Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/91

Contributor - Henry Van Essen

Title - About Recipes, Seventh Day Adventists, and One Dollar

Topic - Reformed Church In Canada

Sometimes history repeats itself. This past October it was my privilege to preach in a Seventh Day Adventist church building on Sunday. That is where the Cedar Grove Reformed Church of Port Alberni, BC worships. Just recently it was mentioned that another group in Southern Ontario worships on Sundays in a building of the same denomination. That however, is nothing new for Reformed Church groups. The Immanuel Reformed Church in London used the sanctuary of this particular denomination from January 20, 1952 until she completed her present sanctuary towards the end of 1958. (I preached in that first building also!) These are the things I read when leafing through the early issues of Pioneer. It is kind of eerie to read some of the reports from the early fifties, of various groups meeting here and there, of congregations being organized, and of first time consistories being installed. Forty years later all this is happening again!

Of course, there are differences. The new groups in our midst have little problem with the language. They have not left the land where they were born and raised. Yet one sentence in one of the early issues of Pioneer struck me: "Immigration is something different than moving." The immigrants some forty years ago left behind their roots, much family, and many friends. They came to a different world and had to start all over again. This was also true for their church life. Much of the reason why the Reformed Church was established in Canada lies with the difficulty the post WW 2 immigrants had in adapting to the social life and the language in their new homeland. Loneliness was common. Questions about all sorts of things kept coming up.

The need to be ministered to in their own language was initially large. Pioneer was started to be of help in this forced transition, something we are told in the second Pioneer ever printed - February 1951. Apparently the word "pioneer" dates from the early Middle Ages. In those days a pioneer was a soldier who, during a battle would slip away and make his way as close as he could to the enemy, dig a fox hole and attack from there. Thus he would prepare the way for the rest of his company. The early Editorial Committee declares that Pioneer wants to do the same thing for the new immigrants. The enemy is then defined by the unknown, the loneliness, everything that comes with being a stranger in a foreign land.

Thus we find much information for the newcomers. There are descriptions about the land and farming in New Brunswick by an immigrant; about farms around Brockville. Chatham is sorry to see some families leave because the farms in Kent county are so expensive. There are suggestions on how to aquire a family car for a reasonable price (Oh, those first "kars"! I remember one fellow trading "up" from a 1927 Model A to a 1929 Model A DeLuxe!). The ladies were not forgotten either. How do you bake bread and cookies in a foreign land? Pioneer sought to answer these common concerns too, and soon carried recipes and other information about cooking in this new land. The cuts of meat were presented differently here in Canada, and of course the names were also different. Thus Pioneer of September 1952 carried a whole list of the names of meat products along with the Dutch translation and comments on prices and ways of preparing the various cuts.

Insurance coverage of every sort was also a common topic in the early days. The importance of having a hospital insurance was stressed and soon many immigrants were insured through Wenco, the Wentworth (county) Cooperative Insurance. Articles also appeared about life insurance and the pros and the cons, plus further explanations. Hardly any immigrant had owned an automobile in the Netherlands. They were therefore not familiar with the need for liability insurance. I myself bought a car for $67.50 (no PST or GST) in the Fall of 1952 and drove it for six months without any insurance. No one ever told me I needed insurance.

The immigrants also had to know that the laws about inheritance were different than in the Netherlands. The matter of orphaned children also had to be addressed. Thus articles appeared about the need to have a last will and testament.

Of course, the spiritual aspect occupied a large part of the pages of Pioneer, but here also we find connections with today.

Almost immediately one minister begins to write about the history of the RCA, for the history of this denomination was as unknown to the new immigrants as it is to those joining us today. It was interesting to read that the RCA went through many name changes since its start in 1628. The present name was adopted in 1867, the year that Canada became a dominion and in fact a nation. It might be worthwhile to consider doing something like that again! Then very quickly articles appear giving information concerning the tasks of a consistory, and how a congregation is to be shepherded by the elders.

How about a Canadian Church Growth Fund? Already in 1953? Yes, only then it was called - believe it or not "The Wooden Shoe Fund." Even in 1953 we read about a shortage in the budget of the Canadian wide work (see Pioneer, December 1953). It is reported that Guelph contributed $200.00 to help with the shortage, Drayton $100.00, London $100.00, Woodstock $300.00, Stoney Creek $100.00 and St. Catharines $100.00, while Hamilton gave $150.00 for travel.

Which leads to the conclusion of this survey of the early publishing years of Pioneer. A large portion of the magazine was taken up by reports on what was happening in the congregations. As you may have gathered, there were lots of interesting tidbits - all for the low price of $1.00 per year! Yes, that is- right, for the first two years the subscription price was $1.00 per year. At the end of 1953 it had risen to $4.00 and today it is $16.00. All this goes to show you that Pioneer is an even greater bargain today than in 1954, for my salary is about six times higher than it was back then.

The question one has to ask of course, is whether our magazine is still pioneering. Is it still moving ahead of the churches, exploring and feeding back information to help us all as we travel through this world and struggle with the issues of faith and life? This is what the editorial committee tries to do. Whether they are succeeding or not, only our readers can tell us.

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