This dissertation investigates the social and cultural conditions which have contributed to the rise of the Chinese Christian community in Canada, and more specifically the capital region, and the kind of religious life that evolved within that community. The author draws on extensive fieldwork, offers insights into the beliefs and practices of this little-documented section of the Canadian Chinese community. A sociological survey of the nine Chinese Christian churches in Ottawa shows that this community has been deeply influenced by Canadian social policies and Chinese immigration patterns. Cultural variables such as dialect, place of origin, and social class have also shaped the formation and the growth of Canadian Chinese Christianity. Contemporary Canadian Chinese Christian churches primarily meet the interests and needs of middle-class Chinese immigrants, and have become the most cohesive and active ethnic community organizations within the Canadian Chinese community. On the one hand, Canadian Chinese Christianity could be seen as tool for cultural adaptation. It provides the Chinese members with a set of values and Christian beliefs which they see as similar to the basic beliefs of the host culture; the institution and operation of the churches allow their Chinese members to become accustomed to the administration and political patterns of the host society, and to prepare for entering mainstream society. On the other hand, Canadian Chinese Christianity could be presented as an "ethnic community" which helps the members preserve their Chinese identity defined in cultural terms, that is language, cultural heritage, and community ("family"). The Chinese churches feature a conservative Confucian Christian theology, where the Christian values are seen as compatible with Chinese values. Both perspectives are useful in demonstrating that, in the case of the Chinese Christian churches, within the Canadian multicultural society, ethnic identity can be selectively reconstructed, actively and pragmatically pursued, neither as assimilation, nor as preservation, but as accommodation.

The establishment of the religious province, originating in a time of flourishing development of the mendicant orders in the 13th century, allowed a decentralization of authority and facilitated the spread of religious institutes in their mission of service to the Gospel. The renewal called for by Vatican II, and the changing circumstances of diminishing vocations and the closing or restructuring of apostolic works, challenged contemporary religious institutes to examine their own operating structures to see whether they still met the needs of our time. Among the structures of religious life that the institutes have examined and adapted is the province. As an ecclesiastical juridic person by the law itself, the province possesses certain rights and obligations, including the acquisition, ownership, administration and alienation of temporal goods in pursuit of its mission. The competent authority of the religious institute can establish, reorganize and suppress provinces, according to its constitutions. When separate provinces are joined together to form a new one, besides the norms of proper law, certain canons on juridic persons apply, and, in particular, the intentions of donors and founders, as well as any acquired rights of the former provinces must be respected. There are also important civil law issues involved in the restructuring of provincial corporations. The rapid geographic expansion by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in North America led to the establishment of five provinces in the United States by the mid-20th century. The consolidation of the U.S. Oblate provinces in 1999 was the culmination of a gradual process of collaboration and restructuring over a period of more than 30 years. The decision by the Oblate superior general and council to consolidate provinces followed a period of spiritual, psychological and juridical preparation, and an official consultation of the membership. This thesis, using the experience of the U.S. Oblates as a case study, proposes to describe the procedure to be followed for successful consolidation of provinces from the canonical and civil law perspectives. What canonical structure might best be able to govern and animate the life of local apostolic communities in a unified missionary presence? What problems might be faced by those involved in the consolidation process? What are the pitfalls to be avoided? What were the civil legal, corporate and financial issues that had to be carefully addressed before the restructuring took place? We hope that this study would be of practical benefit to any religious institute contemplating a consolidation or reorganization or provinces.

