Origins of the Evangelical Association
The Evangelical Association was born of the great religious awakening which swept across America after 1797. It had its beginning in the spiritual quickening which came to Jacob Albright (1759 - 1808), a tilemaker of the state of Pennsylvania. He was the son of a German immigrant family, whose religious heritage was Lutheran. Jacob himself was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. He was a farmer by trade and even though he became quite prosperous through marriage and through the tile yard he operated on his farm, yet all his life he was industrious and frugal, a man of integrity.
Jacob Albright became burdened about his soul. Several of his neighbours were caught up in the Otterbein-Boehm groups (later to become the United Brethren in Christ), but as yet they were not an organized church so he decided to steer clear of them. Then he became associated with another neighbour, Isaac Davis, who was a lay preacher in the Methodist Church. They formed a class.
In 1790 tragedy struck the Albright family when several children died in a matter of a few days as the result of a plague. Jacob was convinced that God's retributive justice was manifesting itself. A keen sense of dissatisfaction with himself, best described as conviction of and for sin bowed him down until 31 July 1791, when at a summer prayer meeting held in a neighbouring home, Jacob Albright looked at the Cross, whereupon his burden rolled away. There Albright, who always had been a "good man" became reconciled to God and experienced the joy and the assurance of this transforming fellowship.
In that same year Albright was ejected from the Lutheran Church. Again he joined a Methodist Class and made progress in the way which had been opened to him in the conversion experience. The class recognized the earnestness and talents of the 32 year old farmer and granted him an exhorter's license. Persistently the call to preach confronted him and in 1796 Albright became a lay preacher. His itinerations took him from his Lancaster County home through some of the counties of Pennsylvania, and through Maryland and into Virginia, crossing all denominational lines and preaching wherever he found rural, German communities.
As the number of converts increased they were eager to become united with the Methodist fold, but this body being exclusively English, no opening was afforded. Thus Albright was compelled to effect an organization among his German followers. By 1800 three Albright "cells" (prayer groups) had appeared. On 3 November 1803, the first council of his followers was held, in which seventeen men were present. These solemnly recognized Jacob Albright as "an Evangelical Preacher," and ordained him as such. Tirelessly he prosecuted this ministry until his prematurely enfeebled body collapsed and he died, May 18, 1808.
DIE EVANGELISCHE GEMEINSCHAFT
In 1809 the followers of Albright were known as The Albright People (Albrecht's Leute), elders were elected and a Discipline issued. In 1816 the first General Conference was held and they took the name, The Evangelical Association (Die Evangelische Gemeinschaft), the name that was used until 1922.
It is interesting to note that the 1809 Discipline began with the Twenty-Six Articles of Faith, Articles 1 - 25 coming directly from the German Methodist Discipline (with only five word substitutions), which had been authorized by the Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury. These Articles of Faith can be traced through Asbury to John Wesley, the Church of England and the continental theologians, Luther and Calvin. Hence the faith of The Evangelical Association goes back to the very cradles of the Reformation.
The Evangelical Association was organized by devout men to meet the needs of the early German-speaking settlers - to supply spiritual leadership where such leadership was sadly lacking, and to minister to needy souls who found spiritual ministry nowhere else. This explains the origin of the movement in Pennsylvania in 1800. It accounts for the appearance of the first missionaries in Ontario in 1836, and for the arrival of the circuit rider in Crediton in 1851.
THE HURON MISSION
During the first years Evangelical missionary work in Upper Canada (Ontario) was under the supervision of the East Pennsylvania Conference. However, in 1848, the New York Conference was organized, and at the session held in Buffalo, N.Y. on April 25, 1849, a "Canada District" of the New York Conference comprising all the fields and appointments in Canada was formed with M. Lehn as Presiding Elder. When Conference was convened in the city of Syracuse on April 17, 1850, the Huron Mission was established, to which Jacob Bastian was stationed at the salary of $57.24 per annum for a single preacher. In 1851 he received $72.24.
CIRCUIT ORGANIZATION
In the formative years the Evangelical Association developed a simple organizational structure. Circuit riding, a method introduced by Wesley in frontier work in the United States, proved to be an ideal solution to the problem of maintaining a reasonably adequate frontier ministry among the wide-spread German settlements. The position of presiding elder was created for the oversight of the circuits and circuit riders in a given district.
Circuits established in newly settled areas always covered a wide territory, sometimes requiring weeks to make the rounds. One cannot peruse the early records without coming to realize the hardships the men of those years endured for the Lord Jesus Christ and His cause. They travelled roadless regions, following mere trails, all for the meagre salary of $67 - $100 per annum. When a circuit rider came to a settlement which he deemed ripe for conversion, he preached to the people in schoolhouses, home, barns, taverns, or whatever place was available.
If possible, he organized a class of a few believers and appointed a class leader to guide their spiritual progress during his absence. Members who felt a call to preach and demonstrated some ability in public speaking were encouraged to apply to the presiding elder for a local preacher's license which entitled them to deliver sermons and organize classes.
The above is an exercept from "Songs of Zion - The Story of the Zion Church, Crediton, Ontario" written by the church minister. Date of writing unknown but estimated to be about 1969.