History of the Berwick Camp Meeting Association

Back in the 1800s, Edward C. Foster was one of Berwick’s leading businessmen and a strong Methodist who gave freely of his time to support the Main Street development of the Berwick Methodist Church.

On one occasion, while awaiting a delayed shipment of lumber after traveling by train and ship to Boston, Foster took the opportunity to attend a Methodist Camp Meeting with friends in nearby Hamilton, Mass. The Asbury Grove Camp Meeting, which had been in operation since 1859, so impressed the Nova Scotian, he was inspired to consider organizing a camp meeting for Berwick on his return home.

The Canadian Camp Meeting had its roots in the Methodist Church of Canada, which officially came into existence through a number of Canadian Methodist Unions in 1874. It should be noted the 1874 union was dominated by the British Wesleyan Methodists rather than the American Episcopal Methodists that had made attempts to become the major Methodist Witness in Canada during the 1780s.

The Methodists were foremost in organizing camp meetings as a means of mass evangelism that was affordable for all classes of people, as well as an opportunity to revive a more basic scriptural religious worship within a simple social atmosphere. Under the auspices of the local clergy, the meetings were held on a designated site for a temporary village of tents encircling a preaching stand and rough benches for seating. With a program of mainly preaching, singing and prayer, these open-air gatherings lasted for several days and were immensely popular, attracting thousands of people.

The first comfirmed camp meeting in Canada took place on the property of Peter Huff at Hay Bay on the Bay of Quinte circuit of the Methodist Church in late September of 1805, with an estimated attendance of 2,500. The camp meeting spread to north of Toronto at Cummer’s Mills in 1825 and later to St. Catharine’s, Grimsby and Cornwall areas. The Canadian Native communities were also welcomed to the camp meetings.

In the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, the Berwick Methodist campgrounds were established in 1872 and, having served the Maritime Methodists, now under the reformed United Church of Canada, and many other religious affiliations for generations; represents to many the best elements of the Canadian Methodist Camp Meeting tradition.