Walter Gilray Anderson (1907-2002) was a medical doctor and missionary to India with The United Church of Canada. He was born in Ratlam, India to missionaries Rev. Frederick J. and Mabel Anderson. His early education took place in India. He graduated from The University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1928, and a degree in medicine in 1934. While a student, he spent his summers on home mission fields in northern Saskatchewan. In 1937 he was stationed in India as a medical missionary. Following one year of language study, he began as a Staff Doctor at Ratlam Hospital in 1938. From 1941-1946 he served in the Indian Army Medical Service. He was captured and taken prisoner of war in Singapore on February 15, 1942 and was held for 3.5 years in various camps along the Quai River Valley in Burma [Myanmar]. After a furlough in Canada, Anderson returned to Ratlam hospital in 1948. From 1955-1960, he served as Medical Superintendent at Banswara, and from 1960-1976 was at Ratlam Hospital. At the time of his retirement in 1976, Anderson was the last Canadian medical missionary serving in an Indian hospital.
Rev. George Nash Ball (1917-2008) was an ordained minister of The United Church of Canada. He was born near Jordan, Ontario. He attended primary school in Grimsby and Vineland Station, and high school in Beamsville before attending McMaster University; receiving a B.A. in 1940. He then earned a diploma at Emmanuel College (University of Toronto) in 1943; an M.A. from Yale University in 1946 and a Bachelor of Divinity from Emmanuel College in 1959. He was received as a candidate for ministry in 1940 at Vineland United Church in Niagara Presbytery and was ordained in 1943 at Ryerson United Church, Hamilton. He married his partner Gertrude in 1943, and served at Manitowaning (Sudbury Presbytery) from 1943-1945. He did Overseas Mission work in Chengdu, West China from 1945-1949. He then returned to Canada where he remained for his career, serving at Hagersville (Haldimand-Norfolk Presbytery, 1949-1950); Niagara on the Lake (Niagara Presbytery, 1950-1958); Tara-Arkwright (Bruce Presbytery, 1958-1963); Ripley (Bruce Presbytery, 1963-1973); and Milverton (Huron-Perth Presbytery, 1973-1980). Ball died in 2008.
Harvey W. Becking (1896-1934) was a missionary to China with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the United Church of Canada. He was born in Bruce County, Ontario in 1896. After returning from overseas, where he served with the Canadian Forces, he was appointed as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in April, 1921. That same year, he married Clementine Isabel Macpherson and the couple were designated to the South China mission. Mr. Becking was appointed Principal of the Boys' Boarding School at Kongmoon and held that position until his withdrawal from the mission field in November, 1934. After resigning from the mission field in 1936, he was a teacher at Long Branch, Ontario.
Lenore Pearl Beecham (1928-2021) was overseas personnel with The United Church of Canada. She was born and spend much of her childhood in Toronto, attending Rawlinson Public School and Vaughan Road Collegiate. She trained and worked as a teacher, then enrolled in Toronto Bible College [Tyndale College] where she met her future life partner, Walter Beecham. After graduating in 1955 she enrolled at The United Church of Canada's Centre for Christian Studies (majoring in Christian Education and Pastoral Care) and graduated as a Deaconess. The couple were sent by The United Church of Canada to South Korea in 1958 where they worked together from 1959-1981 in partnership with the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea. After retiring from the mission field, having completed her Bachelor of Arts through Maryland University extension program, she went back to the University of Toronto and earned her Master's of Divinity at Emmanuel College, Victoria University. In 1983, at the age of 55, she became an ordained minister in The United Church of Canada. For For a period of time, she served as an assistant minister of the Korean Central Church in Toronto. In 1983, Lenore became the interim Minister at St. James United Church. During her term there, she held early morning Bible Studies at 7 a.m., which evolved into a group called “Morning Meds”. This group met every Thursday
morning, and continued for almost 40 years in neighbouring churches, nurturing lifelong friendships. When Lenore accepted a call to Richview United Church, she broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman lead minister in a Metro Toronto congregation. She served there for 8 years from 1984 until her retirement in 1992. In 1984, her book Song of the Soul: In Celebration of Korea was published. Upon retirement in 1992, she and Walter returned to St. James United Church in Etobicoke, and quickly became involved in the life of the congregation, its many committees and groups. Lenore passed away in 2021.
