Opposition To United Church Merger
He had opposed the first attempt to merge the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches of Canada in 1904 saying "I cannot recall one moment when I ever doubted that it was our duty to maintain the Presbyterian Church in Canada in the interests of truth, sound church government, spiritual freedom and national righteousness."
He favoured a federation over a total church union. This was highlighted in his 1911 "Alberta Plan", that critiqued the "Union Churches" then being created primarily in Saskatchewan. In 1923, he went on a six-week speaking tour of Eastern Canada for the anti-church union Presbyterian Church Association and became known as "Brown of Red Deer". When the final vote on union was held during late 1924 and early 1925, Brown's Red Deer Presbytery was the sole presbytery in the PCC with a majority vote against Church Union.
Nationally, some 30% of Presbyterians opposed this union and reorganized themselves as the "Continuing Presbyterians", until they were legally permitted to resume using the name Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1939. With regard to the namecontinuing Presbyterians, Brown was quoted during his fight for the preservation of the Presbyterian Church by reciting a Scots challenge:
They may rob us of name, they may hunt us with beagles,
Give our roofs to the flame and our flesh to the eagles...
While there are leaves on the forest or foam on the river,
MacGregor despite them shall flourish forever!
(Neil G. Smith, A Short History of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, pp 85)
At the 1925 General Assembly, Brown was one of 79 Commissioners who refused to join the United Church, and met in a corner of Toronto's College Street United Church at the conclusion on June 9 in order to resume business later that night at nearby Knox Presbyterian Church and legally claim their continuity.
Read more about this topic: Walter George Brown
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