Laurier Avenue Hall, Montreal, QC

History

Two or three small New Testament gatherings of believers likely existed on the island of Montreal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Unlike the more-numerous French-speaking assemblies which arrived in Quebec much later and were oftentimes the fruit of the labours of a particular individual, their English counterparts appear to have arrived on the backs of immigrants with Brethren convictions coming from England and her English-speaking colonies. One of these was the “open” assembly meeting at Fairmount and then Laurier avenues.

"Some of its early leadership reportedly came from among those associated with the “Needed Truth” company of Open Brethren. These held that while all Christians are included in the Body of Christ and the Church of Christ, none but they were the House of God and Church of God.  To date there is no evidence that this deviation impacted the future of the work.

In 1925, a few of the elders in this assembly, not in agreement with certain decisions taken by others of their number by which some persons had been “read out” of the assembly, left to participate in the launching the Park Extension Gospel Hall. This would eventually become known as Ogilvy Gospel Hall before morphing into today’s Grace Gospel Hall now located just off the island, in Pincourt.

Others, about the same time, amicably left the St. Antoine Street Meeting to form Draper Avenue Gospel Hall, subsequently to become Cote St Luc Bible Chapel, presently known as Westend Bible Chapel.

Whatever became of the Laurier Avenue Hall is presently unknown.

Locations

• 119 W. Laurier Ave. +1927+

Correspondents

• William E. Reid @ Mt. Royal +1927+ (Reid removed to Grace)

Alumni

• Who’s Who at Laurier Avenue Hall, Montreal, QC +1925-1927+

Sources

History

• Based on R.S.' analysis of G. W. Dixon's uncopyrighted "Looking Backward Pressing Forward", c.1993 and other unpublished materials.

AAB's

• Faithful Words Publishing, St. Louis, Missouri Assembly Address Book: 1927