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 After their long trek and gradual settlement, the Scottish community
established on the shores of the Red River by Lord Selkirk searched for a
Presbyterian minister. A man of the cloth was promised to them in 1818, but
Selkirk died before this pledge could be fulfilled. On October 15, 1820
the first mass of the Church of England (Anglican Church) was served in
the Red River Settlement by the Reverend John West.
The amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company
in 1821 resulted in relocation and
 unemployment on a large scale-many former
company men joined the Red River Settlement. The Anglican church responded to a call from
the HBC, which was concerned about care and housing for the
many orphaned children of mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parentage who were to become the responsibility of
the company. Governor Bulger wrote to Rev. West:
With respect to the Orphan Children there will be some
expense at first in erecting buildings, etc. But if elder Boys are employed
in cultivation, and the girls and younger children at other works of
industry, the expense will not be very considerable and their Religious
Instruction and Education may be carried on at the same time.
Many Aboriginal people, including Métis, were touched by the Anglican's early
evangelizing activity. In 1840 Henry Budd became the first Aboriginal
religious teacher working in The Pas. Budd was ordained a Deacon of the
Church in 1850, together with 19 other candidates, among them four Aboriginal
people. Budd's son, Henry Budd "the younger" also entered the ministry
field. Budd's nephew, Peter Erasmus, was to serve
as a guide and interpreter with many explorers and Methodist missionaries
in the Northwest.
 From Red River the Anglican missions
gradually moved north and west. In 1851 a
mission at Portage la Prairie was initiated. Lac la Ronge
had been visited since 1849 without the establishment of an enduring
mission. However, in 1859 a permanent mission was established at Fort
Simpson in the present-day Northwest Territories, from where other remote posts, such as Fort Rae, were visited.
The 1870s saw an increase in mission posts in what is now Saskatchewan
and Alberta.
Aboriginal church leaders worked in the Whitefish Lake area, northwest of
Fort Carlton. Edmonton received its first Anglican mission post in 1875 to
serve the increasing number of white settlers and traders in the area. As
well, the signing of treaties caused the initiation of mission posts on or
near reserves-in 1877 in the Battleford area, and in 1881 at the
Kanai (Blood) Reserve near Fort Macleod. When the Methodist mission to the
Kanai people closed in 1890, their mission was sold to the Anglican
church.
 Missionaries of the Anglican church
dedicated their efforts to education and to the early inclusion of Aboriginal people
as school staff members. In 1833 the Red River Academy opened a school for children in care of the Hudson's Bay Company. At other mission posts,
schooling, religious instruction and worship were part of the same
program. The traditional rules and protocols of the church were lifted-the Church Missionary Society (CMS) made the recommendation to not
consecrate churches or chapels as long as they were used for the purposes
of missions, as "consecration would limit their use as school-rooms,
places for instructing of catechumens or congregations of heathen
enquirers." Special attention was given to the
selection, training and mentoring of Aboriginal church leaders.
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