Fonds F3234 - George Campbell Pidgeon fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

George Campbell Pidgeon fonds

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Graphic material
  • Sound recording

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Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA ON00340 F3234

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1804 - 1981 (Creation)
    Creator
    Pidgeon, George Campbell, 1872-1971

Physical description area

Physical description

8.7 m of textual records
4 photographs : b&w ; 18 x 25 cm or smaller
1 audio reel : 16 mm

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1872-1971)

Biographical history

The Very Rev. Dr. George Campbell Pidgeon, D.D., LL.D., was a Presbyterian and United Church minister and the first Moderator of The United Church of Canada. He was born on March 2, 1872 in Maria, Québec, on the Gaspé peninsula, to Archibald Montgomery and Mary Campbell Pidgeon. He attended Morrin College (1887-1889) and McGill University (1889-1891), from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He then attended Presbyterian College, Montréal (1891-1894), where he received his Bachelor of Divinity and, later, an earned Doctor of Divinity in 1905.

Pidgeon was ordained on May 29, 1894 and was called to Montréal West Presbyterian Church, where he served until 1898. Subsequent charges and positions were Streetsville Presbyterian Church (1898-1903), Victoria Presbyterian Church in Toronto Junction (1903-1909), the registrar and professor of practical theology at Westminster Hall in Vancouver (1909-1915), and Bloor Street Presbyterian (later United) Church in Toronto (1915-1948). From September 1917 to May 1918, he was granted a leave to serve as a special preacher for the Y.M.C.A. in France during the First World War. Following his retirement from Bloor Street, he was granted the title Minister Emeritus.

Around 1917, Pidgeon became an active proponent of church union. From 1921-1925, he served as the convenor of the Joint Committee on Church Union, and in 1924 took over as convenor for the Presbyterian General Assembly’s Committee on Church Union. In June, 1925, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. A week later he was elected the first Moderator of The United Church of Canada, a role he held for one year.

Pidgeon was active in many causes, especially the temperance movement, moral reform, religion in education, evangelism, and ecumenism. Some of the positions he held and organizations he was involved with include: first convenor of the Presbyterian Church’s Board of Moral and Social Reform; president of the Inter-Church Council of Moral and Social Reform for British Columbia; chair of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions; chair of the Interdenominational Committee on Evangelization in Canadian Life; president of the Western Section of the Alliance of Reformed Churches; and president of the Social Services Council for Canada. He was also in attendance at many international ecumenical conferences as a representative for Canada, and was involved with the creation of the World Council of Churches and the Canadian Council of Churches.

Pidgeon remained in the public sphere after his term as Moderator concluded. His sermons at Bloor Street United Church were regularly broadcast over the radio. He wrote a number of books and articles, and had a weekly column, “Religion and Life”, in The Toronto Telegram from 1949-1960. His last public act for The United Church of Canada was laying the cornerstone of the United Church House on May 7, 1958.

While attending Presbyterian College, he met Mary Helen Jones, whom he married on March 23, 1898. They had three children: Mary Alice (b. 1899), Archibald Leslie Stephen (b. 1902), and Helen Campbell (b. 1911). George Pidgeon died on June 15, 1971 at the age of 99.

Custodial history

This material forms part of the General Council program of the United Church of Canada Archive.

Scope and content

Fonds consists of the following series: United Church of Canada Union Records, 1921-1965; Committees and Organizations, 1911-1962; Writings, 1919-1957; Correspondence, 1894-1965; Ministry, 1894-1958; Addresses, 1933-1958; Education, 1922-1961; and Personal and Family Items, 1804-1981. Within these series are letters, sermons, speeches, lectures, writings, research notes, and photographs. The records held by The United Church of Canada Archives are concerned mainly with Pidgeon as a public figure, but there are a few notable personal and family records within the final series.

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

The records which comprise Accession 1986.243C were originally arranged in 1975 into the following categories: Church Union; Post Union; Committees and Organizations; Writings; General Correspondence; Radio Ministry; Sermons and Addresses. Additional records acquired in 1985 were arranged into the following categories: Sermons (Post-retirement); Prayers and Services; Addresses; Lectures; Lessons; International Sunday School Lessons; Notes; Personal Items. It is unclear if these categories were part of the original order of the records, or if the order was imposed by the processing archivists.

The fonds was divided into formal series and subseries in October 2023, and the original categories were adhered to as much as possible.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

  • Latin

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

Open

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Associated materials

Accruals

No further accruals are expected

Alternative identifier(s)

Accession

1986.243C

Accession

1991.185C

Accession

1996.108C

Accession

2020.051C/TR

Accession

2023.030C

Standard number

Standard number

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Control area

Description record identifier

Institution identifier

ON00340

Rules or conventions

Rules for Archival Description

Status

Revised

Level of detail

Full

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Revised 10/2023 by CH

Language of description

  • English

Script of description

  • Latin

Sources

Grant, John Webster. George Pidgeon. Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1962.

Accession area