Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Native Ministries

Corporate body

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Native Ministries

1975-2000

The Native Ministries was the new name proposed in 1972 for CMC's Mennonite Pioneer Mission (MPM), the mission begun by the Bergthaler Mennonite Church of Manitoba in 1948, that had come under the jurisdiction of the CMC Board of Missions during the 1960s. Before 1971 MPM shared an executive secretary with the Board of Missions, but after the restructuring of the Conference, it became an autonomous board with its own executive secretary. In 1974 MPM changed its name to Native Ministries.
The Conference, by the late 1980s and 1990s was increasingly involved in cross-cultural ministries, so that in 1994 it created the Ministries Commission, reflecting a broader scope of ministry, both with in Canada (including Native Ministies) and internationally, specifically in Europe. The inaugural meeting of the Ministries Commission was held on 30 September 1994.
After the Conference restructured, combining the Conference of Mennonites in Canada with the Mennonite Church, Native Ministries became a program of Mennonite Church Canada Witness Ministries.
Executive secretaries of Native Ministries were Menno Wiebe (1964-1973), Issac Froese (1974-1978), Malcolm Wenger (1979-1981), John and Vera Funk (1982-1989) and Walter Franz (1990-1999). Walter Franz also served as the first Executive Secretary of the Ministries Commission from 1994 till September 1, 1999 when CMC General Board appointed Walter as Native Ministries Program Director and Associate Executive Secretary of Ministries Commission and Robert J. (Jack) Suderman as the Executive Secretary for the Ministries Commission.

Library of Congress Name Authority.
Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Bulletin, 1965-.

Mennonite Pioneer Mission (1945-1975)

Mennonite Church Canada. Native Ministries (2001-2011)

CA-MAO-2018-029

Mennonite Heritage Archives