Canada

1. Canada Pray for Pray for Canada We gratefully acknowledge help from Dr Michael Haykin

2. A map showing the different regions of Canada The name Dominion of Canada was taken from Psalm 72 verse 8: ‘He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

3. The population of Canada • In terms of land area Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. Large areas of the country are very sparsely populated. The population of Canada

4. History • Aboriginal peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Inuit,and Métis. The Métis are a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers. • Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the region's Atlantic coast. • As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost North American territories until left in the late 18th century with what mostly comprises Canada today. • On July 1, 1867 three colonies joined to form the autonomous federal dominion of Canada.

5. Early French colonists • A significant number of the early French colonists were Calvinistic Huguenots. They were prepared to risk money and lives in the development of the colony before they were finally excluded by the notorious Cardinal Richelieu and his Jesuit supporters in 1635. • One of the founders of the Port Royal settlement, for instance, was Pierre de Gua de Monts (c.1558-1628), an ardent Huguenot.

6. English-speaking emigration • The emigration of English-speaking people to Ontario followed the loss of the American colonies in the American Revolution (1776-1783). • Along with this new wave of emigration came the gospel. Revival swept Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the late 1770s and early 1780s, through the preaching of Henry Alline (1748-1784). • The long-term result was a strong Baptist presence in these two provinces, a presence that has continued to the present day.

7. Reformed Christianity • The Presbyterians and Baptists in Canada have historically been reformed, as have a good number of Anglicans. • This changed in the course of the 20th century as many of the Presbyterians either entered into union with the Methodists in 1925 (The United Church, which has become a largely apostate body of churches) or remained evangelical but lost some of their commitment to their traditional theological distinctives. • The Baptists were deeply impacted by the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy of the 1920s with some becoming liberal and others Fundamentalists. • The doctrines of grace were lost and only began to be rediscovered in the 1960s with the advent of Banner of Truth literature and the published ministry of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

8. Sadly some of those who rediscovered these doctrines were not always gracious towards those who had not and often alienated those who might have been fellow-travellers. This is now changing with a younger generation and the impact of the teaching of men like John MacArthur, Al Mohler, R.C. Sproul, Steve Lawson and Alistair Begg. • There is much to encourage but increasingly, as in other parts of the West, the culture is becoming stridently intolerant of biblical Christianity.

9. Ottawa • Ottawa is the capital of Canada with a population of 883,391. • ‘Ottawa’ is derived from the Algonquin word adawe, meaning ‘to trade’.

10. John Mahaffey pastors West Highland Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario (which is the church picture). The church  has seen significant growth under his ministry and now there are about 1300-1500 in the congregation each Sunday. The church has launched a capital campaign to build a sanctuary for 2000. • The preaching here is expository in style and thoroughly reformed. 

11. Pray for Canada 1 • For seminaries and Bible colleges in Canada: some to pray for: Northwest Baptist Seminary and Regent College in British Columbia; Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Briercrest in Saskatchewan, and Providence in Manitoba; in Ontario, there is Tyndale and Toronto Baptist Seminary (TBS)—both in Toronto; Heritage Theological Seminary in Cambridge; and in the east coast Maritimes, Crandall University and New Brunswick Bible Institute: real need for young men to enter vocational ministry and the pastorate. • Ontario Gospel Alliance: reformed, complementarian and gospel-centred—shows great promise of presenting a united front against secularism, materialism, post-modernism, New Age spirituality. • For politicians and lawyers who love Christ and his Word.

12. Pray for Canada 2 • That Canadians would awake to the horror of abortion, which claims about 31 abortions per 100 live births: 330,000 live births and 100,000 abortions each year. • For Quebec: 0.5% evangelical; most secularized province in Canada: highest rates of abortion (abortion rates in Quebec are among the highest in the Western world; from 17,000 abortions per annum in 1978, they rose to 29,000 in 1998, and 31,000 in 2002, or a rate of 38 per 1000 births); also common-law relationships (common-law couples now account for 16.7 per cent of all families in Canada); children born out of wedlock; divorce; but God is doing great things especially among the Baptists and Brethren; pray for their churches and Seminaire Baptiste Évangélique de Québec (SEMBEQ). • For revival of godliness: the legalization of same-sex marriage has opened a floodgate of problems in Canada, including some arguing for the legitimation of polygamy, incest and paedophilia.