Prince Edward Island history

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is the smallest of the Canadian Provinces. Assembly history on Prince Edward Island actually has its beginning far from there in Brandon, Manitoba, where a Presbyterian minister, Mr. Rae, left his position and joined with the assembly in that city. In 1890, he held Gospel meetings in a schoolhouse in North Dakota. Among those attending were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Keyes, and through Mr. Rae’s preaching, both were saved in that year.

In 1914, the Keyes moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where they were neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Ramsay. Through the witness of the Keyes, both Ramsays were brought to the Lord. Later, three other couples who lived in the same block as the Ramsays were also saved through Mrs. Keyes’ testimony, and all gathered with the assembly in Edmonton.

Gordon Ramsay was a native of Prince Edward Island, and each summer he returned there with his family to help on the farm near Mill River. The Gordon Ramsays later moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and joined with the Christians in the Cliff Street Gospel Hall but continued to visit Prince Edward Island regularly. On one of Mr. Ramsay’s visits, his interest in seeing a Gospel work established there was aroused, and in 1932 he and Joe Pearson of Massachusetts held two weeks of open-air meetings in the Square in Charlottetown, the capital of the Province.

Mr. Pearson wrote to American Pioneer, an assembly magazine, that “...The door is open for the gospel, and there is not an assembly on the entire Island 150 miles long and 30 miles wide, sometimes called the ‘Million Acre Farm,’ and not a scriptural assembly on it! ... The woman with whom we are staying is over 70 and got saved at a Pugwash Junction conference.”

When in Ontario, Mr. Pearson had met Russell Harris, who had worked with John Spreeman in Quebec. In November 1933, the two men went to Prince Edward Island for Gospel work. Their first meeting was in the Lady Fane schoolhouse near Gambles Corner, where Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Thorpe had previously held meetings. On June 1934, a tent was pitched across from the Lady Fane school, and nightly meetings began.

Albert Joyce moved his family to the Island to help in tent meetings with Herbert Harris. As the crowds at the meeting grew, so did the opposition. Mr. Harris said things in his preaching that stirred the anger of the audience, and Mr. Joyce followed with a touching Gospel message while they were aroused. The whole countryside was stirred, and many were saved.

The preachers commenced open-air meetings in the Square in Charlottetown every Saturday night. The Gospel meetings continued until the beginning of September 1934. Then a date was set for the baptism of about thirty who had been saved that summer. Eight hundred onlookers came to watch. Mr. Joyce and the two Harris brothers, Herb and Russell, stood on an upturned fishing boat and preached the Gospel.

The Lord opened the way for an assembly to meet, and the Public Hall was rented in the town of Crapaud, a dozen miles west of Charlottetown. On October 7, 1934, the Lord’s Supper was observed for the first time. Thus, the first assembly on Prince Edward Island came into being, the origin of the Crapaud Gospel Hall.

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Commended by the assemblies at Regina and Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Stanley Wells went to Prince Edward Island in 1943. Arriving in Summerside, about 40 miles west of Charlottetown, where there was neither assembly nor aggressive Gospel work, he began a weekly radio broadcast to reach young people. About 100 children responded to the offer of a New Testament. He then arranged Bible schools in various places and rented a room in Summerside for children’s meetings. Several souls were saved in this work. In 1945 the Christians purchased an old hatchery building and had it moved to Arcona Street. They converted it into a meeting place, soon to be known as Glad Tidings Chapel.

In 1946 William Rae of Portland came to the Island for tent meetings. During his visit the believers at Summerside first met as an assembly. Stanley Wells was assisted by Gordon Warnholtz and Allan Weber in initiating the assembly.

Others in leadership over the years have been Joseph Sherlock, who was a full-time worker, and Spurgeon Robbins, a leading brother. In 1960, the assembly moved to a new building on Arcona Street and changed the name to Summerside Bible Chapel. In 1987 a new building was erected at Granville Street North and Sherbrooke Road, its present location. The assembly has about 90 adults and children in attendance.

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Svend Christensen was a native of Prince Edward Island and lived at Dundas Centre. The St. Peters/Upton/Dundas area is 40 miles east of Charlottetown. In 1948, the Upton Gospel Chapel was established by Svend Christensen and Allan Weber. Meetings had been held in different schools prior to then, but in that year, the assembly occupied the building constructed in the late 1800s by the Church of Scotland. The chapel was enlarged in 1983. Elders over the years include Henry MacDougall, Tim Christensen, George Knox, Wesley Stead, and in earlier days Allan Weber. The assembly, which has about 50 adults and children, has commended workers to Africa.

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Stanley and Marjorie Streight began laboring on Prince Edward Island in about 1945. They lived at Cardigan, near Montague, and were resident workers at the Montague Bible Chapel assembly. In the late 1980s, a second assembly was formed in Montague and called Emmanuel Bible Chapel under the leadership of Robert MacGregor.

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Charlottetown Bible Chapel has its roots in a few meetings held in 1954 and 1955 in the Sons of England Hall. In 1954, Emmanuel Bible Camp, a summer Bible camp for boys and girls, was opened. The Prince Edward Island Evangelical Association was formed for ownership and operation of the camp and for other activities. 

Svend Christensen was concerned about the development of an aggressive testimony in Charlottetown, and so in 1955, through the Prince Edward Island Evangelical Association, purchased a property at 235 Cumberland Street, Charlottetown, and the chapel was constructed. The first official meeting of the assembly was in January 1956. The assembly presently occupies its own chapel at 35 Lincolnwood Drive.

Among the very many people (37) identified as starting the assembly and leading it subsequently, we mention Svend Christensen, Joe Wootton, Art Small, and Ron Harris up to 1958. James and Betty Stahr moved to Charlottetown in 1958, remaining until 1971, making it possible for Mr. Christensen to move to Halifax. Harold Ellis, Claude Lewis, Ron Jones, and John Phillips among others served as elders after 1958. Charlottetown Bible Chapel has commended three full-time workers over the years. Today, about 200 adults and youngsters attend the assembly.

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Lou Harris and Svend Christensen worked among the fishing villages on the Island in the 1950s, which led to the formation of the Beach Point Assembly.

Sources

• Questionnaire Responses
• Sowing and Reaping in the Garden of the Gulf, by G. Albert Ramsay, 1983
• Letters of Interest, February 1944, p. 24; March 1944, p. 38; December 1955, p. 15