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Christmas in the Church – EMCC History
Posted December 21, 2024 – 50
Today I recall some stories about Christmas observance in the early and even recent EMCC.
UFO Politician: Preacher Beniah Baer Bowman
Posted December 14, 2024 – 49
Christians and politics meet all the time in comfortable or uneasy ways. Often Christians compartmentalize their lives and do come out looking very wise in politics.
You often hear of politicians in the west known to participate in churches say they don’t let their religion affect their political actions. This sounds bizarre to evangelical Christians, but they also fear people in other religions who do act on their religion.
I do not theorize about this in today’s first post and its follow up, but we can reflect and ask some questions about this, and Beniah Bowman’s life.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Lodges and Fraternal Societies – EMCC History
Posted December 7, 2024 – 48
Everyone likes secrets, and in fact, there are things that need to be kept secret until the appropriate time. At the Judgement, there will be no secrets (Luke 8:17) except the new name God will give (Revelation 2:17).
But secret oath-bound societies are an issue. I am not talking only about the fraternal orders mentioned in this post as much as the conspiracies of silence industries, governments, armies, families and even churches perpetrate against others.
Surely the early Missionary Church was led by the Spirit to maintain Anabaptist and Methodist Scriptural honesty and truthful discipleship.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Non-Swearing of Oaths – EMCC History
Posted November 30, 2024 – 47
The legislature in Yukon Territory recently voted to remove a provision in the oath of office of loyalty to King Charles III. You think oaths do not matter? Ask Americans to drop their oaths and see what happens on social media.
The early EMCC (Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church) continued the Anabaptist affirmation of truthfulness in speech. Quakers thought it inconsistent to have two levels of truthful speech, one in ordinary conversation and another under oath.
Some say Jesus accepted oaths because the high priest put him under oath to testify to his identity. Rather, Jesus responded because finally the high priest touched on the correct issue. Jesus often answered questions with a question, but he gave straight answers when someone asked the right question.
This week and next, God willing, we will look at oaths and secret societies. After this, I may relate the case of a MBiC preacher in Ontario who became a provincial and then federal politician, which involved him directly with members of a secret society.
See you then!
Clare Fuller
Washing of the Saints’ Feet – EMCC History
Posted November 23, 2024 – 46
The Lord’s commands are important for followers of Jesus.
Here is an account of a change of doctrine in the Early EMCC/ United Missionary Church, dropping “Washing the saints’ Feet” as an ordinance (some loosely called it a sacrament), a very serious change for any church body to do.
I wonder if the arguments would hold up today?
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Divine Healing Part 3_ Official Statements – EMCC History
Posted November 16, 2024 – 45
Today we become theological sleuths to discern clues to changing beliefs about a specific topic: divine healing. I use documents, mostly official articles of faith published by the denomination since 1880, to see where this Church has been going.
I suspect sometimes we Christians are blown about by every wind of doctrine the apostle Paul warned us about: the latest podcast, the trending book or lecture-circuit ministry.
The EMCC largely now depends on others (books, colleges, seminaries) to do its theological thinking for them. This is not a viable situation in the long term.
Someday I will have a blog on the theology textbooks Missionary Church/ EMCC schools have used. Even as a crude survey it could be instructive. If anybody has information about what was used, I would be grateful for your help.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Divine Healing Part 2 – Debate and Testimonies – EMCC History
Posted November 9, 2024 – 44
You may not all agree with everything in this post. It’s complicated, as they say.
God heals all my diseases, David said in my favourite Psalm, in Psalm 103:3b. I have difficulty understanding that, but it encourages me to ask God for healing in all my diseases, too. It’s not wrong to ask!
Sure, I can ask amiss (James 4:3), but after cleaning that up, I can ask. If I ask for a fish, will he give me a stone?
From somewhere, the early Mennonite Brethren in Christ and the Missionary Church Association got the boldness to call on God for health. The apostle Paul knew that God has bigger purposes than I have for myself (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Trusting Jesus is number one. And don’t forget Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Mark 2:17)
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Divine Healing Part 1 – Some History and Theology – EMCC History
Posted November 2, 2024 – 43
Divine healing may be the least controversial way to name what I turn to today. The early EMCC was an “early adopter” of promoting prayer for the sick with anointing as a newish practice.
Although churches have been praying for the sick since the times of the New Testament, somehow discord follows some of its promoters. Fake healing evangelists have been exposed as charlatans, living off of people’s desperation to get better. Some have lost hope when such stories come out.
Trust God, and take your medicines! I will look into this teaching and practice in the Mennonite Brethren in Christ up to more modern times. The US Missionary Church historical journal Reflections, featured testimonies of healing in the 2016-2017 volume. Worth looking up.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Armenian Mission – Part 4 – The UOM Society’s New Mission in Syria, 1919-1938 – EMCC History
Posted October 26, 2024 – 42
Daniel Clemens Eby was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, and served Ontario MBiC congregations until the death in Adana, Turkey, of Henry Maurer, who was serving with the United Orphanage and Mission Society.
Dan Eby believed God wanted him to take Maurer’s place in the Armenian mission and his wife agreed (very important!). Maurer had been supported by the Pennsylvania Conference, but the new Canada Northwest Conference chose to support the Ebys. On home assignments from then on, the Ebys lived and worked in Alberta, and on retirement from Syria, they served in pastoral ministry there. So closely connected were they that in the 1920 History of the MBiC, Dan Eby wrote the draft of the chapter on the Canada Northwest Conference.
This post shifts attention from the mission to the Armenian Church. I hope to say more about the Armenians connected with the UOMS later.
If you are so moved, tell others about these blogs. God has a purpose for the corporate existence of the EMCC.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Mennonite Armenian Mission – Part 3 – EMCC History
Posted October 19, 2024 – 41
Organizations are not very exciting, but institutions have staying power and conserve many good things over time. It is human to organize. I believe God made us this way.
So today I describe some of the organizing efforts of John A Sprunger, a Swiss-born “maverick Mennonite entrepreneur” as some call him, and soon a board of people, including at times Canadians Henry S Hallman, Omer B Henderson, Peter Cober, and Menno Bowman functioned to keep the mission on track. Some American MBiC people including C H Brunner, O B Snyder, A B Yoder, and briefly Daniel Brenneman, contributed to the United Orphanage and Mission Board as well.
Kevin Blowers, the Missionary Church Archivist, has reminded me that the US archives in Mishawaka, IN, has an important collection of materials about the UOMS and a fine photograph collection made by Dorinda Bowman of Michigan. You can search them online, indeed, I acknowledge their holdings in this post.
I have one more blog about this pioneering mission, but I need to acknowledge the Armenians, as much as I can, who affiliated with the work of the UOMS. A few will show up next week, but more work needs to be done. It may appear later as a part 5.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Mennonite Armenian Mission Part 2 – EMCC History
Posted October 12, 2024 – 40
Despite my attention to Canadian Missionary Church people, today I first of all give credit to two courageous women, a Swiss-American lady, Marianna Gerber, and American Rose (Lambert) Musselman.
The United Orphanage and Mission Society was registered in Ohio, with a mostly American board. Henry S Hallman of Berlin (Kitchener) was a member from Canada.
The UOMS has never had a proper history written, despite abundant materials in magazines and letters.
Keep reading!
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Mennonite Armenian Mission Part 1 – 1898 – EMCC History
Posted October 5, 2024 – 39
I have been wanting to introduce this story for years. It has a strong Ontario MBiC side, but also a strong American MBiC side, too. The United Orphanage and Mission Society/ Board was not an official Mennonite Brethren in Christ mission, but the majority of its staff came from the MBiC. Both J A Huffman and Everek Storms described the mission effort as part of our story in their histories.
The Missionary Church Archives and Historical Collection in Mishawaka, Indiana has a great collection of material for the UOMS, but Armenians themselves have long memories, too, and this story is part of their history as well, as later posts will show.
Early MBiC/ EMCC members had a conscience to do something for people suffering. Suffering has never stopped, in the very same places we once had a presence for good (eg Beirut).
If you find these posts interesting and maybe even useful, you could let other people know.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
How to Kill a Program of “Women in Ministry” Part 2 – EMCC History
Posted September 29, 2024 – 38
I hesitated months before posting these two blogs on the ending of the City Mission Workers program in Ontario. I am more opinionated here, and it has implications for today, of course. Other Conferences had different paths: Pennsylvania shut down women’s public congregational ministry pretty quickly, Michigan lasted about as long as Ontario, and the Canada Northwest Conference modified the Ontario plan to suit the needs of a vast prairie.
Nevertheless, all across North America, women’s roles in the Missionary Churches slowly ground to a halt. Nobody published a book, preached the definitive sermon, or changed the Constitution. The Missionary Churches just let the secular and the Christian cultures set the agenda, in my opinion.
I will turn to other topics next week, God willing.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
How to Kill a Program of “Women in Ministry” Part 1 – EMCC History
Posted September 22, 2024 – 37
The Mennonite Brethren in Christ, despite the intention to not conform to the world, I think was listening to society’s view of the place of women in the world. As well, I believe the Church was listening to other Christian movements (I suspect fundamentalism as one of them), which convinced many members about a different view about what the Bible says about the role of women in the church.
Today I give the first of 5 disadvantages our early EMCC women ministers laboured under. Much has been written and I will not settle the questions many have, but a historical perspective may ask us to think again how we got to where the EMCC is, and perhaps how the Missionary Church in the US also.
See what you think!
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Uncredentialed – EMCC History
Posted September 14, 2024 – 36
Women do many things in congregations all the time. Some people are more used to women in pastoral roles as was once the case in the early Missionary Church but many evangelicals have uneasy feelings about it. Some day I will say more about that.
For now, I note about thirteen more women who contributed to the early EMCC ministry in Ontario as volunteers or workers for local churches, rather than in the City Mission Workers Society. These are just the ones I have come across without big searches in the Gospel Banner, though I searched in local church histories.
Recognize such women.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
One Hundred and Thirty-Three Women – EMCC History
Posted September 7, 2024 – 35
Hi Friends of EMCC history,
Here’s the data. These women need to be known.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Music in the Early EMCC Part 5 – Hymns for Worship – EMCC History
Posted August 31, 2024 – 34
Producing a hymnbook is an expensive enterprise for a denomination, and in the current internet-era, not going to fly easily.
I wonder if anyone has ever done the cost effectiveness comparison for multiple congregations each paying an annual license for the right to download worship song texts (choice! flexibility!) versus a congregation buying a set of hymnbooks for use for 20-25 years. Market-driven fashions in church music reduce the shelf-life of the small number of songs we sing in our churches, I suspect. Who is benefitting?
The Bible does not command the Church how to package its musical devotion, but it does command the people to worship the Lord with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Let’s do it!
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Nonconformity to the World Part 4 – What about Today – EMCC History
Posted August 24, 2024 – 33
Hi EMCC History readers. Not so much history in this summary post on Nonconformity, because the topic needs to come into the present.
I do not like the rhetoric of the “culture wars” let loose on North American Christianity since the 1990s. Some writers associate it with the militant condemnations of unbiblical culture by people like Francis Schaeffer, and more recently Charles Colson. I learned from Schaeffer, but in resurrecting the language of “be not conformed,” I guess I think I am avoiding endorsing the agenda of any party.
The theological discussion group I have the privilege to be a part of has been discussing a book by Michael F Bird and N T Wright, Jesus and the Powers, on exactly this topic of Christian engagement with “the powers” (cultural, political, military). Challenging stuff, but maybe still not the final word.
Today I commend Ronald J Sider, Canadian-born and Brethren in Christ background as a helpful interpreter. I am sorry to have learned he died two years ago, because I also learned a lot from his work.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Nonconformity to the World Part 3, Mennonite Brethren in Christ Experience – EMCC History
Posted August 17, 2024 – 32
The United Missionary Church in North Bay was started in 1960, and the members did not have the long nonconformity tradition of older congregations, though we had a Shantz and a Byer and our first pastor was a Pannabecker from Waterloo, but most of us were Anglo-Canadian, even French-Canadian. I don’t remember explicit prohibitions against dancing, but I knew we were “different.” Most of us in the youth group never went to school dances.
So it was quite a break for me when at an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship retreat, a university professor sponsor, who was a square dance caller, organized a square dance, and I joined in. I had never been in physical proximity to young women like this before and I liked it. (Grade 8 gym classes didn’t count!) I understood better the cautions our ancestors in the faith as well, for it was quite a powerful experience for a socially unaware person.
Nonconformity anyone?
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Nonconformity to the World Part 2, Wesleyan Holiness Background – EMCC History
Posted August 10, 2024 – 31
When I joined the United Missionary Church, I promised not to hurt my body (a temple of the Lord) by harmful substances, named specifically as tobacco, alcohol and narcotics, justified by I Corinthians 6:19-20, for example. It took me many years before I could accept communion wine at the Lord’s Table in other denominations. But otherwise I have kept the promise.
At some point the Missionary Church in Canada at least, dropped the specific list, but still keeps the biblical, I think, warning against enslaving habits of all kinds. I do not believe this is legalistic at all. As a preacher, I find people to be all along spectra of freedom from many harmful habits, and all need compassion and encouragement to become free in Christ.
