The Canadian Churches and the Great War, 1914-1918”
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FOR GOD, KING, AND COUNTRY: THE CANADIAN CHURCHES AND THE GREAT WAR, 1914-1918 Melissa Davidson A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in History Department of History Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Melissa Davidson, Ottawa, Canada, 2019 ii ABSTRACT “For God, King and Country: The Canadian Churches and the Great War, 1914-1918” Author: Melissa Davidson Supervisor: Serge Marc Durflinger Submitted 2019 Canada in the early twentieth century was a profoundly religious nation, with nearly 95 percent of the population identifying as Christians. The churches were important nation-building institutions, active in social welfare and education, but they also played a more intimate role in the lives of Canadians, determining moral values, providing social gathering points, and offering emotional and spiritual support in difficult times. Throughout the Great War (1914-1918), the churches continued to fulfill these important functions, providing an ideological framework that helped people make sense of the war, understand their duties as both Canadians and Christians, and cope with the sacrifices required of them. This dissertation examines the four major Canadian denominations (Roman Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Methodism, and Anglicanism) in French- and English- speaking Canada. It looks first to establish the varying justifications offered for the war by the churches before using them to contextualize the variety of activities undertaken on behalf of the war effort, activities which included prayer and considerable charitable giving in addition to military service. It then examines the difficult final years of the war. In 1917, as conscription divided English and French Canada over the extent of the commitment to the overseas war effort, differing ideas of imperialism, internationalism, iii and the division between the moral and the political brought conflict both within and between denominations. Finally, an attempt is made to consider how the churches played a role in mourning the war-dead and imbuing the hoped-for peace with a meaning sufficient to justify the immense sacrifices. By using the churches as an interpretive model, this dissertation adds nuance to the Canadian historiography of the Great War, looking beyond the military effort to the experiences of the home front. It also looks to bring together the histories of French and English Canadians, showing the ways in which French-speaking Catholics supported the war in their own way and illuminating some of the conflicting interpretations of the war held by otherwise supportive English-speaking Canadians. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must begin by gratefully acknowledging my supervisor, Dr. Serge Durflinger. It is only thanks to his guidance and insightful questions that I have managed to transcend mere collection of interesting anecdotes and details to find my own voice. He gamely persisted through the variety of religious terms that appeared, chapter after chapter, to ensure that I reached a balance between the various topics, bodies of literature, and languages present in the final manuscript. If any errors or other infelicities remain, they are entirely my own. I would also like to thank Dr. Richard Connors, Dr. Damien-Claude Bélanger, Dr. Galen Perras of the University of Ottawa and Dr. Mark McGowan of the University of Toronto, who kindly consented to serve as examiners. Your time, feedback, and expertise are greatly appreciated. Without financial support from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program and the University of Ottawa, I would not have been able to complete this program. Thanks are owed to the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church for a research grant which supported the consultation of archival sources and to the Canadian Society of Church History for support which allowed me to present work in progress at their annual meetings. I would also like to thank Professor Michael Snape and Dr. Stuart Bell for their kindness and help in developing my thoughts as part of a broader international conversation and to Professor Philip Williamson of Durham University for generously sharing his work, some of it still unpublished, and his expertise on British state days of prayer. v This document has been made much richer through the use of primary materials accessed with the help and knowledge of the staff of various archives and libraries. The extensive digital catalogue of Quebec periodicals at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec proved to be a particularly invaluable resource. Thank you to the staff of the following institutions for their assistance: Library and Archives Canada; the Archives of Ontario; the Regina Branch of the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives; the University of Manitoba Archives; McGill University Archives; the McCord Museum Archives; the United Church of Canada Archives; the