Walter McKenzie Beecham was overseas personnel with The United Church of Canada. He was ordained in 1958 in Toronto Conference, and in 1959 went to South Korea, along with his wife, Lenore Pearl Beecham. They worked in South Korea from 1959-1981 in partnership with the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, living and raising children there during turbulent times. Upon retiring from the overseas field, Walter was a minister at the following places: Cliffcrest (Scarborough) (1985-1986), Woodgreen (Toronto) (1986-1987), Alton-Caledon (Caledon) (1988-1989), Bethesda of Forest Glen (Mississauga) (1989-1990), Home-Huttonville-Norval (Huttonville) (1990-1991), Mayfield (Caledon) (1991-1992), He retired in 1991 but worked as a retired minister at St. John's (Georgetown) from 1991-1994), and Mayfield (Caledon) in 1994. He died in 2001.
Rev. Charles “Charlie” Alfred Bridgman (1882-1978) was a missionary in West China who served there for thirty-five years. He was born in Winona, Ontario on March 20, 1882. He graduated from Victoria College in 1910. In 1912, he was ordained by the Methodist church and was appointed as a missionary in West China. He arrived in West China in 1913 and thereafter specialized in rural work where he ministered and also introduced new types of fruits and vegetables to the region. On June 20, 1917, he married Margaret Jean Modeland, a missionary nurse who specialized in child welfare. They had three children: Christy Jean, Donald Charles, and Elizabeth Ruth. He retired from missionary work in 1948 and returned to his hometown of Winona.
Muriel Brown (nee Hockey) received a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria College. In 1912 she served as the Assistant Superintendent of the National Training School, Toronto. Then, having been specially trained for educational work, she went to China under the Woman’s Missionary Society in 1913. She carried on the work of the school for evangelists’ wives, and taught in the Canadian School for Missionaries’ Children, where for a time she acted as matron. She also worked for a time teaching English in the refugee University of Nanking in Chengtu. The Browns returned from China in 1942.
Ethelwyn Gordon Chace (1878-1958) was born in St. Catharines, Ontario and was a missionary with the Methodist, then United Church of Canada for 37 years serving mostly new Canadians in boarding schools and school homes in Alberta and Toronto. She received an honour matriculation at the University of Toronto, then graduated from the Ontario College of Education, and the United Church Training School. She was appointed to the Methodist Mission Board in 1907 and served the following places in Alberta; Wahstao (1907-1911, 1917-1918, 1920-1922, 1923-1927), Chipman (1912-1916), Edmonton (1916-1917), Radway (1937-1939) and Toronto: Dufferin Street (1930, 1934-1937), and Church of All Nations (1933-1934). She retired in 1944 and died in Toronto in December, 1958.
Phoebe Chan came to Canada in about 1900 to join her brother, Rev. Yu Tan Chan, who served as lay preacher at the Chinese Methodist Church in Vancouver. Because of her experience in a mission school in China, she was engaged by the Woman's Missionary Society as Kindergarten Assistant and Bible Teacher at the church. She spent about 35 years teaching and providing pastoral care within the Chinese community, through the Methodist and United Churches. Following an accident in about 1942, Phoebe Chan retired as kindergarten teacher at the age of 72. She died in 1953, in her 84th year.
Dr. Jean Collins (nee Gurd) was born in Montreal 1903 and received her English Degree from McGill University in 1925. She went on to complete her Masters and taught for four years in the English Department. She was an active member of the Church and engaged in the beginnings of the C.G.I.T. movement. After marriage to Dr. Ralph Collins in 1929 she moved to Angola to work with him. They served in Camundongo until 1947 when they were appointed to organize and direct Emmanuel Seminary in Dondi. After their retirement from Angola in 1959 she returned to Ottawa to work at Carleton University. Mrs. Collins was a nominee for Moderator in 1974 and in May 1975 she received an honorary D.D. from United Theological College in Montreal. Dr. Jean Collins died March 29, 1994.
Ralph Collins was born in England, May 8 1892 and died September 30, 1970. He arrived in Canada at age 17 and received his B.A. from McGill in 1923 and his B.D. in 1925 from Congregational College. He would receive an honorary D.D. from the United Theological College in Montreal in 1946. Dr. Collins was ordained in 1925 and arrived in Angola as a missionary in 1926 to take over from Dr. W.H. Sanders. In 1929 he married Miss Jean Gurd in Montreal and she worked alongside him in Angola. They served in Camundongo until 1947 when they were appointed to organize and direct Emmanuel Seminary in Dondi. Dr. Collins returned from Angola in 1958 and held various short positions as Retired Supply in Ottawa including Wesley, Permbroke, Larder Lake, Cardinal, South Mountain, Vars-Nava, Parkdale and Knox United.
