Canadian Baptist Women

Canadian Baptist Women

Edited by Sharon M. Bowler

Canadian Baptist Women

McMaster General Series 8

Canadian Baptist Historical Society Series 3

Copyright © 2016 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

The poem Light by Lois Althea Tupper, used by permission of Ellen Ryan of Celebrating Poets over 70.

The poem Viewing the Moon on Top of the Sydenham Hill with Dr. Lois Tupper by Gini Cale, used by permission of Gini Cale.

The poem Life Is Somewhat like the Tide by Candace Jones, used by permission of Candace Jones.

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paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-3715-4

hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-3717-8

ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-3716-1

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Names: Bowler, Sharon M.

Title: Canadian Baptist Women / edited by Sharon M. Bowler.

Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016 | McMaster General Series 8 | Canadian Baptist Historical Society Series 3 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-3715-4 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-3717-8 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-3716-1 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: subject | Canada—Church history | Baptists | Women, history

Classification: BR570 B48 2016 (print) | BR570 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

McMaster Divinity College Press

McMaster General Series 8

Canadian Baptist Historical Society Series 3

Other Volumes in the Canadian Baptist Historical Society Series:

• Heath, Gordon L., and Paul Wilson, eds. Baptists and Public Life in Canada. CBHS Series 1 (2012).

• Heath, Gordon L., and Michael A. G. Haykin, eds. Baptists and War. CBHS Series 2 (2014).

This work is offered

in appreciation for those long past,

who left behind words waiting to be met,

and in appreciation for those who made

this meeting of words possible.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction

PART 1: Eastern Canada

Chapter 1: Women and Public Prayer in the Mid Nineteenth-Century Calvinistic1 Baptist Press of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

Chapter 2: A Scotch Terrier Worrying an Elephant

PART 2: Quebec

Chapter 3: Madame Mary Lore

Chapter 4: Jane Gilmour

PART 3: Ontario

Chapter 5: A Quartet and an Anonymous Choir

Chapter 6: Crossing Boundaries

PART 4: Western Canada

Chapter 7: Our Women Have Wrought Loyally

Chapter 8: Lois Althea Tupper

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the researchers who have expended their time, energy, and expertise in contributing to this work. A special thank you is also offered on behalf of all contributors to Lois Dow, who even in her retirement still offered her services and once again provided us with her always amazing publication and editing expertise. Thanks is also offered for the interest, the opportunities to present works in progress, and the encouragement received by contributors from the members of the Canadian Society of Church History.

In gratitude of the support received by McMaster University Divinity College, specifically the Canadian Baptist Archives and the Canadian Baptist Historical Society, the proceeds from this publication will go towards the furtherance of their ongoing support to researchers interested in Canadian Baptist History. And, with that being said, the editor wishes to thank in advance the readers of this book who are helping in that most worthwhile cause.

Contributors

Sharon M. Bowler (EdD University of Toronto) is a Chaplain with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada and is serving locally with the Niagara Health System Spiritual Care Department. She has taught at both Tyndale University and Centennial College. She is a Member at Large with the Canadian Baptist Historical Society. Her doctoral and current research centers around the study of Section 2a Freedom of Conscience, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Baptists who contributed publicly in some way to the development and continuation of this basic right. Sharon was a contributor to the first volume of this CBHS series, Baptists and Public Life.

Paul R. Dekar (PhD University of Chicago) is Professor Emeritus of Evangelism and Mission, Memphis Theological Seminary. He also taught at McMaster University. His most recent books are In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Globalization of an Ethical Ideal, co-edited with Lewis V. Baldwin (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013), and Dangerous People: The Fellowship of Reconciliation Building a Nonviolent World of Justice, Peace, and Freedom (Virginia Beach: Downing, 2016). Paul volunteers through Amnesty International, Canadian Friends, and Dundas Community Services. Paul and his wife Nancy have two sons and four grandchildren.

