The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is a national parachurch association of over 160 affiliated church denominations, ministry organizations, and educational institutions, plus 1,000 local church congregations. All affiliated groups identify themselves as part of the evangelical movement in Canada.
The EFC was founded in 1964 as a means of promoting cooperative participation in the Canadian political and social arenas. The organization promotes public awareness of issues that are of concern to the evangelical community, facilitates cooperation among various ministries, and advocates on public policy issues. It has made many submissions to government on controversial legislation regarding issues such as religious freedoms, defining marriage, child pornography, and abortion/fetal rights. In 1982 a coalition of groups including the EFC successfully campaigned to have "the supremacy of God" recognized in the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The EFC publishes Faith Today magazine, the major evangelical publication in Canada, founded in 1983 under the leadership of Brian Stiller.
The EFC is a member of the World Evangelical Alliance. The WEA has been directed since 2005 by Geoff Tunnicliffe, a Canadian who also serves as the EFC's director of global initiatives.
The EFC has occasionally collaborated with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on certain matters of moral theology, such as abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia.
Famous quotes containing the words evangelical, fellowship and/or canada:
“Chastity is a monkish and evangelical superstition, a greater foe to natural temperance even than unintellectual sensuality.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“Have no fellowship with one that is mightier and richer than thyself: for how agree the kettle and the earthen pot together? For if the one be smitten against the other, it shall be broken.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 13:2.
“In Canada an ordinary New England house would be mistaken for the château, and while every village here contains at least several gentlemen or “squires,” there is but one to a seigniory.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)