Edward Bruce Copland, (1901-1989) was an ordained United Church missionary and administrator. He studied at McGill University, United Theological College (Montreal), and in Edinburgh and in Paris, earning the degrees of M.A. and D.D. He served at the Honan Mission in China during 1922-1926 and 1931-1942. He was the Executive Secretary of the Church of Christ in China from 1942 to 1951, and secretary for missionary personnel for the National Council of Churches of Christ (U.S.A.) during the early 1950s. He taught school in Taiwan from 1929 to 1931, and was appointed Associate General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Formosa in 1957.
John Douse (1801-1886) was a Wesleyan Methodist minister and administrator. Born in Hull, England, Douse migrated to Canada as a missionary to Indigenous peoples in 1834. He was received on trial and ordained in 1834-1835 at Grand River. He served some of Ontario's largest and most prestigious Wesleyan Methodist charges, including the St. Clair Mission (Sarnia Township) for five years. He was also a Chairman of Districts and a long-time treasurer of the Superannuated Ministers' Fund.
James Evans was a teacher, Methodist minister and missionary, linguist, and author. He was born in Kingston-upon-Hull, England, the son of James Evans, ship’s captain, and Mary–. He married Mary Blithe Smith in 1822, and they had two daughters, one of whom died in childhood. He died in Kelby, England.
Evans went to school in Lincolnshire, England. In 1822 he followed his parents to Lower Canada. He found employment as a teacher near L’Original, Upper Canada. About three years later he and his wife moved to Augusta Township on the St Lawrence River, where he converted to Methodism. He accepted an appointment to the Rice Lake School for Indian children [Alderville Residential School] in 1828. Ordained in 1833, he was appointed to the St Clair Mission (near Port Sarnia) in 1834. In 1838, the Canada Conference sent him on a tour of the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1839 he met Governor George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who in January 1840 agreed to support Methodist missionaries, named by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in Britain, in its territory. Evans, who since his return to Upper Canada had been serving as minister at Guelph, was appointed to Norway House, Manitoba, in April of that year. However, his concerns for the Indigenous peoples, and his location at a main transfer point of the HBC brought him into conflict with company policy and practice, culminating in accusations of sexual misconduct and a request for his removal by Simpson in 1845. The Wesleyan Society invited him back to England, where he was tried before Methodist church authorities. He was acquitted of sexual improprieties. Evans died suddenly of a heart attack following a missionary rally in Lincolnshire in November 1846. In 1955 his remains were brought from England and reburied at Norway House.
During his career Evans studied several Indigenous languages. In the past he was accredited with developing a syllabary for the Ojibwa (1836) and Cree (1840) languages, which he used for teaching, translating and writing. The history of the development of Cree syllabics has been studied, and the prevailing narrative is the syllabics are ultimately the result of collaboration between numerous Indigenous people and James Evans (Harp, S. (2023 March 9) Origins of Cree Syllabics. Library and Archives Canada Blog). Evans did translate and print portions of the New Testament, hymns and other material. He published his book Speller and Interpreter, in Indian and English, for the use of the mission schools, and such as may desire to obtain a knowledge of the Ojibway tongue in 1837.
Annie Helen Hale (d. 1982) trained for 3 years at the City Hospital in Hamilton. She had post-graduate work at the Presbyterian Hospital in Newark, New York and then set sail for China as a missionary. En route to China, she met fellow missionary Frederick John Reed and they married in November, 1921. They returned home from 1926-1929 due to growing agitations in China. In 1929 they returned and went to Kiating, then were transferred to Tzeliutsing in 1934 where they worked at the Mission Middle Schools and Nurses Training School until 1948. They returned to Canada in 1949 and Anne died in 1982. The children of Frederick and Annie were Dorothy, Newton, Donald, Elinor May and Malcolm. All of the children were born in China, some attending the Canadian School for Missionaries Children in Chengdu, and some Llewellyn Hall (Home for Missionaries Children) in Oshawa, ON.
