A brief history of Mennonites in Canada
The first Mennonites came to Canada in 1786 from Pennsylvania. Annual ministers meetings beginning in 1810 led to the formation of the Mennonite Conference of Ontario eventually called the Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec. Congregations of this conference maintained close ties with Mennonite congregations in the United States through church-wide gatherings convened every 2nd year from 1898 to 2001 by the Mennonite Church (MC), commonly known as the “Old” Mennonite Church.
A second wave of European immigrants starting in 1822 established a large Amish settlement which eventually led to the formation of the Ontario Amish Mennonite Conference in 1923. This group dropped the “Amish” in their name and became known as Western Ontario Mennonite Conference after 1963.
A third wave of Mennonite European immigrants to the North American prairies came from Russia and Prussia beginning in the 1870s. Leaders of these groups who settled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan founded the Conference of Mennonites in Central Canada in 1902. From the inception of this conference, there were close ties with Mennonite congregations in the United States through the General Conference Mennonite Church (GC) which was founded in 1860 and met every third year.
With another wave of Russian Mennonite immigrants starting to arrive during the 1920s and settling in small communities from Ontario to British Columbia, the Conference of Mennonites in Central Canada stopped using the term “Central Canada” by 1932 and became known as the General Conference of Mennonites in Canada. The name changed to Conference of Mennonites in Canada in 1959.
Additional provincial conferences were organized after the arrival of this fourth wave of immigrants resulting in the founding of Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario (1945), Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba (1947), Conference of Mennonites in Saskatchewan (1959), Conference of Mennonites in Alberta (1929), and Conference of Mennonites in British Columbia (1935). The 1988 the integration of three Ontario groups (Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec, Western Ontario Mennonite Conference and Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario) forming Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada became the precursor for Mennonite Church Canada.
Our Church Today
A recommendation to proceed with integration was accepted at Wichita in 1995, with the stipulation that the CMC should be consulted at every step. Intensive consultation followed with the Canadian membership, whereupon proposals were brought to joint GC and CMC sessions in Winnipeg in 1997 and then to a meeting of all three delegate groups – CMC, GC and MC – at a joint assembly in St. Louis in 1999. At the St. Louis assembly, delegates adopted recommendations that led to the formation of MC Canada and MC USA with their inaugural sessions held in Lethbridge, Alberta in 2000. Since then, Canadian area conferences have all adopted the naming protocol of Mennonite Church (region). These area conferences – now called Regional Churches, inferring that the church exists at many levels – make up Mennonite Church Canada: Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, Mennonite Church Manitoba, Mennonite Church Saskatchewan, Mennonite Church Alberta, and Mennonite Church British Columbia.
In 2023, Mennonite Church Canada's 203 congregations and 23,660 members represented a cross-section of Canadians – brothers and sisters from all parts of the globe and the Indigenous people of Canada worshipping in a variety of languages.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Beginning in 2009, a process called “Being a Faithful Church” led to a Final Draft Recommendation in 2015. In 2016, a resolution passed that encouraged an open, respectful, and listening spirit among and between Regional Churches, congregations, and individuals who have varying understandings of sexual orientation and gender identity inclusion in their communities. Before restructuring in 2017, the General Board of MC Canada issued an apology for not, “mutually bear(ing) the burden of remaining in loving dialogue with each other.”
More recently, MC Canada finalized a Memorandum of Understanding with In This Together. ITT works with Anabaptist congregations to explore ways to reduce harm to the LGBTQ2S+ community and will assist congregations who want to move to a place where LGBTQ2S+ persons are “…fully integrated, recognized, respected, and valued in a spirit of mutuality…”
MC Canada congregations are at different waypoints. Some have discerned that they should become both welcoming and affirming, meaning full inclusion of LGBTQ2S+ persons in every aspect of congregational life. Others are welcoming, but not affirming. And still others have decided to hold to traditional views or have chosen not to discuss the matter.