadian faith.
Is that why, mark? It doesn't, does it? Yeah. I know. That was
a late night, right? Good. Thank you.
Miss it, thank you missus. Arthur Adder would write in 1909
about her own experience and took time to explain that her
academic role created a spiritual blind spot. Quote.
When I first heard of the Pentecostal movement I was
against it but did not say much. I had been a professor for years
and I do like this and at times knew I was safe at times, End
Quote. But her conversion and she is very funny. But her
conversion from nominal Christianity into true faith
brought on.
Brought about another familiar and I would think this room
would find it funny motif that we've seen before. Quote in
September of 1907 there was a special service. It was then
that I came out as a Sinner. Below that line God said to me,
are you seeking tongues? And I said no, God forbid. Great,
she's very funny and like Ellen before this is adder was
corrected by God when he replied and they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost and began to speak.
Other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance, to which Mrs.
Otter proclaimed, oh, thank you, Jesus, yes, I will testify.
Now, I said the Academy was placed in the oppositional camp.
That's not entirely true. As it pertains to the hidden mission,
the concerns about modernism are higher criticism were the
concerns of the learned the Methodist of Toronto as one
example. We're not a disenfranchised minority at all,
as their denomination was well established and influential by
the early 20th century. It was a Church of the important. This is
an important difference because Azusa and the emission appealed
to different sorts of believers.
I'll use this quote and then again I'll give you the bullet
points on this. This comes from a Toronto star article and a
couple other sources from the time. This one comes from the
Toronto Star quote. The head admission, however, was quite
different. Again, talking about its comparison to other
Pentecostal movements at the time, its leaders were
successful middle to upper middle class immigrants from
England who were white converts from established Christian
denominations and whose missionaries, many who were
college educated, took the time to learn.
Languages of those ohh they were going to evangelize End Quote
did come across and don't have time to get into it. A
fascinating letter about a Japanese mission which talks
about the exact opposite. That people married people that they
did not love. Went to Japan, expected to have the Japanese
culture and language and it just all fell apart and then it gets
incredibly salacious. So that will be its whole other argument
by Caleb. Thought that was a fun one to read.
Just briefly, the Heddins had a greater emphasis on healing and
social causes than the Azusa counterparts, which again, I'm
going to root a little bit more in some differences between
Canadian and American Christianity in general and
Pentecostalism specifically. Again, the Azusa had the
outpouring was to convert the unconverted, but again we go
back to Ellen's dismay at receiving the gift of tongues as
indicative of that. Also, Azusa empowered the socially and
economically disenfranchised in America.
And such was much less the case for the head admission. One
report, again from the Toronto Star, noted that the people
attending one of the mission services were quote well to do
businessmen, and the women, who were slightly in the majority,
were well dressed.
Evidently intelligent and refined. So I think I got some
some good overlap there. And now, again, I'm not saying this
to disparage zuza people or anything like that. It's just
something that one reporter noted and said that this was a
difference between the two.
Then of course we continue on the antagonism and we have
people coming up against Ellen for her increasingly
interesting, powerful discussions about God taking
away desires for her to eat, and this would open her up to
critics during her popularity from 19071908 to about 1911. But
then it switches and we do get to see not only are these
critics impotent to change or thwart the spirit, but some of
them convert and that again becomes a very powerful and
frequent trope within a lot of these.
What can you do there? Probably the most important one would be
George Chambers, who was a minister just down the block
from the mission. He was met Mennonite Brethren in Christ,
talked about wanting his own revival, seeing what's going on.
The headbands like ooh this is no good, but later, ruefully
note he's like and God listened to us and the the outpouring of
the spirit remained at 651 Queen St. East in 1908, he'd have a
change of heart and testimony to his character. He would actually
walk and apologize.
The heddins for, you know, decrying them as fanatical and
it would become a devotee of the headbands to work with them. But
that again was not the end. And now he gets subsumed into this
antagonistic storyline because he was quote suspended from his
his leadership, suspended him from his church and inspired him
and eight other ministers to depart from their former
denomination and formally join the Pentecostal movement, a
pattern that many of the early Pentecostal writings were report
of.
Just one example, and I'll move on. Niagara, Mrs. Henry Snyder,
Mrs. George Stewart tried to share their Toronto experience
with their pastor and their congregation at home, and they
were expelled again, this sort of sets up this dichotomy of,
you know, we have the cold, rational religion versus the
warm ones. And of course, I'm also equally sympathetic to
those who are, quote, UN quote, cold because it does feel very
judgmental. They feel defensive, like their faith is somehow less
than right, wrong or otherwise, and so there would be a lot of
opposition.
Back and forward. But all of this at its heart. All of this
just fuels this beautiful revival story. The beginning of,
you know, winning against overwhelming man-made odds. And
then the Pentecostal church movement keeps on going.
Movement. Sorry, not church.
And then the last one on this and then I'll get to the end of
it.
So again, through these calls to such radical realignments was
due to the power of God's spirit on display each and every week
of the mission. This power granted healing and restoration
akin to the days of the Bible. One such example comes from
misses Edith may Reveley, who was a morphine act addict for
over a decade. She she received healing from the addiction by
Ellen herself. She stayed for a time to heal from the ravages of
the addiction. In such accounts, we had turned back again to the
legacy of Elizabeth Baxter and Beshand.