Mary Fleming (BA Gerontology & Religious Studies, McMaster, Nursing, St. Elizabeth School, Sudbury) served as a nurse for over forty-seven years. Her professional career has spanned front line nursing, management, community-based health care and teaching at Mohawk College. She serves as a deacon at MacNeill Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario. Mary’s mentor and friend for over forty years continues to be the subject of her current research and writing. She misses Lois Tupper’s human presence daily, especially when the moon is bright. Mary and her partner are busy with four grandchildren, three of whom live in France.

Callum Norman Jones (PhD London School of Theology) is senior Pastor at First Baptist Church in Penticton, BC. Callum was ordained within the Baptist Union of Great Britain in 1991, serving at North Bushey Baptist Church, Hertfordshire, England, for 10 years before emigrating with his wife Catherine to Penticton in 2001. His doctoral thesis was titled The Canadian Baptists of Western Canada: Baptist Identity and Ecumenical Relationships, 1907–1986. Callum’s essay Western Canadian Baptists and Early Twentieth-Century Ecumenical Initiatives is published in the book Interfaces: Baptists and Others, edited by David Bebbington and Martin Sutherland (Paternoster, 2013).

Hannah M. Lane (PhD University of New Brunswick) is an Associate Professor in the History Department at Mount Allison University, and Honorary Research Associate with the Department of History and School of Graduate Studies at the University of New Brunswick. She teaches courses in the History of Canada, the United States in the colonial and antebellum periods, the Atlantic world, and in the life course and family history of Western Europe and North America. She has published or presented papers on a variety of topics related to religion, gender, family, the life course, fraternalism, and wealthholding.

Sharon Leighton (MA Theology, Acadia University, MA History, University of New Brunswick) holds bachelor’s degrees in Bible and Drama Studies from Queen’s University. She has written several award-winning plays. Her Theology master’s thesis was titled Dante: Prophet of the Reformation, and her History master’s thesis was H. Miriam Ross: The Making of a Missionary. In 2005, she presented a paper on Baptist missionary Earle C. Merrick, which was later published in the proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Baptist Studies. Her most recent project was the writing of a history of Bedeque Baptist Church in Prince Edward Island, where she resides.

Wendy J. Porter (PhD University of Surrey, UK) is Director of Music and Worship at McMaster Divinity College, teaching courses in music and worship, theological reflection, spiritual formation, and the history of worship and liturgy. Her doctoral research was in sixteenth-century music in England, but her song-writing is in a contemporary mode for the local worshiping church. She has recorded solo albums in the past, but found most rewarding the writing and recording of the album simply called Worship, comprised of twelve original songs of worship, each a theological reflection on the act of worship or a conversation with the One we worship.

Marilyn Färdig Whiteley (PhD Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary New York) is an independent scholar writing on many aspects of women in the Christian church in North America. Marilyn has taught at a number of American and Canadian universities and has worked at the archives of the United Church of Canada. Her books include Canadian Methodist Women, 1766–1925: Marys, Marthas, Mothers in Israel, The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best and The Life of Isabel Crawford: More Than I Asked For.

Introduction

An invitation to write a chapter for this book was sent out to potential contributors in July 2014 . The intention of the project was to seek to document the broad experience of Canadian Baptist women whose Baptist faith played a significant role in helping them respond in varied ways to the personal and professional exigencies of life with a sense of hope, support, and direction that has mobilized the improvement of individuals and society in varied aspects of public, corporate, private, and spiritual life. With the encouragement of the executive of the Canadian Baptist Historical Society, I believed that this was a much-needed volume that could provide an authoritative source of inspiration and celebration, and insight into a variety of Baptist women’s issues throughout Canadian history.

Chapter contributors were invited and encouraged to use their interests, likely from their own tangential research base, in a way that would enable them to research well-known or little-known Canadian Baptist women in order to explore a broad number of issues that might include aspects of local church, home and international mission, and family life. It was hoped that the influence of Baptist faith would be made visible within each chapter in some manner that would allow for the exploration of topics that would incorporate original research and provide a synthesis of research that might be used to further inform the reader’s understanding of aspects of Canadian Baptist women’s lives.

There was a tangential nature to this research, as many if not all of the writers would say that Baptist women’s history was not their primary professional research focus, although they had some prior awareness and interest. Notably, this begins to illustrate the context in which Baptist women’s history has often been placed. Research on Canadian Baptist women has often remained within the shadows of Baptist history, sometimes tucked away, or even discarded. The exploration of the array of power struggles and male dominated leadership that Baptist women have experienced in following their call to serve the Lord has in similar ways dominated historiography itself and necessitates this current undertaking.

I myself felt the mandate to purposefully seek out undervalued and unrecognized primary sources of materials to complete my chapters here. This has given me firsthand examples of how, in some cases, insightful and informative materials have remained generally unsought. If data that has been archived or tucked away is undervalued, potential research on specific topics will remain unexplored. Canadian Baptist women have remained a neglected area of research and if our joint work together inspires others to seek out research materials, not only on the work of women in the church but in potentially even broader areas, then our work has been a success.

It was originally hoped that we, as a group of researchers, would be able to present Baptist women’s experiences from across Canada (including international missions) and across a wide time span. Explorations of their faith within the church could include, but not be limited to, aspects of participation in war, government, education, and healthcare. Faith within private life could include, but not be limited to, aspects of childcare, culture, and marriage. In effect the invitation to researchers was purposely not limited to specific topics or time periods. To a reader this might be seen as a drawback, in that only a taste of a topic is provided. On the other hand, I hope that the chapters in this book lend themselves to a celebration, as an opening to future research possibilities with regard to the history of Canadian Baptist women. Indeed, some of the researchers have already used their chapters to inspire future, more detailed examinations of the topics they uncovered. It is hoped that the readers of this work may also find this same inspiration.

While it was impossible to document all of the vast differences, complexities, and intricacies of Canadian Baptist women, it was possible to provide readers with a quick tour across time and place in Canadian Baptist history. Hence, the book is organized by locality rather than time period in a way that takes the reader along a journey across the vast country of Canada. And here lies a disadvantage of this work. The research on Baptist women given here encompasses only a scattering of stopping points across our great mass of land, and its varying peoples and communities have not been adequately covered for a variety of reasons. Missing from this work, for example, are the voices of women from our First Nations, from our vast multicultural populations, and from our Northern communities. We intended to be more inclusive, but regretfully, as the work was in progress, some researchers who had committed themselves to write chapters had to remove themselves from the project for a number of personal and professional reasons. As an editor I can only hope that the research will once again be picked up, or that this current omission will inspire future researchers to take up the worthwhile task.

Although the book is organized by locality, another problem was our inability to even attempt to cover the vast expanse of time that the history of Canadian Baptist women deserves. In that regard, I can only advise readers interested in particular time periods that are not covered in this book to seek to glean morsels of data on Baptist Women from other texts. The words glean morsels are very meaningful to any researcher who has attempted to find details about Baptist women’s lives, and this was never more evident to me than when another two committed researchers had to withdraw their work due to lack of either information or access to information. Another very important chapter lacking in this work is the data that should be both researched and preserved regarding our own present times. Regrettably, an intended chapter was never undertaken, missing a rich opportunity to bring a number of living Baptist women’s voices into our present—for the riches of experiences found in our past are also there to be found in our present.

I hope that my comments on this book will not deter people from reading and referencing it, but rather inspire readers to move forward into and with it. The words of John Webster Grant have both motivated and inspired me as an editor in this endeavor. Below I share them somewhat altered (Grant’s words within quotes and in italics), not so much in defense of this book but as my acknowledgement of the inspiring contributions made by all of the contributors to this work:

"Inevitably we attach undue weight to the writings that have come down to us, or have not come down to us as has in my mind been the case regarding Canadian Baptist women, which represent in the main the opinions of clerics and heretics, or we draw such inferences as we can from the public activities of in this case, our individual perceived notions of Baptist Women in our churches today. Perhaps some day a massive exploration of private diaries or any other historical documentation including present day oral histories, will make possible a more thorough exposé of the religious mind—or minds regarding Baptist women. What is offered here may serve in the meantime to trace a brief journey’s glimpse into the formation and transformation of distinctive patterns of" Canadian Baptist women’s lives.¹

An Itinerary for This Book’s Journey

This book’s journey begins with researcher Hannah Lane’s analysis of Baptist women’s voices in mid nineteenth-century New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Hannah’s work provides a sharp dive into a targeted pond of documented struggles concerning Baptist women’s roles that in effect continue in varying extents to ripple across time and location along our journey.

