Centennial celebration
New Canadian initiatives around multiculturalism in the 1970s—celebrating anniversaries like Canada’s centennial in 1967, Manitoba’s in 1970, and the arrival of Mennonites in Manitoba in 1974—created a new energy and appreciation for history in Canada. During these years, the Mennonite Heritage Centre and the Archives of Ontario hired permanent staff. Energy was put into founding…
Swords into ploughshares
“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” These famous words from Isaiah 2:4 have been enacted in various ways over the years. Sculptures have been created, jewelry made and roads built with former military…
Canadian Women in Mission
These Saskatchewan ladies are hovering over baked goods at a sale circa 1964. “Ladies groups” have been significant organizations that have contributed to the social and spiritual well-being of women, their families, communities and beyond. Over time, the organizational structures grew to include local, regional and nationwide organizations. In 1988, the Canadian Women in Mission…
Bergey
Why do you travel? For fun, to learn, to connect? All three combined for Dorothy, Lorna and Gertrude Bergey as they joined a Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario bus tour to Pennsylvania in May 1983. Here, they stand in front of the Pennsylvania home of European emigrant Hans Ulrich Bergey in Salford. In 1897, Pennsylvanian…
Odessa state archives
As the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, staff at the state archives in Odessa, Ukraine, worked diligently to microfilm Russian Mennonite documents in its possession. Collected by Peter J. Braun during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917-1920), and later confiscated by the Soviet state, the records languished in obscurity until…
Conscientious objectors tree planting
During the Second World War, Canadian conscientious objectors (COs) planted 17 million trees in British Columbia between 1942 and 1944. Some COs questioned the use of working in the “bush.” Pictured from left to right: Frank Dyck, Jacob Wiebe, Menno Wiebe and Rudy Regehr returned to Campbell River, B.C., in 1966 to see the trees…
Women in church vocations
To encourage women to enter church-related work, the General Conference Mennonite Church began the “Women in Church Vocations” program in 1957. Pictured, Elmer Ediger discusses the new program with interested young women at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg. Women recruited to the program would pursue a college education and be mentored into such positions…
Bicycle trip
Did your summer include a bicycle trip? In 1891, 19-year-old Fred Coffman, far left, his brother William, and their friends Abram and Aaron Kolb biked more than 700 kilometres from Elkhart, Ind., to Niagara Falls, Ont. Fred would become Bishop S.F. Coffman, an influential Ontario Mennonite leader. Abram would become a publisher of Mennonite periodicals,…
Johnny Kehler
Johnny Kehler, left, with his plane and George Groening, at Matheson Island, Man. Groening grew up near Lowe Farm, Man., and served the Mennonite church community for decades. As a long-serving leader, he not only witnessed change but instituted changes as well. He started his preaching at Lowe Farm Bergthaler Mennonite Church, was the pastor…
Patricia Beach baptism
Malcolm and Esther Wenger moved to the town of Selkirk, Man., in 1979. Malcolm worked for the Conference of Mennonites in Canada’s Native Ministries program and pastored the small Selkirk Christian Fellowship. Pictured, Malcolm baptizes Gillian Thororanson at Patricia Beach, Man., on July 22, 1979. There have been fierce debates in Mennonite circles about the…
