Assemblee Chretienne Cartier Avenue, Quebec City, QC
From BrethrenPedia
History
This assembly officially began in 1951, a year after Jean-Paul Berney arrived from Switzerland. It first met at rue Crémazie, coin Candiac, then at rue Sainte-Ursule before moving on in 1952 to a location on rue Cartier and two years later, in May of 1954, to 610 rue Belvédère. Meetings were held in the basement which had been finished off while the upper, unfinished floor was home to Jean Heidman and Mabel Quinlan.
Personality conflicts between Paul Boëda and Harry McCready together with Alphonse Lacombe’s reading McCready out of the assembly and, for all practical purposes, marginalizing Jean-Paul Berney, both contributed to a division in the assembly in December 1954. Mr. Berney resigned his “post and duties as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Christian Assembly of Quebec” as of February 8, 1955. The brethren Boëda and Lacombe had come from or been sent by the Cap to deal with the situation.
The immediate issue appears to have been serious differences of opinion in the group as to the financial straits in which they had placed themselves for the construction of the new Chapelle Évangélique on rue Belvédère begun in 1953. Understandably, the one from whom they had borrowed a large sum of money ($30,000) was likely calling the shots and all were not pleased. According to Mr. Berney, Mr. Henry Heidman, Jean Heidman’s father, one who was involved in the discussions in Quebec City, was a significant source of finances. The Junction Assembly in Toronto was also involved in the project.
According to Dr. Arthur Hill, in his letter to John Spreeman (1/18/55), “they went ahead with the building of the chapel before they were all of one mind about the way the work was to be carried on.” I take this to mean the operation of the assembly rather than the construction project itself. “Everyone in the assembly there was quite conscious of the differences which existed among them.”
Then, too, the matter of women speaking out in the meetings, assumedly business meetings, of the assembly was also an irritant. According to McCready (1/31/55), the assembly was split in half, with the greater part being ousted from the hall. This, he said, was caused by a few domineering brethren and sisters. I would suspect that either Jean Heidman or Mabel Quinlin or both may have been involved here. Both of these valuable workers left the assemblies sometime after 1955 to work with the C&MA churches in Quebec.
An underlying issue was clearly differences of opinion between the “tights” and the “opens”, with the ousted ones being the “tights”. In a letter from Spreeman to Hill (2/4/55) we learn that financial matters did indeed play a role in the division which came at the end of 1954. According to a later communiqué (2/24/55), “the situation there was most regrettable due to the unwise way in which the construction was undertaken.”
Mr. Boëda was then asked to take charge of the work and began by travelling from his home at Cap-de-la-Madeleine as often as possible. He moved to Quebec with his family in June 1956 where he continued to serve until stepping down in early 1958 at which time, he appears to have left the work altogether. Jean Heidman, Mabel Quinlan and Blanche Durocher were continuing their ministry of tract distribution and visitation during this time and beyond.
The effect of Paul Boëda’s resignation is recorded in a letter written by Bruce Sommacal (2/11/59), who was endeavoring to the best of his ability to maintain the Breaking of Bread meeting. “The young French Canadian Christians who had received very little teaching and had practically no experience in controlling the assembly, gradually fell into a spiritual slump until our numbers have been reduced most pitifully. The few that have remained are terribly discouraged and also very discontent.”
Meanwhile, the ousted group began meeting in homes but by November 1959 had returned to the Chapelle on Belvédère. By then, John Spreeman had moved to the area and, together with Mr. Berney, was lending a helping hand. Jim and Nancy Godfrey were also there at that time. Harry McCready was still in the picture until his departure from the work in 1962, yet another casualty, causing the city to become known as the “graveyard of French Canadian missions.”
By 1963, there was talk of getting rid of the building which all considered to have been a gigantic error. The following year we learn that a decision had been reached to keep it and proceed with repairs. Nonetheless, it was finally sold to the C&MA, an evangelical group in which Jean Heidman was by then serving as pastor. With the sale of the building in 1969, meetings continued at the YWCA on rue Holland. In 1973, operations were moved to the Berney home on Maskinongé in Sainte-Foy until the following year when the Maison Dompierre was completed. The Assemblée Évangélique de Sainte-Foy had now found its permanent meeting place.
Location
- 70 Cartier Avenue, Quebec City 1955-1959
Correspondents
- Jean-Paul Berney (b. 1926 Lausanne, Switzerland - d. 2014)
Alumni
Visiting Itinerants
Sources
- Walterick Publishing Assembly Address Books 1955-1956, 1958-1959
- Ancestry.com
- Manuscript prepared by Mr. Roy Langley
- News of Quebec
