"Your Old Men Will Dream Dreams": The Italian Pentecostal Experience
in Canada, 1912–1945
by Enrico Carlson Cumbo
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your
sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will see visions, your
old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY of Italian immigrants in Canada has focused largely
on the Roman Catholic experience. The focus is understandable given the
overwhelming presence of Italian Canadian Catholics. From the first years
of mass migration, however, a second element emerged, a small but influential
gathering of Italian Protestant converts comprising mainly Anglicans,
Methodists, Presbyterians and, after 1925, members of the United Church
of Canada. They totalled about 8 percent of the Italian Canadian population
by World War II.
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