But our study is with nonconformity to the world, an apostolic instruction of wider application.
Clare Fuller
Nonconformity to the World Part 1 – The Anabaptist Background – EMCC History
Posted August 3, 2024 – 30
A big theme of the early EMCC was expressed by the word cluster of non-conformity, separation from the world, simple life, or humility. I want to start digging into the use of this teaching in the EMCC.
When I was being interviewed for licensing as a preacher in the 1980s, I was asked about my use (or non-use) of ties, and someone asked me if I had read a certain article about ministerial dress in a church magazine.
Well, I had, and I told the committee, naively, that I thought the advice was “worldly.” They did not ask me more! I think they didn’t because the tradition of the Missionary Church was to denounce worldliness, and they all agreed worldliness was to be avoided.
But what is worldliness? What is non-conformity? where did we get this teaching? What have we done with it?
This series starts out with the Anabaptist background.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Mrs Elizabeth Risdon – Mystery Woman, Part 2 – EMCC History
Posted July 27, 2024 – 29
This is the second part of my account of a zealous Christian lady from Michigan (ca 1850-ca 1915) who in widowhood devoted herself to holiness causes in Ontario. Where she began life and where she ended is unknown to me.
Clare Fuller
Mrs Elizabeth Risdon – Mystery Woman, Part 1 – EMCC History
Posted July 20, 2024 – 28
I am writing this blog to record what I know about Mrs Risdon and to honour her. I don’t know exactly where she came from and when or where she died or where she fits in the life of the —
Clare Fuller
High Bright Buggy Wheels – a Stouffville Story, Sort of – EMCC History
Posted July 13, 2024 – 27
Those curious about the EMCC’s history,
The Scottish poet Robbie Burns wished some friendly power would give us the ability to see ourselves as others see us. Distorted, nevertheless no doubt, yet fiction can give glimpses of hat we appear to be.
I am reviewing a novel that glances at the early EMCC in Ontario, not in Waterloo County, where you’d expect Mennonites in fiction to appear, but in York County, north of Toronto.
See what you think.
If any readers know of other short stories or novels that touch on the EMCC, I’s like to hear about it. Some day I will gather what I know about EMCC authors of various kinds of literature.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Peace and War and the EMCC Part 2 – EMCC History
Posted July 6, 2024 – 26
One of my grandfathers was conscripted in the First World War, the other was exempted because he had his own farm and it was counted an essential activity. As Methodists, neither of them had any theological objection to war, though Wesley deplored it, as most people do.
Sam Steiner, in his marvelous history of Mennonites in Ontario, In Search of Promised Lands (2015),[he did not pay me to say that!] explores the effect of assimilation on Mennonites in Ontario. He notes that while all Mennonites experience assimilation, the early EMCC moved farther than others in the matter of participation in war.
All of us are tugged by our cultural environment to adopt new ways. We react all the way from total rejection of selected elements, to unconscious total acceptance.
Is it worldly? Is it right? I work at it.
Grace and Peace,
Clare
Peace and War and the EMCC – EMCC History
Posted June 29, 2024 – 25
My parents never bought me and my brothers any toy weapons, but that did not stop us from nailing triggers into sticks to play cops and robbers. When I found a splinter of cedar that looked like a sword blade it took only a moment to nail a cross-piece to make a guard and voila–a toy sword.
War is a human constant, as current events keep reminding us. It brings out the worst in us and sometimes, I won’t say the best, but some great sacrifices. Churches’ commitment to the gospel are tested by their response to war, the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada as well.
It is not for nothing that I usually sign myself,
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Troubled Borders – EMCC History
Posted June 22, 2024 – 24
Someone said all the great old poetry of the world is about War and only secondarily about Love. The gospel tells Christians that though we are in a war with Satan, a new heaven and a new earth is coming in which there will be no more war. We pray for that day!
This story shows one incident in the clash of a small group of Christians and world war.
Some of these issues still remain. I live in the city still called Kitchener.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
New Mennonite Church Part 3 – Distinctives – EMCC History
Posted June 15, 2024 – 23
While researching for the profiles of NMC preachers I wrote for GAMEO,1 I gradually drew a picture of their unique community. They were Ontario Mennonites, definitely, and they added other features for a made-in-Canada mix. Frequently, Anabaptists who liked the…
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
New Mennonite Church of Canada West and Ohio Part 2 – Appointments, Preachers and Deacons – EMCC History
Posted June 8, 2024 – 22
I am curious about how things start, where things come from. That’s why I like science and study rocks and fossils. Every one tells a story, if you can “read” them.
