De Quen-Nord Assembly, QC

History

Duquen-Nord Assembly, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Central Quebec, Canada was a French open brethren assembly in the home of David and Cécile Déschênes, founded prior to 1935 and active through 1967. The name of the town has long since been changed from Duquen-Nord to Saint-François-de-Sales.

Early on, meetings were attended by some who had been evangelized by John Spreeman and/or had  moved here from the Girardville assembly.  Weekly home Bible studies were conducted here by Mr. Spreeman; however, on Sunday the believers attended the Baptist work in nearby Roberval where Gabriel Cotnoir was pastor. 

By 1946, this assembly along with that at Girardville in the Lac St-Jean region were still small in number but carried on courageously in spite of a campaign of opposition which had been mounted against them by the local Roman Catholic clergy.

According to Roy Buttery, this never really materialized into an bona fide assembly. Perhaps this explains why the actual name of the assembly is unknown and why it never appeared in the official list of assemblies published annually in News of Quebec.

Location

• home of David Déschênes

Correspondents

• David Déschênes (1895-1981) +1943-1967

Alumni

• Who’s Who at Duquen-Nord Assembly, QC +1943-1967

Sources

• Walterick Publishing Assembly Address Books: 1943, 1948, 1950, 1954-1956, 1958-1967;
• Ancestry.com
• News of Quebec
• Ebb and Flow: A History of Christian Brethren Churches in French Canada, 1926-2010