Editing Upper Canada (section)

===Religion===

{{Histpop
|title       = 1842 Religion in Upper Canada
|type        = Canada
|align       = right
|width       = 10em
|shading     = off
|percentages = off
|footnote    = Source: Statistics Canada website Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871.<br /> See [[United Province of Canada]] for population after 1840.
|Anglican|107791
|Baptists|16411
|Catholics|65203
|Congregational|4253
|Jews|1105
|Lutherans|4524
|Methodists|82923
|Moravians|1778
|Presbyterians|97095
|Quakers|5200
|Others|19422
}}

====Church of England====
{{main|Anglican Church of Canada|John Strachan}}

The first Lt. Governor, Sir [[John Graves Simcoe]], sought to make the Church of England the [[Established Church]] of the province. To that end, he created the clergy reserves, the revenues of which were to support the church. The clergy reserves proved to be a long-term political issue, as other denominations, particularly the [[Church of Scotland]] (Presbyterians) sought a proportional share of the revenues. The Church of England was never numerically dominant in the province, as it was in England, especially in the early years when most of the American born Later Loyalists arrived. The growth of the Church of England depended largely on later British emigration for growth.

The Church was led by the Rev. [[John Strachan]] (1778–1867), a pillar of the [[Family Compact]]. Strachan was part of the oligarchic ruling class of the province, and besides leading the Church of England, also sat on the Executive Council, the Legislative Council, helped found the [[Bank of Upper Canada]], [[Upper Canada College]], and the [[University of Toronto]].

====Catholic Church====
{{main|Roman Catholicism in Canada|Alexander Macdonell (bishop of Kingston)}}

Father Alexander Macdonell was a Scottish Catholic priest who formed his evicted clan into '''''The Glengarry Fencibles''''' regiment, of which he was chaplain. He was the first Catholic [[Royal Army Chaplains' Department|chaplain in the British Army]] since the [[Reformation]]. When the regiment was disbanded, Rev. Macdonell appealed to the government to grant its members a tract of land in Canada, and, in 1804, {{convert|160000|acre|sigfig=1}} were provided in what is now [[Glengarry County, Ontario|Glengarry County]], Canada.
In 1815, he began his service as the first Roman Catholic Bishop at St. Raphael's Church in the Highlands of Ontario.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Parish of St. Raphael Glengarry Emigration of 1786 Bishop Alexander Macdonell 1762–1840 |url=http://www.ontarioplaques.com/Plaques_STU/Plaque_Stormont44.html |website=ontarioplaques.com |access-date=16 April 2012}}</ref> In 1819, he was appointed [[Vicar Apostolic]] of Upper Canada, which in 1826 was erected into a suffragan [[Diocese|bishopric]] of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec|Archdiocese of Quebec]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/multiculturalism|title=Multiculturalism|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=9 September 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/why-is-canada-the-most-tolerant-country-in-the-world-luck/article19427921/ | title=Why is Canada the most tolerant country in the world? Luck}}</ref> In 1826, he was appointed to the [[Legislative Council of Upper Canada|legislative council]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Bishop Alexander MacDonell|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmcdoa.html|publisher=catholic-hierarchy.org|access-date=16 April 2012}}</ref>

Macdonell's role on the Legislative Council was one of the tensions with the Toronto congregation, led by Father [[William John O'Grady|William O'Grady]]. O'Grady, like Macdonell, had been an army chaplain (to [[Connell James Baldwin]]'s soldiers in [[Brazil]]). O'Grady followed Baldwin to [[Toronto Gore Township, Ontario|Toronto Gore Township]] in 1828. From January 1829 he was pastor of St. Paul's church in [[York, Upper Canada|York]]. Tensions between the Scottish and Irish came to a head when O'Grady was defrocked, in part for his activities in the Reform movement. He went on to edit a Reform newspaper in Toronto, the ''Canadian Correspondent''.

