The Canadian Council of Churches: Its Founding Vision and Early Years, 1944-1964

On April 15, 1964, emergency meeting of Executive Council of Canadian Council of Churches (hereafter, CCC) met at council's headquarters in Toronto. Twelve days earlier, William James Gallagher, founding general secretary of CCC, had died suddenly, following an illness of two months from which was hoped he would recover. (1) Since Gallagher was scheduled to retire in June of same year, his death did not leave unexpected gap to be filled. In fact, during previous four years, there had been challenging questions raised in many quarters about general direction and appropriateness of original vision of CCC--which had been forged in early 1940's--for dynamic and fast-paced 1960's. A. C. Forrest, editor of United Church Observer, noted of Gallagher and his generation of Protestant leaders that [w]e doubt that anyone will ever appreciate contribution--and difficulties--of these churchmen in World Council and National Councils who have our work. (2) If Gallagher and his colleagues pioneered important phase in cooperative Christianity and laid foundation for CCC, was thought by many Christian leaders in Canada--especially those in United Church of Canada--that more streamlined and fully integrated organization committed to fostering ecumenical encounter and action, as opposed to coordinating or reflecting departmental activities of [member] was necessary for future of council. (3) It is argument of this essay that CCC was successfully formed in 1944 with vision that was significantly grounded in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century assumption of hegemony of nation's Protestant churches that was essentially British vision, which regarded national churches as key to sustaining and developing Christian ethos of nation. The Canadian Council was also inspired and shaped by realities and sense of crisis that accompanied World War II and desire for postwar reconstruction. As 1950's unfolded, council encountered increasing ambivalence due to hardening of denominational boundaries and growing popular opinion among many Canadians that their churches were becoming irrelevant to real life in midst of fast-paced change in postwar period. Consequently, many of CCC's initial goals, which included rebuilding Christian Canada, were not achieved and were largely jettisoned through reconfiguring council in mid-1960's with belief that days of unqualified Protestant power in English Canada had passed. Even if council had been more united and able to speak with louder singular voice, many of its leaders were convinced that by 1964 few of nation's leaders or ordinary citizens were listening. The CCC's initial mandate became casualty of Canadians' rejecting many of their colonial institutions, including large national centralized churches that made up most of council, as they attempted to find their way in post-colonial Western world. To date, CCC has received only passing mention by professional historians. Generally speaking, view portrayed in historiography is that CCC was casualty of circumstances. Writing in 1956, H. H. Walsh reported that CCC was unfortunately formed when there was definite trend away from spirit of war. (4) Sixteen years later, John Webster Grant argued that, whereas council provided a valuable means of consultation among its member churches, it suffered from certain ambiguity of origin, as was expression of previous cooperative efforts at local level and amalgamation of several existing ministry agencies. (5) Furthermore, Grant highlighted the unwillingness of churches to cooperate at all. (6) John Stackhouse, following insights of previous assessments, conceded that council failed to establish itself as innovative and forceful representative of mainstream of Canadian Protestantism. …

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