Laura Hannah Hambley (1877-1951) was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1904-1943. Hambley was born on March 16, 1877 in Port Perry, Ontario. She graduated from the Toronto Normal School in 1896, and later attended the Methodist National Training School from 1903-1904. She had teaching experience in both Ontario and New York City before she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society to Chengtu, West China in 1904. After Chinese language instruction, she taught at a middle school. Following that assignment she was relocated to a school in Jenshow (1908-1910). While on furlough in 1911, she travelled across Canada on a speaking tour promoting WMS work. Upon her return to China in 1912, she oversaw the planning and construction of the Tzeliutsing Girls' Middle School, where she taught until 1942. Illness caused her to return to Canada in 1943. She retired to Winnipeg, but continued to travel the country for speaking engagements. She died December 4, 1951.
Virgil Chittenden Hart (1840-1904) was a founder of the West China mission of The Methodist Church of Canada. He was born in 1840 in Jefferson County, New York State. He graduated in 1865, then was sent to China under the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked for two years at Fuzhou, then he was sent to establish and superintend a mission in Central China, at Kin-Kiang [Jin Jiang] where he remained for 20 years. In 1887 he was sent by the Missionary Board to the western province of Szechuan [Sichuan]. In 1889 he took a leave and returned to Canada and settled in Burlington, Ontario. In 1890, he was appointed Superintendent of the new mission to West China. In 1891 he established a school and hospital in the capital, Chengtu [Chengdu]. He also established the Canadian Mission Press while in West China. In 1896, he returned to Canada. He retired in 1900, and died in 1904. During his career, he published two books: "West China" and "The Temple and the Sage." Hart Memorial College at West China Union University is named in his honour. He was married to Adeline Gilliland Hart.
Arthur Hockin, Jr (1879-1912) was a missionary to China. He was the son of Arthur Hockin (1851-1932), a Methodist minister in Nova Scotia. He and his wife Lily were living in China when he contacted and succumed to typhus in 1912, two years after the birth of their only child, Katharine Hockin.
Katharine Hockin (1910-1993) was a missionary, teacher, author, and administrator in the United Church of Canada during her long career. Born to missionary parents in China, she was educated there and in Canada, the United States and India, receiving her Doctor of Education degree at Columbia University (1948). Hockin served as a mission teacher to Natives at Ahousaht, Vancouver Island (1933-36), was Maritime Secretary for the Student Christian Movement (1937-1939), and undertook two stints as a mission teacher and administrator in China between 1939 and 1951. In the latter year she returned to Toronto, and in 1952 began teaching Religious Education and Missions at the United Church Training School. In 1958 she left the school for travel and study in India, where she obtained a Divinity degree at United Theological College, Bangalore. Returning to Toronto she secured appointment as World Mission Visitor with the Student Christian Movement, staying there from 1960 until 1964. In the latter year she accepted the post of Dean of Students at the Canadian School of Missions and Ecumenical Institute in Toronto, retiring from that institution in 1976. In addition to her teaching work, Hockin participated actively in the United Church of Canada, serving on committees, particularly with the Division of World Outreach, and was nominated as Moderator of the Church in 1977. She subsequently served as an Advisor to Lois Wilson, the first woman Moderator of the denomination.
Lily Howie Hockin (1880-1974) was a missionary in Kiating, China when her daughter, Katharine, was born there in 1910. Following the death of her husband (1912), Lily Hockin returned to Canada, and was subsequently appointed to China under the auspices of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada (1913). She remained there until 1927 when illness forced her return to Canada. In 1933 she went for a third time to China, remaining until 1946. She then moved to New York with her daughter who was studying at Columbia University. In 1948 Katharine Hockin returned to China as a missionary, and Lily Hockin moved to Vancouver to live with her mother and sisters. In 1960 she moved to Toronto to live with her daughter Katharine, remaining there until her death.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Edwin Floyd Honey (1915-2002) was a minister, missionary and administrator with The United Church of Canada. He was born in Wooler, Ontario. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1937, and was ordained in 1940. He received his Master of Sacred Theology from Union Theological Seminary, New York in 1942, then was minister for four years in Baltimore, Ontario. He was a missionary to China from 1947-1951 as part of the staff of West China Union Theological College. He returned to Canada in 1952 due to the Communist takeover. In 1953 he became Associate Secretary of the Board of Overseas Mission of The United Church and in 1955 was named Secretary of the newly formed Board of World Missions. From 1965-1968 he was Secretary for Mission and Service in the New York office of the World Council of Churches. He also spent two years as National Coordinator for World Conference on Religion and Peace and was General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, beginning in 1968. He was chaplain for a time at Riverdale Hospital in Toronto.
