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Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds
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Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds

  • CA MHC ORG
  • Fonds
  • 1902-2005, predominant 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 based on the 1994 conference structure for administering the programs -- 3 boards and several auxiliary organizations. A fourth elected board under the conference structure was the Canadian Mennonite Bible Collge Board (CMBC). Their records have been integrated and described separately as the Canadian Mennonite Bible College fonds.
The Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds consists of the following series/sub-series:
A. General Board (1903-1999)

  • A.01. Annual conference sessions
  • A.02. Conference secretary files
  • A.03. Executive/general secretary files
  • A.04. Finance committee
  • A.05. Leadership Commission
  • A.06. European Ministries
  • A.07. General Board
  • A.08. Integration Membership Committee
    B. Resources Commission (1922-1999)
  • B.01. Board of Missions
  • B.02 Conference Publications
  • B.03 Board of Education and Publications
  • B.04 Board of Christian Service
  • B.05 Congregational Resources Board
  • B.06 Resources Commission
    C. Native Ministries (1948-2005)
    D. Auxiliary Organizations (1947-1999)
    • D.01 The Canadian Mennonite Youth Organization
    • D.02 Canadian Mennonite Men
    • D.03 Canadian Women in Mission

Conference of Mennonites in Canada

Annual conference sessions

This sub-series contains the original handwritten minute books of the conference sessions for the years 1903 to 1942. Original minutes for the years 1943 to 1948 are not available, although published minutes exist in the CMC Yearbooks for the years 1928-1999. The minute books provide a handwritten copy of the constitution and summarize the papers presented and discussed at the annual sessions. The issues discussed were usually religious in nature although in some instances they had broader implications (e.g. the discussion on involvement in politics). The minutes also recorded all the resolutions approved during the sessions.

General board

This series consists of minutes, reports and correspondence of the elected leadership of the Conference. The files are all originals, although much of the material consists of carbon copies of letters sent to persons other than the addressee. Minutes and reports of the post-1950 era are usually mimeograph copies. The financial ledgers are, of course, the original handwritten volumes. The early CMC minutes are of interest for anyone working on the history or sociology of the church in western Canada or of Mennonites in particular. They tell the story of how a small nonconformist group acculturated to its host society.
The records have been arranged and described under eight headings:
-1. Annual conference sessions
-2. Conference secretary files
-3. Executive/general secretary files
-4. Finance committee
-5. Leadership Commission
-6. European Ministries
-7. General Board
-8. Integration Membership Committee

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. General Board

Board of Missions

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.

The George Groening 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.

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. Board of Missions

Resources Commission

This record sub-series becomes difficult to describe, because in some instances several sources for records originate from the same period, while in others, material from two different sub-series have been interfiled. In still other cases, confusion is caused by one individual generating material for several organizations. The records of this sub-series include the records of the following predecessor boards, committees and programs:
-Board of Missions
-Board of Christian Service
-Board of Education and Publications
-Congregational Resources Board
-Resources Commission

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Congregational Resources Board

Finance committee

Most of the financial records consist of administrative correspondence after 1965. There are documents relating to the finances of the difference CMC boards. There are a series of ledgers dating from 1930-1945, 1949-1957 and 1957-1973. Also included are the CMC financial Records from 1981-2001 which include personnel files, pension benefit statments, and external audits. These financial records pertain to all branches of Conference work and can help demonstrate the growth of the Conference in a quantifiable way.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Finance committee

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.

Congregational Resources Board

The records in this sub-series date back to 1954 since large amounts of Board of Education and Publication material have been interfiled with the CRB's later records. These records contain Board of Education and Publication minutes for the years 1951-1971. There are also CRB minutes for the years 1971-1978. The run of correspondence for both the Boards involved in this sub-series are very nearly if not entirely complete.

