Robert Whitaker McAll (1821–1893) was a congregationalist minister from English and Scottish origin who founded the " Popular Evangelical Mission of France " in Paris in 1872, a movement which gained a considerable following and influence in a few years and which is still in existence today.
There he imposed his terms: the new parish should be open to people of the neighbourhood and inviting to newcomers, the old habits of pew-rent and fixed contributions should be replaced by voluntary gifts.
In 1867 he intervened publicly to ask for mercy for 3 Fenians who had been condemned to death after their attack on a prisoners transfer vehicle which had left one policeman dead.
The experience of Robert McAll in his various English parishes was a good preparation for his subsequent ministry in France: he was confronted with the material and moral misery of the working class, he tried various reach out methods including open air preaching, he refined his oratory talent and knew how to convince an audience with a fine mix of charm, humour and conviction.
Dutifully armed with French New Testaments and leaflets to distribute, Robert and Elizabeth McAll crossed the Channel on 12 August 1871.
Although they had been formally advised to avoid such supposedly risky neighbourhoods where remains of barricades of the Paris Commune were still to be seen, they kept meeting friendly and open-minded people.
But if anyone would come to teach us religion of freedom and reality, many of us are ready for it.” This appeal, which is very often quoted, awoke McAll's missionary calling.
On 17 November 1871, Robert McAll and his wife leave the United Kingdom for good, only armed with a hundred pounds, product of the sale of their belongings, and their trunks, which they struggled to retrieve in Paris.
In 1893, when McAll died, the Evangelical Popular Mission of France ran 136 meeting rooms in 57 cities and 37 departments, including Corsica and the then French Algeria and Tunisia, all of this having been built up in only 21 years.
McAll preaching is deeply evangelical, centred on the importance of the Bible, of sin and grace, of faith, sanctification and change of behaviour.
He even prevented the mission from turning into an established church, at least temporarily, since he took no doctrinal position and didn't administer sacraments.
“In the midst of the moral and cultural apathy which characterised the working class areas in the post Paris Commune years, the McAll meetings brought a fresh opening towards new social relations, a salvation language which fulfilled a need and the seeds of a community.
Financial problems snowballed after McAll's death, which led to a fairly quick decline of the '’Mission populaire évangélique'’.
Robert McAll left an impressive organisation behind him with 136 meeting rooms and a series of important institutions or movements (see supra).
Meanwhile, however "brotherhoods" were created to stabilise the converts; they paved the way for the creation of real new parishes in Lille, Roubaix, Paris and Nantes.
[6] It claims 16 branches (most of the time on historical sites originally chosen by Robert McAll), as well as a staff of 105 with 10 pastors and over 1000 volunteers.
Robert McAll himself always appeared in public clothed as a wealthy bourgeois: black redingote, golden watch chain, carefully tended side whiskers.