View source for Dawson Gospel Hall, YT

Dawson Gospel Hall is the first (and possibly last) assembly in the Yukon, in Canada. There is a partial article below that explains the origins (missing the other pages) as from a young lady employed by the territorial government that started a Sunday School in 1946, that was joined in 1948 by Mr. & Mrs. L. Van Stienberg that moved there and started a weekly radio broadcast, and had their first Gospel meeting on Nov. 7, 1948 in a rented building, with a handful of others gathered from the broadcast. In the early 1950's they acquired an old post office building for meetings, which was one of a few locations.

By 1959, the meeting times were listed as:

=Sunday=
* Breaking of Bread 10.15 am
* Sunday School 12:15 pm
* Gospel Meeting 8 pm

=Tuesday=
* Prayer & Bible Study 7:30 pm

A.N. Nordale, whose family hailed from either England or Scotland, and either way, both families had been present since the founding days of the Yukon territory, served as a correspondent from at least 1954 thru 1958, replaced by William D. Taylor who served 1959-1964. There was no correspondent listed 1965-1971, and ceased to be listed by 1972.  

In the early 1970's, a newly merged non-denominational organization known as SEND International (merger of Far Eastern Gospel Crusade and Central Alaskan Missions) sent a missionary couple to this assembly and it eventually became Dawson Community Gospel Chapel, and in 1999 joined the EFCC (Evangelical Free Church of Canada) and it name was shortened to Dawson Community Chapel.  It is a healthy church for a secularized town of 2200 people, and is actively involved with a summer camp ministry, a food bank, and is served by several lay Bible teachers. 

A historical sidenote, the "Evangelical Free" denomination, particularly in the U.S., has employed many with roots in the Brethren, including at least one president of the organization in the U.S., as well as many on faculty and staff at its flagship bible college and seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity Seminary, in Deerfield, Illinois, and its historically associated Canadian counterpart, Trinity Western University.  Further, thousands of Brethren "alumni" within its 1500 churches in North America are faithfully serving the Lord within their spheres of influence.  One Evangelical Free pastor with Brethren roots has opined one possible reason for this connection is the veritable freedom that its churches have in its mode of practice, with a biblical balance of autonomy and interdependency, similar to the (Open) Brethren.  

[[File:Yukon_Territories_1955.jpg]]

=Also See=
* [http://www.dawsoncommunitychapel.net Dawson Community Chapel website]
* [https://www.facebook.com/Dawson-Community-Chapel-2008381532816905/ Dawson Community Chapel on Facebook]
* [https://www.efccm.ca/wordpress/ Evangelical Free Church of Canada official website]
* [https://send.org/ Send International]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEND_International SEND International on Wikipedia]
* [https://www.twu.ca/ Trinity Western University official website]

=Sources=
* "The Yukon Territories" by Stanley King, The Fields, June 1955, p. 152;
* Ancestry.com
* North American assembly address books 1954-1971
* Dawson Community Chapel Facebook correspondent on 2-24-2020