Dr. Helen Isabel Huston (1927-) was a medical missionary to India and Nepal for 39 years with The United Church of Canada. She was born in Innisfail, Alberta and graduated from the University of Alberta in Medicine in 1951. She interned for a year at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton and another at Vancouver General Hospital before leaving for India in 1953. In 1960 she was one of the first WMS missionaries to enter Nepal, working in Katmandu as a partner with the United Mission to Nepal. She remained in Nepal for 32 years, working primarily in the village of Amp Pipal where she was directly involved in the building of the Amp Pipal Hospital. Helen won many accolades and awards for her work, including an honorary life membership in the Nepal Medical Association of Kathmandu in 1980, the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation Award for Humanitarian Services in 1991, the Alberta Order of Excellence and the Order of Canada in 1994. Huston retired in October, 1992.
Charles Julius Pasmore Jolliffe (1876-1965) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in 1876 in Paisley, Ontario. In 1883, he moved with his family to Rockwood where he farmed with his father until the age of nineteen. He attended Victoria University, where he became interested in the Student Volunteer Movement, and graduated in 1904. The same year that he was ordained by the Methodist Church, 1906, he also married Gertrude Bigelow, and they went to China together as missionaries. Rev. and Mrs. Jolliffe opened the Canadian Methodist station at Luchow. From 1922 to 1937, Rev. Jolliffe was in charge of the station at Jenshow. During this period, he also taught for a few months at a United Church college in Japan and served for two years as minister at Erin and Hillsburgh, Ontario. In 1937, they returned to Canada, serving at Glen Williams, Barton Stone-Trinity and Ponsonby. After retirement, they returned to Rockwood where he died in 1965. The Jolliffes had five children: Edward, Aimee, Richard, Paul and Frances.
Gertrude Bigelow Jolliffe (b. 1881) was a missionary to China. She married Charles Julius Pasmore Jolliffe in 1906 and they went to China together. Rev. and Mrs. Jolliffe opened the Canadian Methodist station at Luchow. From 1922 to 1937, Rev. Jolliffe was in charge of the station at Jenshow. During this period, he also taught for a few months at a United Church college in Japan and served for two years as minister at Erin and Hillsburgh, Ontario. In 1937, they returned to Canada.
Lena M. Dunfield, later Jolliffe (1879-1974) was a missionary to China with the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada. She married Richard Orlando Jolliffe in 1905, and together they pioneered missions in the salt wells area of Tzeliutsing. They also produced a large volume of Christian literature and the monthly magazine, Christian Hope. They retired in 1945 to Rockwood, Ontario.
Richard Orlando Jolliffe (1874-1959) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China in the first half of the twentieth century. Richard Jolliffe was born in Bruce County, Ontario, in 1874. He studied at Victoria University, and served briefly in Alberta for the Methodist Home Missions Board, 1903-1904. He was appointed to the West China Mission in 1904. He married Lena Dunfield, a Woman's Missionary Society missionary in China, in 1905. Together they pioneered missions in the salt wells area of Tzeliutsing. In 1922, Richard Jolliffe was appointed to work for the Mission Press in Chengtu. He and his wife produced a large volume of Christian literature and the monthly magazine Christian Hope. They retired in 1945 to Rockwood, Ontario. Richard Jolliffe died in 1959, Lena Jolliffe in 1976.
Mary Letitia Lamb (1879-1961) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China. She was born in St. Andrew's East, Quebec, attended McGill University part-time as a young adult, and was active in young people's work in the Methodist Church. In 1920 she volunteered to be Matron of the Canadian School for Missionary Children in West China; she learned the Chinese language and in 1926 was appointed by the Woman's Missionary Society to evangelistic work. She returned to Canada in 1941.
Thomas Alfred Large was born in 1859. After his ordination, he became a missionary to Japan. He was murdered there in 1890 by burglars when he tried to defend the Toyo Eiwa Gakko girls' school in Tokyo. His wife, the former Eliza Spencer, was also injured in the incident, and she remained in Tokyo with their daughter Kate until 1895.
Isabel Ogilvy Leslie was born in 1872. She was a missionary to China with The Methodist Church of Canada, then after union, The United Church of Canada, alongside her husband, Percy C. Leslie beginning in 1920.
Dr. Percy C. Leslie (1871-1965) was a medical missionary to China with The Presbyterian Church in Canada. He was born in 1871 in Montreal, Quebec. He graduated in Medicine at McGill University in 1896, and did post-graduate work in Scotland until 1901. He was appointed to North Honan, China in May, 1897 and remained there until he resigned in 1926. He died in 1965. He was married to Isabel Ogilvy.
