Author: N. Keith Clifford

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13:

While individuals within the Methodist and Congregational Churcheshad doubts about Church Union, only among the Presbyterians didorganized collective action against the union and the legislation thatcreated the United Church of Canada develop. N. Keith Clifforddocuments the origins, growth and significance of the resistance whichsaw 150,000 Presbyterians refuse to join the new church. Past studies of the union concluded with its consummation in 1925.Viewing the controversy from the perspective of the 1939 amendment tothe United Church of Canada Act, which finally accepted thePresbyterian claims on the identity and continuity of their church,alters the standard images of the parties in the conflict anddemonstrates that there are two quite distinct ways of understandingthe events and the actions based on them. The Resistance to Church Union will be of interest toreligious and social historians and to those interested in therelationship between denominationalism and ecumenism.