Thanksgiving for Anglicanism in the True North: the example of John West, CMS missionary

On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, laudable Practice turns to an Autumn day in 1820, as - according to an 1851 account of the journey - the Rev'd John West, appointed by the Church Missionary Society, set out for the territory then known as Rupert's Land (now southern Manitoba and parts of eastern Saskatchewan):

It was in the autumn of the year 1820 that a little boat of birch-rind might have been seen to leave York Fort, on the western side of Hudson's Bay and after coasting for a while along the shore, enter one of the rivers that flow from the interior.

There was nothing in this circumstance to attract the attention of a casual observer - similar boats were continually arriving at, and departing from, the fort during the few bright months of summer and early autumn; this canoe was, as usual, manned by natives, and, as was frequently the case, an European gentleman was sitting at the stern.

But if any of God's own people had seen that boat depart, they would have watched it with the warmest hope and joy; and, as it gradually lessened to the view, and soon was hidden from their sight by some projecting headland, earnest prayer would have gone up that God would speed that little vessel on its course, and give His abundant blessing on its object. It was bound for the Red River Settlement, and was conveying to that distant spot the first messenger of the glad tidings of salvation that had ever visited these neglected regions.

The attention of the Hudson's Bay Company in London had for some time before been drawn to the sad state of this settlement, and they had endeavoured to promote education among the people. But the plan had met with very little success, and they now, in conjunction with the Church Missionary Society, resolved to send out a chaplain, or rather a missionary, in the hope of benefiting them.

Mr. West was journeying deep into Canada, certainly beyond the reach of previous Church of England missionaries. He would have seen the signs of Fall as he journeyed with his indigenous guides, the days shortening, the leaves red, the nights colder. Crossing Lake Winnipeg, West drew close to his destination. And then:

On October the 13th the party entered the Red River, and two days more brought them to the settlement.

Having reached the Red River settlement, he performed the then conventional ministry of Anglican clergy - he read the prayers and preached the Word of God:

Mr. West was much encouraged by finding on Sunday the large room at the Fort crowded, and the people very attentive to the prayers and to the sermon; and he commenced his labours full of hope.

To many among the congregation the words of our beautiful Liturgy fell on the ear and heart as a long-forgotten strain, bringing back many a thought of former days and long-lost privileges, perhaps unappreciated at the time; but to the greater part of the assembly both the prayers and the preaching were a new and unknown sound; for never before had the glad tidings of the Gospel been heard in that colony.

This first setting forth the message of salvation produced much emotion among the people; and though some of this afterwards proved to be like the early dew that passeth away, yet to many the word of truth proclaimed on this and on succeeding Sundays proved a savour of life unto life. One of the settlers in particular spoke of the first Sunday that he had attended Mr. West's ministry as the happiest day in his life, as it restored to him the blessings of public worship, of which he had been deprived for the last thirty years.

Reading of West's missionary journey at this Thanksgiving is, I think, a hopeful experience for those of us who are friends of Canadian Anglicanism. Hopeful, not because we are ignorant of the profound failures of Canadian Anglicanism, but because West points to the alternative to those failures.

The Anglican Church of Canada, of course, is experiencing catastrophic decline: an 12% decrease in membership and 26% decrease in Sunday attendance between 2019 and 2022. A remarkably shallow 'liberalism as progress' ideology has defined Canadian Anglicanism for decades, prophetically diagnosed by George Grant in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the new Primate offers only more of the same banality. In an early interview, he could merely say, "The glory days of Canadian Anglicanism are the past". He stated that sharing "the church's core Gospel values of peace, justice, care for the vulnerable and creation" was the mission, because these "are values that resonate with many Canadians today": reducing the Anglican Church of Canada to an echo of the Laurentian elite. He ended by saying that he "will never use the word grow; those days are over". A church that refuses to use the word 'grow' does not know the Gospel.

It is, indeed, pathetic. This, however, is the consequence of a refusal to confess and proclaim Christ Crucified and Risen, for us and our salvation. 

And so on this Thanksgiving Day, we turn to the Rev'd John West, journeying into the depths of Canada in the Fall of 1820, a missionary priest with his Bible and Prayer Book, confidently proclaiming "the glad tidings of salvation". Here, rather than the empty progressivism of recent decades, is a model for Anglicanism in the True North. This should be our hope and prayer for Canadian Anglicanism - that God would raise up a new generation after the example of John West, not rehearsing the bland values of Canadian secular opinion, but faithfully, whether as laity or clergy, living and ministering as missionaries, animated by West's vision "that the Church of Christ should at once enter in, and take possession of the whole country in the name of her Lord".