About Us

From EACO

Emmanuel Alliance Church of Ottawa (EACO), located in the western suburb of Bells Corners in Ottawa, Ontario, is a dynamic and vibrant local church that is associated with the Eastern Canadian District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. The church began twenty-one years ago as a church-planting project of the Ottawa Chinese Alliance Church (OCAC) with the specific goal of ministering to the spiritual needs of the Cantonese-speaking population residing in the western part of the city. Seven families from OCAC made the commitment to help get this church plant up and running. By 1994 the need to incorporate some ministry in English became apparent in order to reach the Canadian-born children of the people in the church, as well as other Canadian-born Chinese in the area; thus an English ministry program was started. A few years after that English initiative, in response to a demographic change in the city, which showed an increase in Mandarin-speaking people in the Ottawa region, a Mandarin ministry was established. Subsequently, early in the twenty-first century, the church adopted a vision of becoming a cross-cultural church, to minister not only to the Chinese, but to all peoples.

Today, thanks to the gracious blessing of God, EACO comprises three congregations— Cantonese, Mandarin and English—with a full-fledged Children’s Ministry and a well-developed youth program. More recently, in 2003, the church adopted the following Vision Statement: To be a vibrant church in the city of Ottawa bringing transformation to people of different cultures and leading them to be devoted followers of Christ.

Each of the three congregations number around one hundred. The Cantonese congregation is made up mainly of people from Hong Kong, with others from mainland China, Taiwan, Macau, Southeast Asia and Canadian-born Chinese. The demographic of the congregations is diverse, including singles, families with children from infants to young adults and seniors. To foster accountability and support for one another, the church has developed a cell group infrastructure, generally dividing into groups along the demographic and linguistic lines. These small groups also serve to integrate newcomers into the church, to minister to those who are still seeking God, and to disciple the believers at all stages of their Christian walk.

As the church has grown, increasingly the cell groups have played an important role in bringing people together and in ministering to the various urgent needs among the church members. This pattern has proved effective particularly in seeking to support those in our church who have had serious illnesses, helping in very practical ways with transportation and meals, as well as supporting them continually in prayer over extended periods of time.

Through workshops, special evangelism meetings, drama and music, EACO endeavours to reach out to our neighbours, families, friends and other non-church people in our area. In an effort to reach the community, we hold workshops on issues of everyday life, such as healthy eating, parenting and taxation.

EACO is active in supporting missionary work at home and around the world. In addition to regularly scheduled missions conferences held at the church, we have sent many on short-term missions trips to Mexico, the Middle East, Latin America, China, Europe, and to some remote areas in Canada. We have developed some close working partnerships with the overseas missionaries whom we support.

We are most grateful to God for the ministry of Rev. Aaron Tang, our last pastor, who faithfully led the church for fifteen years; under his leadership the church grew and flourished to become what it is today. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to use this church as an effective instrument in His hands under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to reach many for Christ, to disciple believers to become devoted reproducing followers of Jesus Christ and above all to bring glory to His name. We continue to pray that God, in His wisdom and in His time, will send us another faithful servant to lead this church and minister to those who call EACO their church home.