Ecumenism: New Studies in North American Perspective

At the dawning of the twentieth century, ecumenical optimism and activity were booming in Canada, leading eventually to the creation of Canada's largest Protestant church in 1925, the United Church of Canada. The unprecedented organic union among Congregationalists, Methodists, and Presbyterians was the ecumenical capstone that solidified Canada's position as the most ecumenical North American country. That Canada has long been viewed as more accommodating and irenic than the United States has been well established in the scholarly literature. As the twenty-first century drew closer, there was resurgence in ecumenical pursuits in North America, even if efforts were more modest than the preparation for interdenominational organic union a century before. It was in this turn-of-the-century climate that we decided to focus scholarly attention on ecumenism in Canada, using the U.S. as a foil for some of the studies. Bringing together five scholars with expertise in the diverse fields of religious history, theology, sociology, and political science, we sought to answer several questions: What has expanded or stymied ecumenism in French and English Canada.'? How widespread is ecumenical sentiment in Canada today? Is there sufficient common ground between North American Catholics and Protestants to cooperate in the political arena? In answering these questions, we use new social scientific data and fresh historical research to shed light on ecumenism in North America. Scholarly attention in Canada has naturally been focused on the formation of the United Church, while few studies look at other forms of church union in Canada. Daniel Goodwin, Associate Professor of History at Atlantic Baptist University in Moncton, New Brunswick, addresses this dearth in the literature in his study of the formation of the United Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces, which brought together Arminian Baptist groups and one Calvinistic Baptist denomination in 1905-06. Goodwin demonstrates that a shared history in eighteenth-century revivalism, an emphasis on believer's baptism by immersion, the softening of radical Calvinism among Regular Baptists, and the uniting fervor of the nineteenth century, all of which were foundational in creating the ethos of the United Church of Canada, were also instrumental in creating the impetus for union among Calvinist and Arminian Baptists in Eastern Canada. Furthermore, a growing sense of regionalism, coupled with Nova Scotia's Free Baptists' rejection of a permanent merger with the American Free Will Baptists, solidified this important union. This study demonstrates, among other things, that the power of regional and cultural forces was often stronger than theological commitments in the movement for church union. Goodwin's second article focuses on the previously untold story (save for a few passing references) of the Canadian Council of Churches (C.C.C.) between 1944 and 1964. Under the dynamic leadership of William James Gallagher, the C.C.C. began with high hopes of shaping postwar reconstruction in uniquely Christian ways, so that God's Dominion would be established from sea to sea. Unfortunately for the C.C.C., the 1950's and 1960's brought increasing ambivalence toward ecumenical efforts and growing fragmentation within the Protestant camp, along with disillusionment about the capacity of churches to chart Canada's future. Goodwin explains how secularizing forces and the solidification of denominational boundaries led to the decline of ecumenical fervor and the weakening of the C.C.C. and its influence in Canada. More broadly, Goodwin illuminates how the same moral vision--to Christianize Canada through national churches--that energized unity efforts for the Baptists and the founding denominations of the United Church of Canada also motivated the creation of the C.C.C. and contributed toward the failure of its original vision by 1964. Turning to French Canada, Richard Lougheed's work on Protestant cooperation illustrates how the radically dissimilar religious contexts of Canada's two solitudes led to very different ecumenical efforts. …

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