Mennonites in Ontario
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The Port Elgin Bibles
Sometime in May 1873, a man called Henry Schneider/Snyder of Port Elgin, Bruce County, Ontario, bought a Bible. It was a copy of Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society and printed… Continue reading
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The Pandemic of 1918-1920 and the MBiC: Part 2
The Ontario Conference of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ faced the “Spanish” Flu with impatience to be back at public worship and prayed it would end soon. Published response in other Conferences was fairly similar. Did they have other concerns… Continue reading
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The Alexander Sisters: Overlooked Women Preachers
Forgotten Women Preachers series 5. Muriel Isabelle and Annie G Alexander were women in the City Mission Workers Society,1 and their younger sister Irene married a pastor of the Ontario Conference of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church. That is… Continue reading
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The Sherkston field: Forgotten MBiC believers
Not only have there been forgotten workers, men and women, in the EMCC, there are forgotten communities of believers that flourished for a while but have died out. Jesus in the book of Revelation warned a church their lamp stand… Continue reading
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Family Bibles and the early EMCC
Somehow I inherited through my grandfather, William James Oliver, a family Bible set of two volumes, printed in Boston in 1856. He inherited them from one of his great-grandparents, Philip Wade and his second wife, Susan. The spines have gone,… Continue reading
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EMCC Church buildings Part 1: Beliefs and Early Practices
The Church exists whether we use buildings or not! Our heavenly Father knows when we need them. Nevertheless, the “medium is the message,” as Canadian media theoretician Marshall McLuhan said. Worship spaces convey meanings in addition to the words spoken… Continue reading
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United Missionary Church of Africa and the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Part 2
16. MBiC worship patterns. The leaders of what became the MBiC in Ontario were converted in testimony, prayer or protracted meetings (later called revivals), not in their Sunday Mennonite worship services. When they had to organize their own Sunday worship… Continue reading
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We Worship Part 3
What is worship, after all? Much has been written and preached in the last generation or two about worship. I have heard many talks and books recall the etymology of the English word: Old English “weorth-shipe,” ascribing worth or honour… Continue reading
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We Worship Part 2
The first members of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church in the very end of 1883, were practically all from the Mennonite Conferences, and had therefore grown up worshiping in the North American/ Pennsylvania Swiss-South German style.1 John C Wenger… Continue reading
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We Worship Part 1
When I was a church-planting pastor under the Home Mission Board, I planned and led many worship services, generally imitating the patterns in the Missionary Churches I knew (mainly Lakeshore in North Bay, Evangel in Kitchener and Riverside in Toronto).… Continue reading
EMCC History 