Which was quote a healing home where sick people would stay and
seek divine healing and prayer rather than what the hospitals
offered. End Quote again Please note another of this sort of
antagonism theme as the Miss Mission Best Shan were both seen
as superior to the more clinical and drug focused attention that
one receives in a hospital. A belief in the power of a sacred
community dedicated to prayer as well as personal caring
attention superseded any hospital, not only was the
spiritual care.
Addicts, as one example, received better for them. But
also, as the story of Mrs. May reveal, reveals, such care had a
more positive impact on their families. Quote my husband was
first touched by my recovery and then attended a few meetings at
the mission. He had no rest till he got saved and now we have a
happy home. In quote, healing came from faith and numerous
tales also printed there to show that its power was to produce
faith as well.
And move a little bit past her, her influence over early
Pentecostal theology. Again, I don't want to over overstate,
but she's definitely formative there. And then I can wrap up as
we look at organizations. So just for the sake of timeline,
the the promises printed in 1907 and what we're looking at now is
what, 19 and 919101911, which will signal the the sort of the
decline of Ellen's influence over burgeoning Pentecostalism.
Umm.
OK, I think we got time to read this. George Whitfield Naylor
had been the laughingstock of several prominent clergy to such
a level that it actually made the papers in 1902. Very similar
to Instagram Twitter today claiming to have been divinely
delivered from numerous maladies. Naylors cry for clergy
to embrace healing as an essential element of
Christianity was greeted with quote, uproarious laughter, and
several divines wiped away the tears of fun with their silken
pocket handkerchiefs. Here, that little.
What a nation in there around style. While this would not
deter Naylor, his recounting of the story to his later on friend
Ellen did leave an impression. So much so that Ellen, fearing
the same coldness and could infect Pentecostalism, wrote in
1910 that if one were to look at the spiritual anemia and the
denominations of her day quote, you have a self-evident reason
against organizations of men, End Quote. And with that we can
segue into our concluding section on Ellen's rejection of
organization.
Now, these problems became a matter of public attention
during the Markham Pentecostal camp meetings in 1909 and 1910.
The headbands were quote strong vocal opponents and quote to the
forming of a Pentecostal union for the sake of missions. What's
going on here? First we have to return back to the American and
British worlds that impacted Canadian Pentecostal faith in
the early days, as both are seen to be an influencing this push
for organization.
English vicar a body, was a champion of the organization
that Ellen detested. Pentecostals in England had set
up a similar organization across the pond shortly before the
Markham camp meetings. However, American influences are seen in
this experience as well. According to a G Ward quote, we
chose this name, the PMU, in order to conform with a similar
organization form that same year by some of the American Brethren
in a camp at Alliance OH.
The outside practical concerns, lots of tales of people
pretending to be Pentecostals to raise money, and of course the
desire to protect doctrine, to avoid self aggrandizement, to
make sure that things were lining up. These were some of
the arguments that were pushing for.
Organization.
And even though it mission was at the heart of the heavens
work, Ellen's experiences with her heart church father and the
subsequent quote vitriolic relations and quote with other
denominations and people, including early encounters with
chambers, rendered such practical or theological
concerns moot. We returned to the theme of real and vibrant
faith and opposition to organization or denominational
structures. Quote not only is the free leading of the spirit
against man made organizations, but true unity of that spirit
demands its abolition.
Quote for Ellen all that she had seen within the mission and all
that she had heard from those self professed Christians coming
against her. This all convinced her that institutional religion
led to only one place, spiritual death.
So.
OK.
But this should not have been a surprise to anyone who knew her.
One of the keys to the mission success was its decentralized,
anti authoritarian communal leadership, a stance that traced
back to the original months of the movements influence. In June
1907 issue of the Promise, there's an entire article on
page 2 simply called the title Reverend. I'm going to spare you
the full details save this synopsis which can stand for the
whole quote. The church has abandoned God's equipment and
created one of our own. The word reverend as applied to a man is
directly contrary to the teachings of Christ.
Who forbade his disciples, accepting or recognizing them?
Call no man Rabbi, etcetera. But this is a title of respect, as
some say are Reverend is now. In 1907, this was a reference to
the cold religion and the denominational grandeur of
others. But after Markham camp meetings, Ellen saw such
sentiments creeping into her newly warmed brothers and
sisters as well. In an article titled Organization in 1909, on
the first page of the Promise, she assured her readership
quote.
We desire to state most emphatically that in the Lord's
work at 651 Queen Street and 191 George Street, which they've
expanded a little bit prior to this, it was called Lama
Gershon. It was award given to her by God that she interpreted
to mean a place of spiritual teaching. We have no connection
whatsoever with any general organization of the Pentecostal
people in Canada and we decline absolutely all responsibility
for any so-called representatives of the
Pentecostal work.
In Canada and quote.
Hmm. OK.