Sharon Leighton then takes us on an adventure from our eastern regions of Canada into the Congo as she describes Miriam Ross’s missionary service. Leighton uncovers the story of a feisty woman who made a difference that might have long been forgotten by historians, but whose impacts on the world cannot fail to remain.

Continuing on our trip across Canada is a stop by Sharon Bowler with her two chapters describing the beginning of Baptist outreach in Montreal and Grande Ligne. The lives of two women, Mary Lore and Jane Gilmour, are explored with an attempt to capture the inner spiritual lives of these brave women who were pioneer evangelists for the Baptist cause. Jane’s travels west then introduce the reader to Upper Canada, where our journey once again resumes.

Wendy Porter takes us on a wonderful musical adventure when she follows the lives of four Baptist women, beginning with nineteenth-century Canadian pioneers into the twentieth-century war era within an Ontario Black Baptist community in Western Ontario. The lives of Elizabeth Williams Shadd (Shreve), Mary Branton (Tule), Hattie Rhue (Hatchett) and Jennie Johnson form a quartet of song bringing to the reader a melody of lives lived for God.

A skip into the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario and then missionary outreach in the United States is guided by Marilyn Whiteley in her story of Isabel Crawford. Isabel was an example of one woman’s attempts to remain ever faithful to the call of her Master through determined attempts to cross many boundaries—not only the ones posed by geography.

Aiding in our western journey across Canada and bringing us closer into our present day is Callum Jones with his research on the Baptist women of Western Canada during the years 1907 to 1940. Jones refocuses the traditional historical emphasis from the Baptist Union of Western Canada organizational and policy history to one of women’s contributions to the life of the church.

And finally our journey ends or, we might say, our tour guides Paul Dekar and Mary Fleming introduce us to Lois Althea Tupper, a Canadian inspiration whose words and life may help to inspire not only continuing historical research, but also continuing service to Christ under the vast expansive skies shining down and illuminating the ripples of Canadian Baptist women’s lives.

This book should hold interest for those historians interested in topics concerning Canadian Baptist church history. History is written by historians and is used and analyzed by historians, however, this book may also serve a broader audience, and that is where this last discussion now changes direction somewhat. The women portrayed in the following chapters are representative of those Baptists who were passionate about their faith. For those readers who seek to endeavor to answer God’s call in their lives, there is a benefit in searching out the past and analyzing it in a manner that informs both present and future. Many readers will not find the notion of God’s call as documented within these pages to be one that they would have trouble relating to. With this book, we lay down a challenge to those so inclined to seek out past experiences for purposes of instruction in order to understand the principles, challenges, and solutions that may have to be considered in following God’s call.

Readers who are interested in following paths similar to those followed by the women described in this book are encouraged to direct their attention to the religious and faith issues discussed here, in order that they might find workable ideas, goals, and meaningful connections with both the losses and celebrations experienced in times past. This book provides the reader with an opportunity to examine a rich wealth of knowledge and experience that can profitably inform all who seek to answer God’s call both in the present and future.

I have been frank about this book’s limitations as a documentation of history, and provided a brief itinerary of the journey on which it will take the reader. Whatever your reason for picking up this book, I pray that you will think about and learn from the Baptist women’s lives explored in the following pages. May the contributors’ words adequately reflect the Baptist women who have been able through their lives to provide their understanding, wisdom, and guidance in a manner consistent with the Scriptures where it is written:

A wise man’s heart guides his mouth,

and his lips promote instruction;

pleasant words are a honeycomb,

sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:23–24

Sharon M. Bowler

Bibliography

Grant, John Webster. A Profusion of Spires: Religion in Nineteenth-Century Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

1998

.

1. Grant, Profusion of Spires, ix.

Part 1

Eastern Canada

1