These records cover a broad range of subjects. Minutes, general correspondence, and reports deal with subjects such as Sunday Schools, songbook and worship, youth, provincial conferences, Bible schools and colleges, evangelism, church architecture, radio broadcasting, eldership, history of the Mennonites in Canada, small communities and related problems, social issues, the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, the History-Archives Committee, and Chinese ministries. There are 15 boxes related to the Gesangbuch published in 1963.

The files offer many other possibilities because of the broad range of subjects, but at least some of them the volume of material is not substantial enough to enable one to engage in any kind of major study. They could be of some use to congregational or local historian who are seeking information about the 1950s and 1960s. They could also be utilized by individuals studying religion and social issues, or by historians interested in Canadian Church life in the post-world war II era.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Congregational Resources Board

Board of Education and Publications

The materials in this sub-series have been generated primarily by H.T. Klassen the secretary of the Board from 1953-1961, and executive secretary from 1962-1965. The majority of these records pertain to CMC Sunday Schools for the years 1953-1971. There are also Board minutes for the years 1955-1971 and publications correspondence for the same period. These records could be of use for people studying the history of Christian Education or the structures and activities of the CMC.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Board of Education and Publications

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)
  • H.H. Epp (1958-1961).

Canadian Mennonite Youth Organization

The sub series correspondence concentrates on the following subjects; administration of the CMYO, publications of the CMYO, special projects (e.g. fundraising for Mennonite Pioneer Mission), involvement with young people's organizations in the United States. The records appear to be complete for the years 1953-1966. In the years following 1960 the amount of correspondence decreased somewhat. In addition to this the collection has a complete set of CMYO minutes for the years 1947-1966 and a number of reports. The files also contain a few issues of Mennonite Youth (1960-1962) and the Young Peoples' Messenger (1947-1950). An complete set of the Young Peoples' Messenger can be found in the CMC Publications files. The financial records in this sub-series consist of three ledgers and several cheque and receipt book for the years 1951-1959.

The collection has considerable interest for researchers doing a historical study of the CMC, especially if they have an interest in leadership development. The CMYO served as a virtual training school for a generation of conference leaders. These materials are quite illuminating when examined in the light of other CMC records. This collection could also be of use to anyone with an interest in Canada youth and their organizations.

Canadian Mennonite Youth Organization

Native Ministries

The Native Ministries files contain material dating back to 1965, but the majority of the records were generated in the years 1971 and following. The small amount of pre-1971 material consists of files retained by the Native Ministries Board after reorganization. These files contains the following records: Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) files (including those generated by Roger Groening and Clarence Nepinak during the years 1974-1976), reports from local mission stations (Loon Straits, Manigotogan, Hole River, Cross Lake, etc. ), social issues files (exploitation of Native migrant labours, alcoholism, etc.) and environmental issues files (which relate largely to Hydro development in the North). There are pamphlets from and correspondence with organizations such as Mennonite Foundation, The Mennonite Central Committee, the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood, and the Northern Canada Evangelical Mission.

In 2007 materials created in the 1990s were brought to the archives (accession 2007-079). A few files have much earlier records, usually dealing with property issues form the 1950s and 1960. Files deal with topics such as, such as hydro electric dam proposals, Meech Lake accord, Oak crisis, uranium mining, native spirituality, United Native Ministries, native camp, and Walnut Receiving Home. Files on various communities include Bloodvein, Cross Lake, Hole River, Hollow Water, Manigotogan, Matheson Island, Paungassi, Pine Dock and Riverton.

The collection is of interest for Canadian studies. These records could be of considerable use in the study of the conditions of native Canadians and attitudes towards them. The records detail life in several Native communities and how the church worked in these communities. Furthermore, correspondence with a variety of Native organizations pertains to their social concerns. These records, along with the Board of Missions files, provide a case study of the kind of transformation which many denominational mission organizations underwent in the 1960s and 1970s. A researcher working on the history of missions in Canada could find considerable useful materials in these files.

Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Native Ministries

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