Chapter V. Dioceses THERE is a strong family likeness running through all our Canadian missionary dioceses; everywhere we find the same urgent call of need and of opportunity. And yet each diocese has its own peculiar features, as it were, its own marked idiosyncrasies. Some are in the East, others in the West; some are in the mountains, others on the plains; some produce wheat, others cattle, others silver and gold; some are almost stationary, others are advancing by leaps and bounds; in some the population is almost entirely made up of Indians, in others the whites greatly predominate; some are more or less high, others more or less low; some are strong and fully organized, others are only in the first stages of development. It will be our endeavour to point out briefly the special features by which each is marked, and the special duty to which it calls the Church in Eastern Canada and in the motherland. [57/58] It must, moreover, be constantly borne in mind that these dioceses are of enormous extent; that, in consequence, they are capable of indefinite development; and that subdivision is one of the exigencies for which provision must be made in the near future.
ALGOMA The Diocese of Algoma is an admirable illustration of the normal features of missionary work in Canada; mutatis mutandis, what is said of Algoma may be said of almost every other diocese, though it enjoys this distinction, that it was the creation of the Church in Eastern Canada, which, for a period of thirty years, contributed largely to its support, and nursed it through the critical stages of diocesan infancy. When it was established in 1873 it had no roads, no railways, no see house, no parsonage, no endowments, only nine small frame churches, seven clergy, of whom only four were in Priest's Orders, and a population of a few hundred souls scattered over the vast region that extends from Muskoka on the east to the head-waters of Lake Superior.
The trials of ministering to such a population, with altogether insufficient resources, cost the lives [58/59] of its first two Bishops. But with the advent of the railway, and the discovery of unsuspected material resources, the population has rapidly increased, and the diocese has become one of the most promising missionary fields in the Dominion, Railways and highways now cover the land as with a network; the diocese possesses a commodious see house, 39 parsonages, 95 churches, some of which are beautiful and substantial structures; 40 ordained clergy, 21 paid lay-readers, 10 self-supporting churches, 135 congregations, and diocesan endowments amounting in the aggregate to $150,000.
Thus the gradual discovery of the hidden resources of the country has wrought a complete transformation in the condition of the diocese. Muskoka has become a favourite summer resort; Sault Ste Marie, one of the great industrial centres of the Dominion; Parry Sound and Depot Harbour on the Georgian Bay, and Port Arthur and Fort William on Lake Superior, distributing centres of the grain trade of the West; Copper Cliff and Cobalt, centres of the mining industry; and Temiscaming, at the portals of New Ontario, a great agricultural area. The result of all this has been that whereas, for a quarter of a century, [59/60] the cry of Algoma was the cry of poverty and helplessness, now its cry is one that arises from abounding resources and varied and rapid development. It is the plain duty of the Church to press into this field of great opportunity, on pain of losing her hold upon one of the great centres of our national life. If adequate support be given to the devoted Bishop of Algoma during the next ten years, he may have the satisfaction of seeing his diocese one of the main pillars of the Church's life and power in the Dominion.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1873--Area, 70,000 square miles.
Bishops--F. D. Fauquier, 1873-1882: E. Sullivan, 1882-1896; G. Thorneloe, 1897.
Total population--White, 142,000; Indian, 8,000.
Church population--White, 16,355; Indian, 617.
Clergy, 40; paid lay workers, 21; parishes, 59, ten of which are self-supporting; congregations, 135.
New Missions to be occupied, 12.
The Homes for Indian boys and girls at Sault Ste Marie have for thirty years done a splendid work under great financial difficulties.
MOOSONEE The vast region around the shores of Hudson Bay formed part of the Diocese of Rupert's Land [60/61] till 1872, when it was set apart as the Diocese of Moosonee. In 1899 it was subdivided, and the western part given to the new Diocese of Keewatin.
It has been the scene of some of the noblest triumphs of the Gospel; whole Indian tribes have been brought to the knowledge of CHRIST by the missionaries of the Church. But the gradual withdrawal of the Church Missionary Society's grants has raised a serious question here as to the future of the Indian work, and has led Bishop Holmes to formulate a plan that would solve the difficulty, at very little expense, by the training of a native ministry especially suited to the conditions of Indian life. The wide experience and sound judgment of the Bishop are a guarantee that the scheme is practicable, and contains all the essential elements of success. But some financial help would be required to enable him to put his plan into operation.
One of the most remarkable transformations to be found in the Canadian field is about to change the whole face of this district. It is proposed to build the line of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway across the diocese from East to West. This will open up to settlement a vast and fertile stretch [61/62] of country extending from the watershed northward over one hundred miles, and from the Ottawa River westward five hundred miles. The names by which it is known--the Forest Region or the Clay Belt--sufficiently describe its character and resources. Its solitudes will soon resound with the whistle of saw-mills and locomotives; its forest glades will soon be transformed into rural homes and thriving towns and hamlets; it will furnish for many years to come incalculable quantities of timber, and possibly also of the precious metals; and it will for all time be the home of hundreds of thousands of happy and prosperous people. By natural transition this purely Indian diocese will become a diocese whose chief office will be to minister to white men. The call to the Church is imperative to be early in the field with her ministrations to those pioneers and settlers who are destined, in the providence of God, to be the fathers and founders of that new land. Missionaries will be needed to carry to them the message of God and of His Church; and money will be required, at the outset at least, for the support of the missionaries and the erection of church buildings. Thus Moosonee takes its place among our Canadian dioceses [62/63] with a special call of need and opportunity that cannot be overlooked without serious loss to the Church.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1872--Area, 600,000 square miles.
