Introducing The Canadian Protestant League ....

60 YEARS' MINISTRY
OUR TRUST FROM THE PAST

The Canadian Protestant League (CPL) began in December 1941, in the charged atmosphere and tensions of the Second World War.

Evangelical Protestant Christians were outraged that the federal government of the day had sponsored a solemn Roman Catholic mass on the steps of the national Parliament Buildings ostensibly 'for victory'.

To protest this and other encroachments of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on Canadian public life, the Pastor of Jarvis Street Regular Baptist Church, Toronto, Dr. T.T. Shields, and a leading Toronto Councilor, Mr. L.H. Saunders, called a large public rally, where over 2,000 met to affirm their religious and civic liberties as Protestants. Out of this protest CPL was born.

The League originally combined the needed work of informing the public of the Roman church's efforts to gain undue influence and privilege in law, society and education; with support for the evangelization of Roman Catholics and testimony to the Protestant Reformation.

To name a few milestones: the League contested all extensions of Ontario's "Separate Schools" from their original design; supported the legal defense of religious liberty for Baptists and Brethren in Quebec during the Duplessis regime; defended the right to disseminate evangelistic material and factual information for Roman Catholics; and in other ways sought to uphold the civil and religious heritage bequeathed to Canada by British Protestants.

General Secretaries of the League have included Rev. W.S. Whitcombe; Rev. Stanley Wellington; and Rev. Jonas Shepherd. Publications of the League have included The Gospel Witness & Protestant Advocate, and Protestant Action.

Our present Executive officers: Dr. Larry Saunders, President; Mr. John H. Watson, Book Steward; Mr. Steve Kelly, Treasurer; Our current publication is the quarterly Protestant Challenge.