History of Presbyterianism

CHAPTER XX.

ZION CHURCH, CHARLOTTETOWN.

Zion church is composed of the Free Church and Queen’s Square congregations of Charlottetown. Having in the last chapter given an outline of the history of the Free Church congregation in Char- lottetown, we shall now give a brief account of the organization and work of Queen’s Square congrega- tion up to the time of its union with the Free Church, and then of the united congregation known as “Zion Church.”

The formation of a congregation in Charlotte- town in connection with the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia was frequently discussed in the Presby- tery of Prince Edward Island, many years before that movement took actual shape. A preaching sta- tion was organized in Charlottetown by authority of Presbytery as early as the year I849 by the late R. S. Patterson, M. A., and supplied with occasional service, but owing partly to a lack of preachers and partly to a lack of interest in the movement, the undertaking was for a time abandoned. The idea of starting a congregation in the city, though fre— quently spoken of in Presbytery, never was really taken up in earnest until the year 1856, when the matter of organizing a congregation. and erecting a church was intrusted to a committee of the Presby— teries of Pictou and Prince Edward Island. In that

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