During his life Rev. W.E. McMillan was as familiar as anyone in the Elora community.
Today, his name is unknown to most people there under 50 years of age. Rev. William E. McMillan served for 24 years as the pastor of the Elora and Salem Pentecostal Tabernacle.
Pentecostalism is a relatively new Christian denomination. Though the movement fragmented many times over the decades, its roots go back to the revivals held at the Azusa Street Church in Los Angeles in the years immediately after 1900.
By 1920 there was a national organization in this country, The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, which achieved much success in the 1920s.
The early Pentecostals were, for the most part, working people, and did not boast large fortunes to endow church buildings.
In the Elora and Fergus area the Pentecostal Church began with informal meetings in 1929. The small group grew quickly, and began making plans for a church a year later. Their building was completed in 1934 on Lot 18, between Elora and Salem.
A group of Pentecostals began meeting in Fergus in the 1930s in houses and borrowed halls. They made plans for a building in 1940, and it was ready for weekly services early in 1942.
Rev. McMillan, the best known of the local ministers, came to the Elora and Salem Pentecostal Church in 1947. The congregation by then was well established, but it was different from the other churches in the area. A disproportionate number of the members were recent recruits not only to Pentecostalism but to organized religion itself, and were people who had been shunned by the older religions.
From the outset W.E. McMillan sought to make his mark at the church, and especially in the broader community. He was a young man, only 33 year old, and had been ordained in 1943. He was married, to Beatrice Ilan in 1940, but the couple had no children, and would remain childless. Before coming to Elora he had served in Mactier.
At the time many people distrusted the Pentecostal Church and its members. The church aggressively recruited new members, and some of those who joined were from the lower levels of society, which the established churches eschewed.
The new minister – people invariably referred to him as Rev. McMillan or Mr. McMillan; many people did not know his first name was Bill – quickly demonstrated that he was disinterested in a person’s past, that he did not push people to join his church, and that he saw his role as a guardian for all in the community, not just his parishioners.
His activities led him into dealings with various charitable and welfare organizations. Rev. McMillan had a congenital loathing of red tape. Welfare administrators found that it was wise to avoid his wrath, and found ways to accomplish their goals with a minimum of meetings and consultations. Any administrator who put more emphasis on filling out papers rather than helping people never forgot his ire and impatience.
He was especially effective in dealing with medical cases which, in the days before universal health care, were often beyond the ability of a poorer family to pay. Rev. McMillan was able to find ways around rules and to get people, and especially youngsters, the medical help they needed, and always without a lot of public display.
He seemed to have a huge amount of information and detail in his head. No one ever saw him making notes on those he helped. With time he became trusted for being more honest and caring than others in the welfare system.
When people had surplus clothing, furniture or appliances, most would call Rev. McMillan first. Invariably he would accept a donation with gratitude, and explain to the donor that he had a recipient who would be most grateful for the donation.
Within an hour the items would be in new hands, with the names not revealed to either party or to the public, and no record of it made. He always made sure recipients maintained their self esteem, and shunned all glory for himself.
A severe diabetic, he was a charter member of the Canadian Diabetic Association, which made him a life member. Locally he became an informal member of the Wellington County Children’s Aid Society, and a family court counselor. Later the Elora Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion made him their padre.
By the early 1960s William McMillan was the best known minister in Elora. When walking on the main street, he was constantly greeted by residents, many of whom wanted to chat for a moment or two. In addition to his work as a one-man welfare system, he spent many hours each week visiting the sick and frail at their homes and at the hospital.
He never pushed his religion onto any of them. Those with a sense of humour he would greet with a joke. Others he would comfort with a kind word or two. Those who had religion on their mind could count on him to say a prayer, or to lead a room in singing hymns.
His energy and activity were astounding for a man whose health was poor. And in addition to his public roles, Rev. McMillan had a church to lead, with all the duties that entailed.
By the late 1960s his health sometimes forced him to cut back on his activities, and his face often showed a grey pallor that betrayed serious illness.
In March of 1971 he was hospitalized, despite his protests that he had work yet undone. This time it was more serious than people had suspected. Rev. McMillan died on April 1, at the young age of 57.
Hundreds of people, the majority not from his church, crowded the funeral home to pay their respects. At his funeral on April 5 at his church about 100 ministers crowded the church, forming a guard of honour for the casket. The building was crammed with local citizens and visitors. Many more stood outside.
The western Ontario Superintendent of the Pentecostal Church conducted the service, assisted by several other ministers. The pallbearers and flower bearers were all members of the congregation.
Rev. McMillan was buried in the Elora Cemetery.
Kay Marston, in the lead editorial at the Elora Express, noted McMillan had been active and a real force in the community, despite his delicate health, and noted that he was a welcome visitor to the ill of all denominations. “He was a man whom it will be very hard to replace and impossible to forget,” Marston concluded.
A week later the paper carried a tribute from Norman Stafford, a devout and devoted member of Elora’s United Church. He noted Rev. McMillan spent years helping people, and predicted that he would “be remembered as an outstanding man in Elora.” Stafford also noted that over the years he personally had several problems with which Rev. McMillan had helped him.
Though he is gone now for more than 42 years, Rev. McMillan’s life and work set an example that can and should still inspire everyone.
Though he would, no doubt, object strongly, it would be fitting for Centre Wellington council to place his name on a park or other public entity so that his name can be perpetuated, and perhaps inspire others to follow his example of selfless public service.