Oromocto Baptists
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Oromocto Baptists Stories of the Baptist Church on the Oromocto River by John Wood [email protected] An essay written in 2002, updated to include an addendum written in the same year i Table of Contents Table of Contents i Acknowledgments ii Introduction iii I The Free Christian Baptists 1 The Congregational Church 1 Henry Alline 2 Early Oromocto Allinites 4 Diversity and Early Church Practices 7 II Congregations 11 Blissville 11 Rusagonis 13 Patterson Settlement 18 French Lake and Geary 21 Waterville 25 III Abner Mersereau 27 IV People 30 Rusagonis Church Book 32 Patterson Settlement Church Book 36 French Lake Church Book 42 Geary Church Book 43 Waterville Church Book 44 1847 Marriage Act Petition 47 1905 Conference Funds 47 Bibliography 49 ii Acknowledgements I am not a religious scholar or an historian, and there are therefore many people to thank for having helped with this paper. My sincere thanks to Frederick Burnett who shared his unique expertise without reserve. I am indebted for the material that he gave me, for the references that he suggested, and for his gentle but hopefully effective review of drafts. I am sure that I am but one in a long list of people who have benefited from his generosity. I would like to thank D.G. Bell, without whose Newlight Baptist Journals ... I would never have discovered this rich area of research. Mr. Bell also supplied material which was directly useful in this paper. Ms. Pat Townsend of the Baptist Archives at Acadia University was helpful in referring my enquiries to Mr. Burnett, to Dr. Griffin-Allwood, to Dr. Robert Wilson, and to Rev. Roland McCormick - all of whom were of assistance. Rev. McCormick's encouragement was especially helpful. As always, the staff of the New Brunswick Provincial Archives in Fredericton was tireless in granting my many library loan requests. And finally, thank you to my many family history/ genealogy friends, with whom I have constructed an historical framework upon which to hang Sunbury County facts. iii Introduction Oromocto River Baptists are almost entirely drawn from the Free Christian Baptist Church, one of two denominations which united in 1905 to form the present United Baptist Church. By 1871, for example, 70% of all people in Blissville Parish were of the Free Christian Baptist faith, compared with only 7% for the ‘regular’ or Calvinist Baptists. Union was not a ‘rapprochement’, or a re-establishment of relations, as the Free Christian Baptist Church had not been in any way a branch of the regular Baptist Church. The two churches had been quite separate from one another. In addition to being an independent denomination, it is important to know that the Free Christian Baptist Church was created in the Maritime Provinces. It was indigenous and was not imported from New England. The principles by which it was created were at odds with majority orthodoxy, creating an historical break or watershed. We must therefore look back no further than the 1770s to see its beginnings, and this is why this paper begins with a description of the Congregational Church in Maugerville. A general discussion of the Free Christian Baptists is followed by stories about specific congregations. The list of congregations included reflects the author’s interests in the area between Rusagonis and Hoyt. The amount of space dedicated to Elder Abner Mersereau also reflects a special interest. 1 I The Free Christian Baptists The Congregational Church The earliest English settlement in Maugerville was founded in 1762. This community had an active Congregational Church that was creedal, ordered, and Calvinistic. The Church was creedal, in that it set the basis of its faith down on paper as part of the process of forming the church in the first place. The congregation's covenant was a statement of faith. "We ... do (as we hope) with some measure of seriousness and sincerity take upon us the following covenant, ...." Re-printed by James Haney, in The Maugerville Settlement, N.B.H.S. Collections, 1, p 69. This meant that the Church was ordered and organizational. The members also defined themselves in terms of prevailing thought, as expressed in a catechism. "... we cordially adhere to the principles of ... the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines...." ibid. They were also organized internally. "And it is our purpose ... to discharge the duties of Christian love and Brotherly watchfulness toward each other, ...." ibid. and "... respecting Church discipline it is our purpose to adhere to the methods (prescribed by) ... the synod at Cambridge in New England Ano. Dom. 1648." ibid. 2 They were also Calvinistic, believing in salvation by election. "... depending (on) Him to do all for us, and to work all in us, especially relating to our eternal salvation, being sensible that in ourselves we