The New Mennonite Church rose out of Ontario and northern US Mennonites, who have their own origins and so on. I had to start somewhere! Today I continue honouring the people and activities of the Mennonites who wanted to know they were saved and wanted to enjoy it! May their tribe increase.
Clare Fuller
What Happened to the Manitoba Mission – Part 2 – EMCC History
Posted June 1, 2024 – 21
In a way I have been working on this story since the 1980s when I studied the holiness beginnings of Pentecostals in Canada. I still don’t know much about it, but I know the Mennonite Brethren in Christ contribution to that movement.
Here I stray out of Ontario to Manitoba again.
The EMCC still intersects with Pentecostalism, so it is still much our story, a Canadian story. There will be more in the forthcoming book on Sam Goudie, Hidden in Plain Sight. (This is shameless self-promotion.)
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
What Happened to the Manitoba Mission – Part 1 – EMCC History
Posted December 21, 2024 – 20
Here is another episode in the history of the early EMCC that intrigued me when I came across evidence of it in the Gospel Banner of 1884. There are many others like it in the history of the Churches since the time of Jesus: faltering attempts to push the boundaries of the area of evangelization. I will look at a few more later, perhaps.
Will something come of it? We don’t know, but God does. The Preacher advised, “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.” (Ecclesiastes 11:1) My sister Lois’ words with a new take on an old proverb often helped me, “If it is worth doing, it is [even] worth doing badly.” Of course the original proverb is better, but a half loaf is better than no loaf as they say in Nigeria.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
City Mission Workers Society (Ontario) – EMCC History
Posted May 18, 2024 – 19
I visit the society set up in Ontario EMCC for women preachers 1898/1902-1946.
I do this because as times change, what has not carried through to the present day gets gradually misunderstood and forgotten. Yet much good was done by this attempt to fulfill the Great Commission. Thankfully, God does not forget.
Don’t ignore the footnotes. I seem to have packed a lot of the best stuff there this time.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Huffman and Biblical Archaeology – EMCC History
Posted May 11, 2024 – 18
Jasper Abraham Huffman’s book, Voices from Rocks and Dust Heaps in Bible Lands,1 was probably the first book of biblical archaeology I ever read. I was likely less than 14 when I read it, but by then I had certainly…
Clare Fuller
Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 4 – Mariah Parr – EMCC History
Posted May 4, 2024 – 17
Another installment retrieving some memory of a female preacher in the early EMCC. I wish there were more memories of her. Some day there may be more recovered.
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Harvey Weber Stauffer, Pastor – EMCC History
Posted April 27, 2024 – 16
As with the women who were licensed ministers in the Mennonite Brethren in Christ, a precursor Church to the Evangelical Missionary Church, so with the men. Numerous men began hopefully as preachers but switched after a few years to something else. Were they “failures”? Possibly, but many were discovering their better calling through this experience.
Harvey Stauffer is one of these. Because of the genealogical interest of the Mennonite community of Waterloo County, it is possible to discover a few more details of his life, but if your name was more Anglo and common, such as Brown or Bell, good luck!
As always, if any reader can shine more light on a topic or bring corrections, please do. I am hoping this project will become collaborative.
In Jesus,
Clare Fuller
Music in the early EMCC Part 4: Music of Evangelical Association and Church and the EUB
Posted April 19, 2024 – 15
Continuing the series on music in the early EMCC via the EUB Church this time.
My wife and I laughed when we were in a church service and the leader commented this next song is an old one. We knew it was only ten years old! Yet it was “old”! Faith Today magazine recently said the time-span of Christian worship music has been decreasing. Not a good trend in my opinion.
“Hold fast to that which is good.” Where did I read that?
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
EMCC Bishops – EMCC History
Posted April 13, 2024 – 14
The position and powers of ecclesiastical officials called (in English) “bishops” has gone through a lot of variation in history. The word in English is descended from the Greek word “episkopos” which meant foreman, overseer, one who watches over, or…
Clare Fuller
The Strange Case of the MBiC East End Mission – EMCC History
Posted April 6, 2024 – 13
Parliament St, Toronto. [Banner: Grace Memorial EM Church, Toronto, ca 1999. Courtesy Glenn Menard Collection MCHT] Students of Canadian Pentecostal history are familiar with a storefront mission in Toronto at 651 Queen St East sometimes called the East End Mission.
