Mission Evangelique Libre, Ottawa, ON

History

Also known for a short time as Assemblée évangélique, the seeds for this meeting go back to the 1940s when a tract band from Owen Sound, Ontario, mailed French tracts with the offer of a free French New Testament to the area of Cyrville. The Fournier family requested the literature and the mother and daughter were saved.

 A believer, Jacob Martin of the Scripture Truth Book Store at 442 Bank Street in Ottawa heard about the Fourniers and, with a friend, held Bible studies in the Fournier home on St. Laurent Avenue. He also introduced them to Grace and Truth Chapel. In 1943, Louis Germain, a missionary from France, arrived in Ottawa. He was put in contact with the Fournier family and began to hold Sunday School for children along with Bible studies in French.

In 1948 a lot was purchased at 968 boulevard St. Laurent for $350.00 and a “Salle Évangélique” was built for the French work. The work was to be known as "Mission Évangélique Libre" (Free Evangelical Mission), all properties belonging to the Mission and all business being transacted in that name. Living quarters in the hall were to be occupied by Mr. Germain himself, so that he would be in close proximity to the work. Curiously, he never occupied these, preferring to sleep behind the piano in the meeting room of the assembly itself. There was considerable success among children, but adults were hard to reach. For instance, in the summer of 1951, Roman Catholic hoodlums threw cement blocks through the windows of the little chapel and threatened to blow the place up.  That same year it was stated that “the only French assembly in Ontario is situated just outside of Ottawa at Cyrville.”

The following summer witnessed the arrival of Mr. John Alden, his wife and three children who came from Miami, Florida, to help in the work at Cyrville. Being a photographer, he supported himself and family until such time as the Lord might open the way for him to give all his time to the work. In the meantime, he and his family lived in the apartment at the back of the hall and helped with the construction work on the building. The couple soon retired from the work.

Shortly after this, the city annexed the area and the French people moved east. By 1954 at the latest, French meetings had disbanded at Saint Laurent Chapel, now Evangel Chapel, and the work had become an English one. An interesting note: In 1961 Evangel Chapel commended a Mrs. Jeanne Boivin to visitation work among the French in the area and from 1962 to 1966 an Assemblée chrétienne is listed in the magazine AURORE as existing in Ottawa, meetings being held on Sunday afternoon, most likely at Evangel Chapel.

Evangel Chapel eventually became known as Carson Grove Bible Fellowship. In the late nineties, the English congregation moved to newly-constructed quarters in Gloucester, ON, and took the name Pine Grove Bible Church. The original building on Saint Laurent Avenue was sold in 1986 and eventually demolished sometime after the turn of the century.  While little material evidence remains of the work carried on by Mr. Germain, we do have his own small black French hymnbook from which he often sang and which carries his signature on the flyleaf.

 Wikipédia

Once a francophone farming community, founded as the Village of Cyrville in 1853 by Michel Cyr, the area is now a mix of residential and industrial land. A post office, built in 1850 and named Cyrville in 1892, was closed down in 1965. The founding settlers of the village were French Catholics. In 1871, the Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes-de-Cyrville church was built, and was considered the "spiritual centre" for the community. A school was built around the same time. The church closed in 2009, and is now a Chinese Catholic church.

Locations

• 968 boulévard Saint-Laurent, Ottawa

Correspondents

• Louis Germain 1943-1953
• Jacques Duchemin 1962-1966

Also See

• Who's Who at Mission Évangélique Libre, Ottawa, ON

Sources

• News of Quebec
• L'Aurore