Canadian Baptist Ministries

Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM; , abbreviated MBC) is a mainline Protestant and Baptist denomination in Canada. It is a member of the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is located in Mississauga, Ontario.

Historical background The first Baptist church in present-day Canada was founded by an American Baptist minister in Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1763. More churches were founded throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower Canada, and Upper Canada by Loyalist American ministers and itinerant preachers.

Missionary activity and Canadian auxiliary The first Canadian-born Baptist missionary was Rev. Samuel S. Day. He was sent to India in 1835 by the Baptist Board for Foreign Missions (BBFM), the foreign missionary organization of the American Triennial Convention (now American Baptist Churches USA). Canadian Baptist churches in the Maritime provinces had been supporting the work of Adoniram Judson in Burma since 1814. In 1845, these churches, before establishing the Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces (MBC), sent out Rev. R.E. Burpee, along with his wife Laleah, to Burma, under the auspices of the BBFM.

In 1866, the Foreign Missions Board, renamed as American Baptist Missionary Union (ABMU) right after the Southern schism, appointed A.V. Timpany to be sent to India. That prompted the establishment of a Canadian auxiliary to the American Missionary Union by the Maritime Provinces Convention in 1866.

In 1869, the Canadian auxiliary was reorganised as the Regular Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of Canada, and in 1889 was renamed as The Board of Foreign Missions of the Regular Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec.

In 1874, the Canadian Baptist Foreign Missionary Society was founded in Ontario.Gordon L. Heath, Dallas Friesen, Taylor Murray, Baptists in Canada: Their History and Polity, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2020, p. 42

Founding

Precedents The Canadian Baptist Foreign Mission Board (CBFMB) was founded in 1912.Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 338 It was renamed as Canadian Baptist Overseas Missions Board (CBOMB) on May 1, 1970, and later as Canadian Baptist International Ministries (CBIM) in 1990.

Efforts to form a national Baptist ecclesiastical body date back to 1900. Delegates from across Canada met in Winnipeg and established the National Baptist Convention of Canada. Inexplicably, the Convention never met again. As such, no national Baptist organization existed in Canada for a long time until 1944. In that year, the Baptist Federation of Canada (BFC) was established at Saint John, New Brunswick by the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ), the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada (CBWC), and the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada (CBAC).William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, USA, 2009, p. 121 They were joined by the Union of French Baptist Churches of Canada in 1970.Harry A. Renfree, Heritage and Horizon: The Baptist Story in Canada, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2007, p. 275

In 1947, the CBOQ authorized the ordination of women ministers and Muriel Spurgeon Carder was the first ordained woman.Gordon L. Heath, Dallas Friesen, Taylor Murray, Baptists in Canada: Their History and Polity, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2020, p. 73 In the CBAC, Josephine Moore was the first in 1954. In the CBWC, Mae Benedict was the first in 1959.

The Baptist Federation was renamed as Canadian Baptist Federation (CBF) in 1982.Gordon L. Heath, Dallas Friesen, Taylor Murray, Baptists in Canada: Their History and Polity, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2020, p. 61

In 1995, the Canadian Baptist International Ministries joined the Canadian Baptist Federation. The merger made the Federation be renamed as Canadian Baptist Ministries, its current name.Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 338

Statistics According to a census published by the Baptist World Alliance, CBM claimed 912 churches and 70,616 members.

Humanitarian aid CBM support humanitarian projects in Canada and worldwide.CBM, HOW WE WORK, cbmin.org, Canada, retrieved May 5, 2023

It engages in international mission on behalf of Canadian Baptist churches and brokers national cooperation among the four regional denominations and Women's groups.

Regions It has 4 regional unions of churches : Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada, the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada and Union d'Églises baptistes francophones du Canada.J. Gordon Melton, Martin Baumann, Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2010, p. 496

Schools

The regional conventions of the convention have participated in the founding of various universities which have gone public. There was the founding of Acadia University by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada in 1838,George A. Rawlyk, Canadian Baptists and Christian Higher Education, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Canada, 1988, p. 6 the founding of McMaster University by the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec in 1881Aaron W. Hughes, From Seminary to University: An Institutional History of the Study of Religion in Canada, University of Toronto Press, Canada, 2020, p. 33 and Brandon University by the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada in 1890.William H. Brackney, Congregation and Campus: Baptists in Higher Education, Mercer University Press, USA, 2008, p. 137

The organization has several theological institutes affiliated and a partner university, Crandall University.Gordon L. Heath, Dallas Friesen, Taylor Murray, Baptists in Canada: Their History and Polity, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2020, p. 78Randall Herbert Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism: Revised and expanded edition, Baylor University Press, USA, 2004, p. 42

Beliefs The Federation has a Baptist confession of faith.CBM, WHAT WE VALUE, cbmin.org, Canada, retrieved May 9, 2020 It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance.Baptist World Alliance, Members, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved December 5, 2020

Controversies In 1919, when an anonymous editorial in the Canadian Baptist contested the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy, pastor Thomas Todhunter Shields presented a strong condemnatory resolution to the annual convention. Shields's strong motion passed. Taylor Murray, Paul R. Wilson, Canadian Baptist Fundamentalism, 1878-1978, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2022, p. 28 In 1920 Shields was elected to the Board of Governors at McMaster University. In 1925, Shields took action against McMaster University in Toronto for harboring the liberal theology professor Laurance Henry Marshall (from England), a self-confessed "liberal evangelical", who was appointed Professor of Practical Theology at McMaster. In the spring of 1926 Shields established Toronto Baptist Seminary and was censured by the Baptists convention of Ontario and Québec in 1926, and was expelled in 1927. He took with him 70 churches (representing about one seventh of the convention) and one college, and formed the Union of Regular Baptist Churches of Ontario and Quebec in 1928. The Union merged with the Fellowship of Independent Baptist Churches to form the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada in 1953.George A. Rawlyk, Aspects of the Canadian Evangelical Experience, McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP, Canada, 1997, p. 222

Canadian Baptist Ministries

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