George Campbell Pidgeon (March 2, 1872 – June 15, 1971) was a Christian minister, first in the Presbyterian Church in Canada and then in the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

, as well as the last Moderator of the Presbyterian Church before amalgamation and the first Moderator of the newly formed United Church of Canada. He was a strong proponent of the proposed union of churches and later in life championed ecumenism. Pidgeon was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1894 and earned his Doctor of Divinity degree from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Presbyterian College Presbyterian College (PC) is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina. History Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by the William Plumer Jacobs. He had served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Cl ...

. His first posting was at Montreal West Presbyterian Church (now Montreal West United Church). He then moved to the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

area, serving first in the Streetsville area (now Mississauga), before moving to the

West Toronto Junction West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

area. From 1909 to 1915, he left pastoral ministry to teach

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at Westminster Hall in

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. He then returned to Toronto in 1916, where he served as minister of Bloor Street Presbyterian (now Bloor Street United Church). He became Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in 1925, and was a strong proponent of the proposed church union between the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

and

Congregationalist Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

es in Canada. However, a substantial minority of Presbyterians remained opposed to church union. Their threat to the entire project was resolved by giving individual Presbyterian congregations the right to vote on whether to enter or remain outside the United Church. In the end, 302 out of 4,509 congregations of the Presbyterian Church (211 from southern Ontario) chose to reconstitute themselves as a "continuing" Presbyterian Church in Canada. With the pro-union support of the majority of Presbyterian congregations now guaranteed, The United Church of Canada was inaugurated at a large worship service at

Arena Gardens An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

on June 10, 1925. The ecumenical tone of the new church was set at the first General Council in 1925. The former Methodist General Superintendent

Samuel Dwight Chown Samuel Dwight Chown (11 April 1853 – 30 January 1933) was a Methodist minister who led the Methodist Church of Canada into the United Church of Canada in 1925. Early years Samuel Dwight Chown was born on 11 April 1853 in Kingston, then in Canad ...

was considered the leading candidate to become the first Moderator because the Methodist Church made up the largest segment of the new United Church. However, in a surprise move, Chown stepped aside in favour of Pidgeon in the hopes that this would strengthen the resolve of the Presbyterians who had chosen to join the new Church. As first

Moderator of the United Church of Canada The Moderator of the United Church of Canada is the most senior elected official within the United Church of Canada. He or she may be a lay person or a member of the Order of Ministry and is elected to a three-year term by commissioners attend ...

, Pidgeon served for one year. Pidgeon was a supporter of the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

, home

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

service and later in life, was one of the driving forces behind the formation of ecumenical organizations such as the Canadian Council of Churches in 1945 and the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

in 1946. He served as minister of Bloor Street United Church for 32 years, retiring in 1948. He died in 1971 at the age of 99.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pidgeon, George C. 1872 births 1971 deaths Ministers of the United Church of Canada Moderators of the United Church of Canada