By Eleanor Emmott, President of CBOQ
It was a joy to visit and worship first with representatives from the Quebec Association and then with Westmount Baptist Church in Montreal.
The people present at the Association gathering were welcoming and open to sharing about their experiences as mostly English-speaking congregations in Quebec. It was important to hear their perspective that Church and ministry in Quebec is truly different than in Ontario and other parts of Canada. Language, culture, and provincial laws make their context unique in many ways. We often note that our Canadian culture has become more secular and it was helpful to be reminded that our churches in Quebec have been experiencing that reality for even longer than those of us in Ontario. Our CBOQ family can certainly learn from their experience of working, ministering and worshipping in a context where, for example, church plants are not always allowed to rent public buildings (like schools) for worship services. We learned that many of their pastors are bi-vocational and some do not draw a salary from their congregations. I was also impressed by the churches I met who were welcoming newcomers to Canada and by English congregations that were trying to provide Sunday School in French, because the children who attended go to french-language public schools. I am sure these have not been easy shifts to make and yet our congregations in Quebec are faithfully making disciples of Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father.
My Sunday morning time was equally encouraging. First thing that morning, I had an opportunity to worship with L’Église Évangélique Baptiste de Côte-des-Neiges, which is part of the French Union. The Côte-des-Neiges congregation had been meeting in a school, but was no longer able to because of the changing regulations about the use of public spaces for religious gatherings. So about a year ago, they began conversations with Westmount Baptist about using Westmount’s building. Today, the Côte-des-Neiges congregation worships in a renovated space in the basement of Westmount Baptist. They are reaching out especially to French-speaking new Canadians, many of whom are from Africa. Their pastor sits on the Canadian Baptist Ministries board and he was ordained out of Queen Street Baptist Church in St. Catherines, ON. It was wonderful to get to know them and spend time with them.
Then I was welcomed upstairs by the Westmount Baptist Church congregation. They have a beautiful mix of faithful tradition and fresh expressions of prayer and worship. Their beautiful, historic building hosts a congregation made up of long time members and new Canadians. Their musical worship was inspiring and vibrant with a blend of familiar hymns and contemporary songs. It was a pleasure to be able to take part in their worship service and to see others take part as well, including their worship team as well as their children and youth. One of my favourite moments was during the congregational prayer time, when everyone was given pieces of paper with a particular thing for them to pray intentionally about. Mine was “prayer for the hearts of many to be open to Christ and the Gospel of hope.” I was also encouraged by the intentional way that they welcomed people on their first-time coming to Sunday worship.
I am thankful to have been able to visit our churches in Quebec and to see how God is working among them. I am looking forward to welcoming some of them at Assembly this year!
Congregation and worship team at Westmount Baptist Church with Pastor Joel in the front pew (2nd image).
A wall honouring their pastors, dating all the way back to 1902 and L’Église Évangélique Baptiste de Côte-des-Neiges.
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