Dr. Zuidema gives lecture on Protestantism in Quebec at NAPARC
In November the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) was hosted by the Eglise Réformée de Québec in Montréal. This important fellowship of Reformed churches meets annually to get to know each other better and to discuss matters that are mutually important. For this reason Dr. Zuidema (also a pastor in the E.R.Q.) was invited to lecture on the history of French Protestantism in Quebec. His main claim was that French-speaking Protestants are marginalized in a way not known by the rest of English-speaking Protestants in the rest of North America. Most importantly in this marginalization has been the extremely strong place of the Catholic Church historically in Quebec and more recently the radical secular nature of Quebec society. Nonetheless, there have been notable figures and revivals in French Protestant history. Dr. Zuidema noted the fantastic and controversial conversion of the Roman Catholic Priest, Father Chiniquy to the Reformed Faith in the mid-19th century. His conversion added a lot of public awareness (and animosity) for Protestantism. In the latter part of the 20th century there was also a major turning to Protestantism (mostly to evangelical and Pentecostal churches) after many French speakers had rejected Catholicism during the ‘Quiet Revolution’ of the 1960s. During this time much of the society saw a radical secularization and many turned to other religions or gave up on religion entirely. Despite this major marginalization and perhaps even because of it, Reformed Christians still find much reason to be faithful livers and sharers of the Gospel. A French version of this speech will be published in the upcoming 2007 edition of the Revue Farel.
