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- 1925-1988 (Creation)
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Fonds
Extent and medium
3.73 m of textual records
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Administrative history
The Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario traces is beginning to several thousand Russian Mennonites who immigrated to Ontario after World War I, settling primarily in three areas: Kitchener-Waterloo and vicinity, Essex County in the extreme southwest, and the Niagara peninsula. These immigrants organized themselves as United Mennonite congregations under the leadership of Bishop Jacob H. Janzen of Kitchener. Their broader afflilation was with the General Conference Mennonite Church with headquarters in Newton, Kansas. The need for a concerted effort in urban missions and education led to the organization of a provincial conference in 1944. The Conference supported the establishment of a private high school, the United Mennonite Educational Institute (Leamington), and took responsibility for ministry to a growing number of Mennonites in such cities as Toronto, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Windsor, resulting in the establishment of city congregations. The Hamilton Mennonite Church, in turn, initiated an inner-city ministry, which grew into the Welcome Inn Community Centre and Church. Conference mission work also extended to Chinese, Laotian, and Latin American immigrants.
Increasing inter-Mennonite cooperation in education and mission marked the period from 1963 to 1988. The conference joined in establishing Conrad Grebel College in 1963 and in forming the Inter-Mennonite Conference of Ontario in 1973. In 1987 the conference agreed to dissolve in favor of the broader Mennonite unity represented by the emerging Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada (1988). At the time, the United Mennonite Conference comprised 22 congregations and 5,363 members.
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Finding aids
Conference of the United Mennonite Churches of Ontario fonds, Mennonite Archives of Ontario, XIII-1.
Conference of the United Mennonite Churches of Ontario microfilm collection, Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Hist.Mss.11.4.
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Archivist's note
Administrative history created by the Mennonite Heritage Archives