Nestled in the hills and forests of Northern Nova Scotia is Oxford, a small, unassuming village. It was in this unlikely and rather remote community that the Church of the Nazarene in Canada had its birth. At the end of the 19th century, a significant moving of the Holy Spirit characterized by clear holiness preaching and an emphasis on personal experience took place in Eastern Canada. One of the dominant voices of that period was a holiness evangelist named L. J. King, a native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, who was a converted Roman Catholic priest.

In October 1902, he was invited to hold services in Oxford. The preaching of entire sanctification as a vivid and attainable experience was a central theme of the meetings. These services gripped the attention of the whole community and a good number of people, mostly of Methodist background, claimed to be entirely sanctified. After the special services were finished, this new flock of sanctified believers found their testimonies and exuberant enthusiasms were not welcomed in their previous churches.

They became a flock without a shepherd and began to search for some group with whom they could be affiliated.

Providentially, H.R. Reynolds, who was to become one of the early general superintendents in the Church of the Nazarene, was also holding services in the nearby town of Springhill. Reynolds met with the Oxford group and an instant unity of minds and spirits was found. Reynolds organized the Oxford church in November 1902.

The denomination in which Reynolds served as missions secretary, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, was one of three parent bodies that merged together in 1907 and 1908 to form the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene (now the Church of the Nazarene).

Oxford's dedicated group was characterized by an insistence on the experience of entire sanctification and a high level of emotional enthusiasm.

The number of charter members, thought to be about 13 people, soon grew to 55. One of the early members, Myrta Peel, described the power and dynamism of the early services in this way: "Those were precious days. Never has any church had the hushed, hallowed presence of the Christ as I felt it in that little church the minute one stepped over the threshold. We went right to our knees, and by the time our minister started to preach, his hands were so held up he was ready to preach with power."¹

This original group in Oxford produced many strong, sanctified laypeople. In order to find employment, some moved from Oxford and became pioneers in starting Nazarene churches in other parts of the country. The Canadian prairies were just opening up to development in the early part of the 20th century. Some of from this Oxford group moved to Calgary, Alberta.

These strong pioneers became founding members of the first Church of the Nazarene in Western Canada, organized in Calgary by Phineas Bresee in 1911. Remarkably, one of these individuals, Ralph Schurman, along with his family, extended this pioneer work by moving from Calgary to Ontario and became involved in the beginning days of the Church of the Nazarene in that province. From these early beginnings, the work of the Church of the Nazarene has spread all across the great country of Canada into every province, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to the Arctic.

The mother church in Oxford continues to operate effectively to this day. It maintains a strong Nazarene testimony, not only in Oxford but also throughout the Atlantic Canada region and beyond. In fact, it continues to worship in the same building that it bought in the early years. Although the structure has gone through additions, renovations and expansions, the basic frame of the original building, built in 1876, is still in use. Oxford can claim to be the oldest Church of the Nazarene in continuous use by one congregation.

William Stewart, born in Scotland, has given all of his ministry years to the work of the Church in Canada where he has served as pastor, district superintendent and national director.

1. J. Fred Parker, From East to Western Sea, Nazarene Publishing House, (Kansas City, Mo. 1971) p. 19.

Holiness Today, July/August 2005

Please note: This article was originally published in 2005. All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at that time but may have since changed.