Our newest publication, just out this summer, is a revised and enlarged BICENTENNIAL EDITION of The story of the Hay Bay Church. Originally written in 1962 by Dr. Arthur G. Reynolds, it has been reprinted three times, with total sales of 8000 copies.
Once again out of print, the Trustees agreed to have it rewritten and updated with the insights of recent research. The rewriting has been done by Bill Lamb, an ardent researcher of Hay Bay history, and a past President of the Canadian Methodist Historical Society. It will be available for sale at the church this summer.
This booklet is Number 1 in a new series of booklets called the Hay Bay Series. Other titles which are printed or projected include: William Losee, Ontario’s Pioneer Methodist Missionary (1974) by J. William Lamb; Abandoned But Not Forgotten: The Hay Bay Methodist Church 1860-1910 (1984) by Arthur E. Kewley; The Tragic Drowning of 1819; “Square With the Sun at Noon“: The Structure of the Hay Bay Meeting House; “Thunderers at Our Doors“: Portraits of Hay Bay Preachers; John Roblin and Methodists in Politics; “The Shout of the King Was in the Camp“: Early Methodist Camp Meetings; Music of the Methodists; etc.
Also new: ERNESTOWN: Rural Spaces, Urban Places, by Larry Turner. Published by Dundurn Press of Toronto, 1993. (ISBN 1-550002-187-7) Larry is a staff historian with Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Ltd. of Perth, Ont. His previous book, Voyage of a Different Kind: The Associated Loyalists of Kingston and Adolphustown, published by Mika Publishing Co. of Belleville (ISBN 0-919303-81-1) gave new information about many of our Hay Bay people. This current book, in large coffee-table size (8 1/2 x 11), with abundant illustrations, describes two centuries of a neighbouring township. He describes the Ernestown Chapel, built as a twin to the one at Hay Bay in the same year of 1792. It was never finished; was dismantled in the early 1800s and moved to the fourth concession; and finally demolished in 1982. Ernestown was 70% Methodist in population towards the end of the nineteenth century.
The CANADIAN METHODIST HISTORICAL SOCIETY (organized 1899; re-established 1975) meets annually for a few days in June to hear and discuss papers presented on a variety of topics related to Methodism. Usually the Society meets in Toronto, with alternate years elsewhere (from Sackville, N.B., to Victoria, B.C.). This year (1993) it met in St. Paul St. United Church, St. Catharines, June 20-22. Next year (1994) it will be in Calgary, June 19-21. The papers are published annually and can be purchased. For further information write: C.M.H.S., c/o United Church Archives, Victoria University, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K7.