David K. Jantzi
David K. Jantzi came from an Old Order Amish family. He felt obligated to become a conscientious objector during the Second World War because “the church required it.” In his second year of alternative service, his personal attitude changed, as he realized that “non-resistance is much deeper than not going to war.” A cabinet maker…
Queen in Manitoba
In 1970, the province of Manitoba celebrated its 100th birthday, and celebrations included a visit by the queen and her family. Among the many stops and events in July was a visit to the town of Steinbach, and the Milltown Hutterite Colony, near Elie. When materials come to the archives, sometimes included are mementos, clippings…
Amish bicentennial
You are looking at one of the oldest original photographs in the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, likely taken in 1867. The father and daughter are John (or Jean) and Anna (“Annie”) Kennel. John was an Amish immigrant from France, like many of the first Amish settlers in Canada, who began arriving here 200 years ago.…
Zollikon church
For a few brief months in spring 1525, the first Anabaptist congregation flickered to life in this house in Zollikon, a village on the edge of Zurich, Switzerland. According to the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, the group attempted to become a “free church,” administering communion, preaching, discipline and baptism on their own without reliance…
J.J. Thiessen
“All beginnings are hard” said J.J. Thiessen. He began his public ministry in 1930 in Saskatoon, hired by the General Conference Mennonite Church to operate the Maedchenheim, helping young women find work and providing spiritual guidance, and to give leadership to the emerging congregation in Saskatoon. The 1930s were financially difficult for everyone—including Jacob and…
MCC responds to its entanglements with National Socialism
Over the past several years, numerous historians have highlighted how different Mennonite communities in Europe before and during the Second World War were entangled with and even actively participated in National Socialism, with some Mennonites helping to perpetrate the Holocaust. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) intersected with this broader Mennonite history in multiple ways. In 2021,…
Bergthal church
The Ontario Mennonite businessman Jacob Y. Shantz established rough housing for newcomers and promoted immigration to a place he called Didsbury, N.W.T., in 1893. In the following two years, Mennonites from Ontario and Manitoba arrived to what became known as Didsbury, Alta. The Bergthal Church was established there in 1903 and became part of the…
Evangelism congress
In 1966, Christianity Today magazine sponsored the World Congress on Evangelism, held in West Berlin from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4. It brought together 12,000 invited delegates from a hundred countries. The events were chaired by Carl F.H. Henry and Billy Graham. John M. Drescher reported on the event in a series of articles in…
MWC Kansas banners
The variety of banners at the 1978 Mennonite World Conference assembly in Wichita, Kan., is a representation of the diversity of people at the assembly, with 9,500 people registered from 44 counties, including Canada. The Findings Committee reported at length and stated in part: “We give thanks for those of our people in times present…
Ukraine immigrant
What would you carry if you emigrated to another country? Twenty-three-year-old Anna Neufeld wore this locket in 1917 when her fiancé, Cornelius Tiessen, left, and brother Peter, both pictured in their Red Cross uniforms, served on medical trains during the First World War. Anna lived near present-day Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, now site of another war. Anna…