Presbyterian Church of Canada Archives; General Synod Archives (Anglican Church of Canada); the Anglican Diocese of Montreal Archives; the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa Archives; the Anglican Diocese of Qu’Appelle Archives; the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto Archives; the University of Ottawa library; the library at Presbyterian College (Montreal); and St. Paul’s University library. My colleagues and friends are due their own acknowledgements, not only for their various contributions to this dissertation, but for their encouragement and sage advice. Notably I would like to thank Elizabeth Stobert, whose family graciously gifted me her grandfather’s copy of the 1918 Canadian Book of Common Prayer when she heard I was looking for one to consult. And then there is my family, both immediate and extended. Despite having spent more years in formal education than I care to count, it has been my family who have taught me all the most important lessons worth learning — if I have not always learned them swiftly enough or well enough, the fault is mine. It is difficult to set down in only vi a few lines all of the things that I would like to say, but know that I have never doubted your love, support, and pride, and that they have meant everything. But family is not only the one that you’re born into, but also the one that is accumulated moving through life, and I have been immensely fortunate in both cases. And so, I would like to thank John, who in addition to sharing the joys and frustrations of daily life, has automated what could be automated, diligently kept me to task, and patiently read and re-read sections to determine whether I was making any sense and helped me fix things when I was not. Although I don’t know what the next chapter of our lives together holds or where it will take us (although I sincerely hope that it includes pie), I’m looking forward to figuring it out with you. vii CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Contents vii List of Tables viii List of Figures viii List of Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 — A Time for Peace: Canada Before the Great War 41 Demographics 42 Economics 45 The Canadian Churches 49 The Roman Catholic Church 50 The Church of England in Canada 55 The Presbyterian Church of Canada 57 The Methodist Church 61 The Social Gospel Movement 65 National and Imperial Visions 69 Chapter 2 — Not Peace but a Sword: Justifying the War in the English Canadian 79 Churches, 1914-1915 Chapter 3 — Prayer, Charity, and Service: War-Work and Recruiting in the 111 English Canadian Churches, 1915-1916 Call to Prayer 111 Call to Charity 121 Call to Service 137 Chapter 4 — Charité et Prière: The War Effort of French Canadian Catholics, 160 1914-1916 Chapter 5 — A Nation Divided Against Itself: Conscription and Conflicting 197 Views of the War Effort, 1917 viii Chapter 6 — Tested in the Furnace of Affliction: Praying for Peace, Mourning 235 the Dead, and Celebrating Victory, 1918 January 1918 — Prayers for Peace and the Operation of the Military 236 Service Act March 1918 — The German Spring Offensive and Unrest at Home 246 May and June 1918 — Prayers for Victory and Protection, Another 256 Reaction to the MSA August 1918 — The Heavy Cost of Victory 267 October 1918 — The Spanish Flu Epidemic 275 November 11, 1918 — Armistice 284 Conclusion 293 Appendix A — Organizational Structure of the Roman Catholic Church in 308 Canada and List of Archdioceses, Dioceses, and Bishops Organizational Chart 308 List of Archdioceses, Dioceses, and Bishops 309 Appendix B — Organizational Structure of the Church of England in Canada 313 and List of Provinces, Provinces, and Bishops Organizational Chart 313 List of Provinces, Dioceses, and Bishops 314 Appendix C — Organizational Structure of the Presbyterian Church of Canada 316 and List of Moderators of the General Assembly Organizational Chart 316 List of Moderators of the General Assembly 317 Appendix D — Organizational Structure of the Methodist Church 318 Bibliography ix LIST OF TABLES Table 0.1. Religious Denominations of the Canadian Population (1911) 8 Table 1.2. Origins of the Canadian Population (1881-1911) 46 Table 4.1. Results of the Quebec Diocesan Collections for the Patriotic Fund 171 (October 1914) Table 4.3. Patriotic Fund Collections in the Diocese of St-Hyacinthe 179 (1914-1919) Table 4.4. Total Patriotic Fund Collections in the Diocese of St-Hyacinthe 181 (1914-1919) Table 4.5. Other War-Related Collections in Quebec Dioceses (1914-1917) 183 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1. Annual Immigration to Canada (1884-1919) 43 Figure 3.1. Organization of Methodist Women’s Patriotic Groups (Army and 125 Navy Board Reports, 1918) Figure 3.2. Methodist Belgian Relief Fund Donations (January 1915 - 133 December 1916) Figure 3.3. Organization of Canadian Overseas Military Units 141 Figure 3.4. Monthly Recruiting Figures (August 1914 - February 1917) 153 Figure 3.5. Monthly CEF Enlistments vs. Cumulative Fatal Casualties 155 (August 1914 - February 1917) Figure 4.2.