Although I will be celebrating my 55th anniversary of my ordination as a Minister in our denomination next month, I would like to relate a couple of personal experiences that seem to be relevant to the topic.
In the first place, I would like to speak of Rev. Lazlo Bathory, Hungarian Presbyterian minister who, in the late 50s or early 60s, served in B.C. ministering to the many Hungarian immigrants who came to Canada following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. At that time I was minster at First, Prince Rupert, which was part of the far-flung Presbytery of Kamloops. Once I returned from Presbytery with him and had a chance to visit. Many Hungarian immigrants had moved to Kitimat, and to the southern Okanagan.
He had a rich academic and linguistic background. He had studied the classical languages of Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and was familiar with Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. He spoke French fluently, and probably knew Italian and Spanish as well. He was also a Protestant Chaplain during the Second World War. While serving in this capacity, he was asked to take a funeral for a Greek soldier who had been killed. Not familiar with that contemporary language, he conducted the service in Biblical Greek. What a depth of Reformed immigrant influence in Canada!
My second example relates to Rev. Oswald J. Smith, founder of the People’s Church in Toronto. In the early 40s, I heard him speak in Didsbury, Alta., where I was completing high school. His main theme was ‘Why should we hear the Gospel twice while other people have not heard it once.’ Some years later, I discovered his gift of hymn-writing. One of my favorites was ‘The Jesus Came.
My second Pastoral Charge after ordination was Prince Rupert. I learned that in 1910, Dr. Smith had held a preaching mission in that church, when the sanctuary was a tent. Later, I learned that he was an American Presbyterian who had developed a deep interest in missions. He was asked to leave one of his early pastorates in the U.S. because he spent too much time promoting missions. In the last part of the 19th or the first part of the 20th century, he moved to Toronto to found a church with Missions as the primary focus. People’s Church now has a weekly one-hour TV program ‘Living Truth’ on Vision-TV, featuring the present minister, Charles Price. We find him an excellent preacher and expositor. Someone has stated that this fairly large church is the most ethnically diverse congregation in all of North America. This is another example of Presbyterian influence in Canada.