can do nothing." ibid. Continued immigration would have made it difficult for the Maugerville church to remain the unanimous religious expression of the people. There were trends in New England that were changing things there, and even the Saint John River was not so remote as to avoid these influences forever. However, as it turned out, there were Maritime events that would be even more powerful in bringing radical change. Henry Alline Henry Alline was a Congregational preacher who led what is called the Nova Scotia Great Awakening between 1776 and his death in 1784. He visited Maugerville in 1779 and established a church on the Saint John River. To call Henry Alline a Congregationalist is mostly to say that he was raised in that Church. He has also been described as a Separate Congregationalist whose doctrine departed significantly, over time, from the mainstream church. After his death, his followers continued to develop along independent lines until their Congregational roots became indiscernible. Alline's movement spread throughout the Maritime Provinces like a fire, and changed forever the state of religion there. Never before, nor since, has there been such a revival, or such a time of change in Atlantic Canada. The Congregationalists were devastated. W.S. MacNutt compared the effect of Alline's revival "... to a loose shower of sparks that had left nothing behind it." New Brunswick - a History, p 167. The images of 'devastation' and 'fire' and 'a loose shower of sparks' are from earlier historians and correctly portray how the mainstream Congregationalists must have felt. 3 "He (Alline) had set himself with Design to overthrow and destroy the Doctrines of Calvinism, Root and Branch: Witness his rejection of the Doctrines of Election and Predestination." Jon. Scott, Halifax, 1784 - as quoted by Frederick Burnett in Henry Alline's "Articles & Covenant of a Gospel Church". More recent writers will note that the development of these divergent doctrines took place over time, and that they were part of a Maritime religious and cultural building process - a more positive interpretation. The churches that Alline established had no denominational name. Today they are called 'New Light' or 'Allinite' churches, but they would have called themselves simply 'Christians' or perhaps 'Gospel Churches'. The New Light theology relied upon the conversion experience as the only true indication of religious sincerity and the only means to salvation. This was a theology of individual salvation through conversion, which was often rapturous and was diametrically opposed to the Calvinist view. The rapturous quality of the conversion experience was proof of its efficacy. Religious life was guided only, and to a radical extent, by the teachings of the New Testament. The New Testament was not only a basis for religious and moral life, but was also used as a guide in matters of church policy in non-religious areas. Consequently, there were no catechisms and, while Alline was not averse to covenants or creeds, his followers soon rejected these also. "First, Resolved to take the Holy Bible for our rule of faith and practice, and God for our Counselor." Blissville, 1833, as compiled by Sharpe and Smith, 1939. This is about as detailed a statement of faith as can be found among our early religious ancestors after about 1816. Generally, they were not prepared to rely on imperfect documents and preferred Paul's reminder that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3: 16-17). 4 Churches in Carleton County and in York County were very succinct: "We take the word of the Lord to be the rule of this church and will square our lives by it." Quoted by Frederick Burnett. The importance of the conversion experience, and the authority of the New Testament were the two main principles of the New Light movement, and neither was likely intended to be taken in preference to the other. However, the efficacy of the conversion experience led to the view that some religious expressions were non-essential. Henry Alline himself came to reject baptism as unnecessary, for example, though there was disagreement on this point. "We beleave that the Baptism of water being non-essencial ought not to be a bar of communion among true Christians, but each one ought to have their own liberty of Conscience in that particular matter." Henry Alline's "Articles & Covenant ...", referenced above. Some groups even questioned the necessity of reference to the Bible though, as we shall see, the Oromocto River people and most Free Christian Baptists were of a more doctrinal bent. Nonetheless, the New Light or Allinite movement was the source of the Oromocto River Free Christian Baptist Churches. It was these groups which formed the Christian Churches beginning in 1833; that changed their name to Free Christian Baptist in 1847; and that joined with the regular Baptists in 1905.