Clare Fuller
Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 3 – Sarah McQuarrie – EMCC History
Posted March 30, 2024 – 12
Forgotten Women Preachers series Among the numerous women preachers (I count 133 from 1884 to 1945) of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Canada Conference is a lady called Sarah McQuarrie (b 1863), who entered city mission work in 1900.
Clare Fuller
Women Preachers in the MBiC Part 2 – Edith Abbott – EMCC History
Posted March 23, 2024 – 11
Forgotten Women Preachers series According to my reckoning, 133 women in Ontario were recognized by the Canada/Ontario Conference of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church as Christian workers who could evangelize, preach and lead worship from 1885 to 1945.
Clare Fuller
The Evangelical United Brethren Connection Part 2 – since 1968 – EMCC History
Posted March 16, 2024 – 10
The more I learn about the denomination called the Evangelical Association (Evangelische Gemeinschaft), the more I thank God for it if only from the point of view of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada. Starting in Pennsylvania about 1800, a…
Clare Fuller
The Evangelical United Brethren Connection Part 1 – EMCC History
Posted March 9, 2024 – 9
One of the fascinating stories of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada in Ontario is the presence and influence of people and congregations of the former Evangelical United Brethren (EUB). The EMCC includes “Evangelical” in its name mainly because the…
Clare Fuller
Music in the early EMCC Part 3 – Song leaders and musical instruments – EMCC History
Posted March 2, 2024 – 8
There is nothing new under the sun, according to The Preacher in the biblical book Ecclesiastes. Some EMCC congregations in recent generations created a staff position called the “minister of music,” though this was possible only in larger congregations.
Clare Fuller
African-origin People in the Early EMCC in Ontario Part 2 – EMCC History.
Posted February 24, 2024 – 7
Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church In this blog I track Ontario MBiC connections with African-Canadians up to the 1940s. The interactions were not many, which reflects the rural nature of the MBiC that isolated them from urban Black populations. No…
Clare Fuller
African-origin People in Ontario – Part 1 – EMCC History
Posted February 17, 2024 – 6
Black History Month! Love it or not, it’s here. I will have two contributions for the Month. The first is on Blacks in Ontario, especially in connection with Mennonites. The next will be specifically on the Ontario experience of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ to about 1950. I would love to hear more.
Check out the alumna of the year for Providence College and Seminary, Rev Dr Deborah Shola Olukoju at Black History Month: Providence Alumna Rev. Dr. Deborah Olukoju – Providence University College and Theological Seminary.
Many people call her a friend, including my wife who knew her in Nigeria. A wonderful woman…
Clare Fuller
Music in the Early EMCC Part 2 – Church Song and Hymnbooks – EMCC History
Posted February 10, 2024 – 5
These two posts are about musical choices in the early EMCC, through the lens of the holdings in the Missionary Church Historical Trust. You won’t recognize all the names, but I am suggesting the range of sources. A proper hymnologist would see better and more patterns.
Music fills our lives in leisure and worship, as a profession for some. I’d appreciate your comments, and if you can document music or record memories in the EMCC of any time, that would be wonderful. The current scene is so diverse, it is beyond me. I am selecting a bit of what was, that has survived, with a hint of personal acquaintance.
Clare Fuller
Music in the Early EMCC Part 1 – Eldon T Sherk Collection – EMCC History
Posted February 10, 2024 – 4
These two posts are about musical choices in the early EMCC, through the lens of the holdings in the Missionary Church Historical Trust. You won’t recognize all the names, but I am suggesting the range of sources.
Clare Fuller
Women Preachers Part 1 – Mennonite Brethren in Christ – EMCC History
Posted February 4, 2024 – 3
Hello to all you who like EMCC history. Here’s notification that a post about an early mission fund raising society is on the website, a first installment about women preachers, and the introductory “About” page sorting out the many name changes and mergers that led up to the current EMCC. As in the Sunday School song many of us learned, “They are precious in his sight.” At least that’s what I intend to be there!
Grace and Peace,
Clare Fuller
Missionary Stirrings in the New Mennonite Church (1859) – EMCC History
Posted January 31, 2024 – 2
What a congregation or denomination does about Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is a fair measure of its maturity in Christ. The organization does not need to be super-active in the mission of the Church–it may be beginning from zero–but…
Clare Fuller
Does God Care About the EMCC – EMCC History
Posted January 25, 2024 – 1
In modern jargon, I am “passionate” about the history of the Missionary Church. That matters nothing, however, if God does not care about this denominational group. The history of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada fascinates me, but why should…
Clare Fuller