Religion in Newfoundland and Labrador
Religion, although central to many people's lives, defies any easy
definition. It ranges from the intimately personal in prayer, trust, and
values to the most obviously public of collective rites and festivities.
Long before Europeans set foot on the stony soil of Newfoundland and
Labrador aboriginal people practised their religion. Although we cannot
observe the spiritual dimension of the Native peoples of the past,
archaeological evidence can provide us with some clues. Grave goods from
burial sites at Port au Choix and elsewhere indicate that the Maritime
Archaic Indians saw themselves as intimately linked to the environment,
holding some animals, such as the killer whale and the great auk, in
especially high regard. Animals were also central to the Beothuk view of the
sprit world, as they were to the Mi'kmaq. The Labrador Inuit had a mythology
and rituals that linked them to the environment and to other Inuit
societies. The Innu of the Labrador barrens held distinct views of their
soul-spirit and expressed them in ritual, art, and legend.
Stone Carving of a Killer Whale.
This artifact was
produced by the Maritime Archaic Indians 4000 years ago. It was found at Port
Aux Choix, Newfoundland.
Courtesy of J. A. Tuck, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland.
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The English settlers on the Avalon Peninsula during the 17th century were for the most part
members of the Church of England, though Lord Baltimore brought out Roman Catholic laity and
priests to his colony at Ferryland. With the demise of the early settlements organized religion
temporarily disappeared from Newfoundland. Only in one pocket, the French colony of Plaisance (now
Placentia), did Roman Catholicism persist from the second half of the 17th century in a parish run by
Franciscan Recollet monks. But even this Roman Catholic outpost vanished with the removal of the
French in 1714 as a consequence of the Treaty of Utrecht.
In 1700, the founder of the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG),
Thomas Bray, used the religious neglect of Newfoundland fishers as an example when proposing his
society in aid of overseas missions. The SPG supported Anglican clergy in Newfoundland from 1703
until the 20th century. Through its support of charity schools for the poor, it also became a cultural
force in the island, until more permanent social and political institutions were established in the 19th
century.
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Laurence Coughlan, ca. 1770s.
Courtesy of Hans Rollmann, Memorial University of Newfoundland,
St. John's, Newfoundland.
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From the mid-18th century, the international movement called Pietism, which sought to
revitalize Protestant Christianity, left its mark on Newfoundland and Labrador. Methodism was
introduced on the north shore of Conception Bay by Laurence Coughlan, an Anglican priest who had
been associated with John Wesley. Coughlan preached a religion of the heart while performing his
regular duties as an Anglican priest in Harbour Grace and Carbonear. After his departure in 1773,
Methodism almost disappeared from Newfoundland. Only an organized missionary effort and greater
support from Britain, as well as links with sister churches in the Maritimes, established a more lasting
Methodist presence.
Hopedale, Labrador, 1861.
A water colour by Bishop Reichel, who visited the Moravian
missions in Labrador.
Courtesy of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies Archives,
Memorial University of Newfoundland Library, St. John's, Newfoundland.
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The interest of the Moravian Church - then known as the Unitas Fratrum - in Labrador
dates as far back as a failed settlement near today's Makkovik in 1752. A continuous Moravian
presence began in 1771, when a party of missionaries established the community of Nain. At different
periods, the Moravians established stations all along Labrador's northern coast, one as far north as
Killinek (Cape Chidley), and the Labrador Inuit became Moravian converts. The Labrador Innu, like
the Mi'kmaq, became Roman Catholic adherents.
Religion in Newfoundland changed significantly in the 19th and early 20th centuries when it
entered the political arena and became more firmly institutionalized. The Anglican Church in
Newfoundland, together with Bermuda, became a separate diocese in 1839. Roman
Catholics, who had been granted religious liberty in 1784, fought hard to acquire the status of an
independent ecclesiastical province, which became a reality in 1904. Newfoundland Methodists
established administrative ties with Eastern British America in 1855 and--in 1925--with Canada, while
the fledgling Congregationalists merged eventually with the Presbyterians.
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The Basilica.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, St. John's.
Courtesy of J. E. FitzGerald, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland.
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The 19th century was a period of ecclesiastical expansion, with the building of churches and
schools. Roman Catholic religious orders, such as the Sisters of Mercy and the Presentation Sisters, as
well as the congregation of the Irish Christian Brothers, made possible province-wide Catholic
education. In doctrine and piety, the denominations followed major European
trends. The Anglican Church, for example, which originally had an evangelical character, was later
strongly influenced by the sacramental and institutional emphases of the Tractarian or Oxford
Movement. Roman Catholics were at first governed by ecumenical and tolerant bishops, but later their
faith became more denominationally exclusive amidst political and ecclesiastical changes both at home
and in Europe.
During the first half of the 19th century, Newfoundland experienced denominational
strife and tension because of the involvement of bishops and churches in politics, focussing on issues of
patronage and education. This died out in later years with the establishment of the denominational
education system, and of an agreement that all the churches would be fairly represented at all levels of
government.
A factor of great religious vitality entered the Newfoundland scene during the late 19th
and early 20th century: the establishment and growth of the Salvation Army and the Pentecostals. Both
movements addressed religious feelings and thus continued emphases familiar in Methodism and among
evangelical Anglicans, from which they recruited their members and their leadership. These groups
responded specifically to the social needs of the outports, mill-towns, and industrial centres of central
and western Newfoundland, where these churches found their true social and religious purpose.
While the major Protestant denominations established links with
Canadian churches either prior to or at the time of confederation, the Roman Catholic Church in 1948
was divided regionally and ethnically over this issue. Archbishop Edward P. Roche and the Irish
Catholics on the Avalon Peninsula opposed confederation and closer administrative ties with
Canadian Catholics, while the French-speaking and Scottish Catholics on the west coast opted for
confederation.
Archbishop Edward P. Roche.
From Ewart Young, The Atlantic Guardian, July 1947, Vol. 3, No. 7 (Montreal:
Guardian Associates Ltd.) front cover.
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In more recent times, the major churches have belatedly encountered the world-wide
problem of secularization, and have had to face some serious challenges, among them the public loss of
confidence in the denominational education system, financial difficulties, and the trauma of sexual-abuse
scandals. The denominational system of education was abolished in 1998 after a referendum and
subsequent constitutional change. New expressions of religious concern and alternate forms of
spirituality within and outside the churches have also asserted themselves in the province, such as the
Charismatic and Cursillo movements. In addition, a more ethnically diverse population is reflected in the
establishment of Muslim and Hindu organizations. Overall, the religious outlook of the province has
become increasingly similar to that of the North American mainland as Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians face the new millennium.
© 1999, Hans Rollmann
Department of Religious Studies,
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Sidebar links updated February, 2008
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