The Church of England in Loyalist New Brunswick, 1783-1825

Book excerpt: This study is an investigation of the arrival, planting, and expansion of the Church of England in Loyalist New Brunswick. The obstacles encountered in setting up missions in the frontier both before and after the arrival of Bishop Charles Inglis are documented. It is revealed that the origins, qualifications, zeal, and adaptability of the colony's missionaries were key factors in the Church's foundation and success. Legislated establishment, although British policy, proved half-hearted and of little benefit in colonial New Brunswick. While imperial attention to colonial religious policy was short-lived, the continued interest and aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) was crucial. inability to fully understand and appreciate the New Brunswick reality, the SPG remained the only secure source of clerical income. Given the frontier economy, SPG funds were critical to the Church, but it was in the end the exertions of Bishop Inglis and his small band of former New England missionaries who effected, the establishment and long-term viability of the Church of England in Loyalist New Brunswick.