Assemblee Chretienne de Sorel, QC
Contents
History
Assemblée chrétienne de Sorel is a French open brethren assembly started in 1966 in Sorel-Tracy, Pierre-De Saurel, Montérégie, Greater Montréal, Southcentral Québec, Canada.
By the early 1960s, interest in establishing a work in what was then known simply as Sorel was already evident. In 1952, Roland Lacombe was the first French Canadian to be commended to the Lord’s work in Québec. He had laboured in La Tuque and been instrumental in establishing the assembly at Drummondville where he was now doing Gospel work. Within a few years, help arrived in the persons of Donald Cox and his wife Elizabeth who, coming from Hamilton, Ontario, had settled in Drummondville to carry on a “tent-making” ministry. It was anticipated that they might possibly move to Sorel to carry on the work there. As things turned out, the Cox family remained at Drummondville while Roland Lacombe and his family moved on to Sorel.
By 1965, meetings were being held in the home of Joseph Letendre a local farmer but they soon outgrew the available space. For the sum of one dollar, this brother sold a parcel of ground on which to build a two-storey structure. This housed a large meeting room with seating for seventy people on the lower level with living quarters above for Roland, his first wife Anita and their family. Dedication was celebrated on November 19, 1966. The following year, the assembly appeared for the first time in the list of francophone assemblies in the pages of News of Quebec.
Commended workers Jack Kimpel and his wife Grace, while learning French, joined the work force here in the early 1970s. As it turned out, they were to be here only for a year. Other plans began to unfold in 1974 when radio announcer, Jean-Pierre Cloutier with his wife, Lucie, came to know the Lord and began attending the assembly. By now the work had grown significantly; however, rather than enlarge the building, a new assembly was begun at nearby Saint-Guillaume.
Eventually commended to full-time work, the Cloutiers moved away to La Pocatière where they began and carried on a local assembly work for several years. They returned to Sorel in the summer of 1986 where they have continued to the present time. Ten years after their arrival, the second-floor living quarters were demolished and replaced by a spacious auditorium built over an enlarged lower level. The present two-storey edifice was dedicated in June 1996, the local mayor along with a former member of parliament being in attendance.
Location
- 294 Chenal du Moine, St. Anne de Sorel 1965-1966
- 294 rue de la Rive 1966-2020+
Correspondents
- Joseph W. Letendre 1967-1972
- Roland Lacombe 1973-1986
- Yvon Généreux 1987
- Jean-Claude Poirier 1988
- Jean-Pierre Cloutier 1989-2020+
Alumni
Sources
- Walterick Publishers Assembly Address Books: 1966-1980, 1982-1983, 1985-1987, 1989-2000, 2003-2004, 2006-2008
- ECS Ministries (Emmaus International) Assembly Address Books: 2009-2010, 2013-2014, 2016, 2018, 2020
- News of Quebec
- Coppieters, Joël. Réunis au nom de Seigneur Jésus (unpubished manuscript 2003)