Bishops--John Horden, 1872-1893; J. A. Newnham, 1893-1903; G. Holmes, 1903.
Total Indian population, 6,500; Eskimo, 1,500.
Church population--Indian, 3,700; Eskimo, 360.
Clergy, 11: paid lay workers, 13; stations, 8; out-stations, 13.
KEEWATIN But in recent years the centre of gravity has shifted from the work among the Indians to that among the whites. The building of the Canadian Northern Railway, through the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods districts, has opened up a splendid mining and agricultural region, into which thousands of settlers have already gone. Saw-mills have been built, thriving towns have grown up, and many farms are being brought under cultivation. The white population now numbers fourteen thousand, four thousand of whom were added in 1906. Additional importance has been given to this feature of the work through the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, in connection with which thousands of navvies are being employed. But the most startling development [64/65] in this direction lies in the project to build a railway to Hudson Bay, with terminus at Fort Churchill. This seemingly impossible design is likely to become one of the accomplished facts of the near future, so great are the advantages which it presents. Hudson Bay is open to navigation till late in the autumn. Churchill is an admirable seaport. A railway would bring the grain of the Saskatchewan valley a thousand miles nearer to the sea. It would relieve the congestion which now exists in the grain traffic in the West, and provide for the still greater demands of the future. And its advantages as an Imperial highway may be seen from the fact that it would reduce the distance between England and Japan by nearly two thousand miles.
These remarkable developments will necessitate an increase in the number of clergy, with a corresponding increase of expenditure on stipends, church buildings, and general equipment. The beauty of the scenery, the salubrity of the climate, and the wealth of material resources in the mine, the forest, the field, the waterfall and the seaport, mark out this region as one of great promise for the future of the country and of the Church.
[66] Notes. Diocese formed, 1899--Area, 300,000 square miles.
Bishop--J. Lofthouse, 1902.
Total population, 23,000--White, 17,000; Indian, 5,000; Eskimo, 1,000.
Church population--White, 4,500; Indian, 3,000.
Seven new churches built during the last two years.
Clergy, 16; paid lay workers, 10; congregations, 33, one of which is self-supporting.
RUPERT'S LAND This parent diocese of the great North-West, this mother of eight dioceses, occupies a place peculiar to itself in the history of the Canadian Church. The first Church services in the West were held within its bounds in 1820; the first Bishop, west of Toronto, was the Right Rev. D. Anderson, first Bishop of Rupert's Land; at Red River, in 1882, the first school on the prairies was instituted, which, in course of time, became the parent of the flourishing Boys' School and Theological College of S. John's, of the University of Manitoba, and of the whole educational system of the North-West. Out of it were carved in 1872 the Diocese of Moosonee; in 1874 Saskatchewan and Athabasca; in 1884 Qu'Appelle and Mackenzie [66/67] River; in 1887 Calgary; in 1891 Selkirk, and in 1899 Keewatin.
It was in this diocese that the crucial problems of the West found a practical solution. Here the colony, founded by Lord Selkirk in 1811, proved the remarkable capacity of the Western soil for the production of wheat and grain. Here the settlers first came in considerable numbers, and met and gradually overcame the plagues of grasshoppers, of summer drought, and of early frost, that, at one time, threatened the whole future of the West. Here the first experiments in municipal and political life were successfully tried. Here an efficient public school and University system was established. Here the Church's system was first put into operation, and its initial problems successfully solved. Here the Provincial Synod was brought into efficient working order. Here at the Winnipeg Conference in 1S90 were laid the foundations of the General Synod, the Missionary Society, and the unification of the whole Canadian Church. Here the edifice received its finishing touch by the appointment of the Archbishop of Rupert's Land as first Primate of all Canada. Here a strong educational system in connection with the Church has been built up--a Church [67/68] school for girls, a Church school for boys, and a thoroughly efficient Theological College, clustering round the Provincial University. Here, too, the cathedral system has been made efficient through the use of a staff of dean and canons, who perform the double function of professors in the college and missionaries in the diocese. It is only a question of time, and a short time at that, when the Church in the diocese will be entirely self-supporting, and, like many of the dioceses in Eastern Canada, become a source of supply to the younger and weaker dioceses by which it is surrounded. The need of the moment here seems to be, apart from filling vacant Missions and opening new ones, to remove S. John's College into closer proximity with the Provincial University and to strengthen its endowment, so as to make it a thoroughly efficient training school for a ministry recruited from the ranks of the people of the land, and a vigorous centre of spiritual life and theological learning for the vast regions of the North-West.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1849--Area, 58,680 square miles. Bishops--D. Anderson, 1849-1864; R. Machray, 1865-1904; S. P. Matheson, Coadjutor 1903, Archbishop 1905.
[69] Total population--White, 357,000; Indian, 8,074 Chinese, 1,000.
Church population--White, 56,650; Indian, 3,350.
Clergy, 95; paid lay-readers, 42; self-supporting parishes, 32; aided Missions, 82; congregations, 310; 15 clergy needed to fill vacancies; 12 now fields needing to be occupied; 30 new churches opened during the last eighteen months. Fifty churches opened during the last three years.