Between 1829 and 1850 an institutionalized Roman Catholic church was created by the Irish Catholic community in the British colony of Newfoundland. Irish reformers and Roman Catholic clergy in St. John's agitated for political, legal, and educational rights, and economic and spiritual freedoms. However, a political struggle ensued in the St. John's congregation between some lay Catholic trustees who sought to retain their influence over church affairs. and the new Roman Catholic bishop, Michael Anthony Fleming, who wished to remove the laity from the control of the church. Under Fleming's leadership and centralized control, a more formally institutionalized church was established, which for the first time in Newfoundland was prepared to seek religious, legal and political reforms for Newfoundland. This bid to create a Newfoundland state in which the Irish enjoyed more freedoms than they did in Ireland threatened the control of British colonial administrations over Newfoundland, and proposed a very different kind of culture and society. In the attempt to create a new Irish culture, an old one had to be reinvented, and much of the social and political turbulence in Newfoundland from 1830 to 1850 had its roots not in Catholic-Protestant sectarianism as previously interpreted by historians, but in the discontent among Waterford and Wexford factions within the Irish Roman Catholic community of St. John's. By the late 1830s, these conflicting visions engrossed the attentions of the Newfoundland political class and many of the colony's ordinary inhabitants, British civil servants, and Roman curia, for whom the Newfoundland question had become the Catholic question, and more specifically, the Fleming question. Fleming was animated by the religious doctrine of ultramontanism, and he and his collaborating middle-class Catholic elite engaged in three phases of activity: political agitation in an O'Connellite pattern for Catholic civil rights, the creation of church-controlled schooling and religious education, and the construction of a new cathedral and educational precinct which was meant in part to symbolize the culture and its political success, and assert Irish cultural parity with the official British culture of the Newfoundland state. When Fleming systematically removed the lay trustees from positions of influence on school and chapel committees, and supported their opponents in elections, they joined forces with the threatened colonial establishment in Newfoundland, and political rancour and sectarian division grew in the colony. The church's success was tempered by the incessant interplay of local with international concerns. Intermittent interventions by the "Liberal Catholics" in alliance with Colonial governors to the Colonial Office, and the Colonial Office to Rome requesting that Fleming be removed from Newfoundland, and by disputes between various clergy and laity, which were turned to account against Fleming in Rome. However, Rome supported Fleming, and allowed him to remain in Newfoundland, and the British government discovered that it could no longer use the church to help it govern Newfoundland. By 1850, the year of Fleming's death, most of the contentious issues of concern to the Irish had been put to rest. Denominational rights to control education had been formalized in legislation, the reformers had become part of a new political establishment as Britain backed away from direct control of Newfoundland, and the success of building the cathedral created for the first time a sense in Irish minds of how possible it was to glorify their culture. The legitimacy of participation of Irish Catholics in Newfoundland society and the new state had been secured. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This dissertation assesses the role played by Canadian Protestant missionaries in promoting development in Central Angola from 1886 to 1961. It is a case study of the Congregational and United Church of Canada missionaries who worked principally among the Ovimbundu during the heyday of Portuguese colonialism in Africa. The study focuses briefly on the cultural background of the missionaries and the social and scientific advance in the Western world that enabled them to become facilitators of development overseas. This background is contrasted with the more lethargic pace of development in mainland Portugal and its overseas territories. Though distrusted by the Portuguese and African authorities alike at the beginning of their enterprise, the Protestant missionaries were soon welcomed more readily into African villages once it became clear that they could provide African communities with a constructive alternative to the depredations of Portuguese colonialism. By focusing primarily on extractive industries and on plantation economies, the Portuguese State had done very little to promote wholesome development in Angola. Many villagers were forcibly taken from their communities to meet the labour demands of plantations, big companies and public construction projects. The authorities gave little thought to the disruptions that such an exodus caused within individual communities or within the urban districts that did not yet have the facilities to cope with the heavy influx of labourers. To further compound the situation, Portuguese officials tampered with the traditional political structure of African villages, often replacing recognized leaders with their own appointees. Ultimately, they did nothing to preserve the social fabric of Angola and sought, half-heartedly, to replace it with Portuguese traditions. The Protestant missionaries, while seeking primarily to gain Christian converts in Africa, deliberately exposed the Angolans in their mission field to the skills and tools that would enable them to improve their lot under Portuguese domination. Church organization partially replaced the sociopolitical structures that had been weakened or destroyed by Portuguese colonialism. Western education, medical expertise and the application of various agricultural techniques gave the Protestants an advantage that even their Catholic counterparts, ambiguously aligned with the State, did not enjoy. Without seeking to overthrow Portuguese colonialism in Angola, the Protestant missionaries inevitably aided in its downfall by making the Angolans more self-sufficient and keenly aware of their rightful place in the global community.