====Ryerson and the Methodists====
{{main|Egerton Ryerson|Methodist Episcopal Church}}

The undisputed leader of the highly fractious Methodists in Upper Canada was Egerton Ryerson, editor of their newspaper, ''[[The Christian Guardian]]''. Ryerson (1803–1882) was an itinerant minister&nbsp;– or circuit rider&nbsp;– in the Niagara area for the Methodist Episcopal Church&nbsp;– an American branch of Methodism. As British immigration increased, Methodism in Upper Canada was torn between those with ties to the Methodist Episcopal Church and the British [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodists]]. Ryerson used the ''Christian Guardian'' to argue for the rights of Methodists in the province and, later, to help convince rank-and-file Methodists that a merger with British Wesleyans (effected in 1833) was in their best interest.

====Presbyterians====
{{main|Presbyterian Church in Canada}}

The earliest Presbyterian ministers in Upper Canada came from various denominations based in Scotland, Ireland, and the United States. The "Presbytery of the Canadas" was formed in 1818 primarily by Scottish [[Associate Presbytery|Associate Presbyterian]] missionaries, yet independently of their mother denomination in the hope of including Presbyterian ministers of all stripes in Upper and Lower Canada. Although successfully including members from Irish Associate, and American Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, the growing group of missionaries belonging to the Church of Scotland remained separate. Instead, in 1831, they formed their own "Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in Connection with the Established Church of Scotland". That same year the "Presbytery of the Canadas", having grown and been re-organized, became the "United Synod of Upper Canada". In its continued pursuit for Presbyterian unity (and a share of government funding from the clergy reserves for established churches) the United Synod sought a union with the Church of Scotland synod which it finally joined in 1840. However, some ministers had left the United Synod prior to this merger (including, notably, Rev. James Harris, Rev. William Jenkins, and Rev. Daniel Eastman). In the 1832 new Secessionist missionaries began to arrive, belonging to "The United Associate Synod in Scotland" (after 1847, the [[United Presbyterian Church of Scotland]]). Committed to the voluntarist principle of rejecting government funding they decided against joining the "United Synod of Upper Canada" and on Christmas Day 1834 formed the "Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas". Although this new presbytery was formed at Rev. James Harris's church in Toronto, he and his congregation remained independent from it. However, the voluntarist, Rev. Jenkins and his congregation in Richmond Hill joined the Missionary Presbytery a few years later. Rev. Eastman had left the United Synod in 1833 to form the "Niagara Presbytery" of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. After this presbytery dissolved following the Rebellion of 1837, he rejoined the United Synod which then joined the Church of Scotland. Outside of these four Presbyterian denominations, only two others gained a foothold in the province. The small "Stamford Presbytery" of the American Secessionist tradition was formed in 1835 in the Niagara region, and the Scottish Reformed Presbyterian or "Covenanter" tradition was represented in the province to an even lesser extent. Despite the numerous denominations, by the late 1830s, the Church of Scotland was the main expression of Presbyterianism in Upper Canada.

====Mennonites, Tunkers, Quakers, and Children of Peace====
{{main|Mennonite|Society of Friends (Upper Canada)|The Children of Peace}}
[[File:SharonTemple.jpg|thumbnail|The [[Sharon Temple]], built by the [[The Children of Peace|Children of Peace]]]]
These groups of later Loyalists were proportionately larger in the early decades of the province's settlement. The Mennonites, Tunkers, Quakers and Children of Peace are the traditional Peace churches. The Mennonites and [[Tunkers]] were generally German-speaking and immigrated as Later Loyalists from Pennsylvania. Many of their descendants continue to speak a form of [[German language|German]] called [[Pennsylvania Dutch language|Pennsylvania Dutch]]. The Quakers (Society of Friends) immigrated from New York, the New England States and Pennsylvania. The Children of Peace were founded during the War of 1812 after a schism in the Society of Friends in York County.<ref>{{harvp|Reaman|1957|pp=40–124}}</ref> A further schism occurred in 1828, leaving two branches, "Orthodox" Quakers and "Hicksite" Quakers.