Isabella McIntosh Loveys (d.1950), known as Isabel, was a missionary to Honan and longtime Home Mission Executive Secretary of The Woman's Missionary Society of The United Church of Canada. He was born in Glengarry County, Ontario. She attended McGill University, graduating in Social Sciences. From 1903-1927 she was a missionary to Honan with the Presbyterian Church of Canada. Afterward, she began home mission work at St. Columba House, Montreal, and enlisted with the Woman's Missionary Society as a church social worker in Verdun, Quebec. She was then appointed as an Immigration Worker at the port and railway terminals of Montreal, later becoming a 'Special Colonization Agent' with the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways and travelling around Canada. Afterward, she became Travelling Secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society. In 1935 she became the first Home Mission Executive Secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society. During her time with the W.M.S. she was also an active member of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Toronto, was a member of several committees of the Board of Christian Education, was on the executive of the Board of Evangelism and Social Service, and was a member of the Board of Home Missions, and a member of a number of Committees and Commission of the General Council. She retired from her position with the W.M.S. in 1958. She was married to Mr C. Maxwell Loveys, an official with the C.N.R. in Montreal.
Margaret Jean MacDondald was born on April 15, 1917 in Bredenbury Saskatchewan. She studied at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, Yale, Columbia, and New College in Edinburgh. In 1951 MacDonald went to Japan as a missionary. She worked closely with Haramachida United Church of Christ, teaching kindergarten, English, and helping with worship services as well. MacDonald returned to Canada in 1981 after working in Japan for 30 years, and she retired in 1982. MacDonald settled in Vancouver upon her return and served as President of the Vancouver School of Theology Women's Auxiliary, and she helped prepare for the 1983 World Council of Churches. MacDonald suffered a mild stroke at 90, and passed away on July 4, 2012.
Norman Hall MacKenzie (1915-1989) was a United Church minister, an overseas missionary and a church administrator. He was born in North Honan, China, the son of missionaries. He married Dorothy MacKenzie in 1943; she was the child of missionaries and a registered nurse. He served as a missionary in China, India and Nigeria. Mackenzie served as Personnel Secretary, Board of World Mission (1966-1969), and later with the Division of Mission in Canada of the United Church and served pastorates in Ontario. During the years 1969-1972, Mackenzie served as pastor of the Rama Reserve & Mission [Chippewas of Rama First Nation], near Orillia, Ontario.
The Martha Wilson Memorial Bible Institute was established by Louise McCully, a missionary with the Presbyterian Church of Canada Foreign Missionary Society. Administration of the school was transferred to the Woman's Missionary Society of The United Church of Canada after union.
Lily May McCargar was born on December 14, 1887 at Maxville, Ontario. She was educated in Ontario and attended the Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression in Toronto. She moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1909 to teach English to members of the Chinese Methodist Mission Church. She joined the Woman's Missionary Society in 1921 as a mission worker, and was sent to Vancouver to work with the kindergarten at the Chinese Methodist Church (which came under The United Church of Canada in 1925). In 1933, she chose to use her year of furlough by traveling to China to study Cantonese. Before returning to Canada, she visited Jerusalem, Egypt, Germany, and the United Kingdom. During a second furlough, she attended the lectures at the Canadian School of Missions and at Emmanuel College in Toronto. Lily McCargar died on November 6, 1947 at Vancouver.
Robert Baird McClure (1900-1991) was an overseas medical missionary and the first lay Moderator of the United Church of Canada. He was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Dr. William McClure, a Presbyterian medical missionary to China. McClure spent most of his childhood in China. He graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1922 and returned to China as a Medical Missionary in 1924. He married Amy Hislop in China in 1926 after having met her as a student in Canada. After marriage in Tianjin, the McClures returned to Qinyang. They returned to Tianjin less than a year later as a civil war had broken out. McClure then relocated to a Presbyterian mission hospital in Taipei. In 1930-1931, McClure travelled to the UK, then Toronto to earn his FRCS degree. He and his family moved back to Qinyang in late 1931. In 1937, McClure became the Field Director for the International Red Cross. Throughout 1938-1945 he organized convoys of medical supplies into China via Burma, and other medical relief operations in remote locations. In 1946, he opened a United Church mission hospital in Hankou and spent two years there. In 1948 he returned home to Canada. McClure also served in Gaza, Palestine (1950-1954), Ratlam, India (1954-1967). He returned to Canada and was elected the 23rd Moderator of The United Church of Canada in 1968. After his term as Moderator, McClure continued to do volunteer medical work in Sarawak, Malaysia, Peru, in the West Indies and in Zaire. McClure became a companion of the Order of Canada in 1971, and a member of the Order of Ontario in 1990. McClure died in 1991.
