Extension of the ministry to the French-Canadian settlement of Muskegon, Michigan (1860-1861). The Rev. R. Desroches was ordained and appointed pastor.
Communion and collaboration agreement
concluded with the Presbyterian Church, including partnership in the Franco-Canadian
Interdenominational Society (FCIMS). The FCIMS, founded in 1840, came under
the French-speaking Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church of Canada
in 1875. The Rev. Chiniquy (right) was asked the same year to oversee the work
of FCIMS and moved from St. Ann, Illinois, to Montréal, Québec,
Canada.
J.
René Vilatte (left), a teacher
with Hull School Board in Western Quebec, joined with Rev. Chiniquy in FCIMS
in 1880, and assisted Rev. M. Boudreau at St. John's Church in St. Hyacinthe,
Québec. Chosen for missionary work outside Quebec, he was sent to
McGill University, to be trained in the FCIMS ministerial program offered
by the Presbyterian College (under Prof. Bieler and others). He was hired
in 1884, by Winnebago Presbytery in Wisconsin, to work as lay missionary
and catechist among Belgians and French-Canadians of Brown County. He also
served as Pastor of Église du Calvaire in Green Bay. The Rev. Chiniquy
went to support his ministry in the month of October, and held successful
evangelization services in Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties.