Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious EducationHasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Religion
Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious Education
Hasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Missions -- Canada
Some time after I had returned to England I received a letter from a man
at Stimson (which the Railway Mission used to work from Youngstown),
saying, "Why don't they send us a clergyman? Once a fortnight a service
is held here by howling dervishes, calling themselves Nazarenes, instead
of our dear old Church of England services." In one of the prairie towns
I saw the Holy Rollers' tent erected, and should like to have attended
one of their meetings just to see what they are like; but as I was doing
Anglican Mission work, I feared it might create a wrong impression. I
received a description of the meeting from an eye-witness, however. The
order of procedure is as follows: The preacher gets up and begins to
speak in excited tones, gradually working himself up into a frenzy and
becoming unintelligible. This is contagious, and the audience soon
become frenzied also, finally rolling about the floor--hence the name by
which the sect is known. When the people are in this ecstatic state they
are persuaded to sign cheques for large amounts. The Holy Rollers will
not come to a town unless a considerable sum is first guaranteed, and
this peculiarity of theirs adds point to the settlers' query with regard
to the Anglican clergy. It is dreadful to think of the sheep being left
to these hirelings.
A matter of grave import had come under my notice on the prairie, and I
felt it to be my duty to speak of it to those who were working for the
welfare of the province. The lack of a high spiritual standard, with its
consequent elevated moral tone, is having a gravely deleterious effect
on the children's morality, proving a serious menace to the health of
the community on which the welfare of this new country depends. On this
point I was strongly supported by the wife of one of the members of the
Senate, herself a trained nurse, who had lived for many years on the
prairie, and also by an experienced clergyman and a Sunday School
superintendent. All three gave me permission to use their names if
necessary, and promised to supply corroborative details. They lived in
widely separated districts, thus making their combined evidence of more
value. Whilst in Regina, therefore, I reported to the presidents or
secretaries of the following: The Local Council of Women, The Women
Grain-Growers' Association, The Women Home-makers' Club, and the Social
Service Council, all of which organisations work throughout the
province, and are interdenominational.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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