History of Seventh-day Adventist freedom of religion in Canada

The Seventh Day Adventist Church's minority status increased its sensitivity to religious freedom early in its history.

Shortly after its birth in 1860, the American Civil War and later "Sunday legislation" in the 1880s and 1890s raised concerns about religious liberty.

The September 1, 1904, edition of The Messenger (Adventist newspaper) reported: "On Monday, August 15, Brethren Charles Sweeten and Fred Boettger, who for more than a year past have been employed on the Lorne Dale Academy farm, were summoned to appear before the Magistrate in answer to a complaint made against them for working on 'the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, in violation of the law.'

The summons was made returnable on Friday, August 19 at 2 o'clock p.m., at Cooksville.The defense attorney failed to appear at the trial.

"The only witness put on the stand who could bear positive testimony was a memher of the S. D. Adventist church, a young girl who had been employed at the farm picking berries, who reluctantly testified that Bro.

[4] The September 8, 1904 edition of the Review and Herald reported, "ELDER EUGENE LELAND writes us from Lorne Park, Ontario, under date of August 26, that Brother Charles Sweeten, manager of the Lornedale Academy farm, and Brother Fred Boettger, a student in the academy, have been arrested and fined five dollars each and costs, with the alternative of a term in the county jail, for the same crime (?)

Seventh-day Adventists teach that the command to worship the image of the beast found in Revelation 13 predicts Sunday observance legislation at the end of the Earth's history.

We should not invite persecution in any form by unduly stressing our peculiarities and differences, but only show others by our life that we are dedicated to truth—in all areas.

The Canadian Union Messenger, April 1, 1904: Do we not recognize in the efforts now being made in the Dominion Parliament to secure enforced Sunday observance as an indication of the days when freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience will be a thing of the past?

The January 11, 1906 edition of the church's Canadian Union Messenger led with an article titled, "The 'Globe' and the Lord's Day."

[13] On April 19, 1906, at a public hearing on the bill, Mayor Folinsbee, of Strathroy, spoke on behalf of those who observed the seventh-day, or Saturday.

As a result, the government adopted the following amendment: In response to this amendment, the Toronto Methodist Conference sent a telegram to Prime Minister Laurier stating: Toronto Methodist Conference, assembled here, unanimously opposed to clause 11 [exemption clause] in Lord's Day Act.

"[14]In 1901, the various Sunday-observance organizations united to form a Canada-wide, non-denominational lobby group called the Lord's Day Alliance.

Presbyterian minister John George Shearer, with Methodist and evangelical Anglican support, led the alliance to persuade the government of Canada to pass the Lord's Day Act of 1906.

T. Albert Moore, Methodist minister, Secretary of the Lord's Day Alliance and future moderator of the United Church of Canada, wrote to the school: Dear Sir: We have been informed that you have been carrying on the operations of mowing hay on Sunday, 26th of July, 1908.

If you will write us by return mail assuring us that hereafter you will not pursue the work on your farm on the Lord's day, we shall not report this complaint.

"[16]Another letter was sent to the management of the Academy: Dear Sir: An effort was made when the Parliament was enacting the law, to have people who observe Saturday as the Sabbath exempted from the operations of the Lord's Day Act under certain limitations.

We shall always seek to enforce this law justly and reasonably, but we desire it to be distinctly understood that the people who reside in Canada must be obedient thereto.

In October, the truant officer served two of the parents with a summons to answer a truancy charge for not sending their children to the public school.

The judge was inclined to dismiss the charges, but at the request of the truancy office and police chief he adjourned the case once more.

4, an application may be made, by or in respect of any man in the class or subclass called out by such proclamation, to a local tribunal established in the province in which such man ordinarily resides, for a certificate of exemption on any of the following grounds: ... "(f) That he conscientiously objects to the undertaking of combatant service and is prohibited from so doing by the tenets and articles of faith, in effect on the sixth day of July, nineteen hundred and seventeen, of any organized religious denomination existing and well recognized in Canada at such date, and to which he in good faith belongs; and if any of the grounds of such application be established, a certificate of exemption shall be granted to such man."

(a) A certificate may be conditional as to time or otherwise, and, if granted solely on conscientious grounds, shall state that such exemption is from combat service only... "[18] In 1930 Elisabeth Achelis proposed a change to calendars known as World Calendar that would have changed the weekly pattern of days, meaning that the Sabbath would no longer occur on a fixed day of the week.

[19] WHEREAS recent efforts by many well-meaning individuals and governments to secure United Nations endorsement and approval of the scheme for the reform of the calendar as proposed by the World Calendar Association would seriously endanger the religious rights and freedoms of all religionists whose faith calls for the observance of a specific day for worship within the context of the historic weekly cycle and,WHEREAS Seventh-day Adventists are not opposed to calendar reform per se, but could favour a constructive and effective formula for the revision of the current calendar that does not disrupt the unbroken continuity of the weekly cycle,RESOLVED that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada record and take steps to inform the appropriate authorities of its emphatic opposition to this scheme that presently threatens the valid religious convictions and practices of many of Canada's devout and deeply religious citizens of many denominations and faiths.