Christian Mission from Lausanne to Canada: European Réveil and Evangelical Missions in French-speaking Canada Jason Zuidema Concordia University Department of Theological Studies I. Introduction Speaking of the beginnings of evangelicalism in England (specifically John Wesley and the Methodist revival), David Ceri Jones writes that in the light of the last decades of historical research, “it is now impossible to study the birth of evangelicalism in England without reference to the European context.” 1 A similar statement is undoubtedly true when considering the expansion of evangelical groups in 19 th -century French Canada—it is impossible to study the birth of evangelicalism in French-speaking Canada without reference to the North American and European contexts. Although significant influences came from within French-speaking North America, some of the most important came from groups affected by the 18 th and 19 th century Protestant religious awakenings in the rest of North America and Europe. II. Historical Context Huguenots had been present in the French colonies along the St-Laurence River in the 16 th and early 17 th centuries. The relationship between these Huguenots and their Roman Catholics neighbours evidenced a great deal of tension. To serve the colonists, some governors tried to invite clergy from both confessions, but this was a difficult project to realise. 2 What the French crown could not do officially in France until the revocation of the Edict of Nantes later in the 17 th century, it did already in New France in the early decades of the 17 th century by excluding this Protestant minority. Following pressure from the clergy, especially from the Jesuits, 3 the French crown officially barred non-Roman Catholics from the economic life of the 1 David Ceri Jones, “Calvinistic Methodism and English Evangelicalism,” in The Advent of Evangelicalism: Exploring Historical Continuities. ed. Michael A.G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2008), 107. 2 For example, see Samuel de Champlain’s comments on the settlement at Sainte-Croix: “J’ay veu...le Ministre & nostre Curé s’entre-battre à coups de poing, sur le differend de la religion. Je ne sçay pas qui estoit le plus vaillant, & qui donnoit le meilleur coup, mais je sçay tres-bien que le Ministre se plaignoit quelquefois au Sieur de Mons d’avoir esté battu, & vuidoient en ceste façon les poincts de controverse. Je vous laisse à penser si cela estoit beau à voir; les Sauvages estoient tantost d’un costé tantost de l’autre, & les François meslez selon leur diverse croyance, disoient pis que pendre de l’une & de l’autre religion, quoy que le Sieur de Mons y apportast la paix le plus qu’il pouvoit.” Cited in Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la nouvelle France, Vol. 2 (Montreal: Fides, 1966), 25. 3 Carole Blackburn, Harvest of Souls: The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America 1632-1650 (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000), 27.