Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map.
Create AccountChurch choir schools. Institutions set up to train young musicians in the literature and performance of church music and to enable them, through the presentation of such music, to worship in a manner at once spiritual and artistic.
Coined by 19th century anthropologists, the term “vision quest” describes a spiritual journey in various Indigenous cultures in which participants, often adolescents, are said to receive sacred knowledge and strength from the spirit world. Practised as a rite of passage among some Indigenous cultures in North America, such as the Siksika (Blackfoot), Cree, Anishinaabe (including the Ojibwe) and Inuit, vision quests reflect the role of spirituality and contemplative thinking in Indigenous cultures, and provide an important connection between the participant, the Creator and nature. Though reduced as a practice following colonization, vision quests remain part of the cultural traditions of Indigenous populations in Canada in the modern era.
The Pentecostal movement, also known as Pentecostalism, is a charismatic faith known for expressions of the Holy Spirit through its members. According to the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, the largest Pentecostal denomination in Canada, around 235,000 people attend services in more than 40 languages across the country.
The first Buddhists to set foot in Canada were likely Japanese and Chinese labourers who came to work on the railroads and in the mines in the 19th century. However, it was Japanese Canadians who first established institutional Buddhism in this country. In 2006, the Parliament of Canada voted unanimously to make His Holiness the Dalai Lama an honorary Canadian citizen. In the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 366, 830 Canadians identified as Buddhist.
The World Sikh Organization (WSO) of Canada is a non-profit organization. As an advocate for human rights in Canada, Punjab and around the world, WSO Canada has been involved in several significant court cases. This has helped develop Canadian human rights laws and customs.
All Christian churches of the "Reformed" tradition derive from the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and from Calvinism. Early Scottish settlers brought Presbyterianism to the Maritimes and central Canada in the late 18th century. In the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 472,385 Canadians identified as Presbyterian.
The term "Baptist" is derived from the name given to Christians who were baptized after they made a profession of faith, rather than baptized as infants. Baptists are distinct from other Christians who practice "paedo" or "infant" baptism. In the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 635,840 Canadians identified as Baptist.
Anglicanism is that tradition in Christianity whose members are in full communion with the see of Canterbury, England. Originally confined to the British Isles, the Church of England has spread to many parts of the world. In the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 1,631,845 Canadians identified as Anglican.
Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, is a spiritual society found historically among the Algonquian of the Upper Great Lakes (Anishinaabe), northern prairies and eastern subarctic. Once widespread, the Midewiwin became less prevalent after the arrival of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the largest Midewiwin societies are found in parts of Ontario, Manitoba, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The United Church of Canada was formed 10 June 1925 by union of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Methodist Church (Canada, Newfoundland and Bermuda), the Congregational Churches of Canada, and the General Council of Local Union Churches. In the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS), 2,007,610 Canadians identified as members of the United Church of Canada.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on September 18, 1995. Partner content is not updated.
The Mormon Church was founded in 1830 in upstate New York. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the largest Mormon denomination, is the only one of significance in Canada. There are currently eight Mormon temples in Canada.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on July 22, 2002. Partner content is not updated.
It's a face that has played host to a lot of fists. John Caruso's nose is crooked, there are reminders of past stitches around the corners of his eyes, and his forehead has as many bumps as a corduroy road.When they finally found him, he was meditating, seated in the lotus position in a three-foot-high space the size of a large coffin.
Brethren in Christ (identified as "Tunkers" in Canada in the 19th century) were a group of Christians who shared the Anabaptist belief in adult baptism.
Charismatic Renewal, a transdenominational Christian movement, theologically diverse and ecumenical, begun in the 1950s, currently characterizes significant segments of the church and is frequently referred to as neo-Pentecostal.
Great Awakening, New England-based movement of religious revivalism and evangelical pietism which came to Nova Scotia in 1775 with Henry ALLINE's decision to preach; it subsequently spread across the Maritimes. The religious currents which produced it were international and at least a century old.
With over 80,000 members across the country in 2019, the Catholic Women's League of Canada (CWLC) represents the largest organized body of Catholic women in Canada. It is officially recognized by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as a lay association of women and is affiliated with the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations. The CWLC national office is in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