Ethel Susan McEachran was a Presbyterian, and later United Church, missionary and educator. She was born on September 13, 1881 in York County to Colin and Martha (née Proctor) McEachran. She attended the London Normal School and taught for nine years. While the exact dates are unknown, records indicate McEachran also attended the Ontario College of Education and the Presbyterian Missionary and Deaconess Training Home.
In 1913, McEachran was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in Canada's Foreign Mission Committee, Western Section to Korea. From 1913-1915 she was stationed in Sŏngjin (now Kimch'aek) to learn Korean and probably to teach at the local girls' school. In 1915 she founded the Young Saing Girls' School in Hamhŭng, becoming its first principal. She took a leave of absence and returned to Canada in order to attend Queen's University in Kingston, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922. She remained principal until 1941 when the wartime exodus of missionaries forced McEachran to return to Canada.
She continued her missionary work in a domestic setting, being stationed as superintendent of St. Columba House in Montreal between 1941 and 1943, then at Settlement House, Regina between 1945 and 1947, and finally to carry out community work in Saskatoon. McEachran retired to Toronto in 1951, but continued teaching English classes for immigrant communities.
McEachran died on October 27, 1959 at the age of 78, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.
Audrey Patricia Marie McKim (1926-1999) was born in Toronto. She attended Eastern High School of Commerce and the Ontario Ladies College. She received her B.A. from Victoria University in 1953, and earned a diploma in Christian Education from Covenant College in 1954. At the United Church of Canada, she was an editor of “Discovery” and “World Friends” with the Board of Sunday School Publications, and was also the Director of Christian Education at two Toronto churches. McKim was one of the first United Church of Canada missionaries to Kenya, where she served for ten years. She initially went to Kenya as a Deaconess of the United Church, and part of the Canadian contingent to Operation Crossroads Africa in 1962. In 1963 she returned as a Christian Education Worker with the National Christian Council, and the Christian Churches Educational Association where she worked until 1967. From 1968-1972, she served as Administrative Secretary for the same organizations. In 1972, as part of the World Council of Churches’ Relief and Rehabilitation Team, she undertook a special assignment in Southern Sudan, launching a secretarial school for the government to train some of the first female governmental employees in Sudan. After returning home in 1973, McKim served as Mission Secretary of the Hamilton Conference from 1973-1974, Personnel Secretary of the Division of World Outreach, 1974-1977, Executive Secretary with Registrarial duties at Emmanuel College, 1979-1981 and Administrator at St. Matthew’s Bracondale House from 1981-1982. McKim was also a prolific writer and authored numerous articles and books, mostly for children. She was a founding member of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers.
Daniel Norman (1864-1941) was a Methodist/United Church minister to Japan. He first went to Japan as a Methodist missionary in 1897. He married Catherine Heal in 1901; they returned to Japan and continued work there until after retirement in 1935.
Eunice Peters was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1923-1948. Peters was born on September 10, 1898 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She was educated at the Provincial Normal School and taught in New Brunswick before attending the Methodist National Training School in Toronto. In 1923 she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church to West China. She received language instruction at Fowchow and taught at the missionary school there until 1926. Records indicated that she was assigned to teach at schools in several different cities during her time in China: Kiating (1926-1928); Fowchow (1929-1930); Chungking (1930-1932); Junghsien (1932-1936); Chungking (1938-1941), where she also carried out urban social work; Chengtu (1941-1947), and finally Kiating (1948) where she was responsible for evangelistic work. Between 1944 and 1946 she studied at the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In 1948 she returned to Canada, where she was eventually posted to the Chinese United Church Mission in Victoria, British Columbia from 1952 to 1962. She formally retired to Victoria in 1964. Eunice Peters died on February 5, 1991 at the age of 92.
