In 1807 at evangelical Princeton, lay status signalled nothing about social out-look or attitudes towards democratic procedure. In that place and moment it was as easy for the layman Elias Boudinot to enforce social stratification and deference to a prescribed structure of authority as it once had been for Christian clerics throughout the European world. The next incident concerns two of Ontario’s great religious leaders of the nineteenth century – the Methodist Egerton Ryerson (1803–82) and the Anglican John Strachan (1778–1867). Strachan, who eventually became the

doi:10.4324/9780203166505-72

Chapter

In 1807 at evangelical Princeton, lay status signalled nothing about social out-look or attitudes towards democratic procedure. In that place and moment it was as easy for the layman Elias Boudinot to enforce social stratification and deference to a prescribed structure of authority as it once had been for Christian clerics throughout the European world. The next incident concerns two of Ontario’s great religious leaders of the nineteenth century – the Methodist Egerton Ryerson (1803–82) and the Anglican John Strachan (1778–1867). Strachan, who eventually became the

Chapter

In 1807 at evangelical Princeton, lay status signalled nothing about social out-look or attitudes towards democratic procedure. In that place and moment it was as easy for the layman Elias Boudinot to enforce social stratification and deference to a prescribed structure of authority as it once had been for Christian clerics throughout the European world. The next incident concerns two of Ontario’s great religious leaders of the nineteenth century – the Methodist Egerton Ryerson (1803–82) and the Anglican John Strachan (1778–1867). Strachan, who eventually became the

ABSTRACT

For both Methodists and Anglicans the move was from a segregation of spiritual and secular forces towards their integration.

This confluence of Methodist and Anglican interests set the stage for the first face-to-face meeting between Strachan the hierarch and Ryerson the evangelical. It took place in February 1842 when Ryerson, returning from Kingston to Coburg, found himself unexpectedly thrown together in a coach with Bishop Strachan. As Ryerson and Strachan chatted during their long ride, they were surprised to discover how well they got along. And they did more than simply exchange pleasantries. The Methodists, under Ryerson’s leadership, had just obtained provincial approval for transforming their denominational academy into Victoria College. During this journey, Strachan gave Ryerson some advice on how to tap proceeds from the Clergy Reserves, land that had earlier been designated for the support of Protestantism, to fund the Methodists’ new college. Neither Strachan nor Ryerson wanted to give up the distinctive contribution of their respective traditions, but each found it relatively easy to integrate his own concerns with those of a former opponent, while together promoting the place of religion in Ontario society. After long service to the Methodist cause, Ryerson became the director of public education in Ontario where he strove to infuse the province’s schools with a full measure of Protestant values. From a situation where Ryerson’s red-hot evangelicalism had drawn the scorn of Strachan for its use of ‘uneducated itinerant preachers’, Canadian Methodism had evolved into a religion that now promoted its own version of educational and ecclesiastical hierarchy.