QU'APPELLE This diocese affords an admirable illustration of the functions of railways in the work of colonization and of the Church. For fifteen years after the formation of the diocese that work remained practically at a standstill. Statesmanlike plans on the part of the episcopate, and zeal and devotion on the part of the clergy, were alike fruitless in presence of a small,scattered, and almost stationary population. Time, however, was allowed for the gaining of valuable experience, for the perfecting of organizations, for the building of churches at central points, and for the establishment of an Episcopal Endowment Fund.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring Diocese of Rupert's Land was being covered with a network of railways, [69/70] and its fertile lands were being brought under cultivation. The vital problems of the West were there being solved; and the whole country was gradually becoming known to the world as a most inviting field of immigration. Settlers began to pour in in copious streams. The railways began to extend their lines into Qu'Appelle, and the work of settlement advanced by leaps and bounds. And, under the experienced hand of Bishop Gris-dale, the work of the Church has fully kept pace with the progress of settlement. When the diocese was formed in 1884 there was only one clergyman, the Rev. J. R. Sargent, now Dean of Qu'Appelle, ministering to navvies and settlers along the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. There was no church, no parsonage, and, properly speaking, no congregation. Everything had to be built up from the foundations. During the last half-dozen years the work of the Church has been like a triumphal progress, The diocese now counts 2,000 Church families, besides 1,327 adult members, 3,341 communicants, 150 places where services are held, 67 churches, 31 parsonages, 48 ordained clergymen, 24 lay-readers; to the clergy nearly $20,000 are paid by their congregations, and the annual expenditure of the diocese has risen [70/71] to $60,000. The Episcopal Endowment Fund amounts to about $50,000, and the Clergy Endowment Fund to over $30,000.
Only the eastern and north-eastern parts of the diocese have as yet been largely taken up; but settlement is flowing westward like a rising tide. It is utterly impossible for the diocese unaided to cope with the needs thus created. This, with Saskatchewan and Calgary, may be called the head centre of the Canadian Church's mission-field at the present time. The land is productive. The settlers are of the better class, and a large proportion of them may be claimed by the Church. To neglect the work now is to sacrifice one of the most glorious opportunities in the mission-field. To give it prompt and generous support now will build up in Qu'Appelle one of the strongholds of the Church's life and power in the Dominion of Canada.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1884--Area, 90,000 square miles.
Bishops--The Hon. A. J. R. Anson, 1884- 1892; W. J. Burn, 1S93-1896; J. Grisdale, TS96.
Total population, 200,000; Church population, 27,000. These figures are only approximate.
Clergy, 48; paid lay workers, 7.
[72] Ten clergy were added to the list last year, and 12 churches built; 10 more clergy needed to occupy new Missions. A hostel has been established at Regina for the training of men for the ministry. Local resources are being developed as rapidly as possible here, as throughout the West.
CALGARY The Diocese of Calgary is a little world in itself, containing nearly all the most striking features of the other dioceses. It is a combination of plain and mountain. It produces in abundance both grain and cattle. It has wide timber limits and inexhaustible coal-beds. It possesses, along its whole western boundary, an incomparable view of the Rocky Mountains. Its climate is tempered, even in the far north, by the "Chinook" winds from the Pacific Ocean. Its foot hills, with their succulent grasses and their cool mountain streams, are a paradise for the cattle rancher. Its abundant supply of water from the hills, by a scientific system of irrigation, gives the parched prairie fields unfailing fertility. It is intersected by three transcontinental railways and innumerable branch lines, and is assured of at least two great commercial centres in Calgary and Edmonton. One need [72/73] not be a prophet to foretell a great future for such a region as that.
It is only natural that the Diocese of Calgary should have become one of the most attractive fields for immigration from the British Isles and from the United States, thirty to fifty thousand settlers coming in in one summer. Its population has in consequence multiplied many times over in the last ten years. Calgary has grown from a local town to a provincial metropolis, and Edmonton from a fur-trading post to a provincial capital.
And the Church has abundantly shared in the prosperity of the State. Where there was but one self-supporting congregation a few years ago there arc now nine; the clergy have grown from a dozen to more than four dozen, and mission-stations from a score to nearly a hundred and fifty. Calgary can boast of a beautiful cathedral, and an efficient Church School for girls, and Edmonton of a Provincial University. This gives us some measure of the greatness of the opportunity. The greatness of the need may be seen in the recent appeal of the Bishop for twenty-five clergymen to occupy important growing centres in the diocese. To stint such a region, in either men or money, for some years to come, would surely be to sacrifice [73/74] the vital interests of the Church in one of its most promising missionary fields.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1887--Area, 100,000 square miles.
Bishop--W. C. Pinkham, 1887.
Clergy, 55; paid lay workers, 4; self-supporting parishes, <j; congregations, T48. Twenty-five additional clergy now needed; also a large number of mission churches and parsonages.
Total population--White, 314,400; Indian, 5,000; Chinese, 600.
Church population--White, 18,000; Indian, 415; Chinese, 6.
There are four Indian Missions--on the Blackfoot, the Blood, the Pcigan, and the Sarcee Reserves. In addition to the boarding schools on each of those reserves, there is an industrial school at Calgary, under the control of the Church but supported by the Government.
KOOTENAY The work in this diocese is conditioned mainly by two things--the physical features and the chief industry of the country. The region is mountainous and mineral-bearing. In mining camps people necessarily live in close proximity to one another, and can readily combine to build their church and support their clergyman: all the [74/75] more that their resources are easily available, being always in the form of monthly wages. Mountainous regions abound in valleys, lakes, and rivers, where travel is provided for by boat or by rail, which gives the communities easy access to one another. Compact communities, easily reached--these are the distinguishing features of the work \n Kootenay, which explains the fact that, though one of the newest of our mission-fields, it is one of the most self-sufficing"; out of eighteen clergy, no less than nine are entirely supported by their congregations.
