Vancouver, 14/11/69.
Dear Friends,
How has it come about that there is a Free Presbyterian Church in Canada? Some might be inclined to find fault, as if this were an unwarrantable intrusion into another country where there is already a Presbyterian Church; an unseemly competition with another branch of the Visible Church. For the answer we must turn back to the latter part of the last century and the beginning of this one.
The 19th Century saw the growth of the modernising and rationalising Movement in the Protestant Churches, the consequences of which are now clear to all who have eyes to see. Essentially this Movement was a denigrating of the authority of the Word of God in the Church, and in Scotland led to the passing of the notorious Declaratory Act by the Free Church. This again led to the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church by those who, grieved by the general declension, were resolved in this way to maintain the principles and practice of the Reformed Church of Scotland. In Canada also at that time there were those, notably in Southern Ontario, who, grieved because of the things that were going on in the Presbyterian Church in that country, and noting the development of events in Scotland, approached the Free Presbyterian Church with a view to joining it. Thus the first Free Presbyterian congregation was formed in Ontario. It will be seen that it was begun on the initiative of Canadians. The Church at home responded by sending Ministers as Deputies to them until, later on, they had their own Free Presbyterian and Canadian Minister inducted over them.
As the great North West was opened up for settlement and people from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland settled there, our Deputies to Canada began to extend their visits to the West. A Congregation was formed in Winnipeg, and for a time it looked as if this could also be done in Saskatoon and Calgary. Humanly speaking, the Congregation in Vancouver was formed through the initiative and faithful ministrations of the late elder, Hugh Mackay.
Today there are only Vancouver and Winnipeg remaining as formed Congregations. Furthermore, the “religious” atmosphere is so changed, with Evangelical Christianity itself fast becoming a minority religion, that it would be very easy to be very pessimistic about the prospects for the future of the Free Presbyterian Church in Canada. Defeatists, however, we dare not be. We know that the Lord will build up Sion again, that His Word will again be authoritative in His Church, and that His dominion will indeed be “from sea to sea”.
In glory then and majesty
to men appear shall He. (Ps. 102, 16. Met. Ver.)
Yours sincerely,
R. MACDONALD.