Canadian Baptist Women

The stories of the women have often stayed in the shadows of Canadian Baptist history. The writers of this book have sought out neglected primary source materials to reveal the lives and work of an array of Baptist women in Canada's history. Read here about the Acadian Mary Lore hungrily reading her French Bible and welcoming the message of Baptist missionaries in Lower Canada, Jane Gilmour leaving her home in Britain to minister with her husband in Montreal and the wilds of Upper Canada, a group of remarkable black Baptist women in southern Ontario in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Isabel Crawford from Niagara becoming an advocate for the Kiowa people of Oklahoma, Miriam Ross from Nova Scotia ministering in the Congo, Lois Tupper, pioneer female Baptist theological educator, and, more generally, the work of Baptist women in the Maritimes in the nineteenth century and western Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Empowered by their Baptist faith, these Canadian women did remarkable things, and their stories deserve to be told and read.


""This volume of inspiring and sometimes startling essays contributes to the ongoing task of expanding and deepening the historical portrait of the Canadian religious experience. Dr. Bowler and her authors trouble the waters of male-dominated institutions and narratives as they introduce us to robust and faithful women who crossed multiple boundaries to help shape the church and the many contexts in which they lived, thought, prayed, and worked.""
--Sandra Beardsall, Professor of Church History and Ecumenics, St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon

""This collection of stories of Canadian Baptist women inspires. The recapturing of women's lives, previously lost to historical memory, brings depth and breadth to our understandings both of Baptist denominational history and of the broader history of the church in Canada. Readers will be captivated by these women who challenged gendered norms as they confronted institutional boundaries and crossed ethnic and geographic lines.""
--Lucille Marr, Adjunct Professor, McGill University, School of Religious Studies; President, Canadian Society of Church History

""The long-neglected contribution of women to Canada's Baptist movement is addressed in this eclectic collection of essays. As editor Bowler explains, the volume is neither exhaustive nor encyclopedic, yet it contributes substantially to rectifying this glaring gap. As a seminary educator, I am thankful for the mass of useful information this volume provides as I rewrite some courses.""
--C. Mark Steinacher, Assistant Professor of Christian History, Tyndale Seminary

Sharon M. Bowler (EdD, University of Toronto) is a Chaplain with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches. Her research centers around the study of Section 2a Freedom of Conscience, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Baptists who have contributed publicly in some way to its development and continuation. Sharon was a contributor to the first volume of the CBHS series, Baptists and Public Life.