This region contains some of the grandest scenery in the world. The Arrow Lakes and Okanagan Lake, Mount Sir Donald and Mount Stephen, Rogers' Pass and Kicking Horse Pass, the Albert Canyon and Glacier Mouse, Revelstoke, Nelson, Field--these arc among the wonders of the tourist world. And scenery has a missionary bearing when it insures a large increase both in transient and in permanent population.
The mineral resources of the region are as varied as they are rich. The cattle ranches of the Nicola Valley; the fruit ranches of Vernon, Summerland, and Peachland; the mills of Cranbrook, and the coke ovens of Fernie; the timber [75/76] limits of the Kootenay and the Columbia valleys; the gold mines of Rossland, and the coal mines of Michel; the smelters of Trail and Grand Forks, and the pastoral and agricultural resources of the boundary country--this variety and wealth of material resources must assure to this region at no distant date a dense and opulent population, capable of building up one of the strong centres of Church life and power in the Dominion. The region is thus marked out as one of great promise for the future of the State and of the Church.
The attention of the world has, for the time being, been diverted from Kootenay to the grain-growing prairies of Saskatchewan and Alberta, and for some years back the region has advanced but slowly. Progress also has been retarded by unwise legislation; by the enormous power of trades-unions and their attendant strikes, in esse or in posse; by the high rate of wages, of transportation and of living, which have made the returns of the mining industry small and precarious. But all these adverse conditions are bound to change in a few years, when there will be a great increase in the inflow of capital and of population into the country. New mines will then be profitably worked. New towns and [76/77] villages will spring into being. New Missions will be opened, and new churches built. This will create a certain demand for outside help, but, as in the past, that help need not be large nor of long duration. The people in these regions are open-handed and self-reliant. There is a good deal of money in circulation in their midst. The stronger centres will give a helping hand to the weaker Missions; and the whole diocese soon rise to the dignity of self-support.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1900--Area, 70,000 square miles.
Bishop--John Dart, 1900.
Total population--White, 40,000; Indian, 1,500; Chinese, 1,000. Church population--White, 5,000. The Indians are Roman Catholics.
Clergy, 18; paid lay workers, 2; Church buildings, 24; Mission-stations, 53; self-supporting parishes, 9.
NEW WESTMINSTER The determining factor in the work of this diocese is the city of Vancouver. As the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the chief Canadian seaport on the Pacific coast, with a population of seventy thousand souls, rapidly [77/78] increasing, that city is assured of a great future, and, in course of time, will become, like Montreal and Toronto, a strong centre of Church life and influence, and a rich source of financial support for all the needy objects in the diocese.
Apart from the city of Vancouver the diocese is by no means strong. The rich mines and ranches of the interior are outside its bounds. It has no large agricultural areas, and such as exist are covered with dense forests that can only be cleared by degrees and at great expense. The gold mines of Cariboo have long since been exhausted. The only coal mines on the coast are on Vancouver Island. These conditions imply that for many years to come, outside a few centres, the whole population will be sparse and struggling and unable to provide for the ministrations of the Church.
And the problem is greatly complicated by the existence here and there of large foreign elements. The presence of many thousands of Chinese affords a precious opportunity, and at the same time presents a serious obligation. For nearly twenty years an encouraging Chinese work has been carried on both in New Westminster and in Vancouver. If, however, the Canadian [78/79] Government persists in imposing a tax $500 on every Chinaman who enters the country, the Chinese Mission will die a natural death from the lack of material to work upon. The Japanese, who cannot be so easily excluded owing to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and who are likely to play a much more important part in the industrial life of the country, afford another splendid opportunity that is not being neglected. For nearly half a century the Indians at Lytton and neighbourhood have been under the care of the Church, and two thousand of them have been reclaimed from heathenism and nourished in the principles of the Christian Faith. In addition to evangelistic work, the Church has also inaugurated an excellent educational work among them. There is a large Boarding School for Indian boys at Lytton, under the New England Company, with a Church clergyman as principal. There is a prosperous boarding school for Indian girls at Yale, under the Sisters of Ditchingham. Both these institutions are mainly supported by a per capita grant from the Canadian Government. The weak point in the Indian work of this, as of nearly all our Canadian dioceses, is the lack of practical training to fit the Indian to become a self-reliant citizen, and the failure to call forth [79/80] from the Indian congregations a larger measure of self-support.
Though the development of the country-parts of the diocese is likely to be slow, and the rural population for many years to come to be sparse and weak, yet the wonderful possibilities of a great commercial centre like Vancouver, and the remarkable progress made in recent years, encourage the most sanguine hopes for the future. Fifteen years ago there were only eighteen clergy in the diocese, which embraced Kootenay as well; now there are eighteen clergy in Kootenay and thirty-three in New Westminster. Then, there was not, properly speaking, one self-supporting church; now there are eighteen. Then, not more than $300 were raised for Missions; now, not less than $3,000. The Church population has trebled. The Diocese of Kootenay has been set apart as a separate jurisdiction. A Church school for girls has been successfully maintained at Yale, and a Church school for boys at Vancouver. The Episcopal Endowment Fund, which was almost non-existent, has been completely restored. Thanks to the generosity of the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts, a handsome endowment enables an Archdeacon to devote all his time, under the Bishop, to the [80/81] general work of the diocese. Thus all the wheels of the diocesan machinery are in good working order. The great desideratum here is the establishment of a thoroughly efficient Theological College that would afford a means of training to many aspirants for the ministry, and supply a need that is deeply felt throughout the regions bordering on the Pacific coast. A modicum of outside help for a few years more will tide the Church over a critical period, and launch it, well-organized and strong, into a self-sustaining condition.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1879--Area, 160,000 square miles.
