In 1763 members of a Baptist Church in Swansea, Massachusetts (and some other nearby churches, consisting in a total of thirteen Baptists), constituted a Baptist church. They chose Nathan Mason as their pastor, and emigrated as a body to Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada (which area is now in the province of New Brunswick). After about eight years, the original members returned to Massachusetts. Though the church had grown, this apparently caused the remaining church to become cut-off and scattered, and eventually to disband.
The oldest continuing Baptist church in Canada is the Wolfville Baptist Church (originally Horton Baptist Church) in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. It was constituted on October 29, 1778 with ten members. Nicholson Pearson was its first pastor.
Baptists got a late start in Canada – compare 1763 in Nova Scotia versus 1638 in Rhode Island. This is probably due to the strong French and Catholic influence to the north. The French made the first permanent European settlement in what would become Canada.
According to The Canadian Encyclopedia and other sources, in 2021 Baptists make up about 1.2 percent of the population of Canada. In contrast, 100 years earlier in 1921, 4.8 percent of the population of Canada was Baptist.
A list of some of the Baptist groups in Canada:
- Association of Regular Baptist Churches of Canada
- Canadian Baptist Ministries
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Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec
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Baptist Union of Western Canada
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Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches
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Union of French Baptist Churches (L’Union
d’Églises Baptistes Françaises au Canada)
- Covenanted Baptist Church of Canada (possibly extinct)
- Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada
- Landmark Missionary Baptist Association of Quebec (L’Association des Églises Missionnaire Baptiste Landmark du Québec)
- Primitive Baptist Conference of New Brunswick, Maine, and Nova Scotia[i]
- Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada
- Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention of Canada
- Union of Slavic Churches of Evangelical Christians and Slavic Baptists of Canada
- U. S. A.-based denominations (such as Southern Baptist Convention, American Baptist Association, Baptist Bible Fellowship, Converge, North American Baptist Conference, Seventh-day Baptists)
Sources: A Short History of the Baptists, by Henry Clay Vedder (ABPS, 1907, pp. 276ff.); Baptists Around the World: A Comprehensive Handbook, by Albert William Wardin Jr. (Broadman & Holman, 1995); Repent and Believe: the Baptist Experience in Maritime Canada, by Barry M. Moody, Editor (Lancelot Press, 1980); The Canadian Encyclopedia.
[i] Free or General Baptists, not the same as Primitive Baptists in the U.S.; some formed the Atlantic Canada Association of Free Will Baptists and some remain under the name Primitive Baptist.
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