A Glance at the Past
By John-Paul Stewart
For 165 years Sunday School was an important part of the church experience at First Baptist. The word “school” makes it sound like it was for children. But it was so much more. Adult Sunday School classes were a major component, too. There was also childcare for what we would call the “preschool” age group, so their parents could participate. For about an hour a week, students of all ages would gather in their Sunday School classes to study scripture. This was in addition to the worship service.
Unfortunately, by 2013 attendance had dwindled to the point that Sunday School was disbanded. At the time, there were Sundays when certain classes would have no students show up. It was frustrating for the volunteer Sunday School teachers to prepare weekly lessons that went unused. Even the classes that did have students would only have 2 or 3 children at a time. Times had changed, and Sunday School was no longer viable.
That was a real shame, since it brought an end to a program that dated all the way back to 1848. Church records show that Mr. Asa Cook was appointed as our first Sunday School superintendent in March of that year. Mr. Cook served double duty, also acting as the Sunday School superintendent for Vittoria Baptist. He'd supervise in Simcoe in the morning, then walk to Vittoria to oversee their afternoon program. Reportedly he did that for 11 years without missing a single Sunday!
By 1905 the Sunday School program at First Baptist was attracting over 100 people each Sunday. It grew quickly from there, averaging 269 people per week in 1935. The record for attendance was 388 people in Sunday School one particular week that year. Can you imagine getting that many people coming out today? It required about 30 volunteer teachers each week to run a program of that size. Weekly attendance fell to about 100 students by the end of the 1960s. This was considered appallingly bad by the congregation, and a great deal of effort went into correcting the problem.
That led to a slight rebound in the early 1970s before its steady decline and eventual end. For much of its history, Sunday School was held from 9:45 to 10:45am, before the 11:00am worship service. However, in the early 1900s Sunday School classes were taught mid-afternoon. Interestingly, that era is also when attendance was highest. The inconvenience of coming back to church after lunch didn't seem to matter. In its earliest days, Sunday School classes were held immediately after worship although worship services of that era started at 9:00am, so both worship and Sunday School would have been over around noon.
(Back row, L-R): Fred Marshall, Alex Wallace, George Challen, Bruce Wallace (teacher), Lew Gunton, Art Mather, Tom Henderson;
(Front row, L-R): Dan Pursel, Russell Dack, L. Lafortune, J.W. Challen
Next month we'll talk about some of the specific classes and Sunday School activities from the past. For now, here's a peek at the oldest Sunday School class photo we have in the archives. It is from 1891. At that time, the classes were segregated by gender rather than grouped by age. This photo shows the boys' class; we don't have a corresponding one of the girls' class. Of particular note is the name Russell Dack. At the time of the photo, the minister was Rev. David Dack, Russell's father.
In last month's article we looked at some photos from an old church camping trip. Jay Hoover was able to fill in some missing details based on a photo in his grandfather's memorabilia. The trip took place in 1919 and was at Geneva Park on Lake Couchiching – much farther from home than previously thought. A big “thank you” to Jay for providing the missing information!