By March 1910, organizations fairly regular article there was
moved to the very first story on the page, and they were getting
substantially longer. She would write in March of 1910 quote and
the relationship of the one body Jesus occupies alone, the
position of head overall there is between the two positions
absolutely no room for Pentecostal missionary unions
with presidents, secretaries, and boards to determine whether
the local church with Jesus presiding has properly called
the missionary End Quote.
For Ellen, such organization threatened proper ministry by
usurping Jesus leadership, manifested at the local level
church in favor of what she would refer to as Babylon Esque
organizations that, despite their motivations, despite their
rhetoric, reflected the values of the world, not God's Kingdom.
Ellen staunch condemnation of such organizations carried
enough weight to essentially kill the Union in 1909 and 1910,
and this is where she does have some influence over these
burgeoning groups. Ellen Hedden had significant influence over
other Pentecostals and did seem to have convinced people to
oppose the Union. She would then go on to print letters and
editorials from various Pentecostals as they detailed
their own journeys from supporting the Union to
recognizing the deeper spiritual truths of what Ellen was saying.
However, such influence was not destined to last.
As 1911 and 1912 saw renewed pushes for organization that
would ultimately prove successful, so to conclude.
Officially, it's been it's been a riveting PowerPoint slideshow,
isn't it?
Let's go back to East End. Mission won't go backwards.
Strength.
There we go.
Worth it? All right.
Officially, the primary reason for the loss of influence was
that the headbands were increasingly absent from their
mission. James was traveling on missionary who Speaking of
Pentecostal conventions, and Ellen took an extra extended
trip to England. The mission also experienced some public
humiliation over finances. In 1911, the Eastern Missions
Treasurer refused to give James some money James and sued him.
In 1912 the judge went with the side of the Treasurer and that
was a great embarrassment. And basically after this they had
guns disappear from the spotlight altogether.
But again, that's a, that's a touch dramatic and there's a lot
of people ebbing and flowing throughout this time because it
takes 7 more years. But I do have to think and agus member in
this room doctor Linda Ambrose because I couldn't figure out.
It's like why did it take so long? And then with a very
simple thing she's like well.
World War One, yeah, that would do it. That would throw some
organizational stuff that happened. So thank you. But
officially, it would be recognized as a Canadian
denomination with the support of the government in 1919. So to
wrap up, is Ellen Ryan as she right? Yes. No. What is the role
of revivals? Well, one of the most interesting elements I've
discovered about Canadian Christianity is the nuanced
relationship Canadians have to revivals, whether we're talking
about Nova Scotia's Great Awakening in the 18th century.
Or the Methodist revivals throughout the candidates in the
19th century. Or the Hamilton revivals. Or the Toronto
blessing of more recent memory. Historically, Canada has a
complex relationship with revival. The strength of Roman
Catholicism, the political influence of conservative
Anglicans and Presbyterians, tempered and restrained revivals
in the ways that American revivalists never encountered
aligns. New lights were usurped by the Baptists in Atlantic
Canada, a group which held to the belief that followers of
Christ should not expect or encourage supernatural.
Manifestations like what we've been talking about? Well, Amy
Semple McPherson led a revival in Ventrilo in 1920 that was
considered wildly successful. Catholicism ensured that even
this Pentecostal superstar success was measured in smaller
increments. And the Methodists of Ellen's time could be
downright caustic and dismissive towards the Canadian Jerusalem,
even though they're owned denominations origin in Canada,
including fighting against their religious autocrats of the day.
For the sake of evangelical expressions, in fact.
It's their betrayal of their earlier revivalist character
that was utilized by numerous early Pentecostals to explain
the spiritual dryness of Toronto and of Canada, a dryness that
was remedied by places like the head admission and brought more
broadly by the Pentecostal movement.
The missions influence is there. Ellen's experiences and
interpretations found their way into a lot of early Pentecostal
theology, and I would say many POC churches today can trace
their origins at some level back to the activities of 651 Queen
St. East. And that would seem to argue against my assertion about
the limits of revivalism in Canada.
However, her fears that organization usurps faith
historically have been proven false. In the Canadian story.
The Methodist removed their camp revivals and yet maintain
relevance and influence over Canadian Christianity. Up to
today, the Baptists of Atlantic Canada still exert a tremendous
influence over the Maritimes, which have historically the
highest church attendance rates in the nation. The Prairies have
been shaped by evangelicals like Tommy Douglas Bible, Bible,
Abraham, or even Louis Riel himself, the recipient of a
heart strangely warmed experience.
That guided his struggles against the Canadian government.
However, the longevity of all these groups and the POC today
is thanks to their ability to calm down and organize and this
calmer rated less dramatic structuring of the various
movements of God. Do Canadian evangelicals of all stripes find
their legs? In the short history of Canada, structure appears to
supersede spontaneity. The story of Ellen Hidden for me, is just
one more example of this that Canadians should take.
Seriously, for all the fun and the power and the excitement and
the theology the revivals bring, the true influence of Canadian
charismatic Pentecostal holiness movements is not as tied to the
revivalist impulse as some have thought and argued. The legacy
of Canadian Pentecostalism so far is in the words of Michael
Wilkinson and Linda Ambrose, found in what they do after the
revival. Thank you.