Peter Wiley Philpott

{{Short description|Canadian Christian fundamentalist and evangelist (1865–1957)}}

{{Infobox clergy |honorific_prefix=Reverend |honorific suffix= |name=Peter Wiley Philpott |image=Peter_Wiley_Philpott_during_his_pastorship_of_The_Moody_Church,_c._1925.jpg |alt=Head-and-shoulders frontal photograph of Peter Wiley Philpott copied from the website of The Moody Church |caption=Philpott {{circa|1925|lk=no}} |birth_date={{birth date|1865|11|25|df=y}} |birth_place=Iona, Ontario |burial_place=Hamilton, Ontario |death_date={{death date and age|1957|04|01|1865|11|25|df=y}} |death_place=Toronto |years_active=1892{{ndash}}1956 |occupation=blacksmith, Salvation Army officer, minister |known_for=Founding the United Christian Workers (1892){{refn|group=lower-alpha|Renamed the Christian Workers' Church in 1922, and in 1925, the Associated Gospel Churches of Canada.}} |spouse=Jessie Menzies |children=13, including {{ plainlist | Elmore Philpott<ref name=Elliott-1994> {{ cite journal |journal=Historical Papers{{snd}}Canadian Society of Church History |issn=0848-1563 |title=Fundamentalism and the Family: A Preliminary Examination of P.W. Philpott and His Children |first=David R. |last=Elliott |pages=5{{ndash}}14 |date=1994 |url=https://historicalpapers.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/historicalpapers/article/view/39446/35769 |access-date=28 August 2025 |doi=10.25071/0848-1563.39446 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|11}} }} |signature= |signature_alt= |religion=Christian |church=Associated Gospel Churches |ordained=30 September 1892 by Christian & Missionary Alliance |congregations={{ubl |Philpott Tabernacle, Hamilton. |Moody Church, Chicago. |Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles. |Jarvis Street Baptist Church and Peoples Church, Toronto.}} |offices_held={{ubl |Brigadier, Salvation Army. |Superintendent for Western Canada, Christian & Missionary Alliance. |President, United Christian Workers.}} }}

'''Peter Wiley Philpott''' (1865{{ndash}}1957), a Canadian Christian fundamentalist and evangelist, founded the United Christian Workers, a working-class religious movement later known as the Associated Gospel Churches of Canada.

==Biography== ===Early life=== Philpott was born in 1865 on a farm in Elgin County, Ontario. He attended grammar school till the age of 13, and was then apprenticed to a blacksmith in Chatham for a few years.<ref name=Draper />{{rp|103}}

===Salvation Army=== He joined the Salvation Army in 1884 after experiencing a religious conversion at an Army rally in Dresden, Ontario, where he was mainly raised.<ref name=Draper />{{rp|103}} The Army had recently formed a congregation there.<ref name=Hyatt> {{cite book |last=Hyatt |first=Alice L. |title=The Story of Dresden 1825{{ndash}}1967 |date=1967 |publisher=The Dresden News |location=Dresden, Ontario |url=https://archive.org/details/hyatt_202501 |access-date=17 August 2025 |oclc=10817898 |via=Internet Archive }}</ref>{{rp|15}}

Philpott rose to the high rank of brigadier, and was appointed a member of the Canadian Commissioner's advisory committee.<ref name=Moyles> {{cite book |title=The Blood and Fire in Canada: A History of the Salvation Army in the Dominion of Canada, 1882{{ndash}}1976 |first=R. G. |last=Moyles |date=1977 |edition=1st |publisher= P. Martin Associates |location=Toronto |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodfireincanad0000moyl |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |access-date=17 August 2025 |isbn=978-0-887-78169-8 |oclc=4230583 }}</ref>{{rp|124}} He married Jessie Menzies, a fellow Army officer, in 1887;<ref name=Draper />{{rp|103}} they went on to have 13 children.<ref name=Draper />{{rp|107}}