Bishops--A. W. Sillitoe, 1879-1894; John Dart, 1895.
Population--White, 100,000; Indian, 8,696; Chinese, 5,000: Japanese, 4,000.
Church population--White, 12,000; Indian, 1,679; Chinese, 50; Japanese, 90.
Clergy, 33; paid lay-readers, 7; self-supporting parishes, 9; congregations, 90.
COLUMBIA The Pacific coast of British Columbia enjoys rich historical associations. In 1779 Captain [81/82] Cook, the world-renowned explorer, wintered at Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In 1792 Captain Vancouver explored the indented coast-line from Puget Sound to Alaska. The steamer "Beaver," in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, rounded Cape Horn in 1839, and for nearly half a century did yeoman service on the Pacific coast. The regions at the mouth and along the course of the Columbia, the Fraser, the Thompson, the Skeena, the Stikine, and the Naas were familiar scenes to the Hudson's Bay traders. Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific in 1792 in a memorable overland journey from Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca. Simon Fraser, his trusted companion, performed an equally remarkable feat when he descended the Fraser River in a canoe from its source to its mouth. The present site of Victoria, then known as Camosum, was chosen by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1852 as the site of their chief trading post on the Pacific, and the Rev. C. H. Cridge came out in 1856 as their chaplain. In 1859 Bishop Hills was consecrated first Bishop of British Columbia.
In 1860 Bishop Hills took his first journey to the mainland, and consecrated the church, now [82/83] the cathedral, of Holy Trinity, New Westminster. The same year he consecrated S. John's Church, Victoria. The present house of the Bishop was originally an iron mission-room, and was sent out from England. In 1862 the number of the clergy had risen to sixteen. The Cariboo gold craze of 1859 had drawn thousands of people to Victoria and the Fraser River. A church was accordingly built at Hope Station, the centre of the gold excitement, and was consecrated in 1862. In 1863 churches at Saanich and Nanaimo were erected. In 1867 Holy Trinity, New Westminster, was burnt down, but was soon after rebuilt. In 1866 was built the church at Esquimalt, which has ministered to the sailors of the North Pacific squadron of the British fleet stationed there. When the squadron was withdrawn in 1906, the last vestige of England's military and naval power disappeared from Canada. The secession of the Rev. C. H. Cridge from the Church, and his appointment to the oversight of the Reformed Episcopal movement, proved for years a great cause of weakness to the Church in Victoria. In 1874 a Synod was established for the Diocese of Columbia, and during the next four years churches were built at Metchosin and Cowichan. In 1879 [83/84] the diocese was divided--Vancouver Island and the islands of the Gulf of Georgia forming the Diocese of Columbia, the southern part of the mainland of British Columbia forming the Diocese of New Westminster, and the northern part the Diocese of Caledonia. The division left the parent diocese with only eight clergy, in addition to the Archdeacon and the Bishop. In i 889 the clergy of the diocese were ten in number, and new churches were built at Cedar Hill and Comox; but from this time onward the increase in the number of clergy was rapid, and when Bishop Hills resigned in 1892 it had risen to twenty-two. Bishop Perrin was consecrated to succeed Bishop Hills in 1893. The number of clergy is now twenty-six. New churches have been built at Wellington, Saanich, Cedar District, Cumberland, Alberni, Salt Spring Island, Ladysmith, French Creek, Duncans, Cowichan, Mayne Island, and in Victoria, S. Mark's. All the churches in Victoria and Nanaimo are self-supporting. The old church in Nanaimo has been replaced by a larger and a more beautiful structure. An excellent work is being done among the Indians at Alert Bay through the Church Missionary Society. A special effort is being made to reach the Chinese in Victoria. [84/85] The site of the cathedral is one of the most conspicuous in the city; hopes are entertained that by and by the Church people of Victoria will erect on that commanding site a structure worthy of the Church and worthy of their beautiful city. The scenery in and around Victoria is of exceptional beauty. The mountains of the mainland, seen at a distance of fifty miles, afford a panorama which can hardly be surpassed elsewhere. The beauty of the surroundings and the mildness of the climate are attracting large numbers of residents to Victoria. The writer remembers crossing the continent and experiencing thirty-two degrees below zero at North Bay, forty-four at Chapleau, fifty-two at White River, forty at Winnipeg, Regina, and Prince Albert, and then seeing snowdrops and other delicate flowers in bloom in the Bishop's garden in Victoria on January 25th. The day is probably not remote when there will be very large additions to the population of Vancouver Island, and when a great impetus will be given to the work of the Church. At present the progress, though substantial, is slow; but it is very important that the centres of population should be held by the Church, in order that she may be ready to take advantage of the [85/86] developments of the future, which are likely to be neither small nor remote.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1859--Area, 17,000 square miles.
Bishops--George Hills, 1859-1892; W. W. Perrin, 1893.
Total population--White, 47,000; Indian, 3,000; Chinese, 4,000.
Church population--White, 7,000; Indian, 570.
Clergy, 26: paid lay workers, 6. Self-supporting parishes, 8; aided Missions, 17; congregations, 40. Collegiate school for boys at Victoria. Schools for Indian boys and girls at Alert Bay.
Columbian Coast Mission--Mission-ship "Columbia," the Rev. John Antle, captain and chaplain, plying among logging camps in Gulf of Georgia; containing mission-room, hospital cots and operating table, dispensary, library, and doctor. Hospitals, with doctor and two nurses, at Rock Bay and Van Anda, and another soon to be erected at Alert Bay.
CALEDONIA This diocese is largely a reproduction of that of New Westminster. There are the same Chinese and Japanese problems. There are the same heavily-timbered valleys and hill-sides, the same prospect of slow development, and the same need [86/87] of outside assistance; and there is the same outlook of a bright and rosy future. There is the same indented coast, the same commodious anchorage, and the same glorious scenery. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway will be a great transcontinental line like the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Prince Rupert a great commercial centre like Vancouver. The mines and logging camps of the interior, the outlet to the sea for the products of Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the unlimited trade with the Orient: all this offers an inviting prospect for the surplus capital and population of the British Islands, affords a glorious opportunity to the Church of England, and presents an irresistible appeal to the loyalty and liberality of its members. The Church at home should join hands with her daughter in the Dominion and support Bishop Du Vernet's hands in laying solid foundations for the Church in what is one of the newest and most promising districts in the Empire.
The Indian work in Caledonia is perhaps the most successful work of the kind to be met with anywhere, and has produced one of the richest harvests in the whole missionary field. For humble and consistent Christian lives, for [87/88] peaceful and triumphant death-beds, for intelligent, self-reliant, and progressive citizenship, these converted savages and cannibals afford a complete vindication of the cause of Missions. They set a reproachful example to the whites in their attendance on all the means of grace, in their study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the performance of the duties of religion. They live in neat and beautiful houses. They are skilful blacksmiths, carpenters and builders. Some are captains of steamers, while many find remunerative employment in the mills and cannaries. They are a perfect illustration of what the Indian is capable of under favourable circumstances and wise treatment. Their offering of $1,000 to preach the Gospel to their own people, to the heathen, and even to the white settlers in Canada, is a fact that is eloquent of the fruits of the Gospel. It would be a thousand pities if anything were allowed to mar a work which has already produced such wonderful results.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1879--Area, 200,000 square miles. Bishops--W. Ridley, 1879-1904; F. H. Du Vernet, 1904.
[89] Total population--White, 5,000; Indian, 8,000; Chinese, 1,500; Japanese, 1,000.
Church population--White, 559; Indian, 2,308; Chinese, 5; Japanese, 10.
Clergy, 11; paid lay workers, 12; aided Missions, 17; congregations, 20: native catechists, 8. Homes for Indian boys, Indian girls, and half-breed children at Metlakatla.
YUKON The Diocese of Selkirk, whose name has recently been changed to that of Yukon, has peculiar features all its own. The valley of the Yukon was first visited by Archdeacon Kirkby in 1862, when he crossed the Rocky Mountains from Fort McPherson; and for nearly forty years the work was restricted to the Indians, who were the only inhabitants. When Selkirk was formed into a separate diocese in 1891, and Bishop Bompas became its first Bishop, his intention was to bury himself from civilization in the most remote and isolated mission-field in the world.
Great was his surprise when in 1896 gold was discovered in the Yukon Valley, and tens of thousands of men began to flock into it from all [89/90] parts of the world. They climbed impassable mountains, and were overwhelmed by snowslides. They braved the dangers of the river, and were engulfed in its angry waters. They underwent the hardships of fatigue and hunger, and left their bones on many a lonely hill-side. And among the number of these adventurers were many splendid young men from the best homes of Eastern Canada and of England. As a natural consequence the work among the Indians dwindled in importance, and their character was in many cases ruined by the vices and fire-water of the whites. If ever Christian work should appeal to the deepest sympathy of Christian people, it is surely that among the gold-seekers of the valley of the Yukon, for it contains every element of pathos that can be imagined. Here is loneliness, hardship, fatigue, hunger, sickness, death--all braved, even courted, literally, for the sake of gold. Here are men, young men, cultivated, refined, chivalrous, daring, the best material that can be brought into the Kingdom of God. The last day will reveal that a most fruitful work for the spiritual Kingdom of Christ has been wrought among the miners of the Klondyke.
[91] Notes. Diocese formed, 1891--Area, 200,000 square miles.
Bishops--W. C. Bompas, 1891-1905; I. O. Stringer, 1905.
Total population--White, S,ooo; Indian, 1,000.
Church population--White, 600; Indian, 460.
Clergy, 7; paid lay workers, 2; aided Missions, 8. Celebrated Klondyke in northern part of diocese. Four Indian Missions--at Carcross (with boarding school), at Selkirk, at Moosehide, and at Forty Mile.
