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- Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada
6 Sep 1875 in Elgin, Monteregie Region, Quebec, Canada.
"Walter George Brown was the son of Charles Brown and Christina White." -- FindAGrave
Wikipedia:
"Walter George Brown (September 6, 1875 - April 1, 1940) was a Presbyterian Church in Canada minister who opposed the formation of the United Church of Canada and was a United Reform Movement MP in the Canadian House of Commons.
Born in Athelstan (now Hichinbrooke), Huntingdon County, Quebec of Scots-Irish parents, Brown was educated at McGill University where he received an Honours B.A. Degree in 1899 and at The Presbyterian College, Montreal, where he graduated in 1902 with a B.D. degree, the Silver Medal, a $60.00 Theological Scholarship, and a prize ($10.00 in books) in public speaking. He also won other scholarships and prizes during his time at Presbyterian College. During his summers, he went into the newly opened lumbering camps of Northern Ontario, serving first as a student missionary, was ordained on 30 September 1902 as an Ordained Missionary to Canada Atlantic Lumber Camps, from Rainy Lake to Whitney under the North Bay Presbytery. He remained in this post until July 1903, when he moved west to work amongst miners in the West Kootenay area of British Columbia at Salmo, New Denver and Silverton, all in proximity of Nelson.
While serving in ministry in British Columbia, he earned his M.A. degree from McGill, with a paper titled "History and Philosophy of Socialism", and was married to Martha Rowat of Athelstan, Quebec; her father, Andrew Rowat (1839-1918) served as minister at Elgin and Athelstan from 1884 - 1909; her mother, Margaret, was the daughter of Donald MacKenzie pioneer minister in Zorra Township, Oxford County, Ontario.
After leaving the Kootenays to study in Montreal and at the United Free Church of Scotland College in Glasgow, he was called and inducted in March 1908, as minister of Knox Presbyterian Church in Red Deer, Alberta, and would remain there until 1925. He also served as convenor of Home Missions for the Red Deer Presbytery supervising three congregations and fifteen missions. He served as Moderator of the Synod of Alberta in 1915.
At the 1925 General Assembly, Brown was one of 79 Commissioners who refused to join the United Church, and met in a corner of Toronto's College Street United Church at the conclusion on June 9 in order to resume business later that night at nearby Knox Presbyterian Church and legally claim their continuity.
Brown left Red Deer later that year to oversee the re-organization of some Presbyterians in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that had voted against joining the United Church. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Saskatoon was formed under his pastoral leadership, and remains the largest PCC congregation within the province.
In June 1931, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, and during his Moderatorial year, travelled to Asia, and visited Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Manchuria portion of China.
Reverend Walter George Brown is one of the few Moderators of the Presbyterian Church who was or is not a Reverend Doctor; he refused to accept Honorary Doctorates from his Alma Mater, nor Toronto's Knox College. His funeral took place in Ottawa, and is buried at the Athelstan Presbyterian Cemetery."
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