Assemblee Biblique de Granby, QC

History

Assemblée biblique de Granby was a French open brethren assembly started in 1992 and was active thru 2001, located in Granby, Haute-Yamaska, Monteregie, Greater Montreal, Southcentral Quebec, Canada.

The Assemblée biblique de Granby had its beginnings in mid-1991, with several families from the Assemblée chrétienne de Granby, six or seven according to one report, eventually leaving to begin a new work prior to the end of that year. This was not the first hive-off, an earlier one having occurred in 1983. This new group began meeting together in an empty apartment in Roxton Pond owned by one of the three men who were providing the leadership. By June of the following year, some 30 persons, including children, were involved and they had managed to rent facilities on Centre Street in downtown Granby. The new work was officially inaugurated on August 9^th, Arnold Reynolds participating in the service. 

The appearance of this new work raised concerns on the part of evangelical pastors of the area. These included Michel Martin (Église Évangélique Baptiste de Granby), Raymond Lesage (Église Baptiste Landmark), Gilles Pominville (Assemblée de la Parole de Dieu), André Morin (Assemblée Bonne Nouvelle), Jacques Charbonneau (Chapelle Évangélique), et François Picard (Église Évangélique Baptiste de la Haute Yamaska). Their concern was expressed in a letter addressed to Arnold Reynolds, long time general secretary for the Brethren assemblies in Québec, in the following words: « Nous sommes en effet concernés par cela du fait que dans une population de 45,000 il existe déjà environ 15 assemblées. Nous sommes donc sensibilisés en ce qui concerne l’unité et l’avancement du royaume de Dieu dans cette ville pour laquelle nous œuvrons. » It is interesting that some if not all of the above had not hesitated to launch their own respective works in a city already blessed with numerous congregations. 

One area minister, Baptist pastor Fernand Petit-Clerc, at that time serving in the old stone church erected in the days of Madame Feller in nearby Roxton Pond, welcomed the newcomers, even allowing them to meet in the building. As a child, his wife Evelyn Lloyd had been part of the Assemblée chrétienne de Granby from which this new groupe was withdrawing. Her parents had provided the lot on which that assembly was built and had participated in its construction. However, the Lloyd family had left the assembly around the mid-fifties over a disagreement as to the role of women in the church. 

Now, in the early nineties, issues centered on the autocratic leadership style in that assembly and alternative medicine practices along with what appeared to be New Age ideas which were being promoted with significant success within the congregation. An ACE school program, considered by some at that time to be illegal, had replaced the Sunday School, teachers being unavailable for both programs. Cautiously supported by leading Brethren throughout Quebec (Leslie Muirhead, Jean-Paul Berney, Samuel Coppieters), the new work took form the following year and continued for nearly a decade. It appeared in address lists published by News of Quebec, beginning in 1997; however, the work was never featured or reported on in the pages of that magazine. The assembly never affiliated with the CBCQ, eventually ceasing operation in the early years of the present century.

Location

421 rue Principale, Granby

Correspondents

• Jean-Luc Roger, 32 rue Deslandes 1992-2001

Alumni

• Who’s Who at Assemblée biblique de Granby, QC 1992-2001

Sources

• Walterick Publishers Assembly Address Books: 1999-2000 & 2003
• News of Quebec
• CBCQ archives