===United Christian Workers=== In 1892, after a prolonged and public dispute focused on congregational autonomy, Philpott resigned from the Army, precipitating a significant secession of officers and soldiers.<ref name=Draper>{{cite journal |journal=Histoire Sociale / Social History |title=A People's Religion: P. W. Philpott and the Hamilton Christian Workers' Church |last=Draper |first=Kenneth L. |date=1 May 2003 |volume=36 |series=71 |pages=99–121 |url=https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/view/4438/3635 |via=Public Knowledge Network |access-date=17 August 2025 }}</ref>{{rp|104{{ndash}}106}} The secessionists created a new religious organization, the United Christian Workers, with Philpott its elected president.<ref name=Elliott-1989> {{cite thesis |first=David R. |last=Elliott |date=1989 |title=Stories of Eight Canadian Fundamentalists |chapter=Chapter 5: P. W. Philpott (c. 1866{{ndash}}1957): Patriarch of Fundamentalism |chapter-url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/831/1.0098291/2#page=113 |pages=106{{ndash}}113 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of British Columbia |url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/media/stream/pdf/831/1.0098291/2 |doi=10.14288/1.0098291 |doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|108}}

Later that same year, Philpott was ordained by the Christian & Missionary Alliance,<ref name=Elliott-1993> {{cite book |title=Amazing Grace: Evangelicalism in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States |editor1-first=George A. |editor1-last=Rawlyk |editor2-first=Mark A. |editor2-last=Noll |editor2-link=Mark Noll |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |date=1993 |url=https://archive.org/details/amazinggraceevan0000unse |url-access=registration |first=David R. |last=Elliott |chapter=Knowing No Borders: Canadian Contributions to American Fundamentalism |pages=349{{ndash}}374 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/amazinggraceevan0000unse/page/349/mode/1up |access-date=17 August 2025 |isbn=978-0-773-51214-6 |oclc=864841900 |via=Internet Archive }}</ref>{{rp|359}} and went on to establish congregations of Christian Workers in Hamilton and Toronto. The Hamilton church was known as the Gospel Mission;<ref name=Elliott-1989 />{{rp|108}} migrant Scottish steelworkers were a significant part of its congregation.<ref name=EncycEvangel> {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofev0000balm |url-access=registration |first=Randall |last=Balmer |author-link=Randall Balmer |date=2004 |edition=rev. & expanded |publisher=Baylor University Press |location=Waco |entry=Philpott, P(eter) W(iley) (1865{{ndash}}1957) |entry-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofev0000balm/page/540/mode/1up |page=540 |access-date=17 August 2025 |isbn=978-1-932-79204-1 |oclc=55131568 |via=Internet Archive }}</ref>

In 1896, Philpott became minister of the Hamilton church, a position he held till 1922. He changed its name to the Gospel Tabernacle, and organised the construction of a large new church that opened in 1906 (it was renamed the Philpott Tabernacle in 1926).<ref name=Elliott-1989 />{{rp|108{{ndash}}109}} A 1903 Hamilton newspaper referred to the Christian Workers as:<ref name=News-1903> {{cite news |author= |title=Christian Workers: One of the Most Recent Additions to the List of Denominations Holding Religious Services in Hamilton |work=Hamilton Herald |date=24 January 1903 |at=Cited by Draper (2003), p. 106, ft 31. }}</ref> {{blockquote|[A] religious body without pope, primate, metropolitan, bishop or president. Each branch is self-governed, self-supported; it settles all matters for itself. There is no creed, dogma or confession of faith to perplex the members, who appear to be well satisfied, and are doing much good in the places where branches have been established{{snd}}not only doing much good individually, but adding to their membership and erecting churches, "to which everybody is heartily welcome".}}

While ministering in Hamilton, he remained affiliated with the Christian & Missionary Alliance, serving successively as its superintendent for Western Canada (1899{{ndash}}1900) and associate superintendent for Eastern Canada (1901{{ndash}}1902).<ref name=Elliott-1989 />{{rp|109}}

===Moody Church and Church of the Open Door=== [[File:The Moody Church, located between Clark and La Salle Streets, at North Avenue (NBY 415310).jpg|thumb|The Moody Memorial Church constructed during Philpott's 1922{{ndash}}1929 pastorship. ''Curt Teich postcard, 1943'']]From 1922 to 1929, Philpott was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago,<ref name=Flood> {{cite book |title=The Story of Moody Church |first=Robert G. |last=Flood |chapter=Chapter 4: P. W. Philpott: The Building Years (1922{{ndash}}1929) |pages=21{{ndash}}27 |publisher=Moody Church |location=Chicago |date=1985 |isbn=978-0-802-40539-5 |oclc=12664012 }}</ref> overseeing the construction of a massive new church building as a memorial to Dwight Moody.<ref name=Elliott-1993 />{{rp|359}}

In October 1929, he became the third pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, resigning, due to ill-health, in October 1931.<ref name=COD-1985> {{cite book |title=70 Years on Hope Street: A History of the Church of the Open Door, 1915{{ndash}}1985 |date=1985 |first=G. Michael |last=Cocoris |publisher=Church of the Open Door |location=Los Angeles |oclc=1532242092 |url=https://archive.org/details/church-of-the-open-door-1-merged/ |access-date=25 August 2025 |via=Internet Archive }}</ref>{{rp|51, 146}} On many occasions thereafter, he spoke during services at the church, including in 1956, when he was ninety.<ref name=COD-1985 />{{rp|52}}

===Later life=== After retiring in 1932, Philpott settled in Toronto, where he sometimes filled in for Thomas Shields at Jarvis Street Baptist Church. In 1943, he was appointed associate minister at Oswald Smith's Peoples Church.<ref name=Elliott-1989 />{{rp|112}} He made extensive speaking tours throughout North America until a few years before he died in 1957.<ref name=Draper />{{rp|108}}

==Views and beliefs== ===Labour=== In 1916, when minister of the Gospel Tabernacle in Hamilton, Philpott was one of several clergymen, together with the mayor and other officials, in a mediation committee trying to avert a strike by unionised machinists. Along with other ministers, he expressed sympathy for the machinists, commenting that while they, as employees, had made many concessions in negotiations, their employers had made none.<ref name=Turkstra-2008> {{cite journal |journal=Urban History Review |title=Social Gospel in the City: Rev. W. E. Gilroy and Hamilton Clergymen Respond to Labour Issues, 1911{{ndash}}1918 |first=Melissa |last=Turkstra |volume=37 |issue=1 |date=2008 |pages=21{{ndash}}35 |doi=10.7202/019343ar |jstor=43560227 }} Regarding statements about the strike by clergymen in the mediation committee, Turkstra cites articles in the ''Hamilton Times'' and ''Industrial Banner''.</ref>{{rp|26{{ndash}}27}}

Draper (2003), drawing on Philpott's sermons and articles, observes that Philpott made many references to the importance of "honest toil and labouring" and saw "all of life as a 'service' to God". Draper adds that the vocabulary of the Christian Workers made considerable reference to waged employment in its metaphors and imagery.<ref name=Draper />{{rp|109}}

Draper also states that Philpott's self-identification as a "blacksmith preacher" persistently framed his discourse as a pastor, quoting, as an example, this anecdote from a sermon he delivered in 1921:<ref name=Draper />{{rp|114}}{{blockquote|One day a clergyman in this city called to see a man and wife and asked why they did not come to his Church, which was nearby. They said, "We go to the Tabernacle to hear Philpott." He said, "You go up there to hear that man! Why do you not go to a real Church?" "Why? What is the matter there? Is there anything wrong?" "Well," the clergyman replied, "if you were going to call a doctor, you would call in a real doctor would you not? You would not call in a quack." "Well," said my friend, "There are a lot of sick sinners being saved up there." "Yes, but look at that man. He is not a preacher at all. He is just a blacksmith." I sometimes think I spoiled a pretty good blacksmith to make a poor preacher. His wife could not stand it any longer, and said, "Well, Jesus was a carpenter, and I guess they make a pretty good pair," and she left the room.}}

===Immigrants=== In early 1920, Philpott appeared before Hamilton's board of education to appeal for "support in the work of educating the many foreigners in the city". He referred to ongoing, volunteer-run classes where "the aliens were being taught the principles of Canadian citizenship", of whose "morals and standards", he stated, they were "densely ignorant."<ref name=News-1920> {{cite news |author= |title=Estimates are Passed by Board of Education{{snd}}Will Necessitate Slight Increase in Taxation{{snd}}Moral Support Asked for Foreigners' Instruction |work=Hamilton Spectator |date=13 February 1920 |at=p. 9, col. 1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hamilton-spectator-p-w-philpott/179940830/ |access-date=29 August 2025 |via=Newspapers.com }}</ref>

His intervention came amidst debates in Hamilton about how best to "Canadianize" (assimilate) its many immigrants. Failing to win over the board of education, he turned to the city's newly established chamber of commerce, which secured funding for English-language evening classes.<ref name=Heron-2015> {{cite book |title=Lunch-Bucket Lives: Remaking the Workers' City |first=Craig |last=Heron |author-link=Craig Heron |date=2015 |publisher=Between the Lines |location=Toronto |url={{Google books|GXOnEAAAQBAJ|pg=PT739|plain-url=yes}} |at=E-book page PT739 |access-date=29 August 2025 |isbn=978-1-771-13212-1 |oclc=894750861 |via=Google Books }}</ref>

===Fundamentalism=== Philpott was a speaker at the 1919 World Conference on Christian Fundamentals. In his presentation, he said that critics of the Bible should be ignored, and asserted the importance of conversion and a Keswickian approach to living a more holy life.<ref name=Elliott-1993 />{{rp|359}}

He belonged to the World's Christian Fundamentals Association,<ref name=Elliott-1993 />{{rp|360}} which advocated premillennialism and creationism.<ref name=Numbers> {{cite book |title=The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design |date=2006 |edition=expanded |first = Ronald L. |last=Numbers |author-link=Ronald Numbers |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=63{{ndash}}64 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-674-02339-0 |oclc=69734583 }}</ref> At its seventh annual convention in 1923, along with the American politician William J. Bryan, the Canadian fundamentalist leader Thomas Shields, and others, he signed a statement of fundamentalist principles that concluded:<ref name=TGW-19250618> {{cite journal |journal=The Gospel Witness |issn=0702-5696 |date=18 June 1925 |volume=4 |issue=6 |title=A Divided House: A Statement Put Forth by the World's Christian Fundamentals Association in its Seventh Annual Convention at Memphis, Tenn., May 3 to 10, 1923 |first1=Peter W. |last1=Philpott |first2=Thomas T. |last2=Shields |author2-link=Thomas Todhunter Shields |first3=William J. |last3=Bryan |author3-link=William Jennings Bryan |first4=Charles A. |last4=Blanchard |author4-link=Charles A. Blanchard (academic administrator) |display-authors=etal |pages=10{{ndash}}15 |url=https://tbs.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1925-06-18_VOL.-04.pdf#page=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250823144658/https://tbs.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/1925-06-18_VOL.-04.pdf#page=10 |archive-date=23 August 2025 |url-status=live |access-date=24 August 2025 |via=Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College }}</ref>{{rp|14{{ndash}}15}}{{blockquote|The time has come when Fundamentalists and Modernists should no longer remain in the same fold, for how can two walk together except they be agreed? Therefore we call up upon all Fundamentalists of all denominations to possess their souls with holy boldness and challenge every false teacher, whether he be professor in a denominational school or state school; whether he be editor of a religious publication or the secretary of a denominational board; and whether he be a pastor in a pulpit in the homeland or a missionary on the foreign field.}}

Pietsch (2015) labels Philpott a "dispensational modernist"{{snd}}someone who did not view the Bible as literally true, but saw it as a text requiring methodical, systematic analysis and interpretation in order to reveal its meaning.<ref name=Pietsch-2015> {{cite book|title=Dispensational Modernism |first=B. M. |last=Pietsch |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-190-24408-8 |oclc=7333087536 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190244088.001.0001 }}</ref>{{rp|4}} He notes<ref name=Pietsch-2015 />{{rp|168, 170}} that Philpott, addressing a conference on biblical prophecy in 1918, insisted that the dates of the end times and the Second Advent could not be accurately known, and that this necessitated the scanning of current events for signs to help gauge the closeness of the end:<ref name=Philpott-1918> {{cite book |title=Light on Prophecy; Being the Proceedings and Addresses at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference |date=1918 |publisher=Christian Herald |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/lightonprophecy00unkngoog/ |access-date=2 September 2025 |via=Internet Archive |chapter=Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before |pages=193{{ndash}}211 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lightonprophecy00unkngoog/page/n197/mode/2up |first=Peter W. |last=Philpott |oclc=4561184 }}</ref>{{rp|195{{ndash}}196}}{{blockquote| Now, it is not only our privilege but it is our duty to read in the light of prophecy the events that are now transpiring. ... Let us keep in mind that while we cannot fix a date for His appearing, yet the Scriptures gives us approximate signs of the end of this age{{snd}}I say approximate, mark you{{snd}}because I believe that they enable us only to approximate{{snd}}certainly not to calculate{{snd}}the time of the end. ... [W]e might classify [the signs] as Political, Commercial, Social, Moral, Spiritual, and National or Jewish[.]}}

==Works== [[File:Cover of 1892 publication "New Light".jpg|thumb|Front cover of Philpott and Roffe's 1892 account of the circumstances leading up to their resignations from the Salvation Army]] * {{cite book |title=New Light: Containing a Full Account of the Recent Salvation Army Troubles in Canada |date=1892 |publisher=Rose Publishing Company |location=Toronto |url=https://archive.org/details/newlightcontaini00phil |oclc=8444697 }} An account of the circumstances leading up to Philpott's resignation from the Salvation Army.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Co-authored with A. W. Roffe, who also resigned.}}

* {{cite book |title=Light on Prophecy; Being the Proceedings and Addresses at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference |date=1918 |publisher=Christian Herald |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/lightonprophecy00unkngoog/ |chapter=Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before |pages=193{{ndash}}211 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/lightonprophecy00unkngoog/page/n197/mode/2up |oclc=4561184 }} Describes political, spiritual, and other signs of the Second Advent. A second address, [https://archive.org/details/lightonprophecy00unkngoog/page/n237/mode/2up "Will There Be Any Tears in Heaven, and Why?"], pp. 233{{ndash}}241, analyses the concept of the Last Judgment.

* {{cite book |title=Enter the Inner Circle |date=1919 |publisher=Evangelical Publishers |location=Toronto |url= https://archive.org/details/cihm_990971 |isbn=978-0-659-90971-8 |oclc=66004181 }} A short homily on relationships between Jesus and his followers and apostles.

* {{cite book |title=God Hath Spoken: Twenty-five Addresses Delivered at the World Conference on Christian Fundamentals |date=1919 |publisher=Bible Conference Committee |location=Philadelphia |url=https://archive.org/details/godhathspoken0000na |chapter=The Witness of Human Experience to the Inspiration of the Word |pages=109{{ndash}}122 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/godhathspoken0000na/page/108/mode/2up |oclc=1059107 }} Asserts that personal experience of conversion cannot be reasoned against or argued away.

* ''Is Healing in the Atonement of Christ?'' Chicago: Bible Institute Colportage Association. c. 1920. {{oclc|78391810}} Discusses the connection between physical healing and the Christian concept of atonement.

* {{cite book |title=Is God Still Speaking to Men? and Other Addresses |date=1930 |publisher=Fleming H. Revell Company |location=New York |oclc=10773482 }} A collection of sermons.

* {{cite book |title=Sixty Wonderful Years |date=1946 |publisher=Bible House of Los Angeles |location=Los Angeles |oclc=709793623 }} In this short booklet, Philpott describes his own religious conversion and how he converted others.

==See also==   *{{annotated link|Associated Gospel Churches of Canada}} *{{annotated link|Christian fundamentalism}} *Fundamentalist Christianity in Canada *{{annotated link|Moody Church}} *{{annotated link|Salvation Army}}

==Notes== {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

==References== <references />

==Further reading==    *{{cite book |title=From Anvil to Pulpit: P. W. Philpott's Spiritual Journey, his Family, and his Struggles for Ethical Integrity |first=David R. |last=Elliott |date=2023 |publisher=Theological Resources |location=Parkhill, Ontario |isbn=978-1-927-35773-6 |oclc=1390886733 }} A biography.

==External links== *[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58a72d2215d5db819b7b4f35/t/58dd621da5790a2b2030a7fd/1707244120071/History+of+PMC.pdf A history of Philpott Memorial Church] by [https://philpott-church.squarespace.com/ Philpott Memorial Church] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc6E2y-hujY Sermon by Philpott] on YouTube (46:30 minutes in) delivered during a Church of the Open Door service, {{circa|1948|lk=no}}; broadcast as "The Biola Hour" by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (Biola)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philpott, Peter Wiley}} Category:1865 births Category:1957 deaths Category:Canadian Salvationists Category:Salvation Army officers Category:Christian fundamentalists Category:Canadian evangelicals Category:20th-century Canadian Christian clergy