Shawville Walking Tour

Shawville Standard Church was erected on this site in 1965. Following the merger of The Standard Church of America and The Central Canada District of The Wesleyan Church, the church was renamed New Hope Christian Fellowship in October 2009.

The modern appearance of this attractive building does not take away from the long, and very interesting history of the Standard denomination and its founder, Ralph C. Horner. The story goes back to the late nineteenth century when a religious revival swept through the Shawville area. Horner, who had been born and raised in the nearby village of Radford, was deeply affected by the revival and soon became a minister in The Methodist Church. He concentrated his immense energy into the evangelistic aspect of his profession. The meetings he conducted were reported by outsiders to be “extremely noisy, (with) extemporaneous praying, prostrations, etc.”

After several disagreements with the Methodist leadership, Horner decided in 1895 to form a new denomination. His followers organized the first Holiness Movement Church in Ottawa. It was not long before a Shawville church was started on Lang Street. The spirited revivals appealed to many in a time when the world seemed to be changing beyond recognition. The Movement spread and at its height claimed over fifty thousand adherents in the Ottawa Valley, the St. Lawrence Counties, the West, Michigan and overseas in Ireland, Egypt and China.

Despite this growth, disagreements within the denomination caused a split after 1916. The Reverend Mr. Horner and several close followers organized the Standard Church of America in 1918. Again a congregation was formed in Shawville and they met in a building at the west end of the business district until the first part of this building was erected.

The Church, though undergoing various mergers and name changes, remains faithful to the principles upon which it was founded and the Gospel it seeks to proclaim.