United we stand: the church union controversy of 1925
Imagine for a moment that you are a die-hard fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs (perhaps you already are). Now imagine how you would feel if the Winnipeg Jets, the Montreal Canadiens, and two-thirds of the Leafs decided to amalgamate, forming a new hockey team representing all of central Canada. You can bet there would be controversy, with the faithful members and adherents of Leafs Nation upset about their storied traditions being absorbed into a new and untested franchise.
This analogy may be a bit of a stretch, but it does speak to how members of The Presbyterian Church in Canada felt 100 years ago, when two-thirds of their denomination merged with the Methodist and Congregational churches to form The United Church of Canada (a process that formally culminated on June 10, 1925, even though it began well before that).
Why did church union happen, and how did the controversy play out here in Kawartha Lakes? To answer these questions, we must first understand the rationale for and against union. With roots in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century – and subsequent developments in the 17th and 18th centuries – the three churches did after all have much in common.
But there were important differences that, while seemingly trivial to us today, were deal-breakers in the conversations precipitating church union.
Unlike Methodists, who believed that humans could actively choose to resist God’s grace and calling, Presbyterians affirmed otherwise. “To Presbyterians of those days,” wrote the late historian Dr. John Webster Grant in his book Divided Heritage: The Presbyterian Contribution to The United Church of Canada, “any suggestion that God’s power might be limited seemed a slight to the divine majesty.” Moreover, it was fashionable among various Protestants in the early 20th century to question the historicity of some stories in the Bible; there was also concern that the Methodist emphasis on personal religious experience would undermine church tradition and the authority of scripture. These factors influenced much of the opposition to church union, as did resentment over a new denomination being legislated into existence by the Canadian Parliament.
There were, however, good arguments put forward in favour of union. Chief among these was the belief that more could be accomplished in the domestic mission field if the major Protestant churches collaborated and cooperated, rather than competed, with each other. Canada’s Presbyterians and Methodists were both extremely active in social justice initiatives (and in their shared commitment to temperance), so union seemed like a natural next step.
Such was the thinking of the Rev. Finlay H. McIntosh and his pro-union parishioners at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Lindsay, in the opening weeks of 1925. McIntosh had occupied the pulpit at St. Andrew’s since 1915, and was a well-liked, popular preacher. Keen to avoid rocking the boat, McIntosh would insist in his final sermon at St. Andrew’s on Sunday Feb. 8, 1925, that, “When over a year ago this stormy controversy broke upon us locally, I pledged myself before God not to make this matter an occasion of personal feeling against anybody.”
McIntosh might have made his points, but during the closing months of 1924, he was overshadowed by a well-organized anti-union lobby. “You have only six months in which to say what the future of your congregation will be – no chance after that,” warned an ominous advertisement in the Oct. 22, 1924 edition of The Lindsay Daily Post. Those in favour of remaining with the “continuing Presbyterian Church” organized special meetings to which high-profile Presbyterian clerics (such as the Rev. Stewart Parker of St. Andrew’s Church in downtown Toronto) were invited to make the case against going into union. Feelings ran high, and one G.A. Lucas – himself a supporter of the continuing Presbyterians – wrote a letter to the editor of the Post in which he stated: “God help any church if the votes are to be cast by those whose hearts are embittered by jealously, suspicion, and hatred.”
Those votes were cast over the space of two weeks in January 1925, starting on Jan. 14 and ending on Jan. 27. The following week, it was revealed that 178 votes had been cast in favour of union, while 362 were against. St. Andrew’s – and all but two of the other eight Presbyterian parishes in what is now Kawartha Lakes – would remain Presbyterian, but many prominent parishioners (including a young lawyer named Leslie Frost) would not. Cambridge Street Methodist Church boldly renamed itself “First United Church,” a name it would retain until around 1933, and welcomed the Rev. Finlay McIntosh as its associate pastor.
Over time, the rift of 1925 healed and today the members of St. Andrew’s and Cambridge Street Churches freely mingle at events organized by one or the other. And that’s exactly how it should be, according to the Rev. Bob Quick, who served as associate minister at St. Andrew’s from 2008 through 2022. “There is a quote often attributed to the Puritans that I have tried to live by over 50 years of pastoral ministry in several denominations,” says Quick. “‘Unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, charity in all things.’ While specific theological or doctrinal points may vary, believers of different denominations should strive for unity, allowing for diversity in other areas to form something bigger.