MACKENZIE RIVER This is perhaps the largest and most unpromising diocese in the whole Anglican communion. Its remoteness and difficulty of access, and its almost total absence of material resources, make it only a fit home for the fur-bearing animal, the roaming Indian, the fur-trader, and the missionary. And yet, who can say? Steamers are now plying on the Mackenzie River, and inexhaustible coal-beds are found to exist on its banks. The unexplored wastes of this diocese may contain rich deposits of gold and silver; and the Church may soon be called to minister to a white population in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle. But this is only [91/92] speculation. The stern reality we have to face is the simple Indian question, stripped of all adventitious circumstances. In this region the Indians have already shown their willingness to receive the Word of Gon, and nowhere in the mission-field have there been more remarkable cases of conviction of sin, of conversion to God, of holy lives and triumphant death-beds, than under the ministries of Archdeacon Kirkby, Archdeacon Macdonald, and Bishop Bompas, among the Tudukh Indians of the far North. As in the case of Egypt, the country is made habitable by the river. The Indians cannot stray beyond a certain distance from the water, and to the water they must return to dispose of their pelts to the Hudson's Bay Company. Although the area of the diocese is half a million of square miles, for all practical purposes it consists of half a dozen trading-posts along the river bank--Hay River, Resolution, Simpson, Norman, Good Hope and McPherson. Hence the Indian tribes in that vast region are few and widely scattered. Their life is one of continual hardship and privation, sometimes amounting to positive famine, which makes them peculiarly exposed to the ravages of disease. If weakness and helplessness, [92/93] misery and hopelessness, have a special place in the Divine Compassion, then perhaps, amid the many voices by which the Church in Canada is wooed along the path of missionary enterprise and endeavour, the most powerful call is that which comes from the most helpless and most hopeless--the poor, scattered, diminished remnant that inhabits the desolate regions of Mackenzie River.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1884--Area, 500,000 square miles.
Bishops--W. C. Bompas, 1884-1891; W. D. Reeve, 1891-1907.
Population--White, 300; Indian, 4,616; Eskimo, 400.
Church population--White, 100; Indian, 1,000; Eskimo, 400.
Stations at Hay River, with boarding school for Indian boys and girls, Fort Simpson, Fort Norman, Fort Wrigley, Fort McPherson, and Herschel Island.
Clergy, 7; paid lay workers, 13; stations, 5; out-stations, 7.
ATHABASCA Established originally as an Indian diocese, Athabasca is likely to have, at no distant date, a large white population. Indian work here has never possessed that thrilling interest which [93/94] marked its progress elsewhere. Rather has it been prosaic and disappointing. The tribes have never been either numerous or powerful. They have been decimated by small-pox and measles. They are less than five thousand to-day, of whom less than five hundred are members of the Church. In these sad facts, however, lies the strength of their appeal to us--the appeal as from those who are passing off the scene to those who can afford to be generous because they are advancing, in all the pride of conscious strength, to possess the land and to found an Empire.
But the passing of the Indian means the advent of the white man. The Peace River valley is bound to become an important agricultural region. Its climate is healthy and not too rigorous. Its land is abundant and fertile. In the vicinity of the Cariboo and the Klondyke it no doubt possesses an abundance of the precious metals. It boasts of wide timber limits and great stores of water-power. Through it must pass great railways, leading over the mountains to the Pacific coast, or forming an all-Canadian route to the Yukon. Its many resources will be greatly enhanced in value when it has direct communication with Hudson Bay, and is [94/95] thus placed on the shortest route to the markets of Europe and of Asia. Then will the words of the old prophet receive one more fulfilment, "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad thereof; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." Here is another token of the bountiful goodness of GOD, and another appeal to the devotion and liberality of the Church, that the waters of the Peace River may become a highway to the message of the Prince of Peace.
Notes. Diocese formed, 1874--Area, 200,000 square miles.
Bishops--W. C. Bompas, 1874-1884; R. Young, 1S84-1903; W. D. Reeve, 1903-1907.
Total population--White, 500; Indian, 3,716; half-breeds, 3,395.
Church population--White, 400; Indian, 400.
Clergy, 10; churches, 9; paid lay workers, 14.
eSASKATCHEWAN For our present purpose the work in the Diocese of Saskatchewan began only four years ago, with the advent of the British, at first known as the Barr Colony. The diocese had long been celebrated for its successful work among the Indians. Missions had been established at [95/96] Cumberland Lake in 1840; at Lac La Ronge in 1845; at Nipoweewin and Stanley in 1852; and subsequently at Prince Albert and Battleford; but all these were Indian stations. Until 1903, practically all the work of the diocese was Indian work, carried on mainly by native clergy, teachers, and catechists.
White settlers, indeed, had begun to move into the Prince Albert district as far back as 1862. The first church in the district, S. Mary's, still standing near Emmanuel College, was erected in 1874 by the settlers, cheered on by Bishop McLean, who had just been consecrated to the new See of Saskatchewan. Two or three small churches, in course of time, were built, near Prince Albert, in which the spiritual interests of both the Indians and the whites were served by the same ministrations; but the settlers were few, progress was slow, and there was but little prospect that a strong self-supporting Church would ever be built up in those regions.
