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Archival description
Conference of Mennonites in Canada fonds Series
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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

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

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