the congregations and it too was a long way around Malpeque Bay by car. The Princetown-Lot 16 union continued until 1966. As Princetown was not satisfied with the minister living in the

REFLECTION: Mervin Inman

I often heard the story that in the United Church in Birch Hill (Lot 14) they would sing ‘Will there be any stars in your crown’ and the fellows in the Presbyterian Church across the road were singing

‘No not one’.

Lot 16 manse the two churches mutually agreed to be separated by Presbytery. Lot 16 remained alone for a period of months (with a supply minister) while a boun- daries committee looked for a suitable union. Onjuly 1, 1968, the Lot 16 congregation became affiliated with the Bedeque North Pastoral Charge, made up of North Bedeque, Freetown, and Lot 16. At the time of publica- tion, this union continues.

UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA

he history books record june 10, 1925 as the inauguration of the United Church of Canada, in Toronto, Ontario. In that historical moment the Methodist Church of Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, as well as 70 percent of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, and the General

Council of Union Churches in Western Canada joined their denominational traditions to give birth to

the single largest Protestant denomination in Canada.

The foundation of the new church was many years in the

making. Individual traditions struggled with the questions of how best to serve the growing nation and to fulfill the obligations of conducting overseas missionary service.

Prior to considering union, the three churches involved

had to bring together individual sections within their own tra— ditions. It took until 1875 to bring the four different sects of Presbyterianisrn in the country under the union of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The divisions of Methodism were brought together by two mergers in 1874 and 1884 giving birth to the Methodist Church of Canada. The Congregational sects were united in the Congregational Union of Canada in the years 1906 and 1907. 6°

An interesting note was that the Anglicans first broached

the topic of church union in Canada. In 1874, the (luebec Diocese of the Church of England formed a committee to pro—

44 LOT 16 UNITED CHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE