THE CHURCHES IN CANADA

During the seventeenth century, while their fellow priests, with varying degrees of success and failure, of Christian work and secular negotiation,

Montréal – Downtown Montréal: Cathédrale Christ Church (Photo credit: wallyg)

were extending the power of the Church of Rome in India and the Moluccas, in China and Japan, in Brazil and Paraguay, missionaries of the Society of Jesus were winning over to Catholicism the Huron Indians in what is now the Province of Ontario.

As forest clad shores of Georgian Bay.

Everywhere throughout a still wider region of forest and wilderness these and other pioneers of religion preached and suffered and

English: “Paul III approving the Society of Jesus”, painting by an anonymous artist at the entrance of the sacristy of the church Il Gesù, Rome, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

struggled with the forces of nature, and of native barbarism, or died for the faith that was in them.

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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES

After the Reformation under Martin Luther, national churches formed in Germany and the Scandinavian countries took the name of Lutherans.

Very early in the history of the Dutch colony of  New Amsterdam, afterward New York, some claim as early as 1623, Lutherans, although from Holland, came to that city and held meetings.

In 1652 they applied for permission to have a church and pastor; but the Dutch Reformed authorities objected, and caused the first Lutheran minister, in 1657, to be sent back to Holland.

The services were continued in a quiet manner, but not until the English conquest of New Amsterdam, in 1664, were the Lutherans allowed freedom of worship.

 

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES

There are in the United States at the present time no less than 265 religious bodies with over 325,000 churches.

The inclusive membership of various religious bodies is approximately 125,000,000.

Only those that appear to be the largest and most important can be noticed, and these very briefly.

We take them up in the order of their establishment in America.

THE MODERN CHURCH

 For a thousand years from the days of the apostles, Christianity was a working missionary institution.

In the first four centuries of its history the church won the Roman Empire from heathenism to Christianity. Afterward, its missionaries met the advancing hordes of barbarians and conquered them before they conquered the Western Empire. After the tenth century, church and state, pope and emperor, were in strife for supreme control, and the missionary spirit declined, though it was never entirely lost. The Reformation was concerned with efforts to purify and reorganize the church, rather than to extend it.

We have seen that in the later age of the Reformation the first extensive effort to Christianize the heathen world was made, not by Protestants, but by Roman Catholics under St. Francis Xavier.

 

THE REFORMED CHURCH

While the Reformation was in its earliest stages in Germany, the same spirit broke out in many other lands of Europe.

In the South, as in Italy and Spain, it was put down with a relentless hand; in France and the Netherlands the cause of reform hung in the balance of uncertainty;

but among all the northern nations the new religion was victorious over all opposition and ruled the lands

THE REFORMED CHURCH

(THE COUNTER-REFORMATION. THE LEADERS OF THE PERIOD)

Not long after the Reformation began, a mighty effort was made by the Roman Catholic Church to regain its lost ground in Europe, to subvert the Protestant faith, and to promote Roman Catholic missions in foreign lands. This movement is called the Counter-Reformation.

 

The Emmaus House

The Dimwit Diary

Man, you dimwits.  I don’t know what’s happening.  I can’t sleep.  It’s 1:47 AM.  It’s raining.  Heavy thunderstorms and crashing lightening.  I have the windows opened.  There’s a nice breeze and it’s rather peaceful.  I like thunderstorms.  There’s probably some sort of metaphor in there to sum up my life.  Heavy thunderstorms and crashing lightening bring me peace.

Listen, I joke around a lot.  This is a humor blog primarily but sometimes you have to know when to put jokes aside.  This is one of those times.

I just wrote to some missionary friends of mine that are living in Haiti.  Sent them a message on Facebook at 12:48 AM.  The one gal responded immediately at exactly 1:00 AM.  What in the world is she doing up at 1:00 AM?  What possible reasons could there be for her to still be awake?  Probably for the same reasons as me.  She…

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Life Snippets 20

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