In course of time, however, it was demonstrated and became widely known that the Saskatchewan Valley was admirably suited for agricultural purposes, that the land was fertile and the climate enjoyable. The Canadian Northern Railway was [96/97] building its line northward and westward, with all possible speed, from Port Arthur and Winnipeg; and the Canadian Pacific Railway, not to be outdone, was planning a branch line from Wetaskiwin in Alberta, eastward to Saskatoon. At that juncture, at what might be called the psychological moment, the British colony came on the scene. Two thousand five hundred people set out from all parts of the British Isles to carve homes for themselves in this new land of promise. They left Liverpool in April, 1903, in the "Lake Manitoba"; landed at S. John's, New Brunswick, and were conveyed, during five days and five nights, by the Canadian Pacific Railway, a distance of three thousand miles, through New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. At Saskatoon, where they left the railway and camped on the banks of the Saskatchewan, they had still two hundred miles to travel; the men drove their teams, laden with their goods and chattels, and most of the women and children trudged on foot. The weather at times was most severe, and the trails, at intervals, almost impassable. Along the way they saw no house and hardly any sign of life, except at Battleford; and, when they had reached their destination, [97/98] they found themselves in the centre of a tract of land, set apart for their use, some sixty miles square, in the midst of a boundless prairie. With the settlers the Colonial and Continental Church Society had sent out a chaplain, George Exton Lloyd by name, to keep the colonists in touch with religion and the Church. The first services were held in the open air, in what is now called Lloydminster. The first church was an old schoolhouse, 20 feet by 24, purchased from the Mission at Fort Pitt, and carried forty miles across the prairie. This was called the rectory-church, because it served as a residence for the chaplain as well as a place of worship for the people. Then services were held by the chaplain, and by as many lay workers as could be pressed into the service, wherever a dozen or half a dozen people could be gathered together.
Meanwhile the Canadian Northern Railway had completed its line westward to Edmonton; and the Canadian Pacific Railway had begun its branch line eastward to Saskatoon; and a new competitor had appeared on the scene, in the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Settlers who, in the early days of travel by canoe and dog train, [98/99] had come in by families, now began to arrive by thousands. Immigrants poured in from the United States and from Continental Europe, as well as from the British Isles. Farm houses, villages, and towns, sprang up as if by magic, and enormous elevators began to rear their lofty forms against the horizon. As a result 100,000 people are now to be found within the bounds of the Diocese of Saskatchewan, and these will soon be reinforced by many hundreds of thousands. They have spread like water over the face of a country more than 100,000 miles in extent, and have become, in that wilderness, as sheep without a shepherd. It was to meet this emergency that the Saskatchewan plan, described at page 119, was devised. The British colony, a large enterprise in its day, now seems a small thing, with its paltry 2,500 souls, and its 3,600 square miles, as compared with a district over 100,000 square miles in extent, and a population soon to be reckoned by millions. The chaplain of the little colony has become Archdeacon Lloyd, the organizing agent, under the Bishop, of the work of the Church in this vast district, and in the midst of this teeming population.
[100] The main features of the work are of the most cheering and hopeful character. The soil is rich, the climate is healthful, the incoming population is of the best. The settlers are, in large numbers, of English parentage and members of the Church of England. The leaders of the Church on the spot are men of wisdom and experience; and the Church in the motherland is co-operating actively with the Church in Canada, The very magnitude of the task is likely to stimulate the sluggish energies of the Church, for it implies the building up not of a province, but of a country; the nurturing not of a small tribe, but of a great nation; the creation not of a diocese, but of a national Church.
Notes. Diocese--Diocese formed, 1874--Area, 150,000 square miles.
Bishops--John McLean, 1874-1886; W. C. Pinkham, 1887-1903; J. A. Newnham, 1903 (translated from Moosonee).
Total population--White, 100,000; Indian, 6,500. Church population--White, about 30,000; Indian, 3,534.
Clergy, 33; paid lay workers, 79; self-supporting parishes, 4; stations, 51; out-stations, 204; congregations, 87.
Thus it will be seen that each diocese possesses special features of interest, but all merge into one great whole of immense need and of glorious opportunity. Thus sea and land, the farm, the mine, the forest, combine to make Algoma a region of boundless possibilities; the great forest region, the great clay belt, providing a road-bed for a national and imperial railway, assures Moosonee of a great future; three transcontinental railways crossing a region rich in mineral and agricultural resources, leave no doubt as to the importance of Keewatin; an area of one thousand miles from east to west, and five hundred miles from north to south, containing the richest grazing and grain-growing land in the world, capable of nourishing a farming and ranching population of many millions, would almost seem to fix the centre of the life of the Dominion on the Western Plains--in Rupert's Land, Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, Calgary, and Athabasca: the richest mineral deposits, the widest timber areas, the most abundant salmon fisheries, some of the grandest scenery in the world; no mean capabilities for the production of cattle, fruit and [101/102] grain; a coast-line with great seaports commanding the enormous trade of the Orient and the Pacific; this must ensure to the Dioceses of Kootenay, New Westminster, Columbia, and Caledonia, a future beyond the dreams of the enthusiasts; while the lure of gold and the attractions of the chase will, as the years roll on, invest increasingly the Dioceses of Yukon and of Mackenzie River with all the glories of the midnight sun and of the aurora borealis. These vast regions, with their varied resources and attractions, will long continue to command the attention of the world, and for twenty-five years to come will tax the energy and the resources of the whole Anglican communion. There are 75,000 Indians, and 8,000 Eskimos in the far North; there are 15,000 Chinese, and 5,000 Japanese in the far West; there are 6,000 Mormons, 100,000 Galicians, 8,000 Dukhobors, 10,000 Mennonites on the central plains; and the English-speaking settlers, who number a million, are being increased annually by a quarter of a million, from all parts of the British Isles and of the British Empire--free men all, under constitutional government, with a high general level of intelligence, with every [102/103] needful educational institution at their command, from the kindergarten to the University, and with the highest positions in the State within their reach. A moderate estimate would place the need of this field, from outside sources, for many years to come, at one hundred churches and fifty clergy per annum, and, for the support and equipment of the Church, at an annual expenditure of £50,000. It is doubtful whether, in any part of the mission-field, at any period of Christian history, a more glorious opportunity has been presented to the statesmanship and the missionary enterprise of the Church.