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archival descriptions
Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives & Gallery Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds English
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Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds

  • Fonds
  • 1902-2000

This fonds consists of the records of the various committee, boards, staff and offices of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada. They have been described on the basis of the conference structure under based on the 1994 conference structure for administering the program -- 3 boards and several auxillary organizations. These are:

A. General Board (1903-1999)

B. Resources Commission (1922-1999)

C. Native Ministries (1948-1994)

D. Auxilary Organizations (1947-1996) including Canadian Mennonite Youth Organization (1947-1967), Canadian Mennonite Men (1956-1981) and Canadian Women in Mission (1954-1996).

A fourth elected board under the conference structure was the Canadian Mennonite Bible College board, which has been described as a separate fonds.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada

A.02 Conference secretary files

This sub-series consists largely of correspondence but also includes minutes, reports and other materials. Correspondence was carried on with many institutions (including different levels of conferences) and touches on a wide variety of subjects. The conference secretary files extant in the Archives were generated by three men who occupied this position successively. They were H.T. Klassen (1947-1954), P.R. Harder (1954-1958), and H.H. Epp (1958-1961).

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. General Board. Conference Secretary

A.06 European Ministries

This sub series contains records and correspondence with Arbeitsgeminschaft zur geistlichen Unterstützung in Mennonitegemeinden (AGUM) in addition to European ministries minutes, reports, memos and correspondence.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. General Board. European Ministries

B.01 Board of Missions

  • CA MHCA Volumes: 276-346, 348-354, 356-368, 492, 498-499, 505-506, 964-966, 1009, 1047, 1050, 2033, 2313-2314, 2330, 2838, 3189, 3198, 3225, 3374-3375, 4893, 4937
  • Series
  • 1922-1979, predominant 1963-1970
  • Part of Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds

Much of this material consists of correspondence with individual mission stations. Approximatly 0.5 meters of the material in these files dates from before 1962. Among this material are minutes (1940-1971), reports, and correspondence (1943-1959). The oldest Board of Missions material is the financial ledger for the years 1914-1957. This ledger was begun by G.G. Epp and was maintained by P.P. Epp from 1927-1931. Both these men served as treasurer for the Missions Committee.

The David Toews files, is only indirectly related to the CMC Board of Missions. Toews served as field secretary responsible for the Canadian operations of the Home Missions Board of the General Conference Mennonite Church (1917-1946) and as member of the CMC Committee for Home Missions from 1943-1945, but the majority of these records are related to his General Conference involvements. The correspondence has all been filed alphabetically. One file of material in these records pertains to the CMC Archives but it appears to have been created by J.J. Thiessen, not by David Toews. The bulk of the material relates to the assistance which the General Conference provided for the creation of new churches in Canada in the years 1923-1946.

The H.J. Gerbrandt files reflect his involvement as field secretary (1959-1960) and secretary (1961-1965) of the Mission Board, as well as his service with Mennonite Pioneer Mission. Most of the material consists of correspondence, minutes, and reports. The files employ an alphabetical filing system.

George Groening served as a member of the Board of Missions for ten years during which period he was vice-chairman for one year (1958) and chairman for six years (1961-1966). Groening also served as chairman of the Mennonite Pioneer Mission Board before its amalgamation with CMC Board of Missions. His records contain a total of 1.36 meters of correspondence, minutes, agendas, and reports (both general and local) from the years 1948-1966. The H.H. Penner files cover approximately the same period as the Groening files and the types of material are quite similar as well. There is no obvious filing order in the collection.

The Mennonite Pioneer Mission (MPM) was operated by the conference of Mennonites in Canada since 1960. Some pre-1960 records in these files seem to have been transferred to the Conference in 1960. The J.N. Braun treasurer files (1942-1961) fall into this category. The early financial records of Mennonite Pioneer Mission are not entirely complete. Some of the pre-1949 ledgers were retained by the Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Manitoba, founders of the Mennonite Pioneer Mission. The files also contain correspondence for the years 1931-1948. Finally there are also minutes of the MPM Board for the years 1944-1959. The post-1960 period the MPM files were generated by the CMC Board of Missions' executive secretaries. They were responsible for overseeing all MPM operations. There is considerable correspondence with people from the various mission stations. In 1971 the structure was again changed, and MPM received its own executive secretary, while the other facets of Board of Missions work were taken over by the newly formed Congregational Resources Board.

This record sub-series has intriguing research possibilities. The materials are useful for studying the history of several northern Manitoba native communities or the history of missions in Canada, and for doing cross-cultural studies. There are also possibilities for demographic studies, especially with regard to migration of Mennonites in Canada. The Board of Missions files could also be of considerable interest to the local historians who is trying to reconstruct the church development in their community.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada - Resources Commission - Board of Missions

B.02 Conference Publications

These files consist primarily of correspondence pertaining to publications dating from the period after 1950. The main publications dealt with are the CMC Yearbook, Der Bote, The Canadian Mennonite (1953-1971), Mennonite Reporter (1971-1997), Canadian Mennonite (1997-), Light for the Day/Licht fuer den Tag. The Canadian Mennonite and its successors, Mennonite Reporter (1972) and Canadian Mennonite (1997) had an arms-length relationship with the conference.

Files were generated by: a) J.G. Rempel (Conference Secretary) 1939-1942 b) David P. Neufeld (Executive Secretary of the CMC) 1961-1967 c) H.T. Klassen (Executive Secretary of the Board of Education and Publication) 1954-1966 d) Henry H. Epp (Executive Secretary of the Board of Education and Publication) 1966-1971 e) Henry H. Epp (Executive Secretary of the Congrgational Resources Board) 1971-1974 f) Lawrence Klippenstein (CMC Editor of Publications) 1973-1976 g) Irene Friesen Petkau (1976-1977) h) Adelia Neufeld Wiens (1977-1978) i) Susan Rempel Letkemann (1978-1981) j) Larry Kehler (1982-1983) k) Eleanor Loewen (1983-1984) l) Brenda Suderman (1983-1987) m) Marg Franz (1987-1994) n) Roma Quapp editor of Nexus (1994-1997) o) Aiden Schlichting Enns

For most researchers the useful part of this sub series are the publications. For example, Der Miterbeitar and Der Bote have great usefulness for reconstructing many facets of early Mennonite life in Canada and for understanding the thinking of Mennonite people. The CMC yearbooks which include the proceedings of the annual conferences, give an overview of the ministry through the years. The English language papers give a survey of more recent events and understanding.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Congregational Resources Board. Conference Publications

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