The theme of the dissertation is "Forms of Work of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Among Polish Immigrants in the Prairies of Canada (1898-1926)." The work is presented in four chapters. The first one gives a general background of the situation which existed at the time. The second chapter examines the work done in the parish of Holy Ghost in Winnipeg, which was the first Polish parish on the prairies. The third chapter shows the situation existing in the prairies in rural areas, where there were many Polish immigrants. The fourth chapter investigates the Oblates' work in other different forms, that means the involvement in the Polish schools, in the apostolate of the press, and in formation of different associations and societies.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First of all, the author uncovers new insights into the tradition of church and church authority in the Philadelphia Baptist Association of the eighteenth century (hereafter: P.B.A.). Secondly, he indicates the strengths and weaknesses in that tradition. Thirdly, he uncovers the principles, both explicit and implicit, which support the Philadelphia Baptist tradition. The work includes two introductory historical chapters which describe the British and American roots of the Philadelphia Baptists. These chapters also provide the genealogy for the official Philadelphia Baptist Confession of 1742 (Second London Confession of 1677 and 1689), and the second chapter introduces other official P.B.A. sources used in this study: the Church Disciplines of 1743 and 1798, an essay of 1749 on the power and duty of an association, and various associational sermons and letters. The analysis of official sources of the P.B.A. includes a comparison of the Confession with its background sources: the Westminster Confession of 1646, the Declaration of Savoy of 1658, the Particular Baptist First London Confession of 1644, and other British Baptist and Separatist sources. By searching through the evidence from the primary sources, the author gathers insights into the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of universal Church (chapter 3), gathered church (chapter 4), and the council and association (chapter 5). He proposes composite definitions for church and association based upon evidence in the sources, and, in chapter 6, draws together previous findings about the nature of church authority in the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of the eighteenth century. The author provides historical explanations for an apparent discrepancy between the explicit P.B.A. theology of universal Church and the practice of the Association. According to the author, the basic models of church operative in the Philadelphia Baptist tradition of the eighteenth century were those of covenant and communion. The covenant model appears as primary because the formal cause of church was the covenant. The communion model, however, is shown to be more pervasive, with elements of other models (especially institutional and herald models) also in evidence. The study reveals that the P.B.A., in its explicit associational theory, differentiated the council from the association. The former was compulsory; the latter, totally voluntary as a style of interchurch fellowship. The analysis also shows that Philadelphia Baptists viewed the church covenant, church-power, and excommunication in limited terms, and that they overlooked the missionary dimension of both the church and the association. The study highlights major underlying principles operative in the P.B.A. tradition of church and church authority, and the author specifies which of these are more basic than others. He also provides a scenario of the process of discerning the authentic meaning of Scripture among Philadelphia Baptists who accepted the theory expressed in the sources. The analysis of official P.B.A. sources shows that the P.B.A. accepted church authority at several levels of the local congregation, the church officers, the church council, and the association. The author develops categories from the evidence in the sources in order to characterize these powers: association-power ad intra is distinguished from ad extra (those concerning the inner life of the association and those concerning the life of the churches); ecclesiastical powers of divine origin are differentiated from those of ecclesiastical origin. The author describes each power in detail and clarifies their interrelationship. He shows, moreover, that Philadelphia Baptists practiced a true delegation of authority and power, and that the Association had ecclesiological significance even though it was merely of ecclesiastical origin and historically conditioned. According to the author, the P.B.A. view of church and its associational theory manifested certain limitations, but these are outweighed by their advantages. By way of extrapolation, the author suggests the relevance of the eighteenth century Philadelphia Baptist tradition for the Churches today, and he asks specific questions of both Catholic and Baptist theology. Part of the value of this work is its appendices and bibliography. The appendices collect eighteenth century statements about church from official P.B.A. and other sources. Appendix C offers an extended note on Calvinism and Arminianism that situates Philadelphia Baptists within the Reformed theological tradition. Extended annotations on primary Baptist sources offer a useful tool for further research into the Philadelphia Baptist tradition.

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Abstract not available.

L'Union Catholique des Fermieres de la province d'Ontario connue aujourd'hui sous le nom de l'Union Culturelle des Franco-Ontariennes, oeuvre depuis soixante ans dans les milieux francophones de la province de l'Ontario. Notre these etudie un domaine peu explore concernant les circonstances qui ont incite les femmes rurales franco-ontariennes des annees trente a se regrouper au sein de cette association autonome, francophone et catholique. Nous avons tente de demontrer que les luttes de pouvoir entre la hierarchie catholique et les dirigeants de l'Etat quebecois ont eu des repercussions sur l'organisation et l'orientation qui a ete prise par l'Union Catholique des Fermieres en Ontario. Adoptant une approche feministe materialiste denoncant l'appropriation des femmes par le patriarcat, notre analyse a en effet permis de confirmer que les pouvoirs etatiques et ecclesiastiques se sont appropries le mouvement des femmes rurales franco-ontariennes pour en faire une organisation selon leurs conceptions du role des femmes de l'epoque.

No description available.