Frederick John Reed (28 October, 1891-21 April, 1979) was born in Lindsay, Ontario to parents William Thomas Reed and Emma Smale. He was accepted as a probationer by Lindsay Presbytery in 1912 and was a student minister at Dalrymple for the year. In 1913 he entered Victoria College (Toronto) where he took Arts and Theology concurrently and received a B.A. in 1917. In 1917, he joined the Signal Corps as a private and in September went overseas as a corporal with the Canadian Fifth Divisional signals company. In England, he acted as an instructor in Signals and P.T. and after the armistice was a tutor in the Canadian Army School at Rhyll until he was discharged in March, 1919 and returned to Canada. In September 191 he re-entered Victoria, where he finished his B.D. in Theology and at the College of Education gained a High School Teacher’s certificate and diploma in physical education. He was appointed in April 1920 by the Methodist Church to work as an educational missionary in Szechuan, China. During his voyage to China he met fellow missionary Annie H. Hale, a trained nurse, and they married in November, 1921. In China, Reed was principal of Penghsien Junior Middle School. They returned home from 1926-1929 due to growing agitations in China. Reed taught and preached during that time in Gibson Pastoral Charge. In 1929 they returned and went to Kiating where Reed engaged in evangelistic and educational work. In 1934 they were transferred to Tzeluitsing where they worked at the Mission Middle Schools and Nurses Training School until 1948. They returned to Canada in 1949 and Frederick worked in Dalrymple until 1956, having resigned from the Mission Board in 1953. From 1954-1961 he was at Hampton Pastorate. In 1961 they moved to Sunderland and worked at Almonds Pastorate. Frederick died in 1977, and Annie in 1982.
Joyce Sasse (b. 1940) was a United Church rural minister and an overseas missionary. She was adopted and raised on a farm-ranch in Milk River, Alberta. Sasse felt the call to rural ministry at a young age when she noticed a disconnect between the local ministers and the rural community. To become a minister she studied theology at the University of Saskatchewan and focused on rural issues and historical initiatives like the credit union movement. As a result she earned a Bachelor of Arts (1962), Bachelor of Theology (1965), Bachelor of Divinity (1968) and Master of Divinity (1987). She was ordained as a United Church minister in 1965. To broaden her experience she served as a missionary in Korea working on community development from 1967-1971. Upon her return to Canada she served as Executive Director of the YWCA. From 1974 to 1978 she worked as Saddle Bag minister in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan as part of the Division of Mission’s experimental project on rural ministry. From her ordination to her retirement in 1998, Sasse served at the following charges: Morse/Chaplain (1965-1967), Moose Jaw (1974-1978), Tugaske (1978-1986), Rockford (1986-01989), and Pincher Creek (1989-1996). To further rural ministry during her career, Sasse worked with the International Rural Church Association, helped found the Canadian Rural Church Network and contributed significantly to the Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry (CiRCLe-M). Upon retirement in 1998, Sasse continued to support rural ministry through speaking engagements and publications. More recently she has been working on the Annora Brown Art and Life Legacy Project.
Rev. William Scott (1886-1979) was a missionary to Korea with The Presbyterian Church in Canada, then United Church of Canada. He was born in Lanark, Scotland and moved to Canada in 1906 after responding to an appeal for ministerial candidates from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. After doing some mission work in Brandon, Manitoba, he attended Queen's University, receiving a B.A. in 1911. He later received an M.A. in Political Science from Queens, working on it during a furlough in 1921. He attended the Theological Seminary at Westminster Hall, Vancouver, graduating as an ordained minister in 1914. That same year, he and his wife, Kate Scott (McKee) travelled to Korea. After some time doing evangelistic work, in 1921 Scott was appointed Principal of Eunjin Academy in Yongchung. In 1925, he was appointed principal of the Yung-saing High School in Hamheung. In 1926 Scott became the Chairman of the Canadian Mission Board in Korea. He was repatriated to Canada in 1942 along with other missionaries in Korea, and during his time in Canada worked as a minister at Burford, Bethel and Fairfield United Churches in Ontario. The Scotts returned to Korea in 1946. In 1953 he and others helped to found the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea. Scott retired in 1956, and died in Brantford, Ontario in 1979.
Benjamin Slight (1798-1858) was a Wesleyan Methodist missionary to Upper Canada. Born in England, he was sent to Canada as a missionary by the Wesleyan Missionary Committee in London, England in 1834, and was ordained for missionary work in Hamilton in 1835. He began his mission work in western Upper Canada at Amherstburg, where he ministered to settlers, Indigenous people and a colony of formerly enslaved Americans. He next served at the Credit Mission, near York and later worked in different parts of Eastern and Western Canada until his death. He was married to Elizabeth Slight (d. 1871).