Westboro Baptist Church (Ottawa)

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For the church in Topeka, Kansas led by Fred Phelps, see Westboro Baptist Church.

Westboro Baptist Church, Ottawa

The Westboro Baptist Church is a Baptist church located on Richmond Road in the upscale section of the Westboro neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The church is part of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada and the Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Canada. The current pastor is Rev. Virgilio Barut.

The Church also has a daycare and preschool called the Westboro Montessori programme which includes a school of art and a school of music.

1 Early history
2 Coincidental Name
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Early history

The church was founded in 1928 to serve the small Baptist community of the Westboro police village. The first meeting to create the Church was comprised of only 16 people and took place on the 24th of February. On the 12 of June of the same year, the church received its first minister, A.J. Milligan, and, on September 11th, a resolution was made to begin the Westboro Regular Baptist Church. The church was officially recognized and Pastor Milligan was ordained on October 2nd of the same year.

Pastor Milligan retired in May of 1929 due to ill health. The list of preachers who arrived after him were: Pastor MacArthur who served from June 9th, 1929 to March 23rd, 1930, Rev. D. Fraser from June 4th, 1930 to October 2nd, 1932, Rev. Lorne Hisey from March 8th, 1933 to January 22nd, 1941, Rev. Robb Brackstone from March 12th, 1941 to August 19, 1942 and Rev. Hindrey who was called on November 8th, 1942.

The membership of the church grew from the original 16 people in 1928 to 61 people in 1934 to 90 in 1943. On January 21, 1946, the mortgage of the church was paid off and the mortgage papers were burned at a Thanksgiving service by three people: Mrs Cooke and Mrs Beaton (both were two of 1928 charter members) and 81 year old Mr. Sheffield; all three were the original signatories.^[1]

[edit] Coincidental Name

The church shares its name with the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, known for its hardline anti-homosexuality stance, which has led some to believe that the Ottawa church is affiliated with the Topeka church. The church, which kept a well maintained, up-to-date website, has attempted throughout the years to explain their disparate nature and their personal position on homosexuality which is somewhat more progressive than mainstream Baptism.^[2] However in late May of 2007, they removed all content from their site save for a text message explaining that they are not related to the Topeka group in any way.

[edit] References

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