Canadian Mennonite Brethren and the city: a look at the beginning

Canada’s first city church began in Winnipeg 100 years ago.

It started with a few Mennonite Brethren immigrants who moved into the city. It was bolstered by the assistance of a mission-minded rural congregation, Winkler MB Church.

Winkler MB Church (The small building is the first MB Church, established at Burwalde, Man. in 1888.)

As early as 1906, four families were meeting regularly in the home of Peter Ewert on the corner of Talbot and Eaton. (Peter Ewert had a sausage-making operation and grocery store on the property.)

Johann Warkentin

Four times a year, Winkler sent its ministers to visit and preach.

In 1909, the Winnipeg congregation took on a more formal structure. Winkler minister Johann Warkentin purchased a small chapel with his own money and had it moved to a corner lot on Burrows and Andrews. This formed the nucleus of the North End MB congregation, which later became the Elmwood MB Church.

Anna Thiessen and Sunday school girls

Eventually the small congregation decided it needed a full-time mission leader and together with the Winkler church requested that the Northern District Conference (today the Canadian MB Conference) find a suitable person.

Wilhelm J. Bestvater took over the mission in 1913. Anna Thiessen joined the work in 1915. A fledgling Sunday school class grew to more than 30 girls in four years. A sewing class reached out to girls from the community.

Anna Thiessen is probably best known for the home she started for Mennonite girls who came to Winnipeg to work as domestics. She served as their den mother, friend, counsellor, and employment agency. (Hers was a strictly no-nonsense approach – employers who treated the girls harshly were blacklisted.)

The next Canadian city with a Mennonite Brethren church was Saskatoon (1927), followed by Vancouver (1937). Although MBs had often expressed fear of the city because of its “worldliness,” urbanization began in earnest after World War II and significantly changed the face of the denomination.

North End Chapel, 1911

Girls arriving at the Mary Martha Home

Anna Thiessen with her sewing class, 1916.

Inspiration and information from John Unger’s “Dream Manitoba” power point presentation and Ken Reddig’s article “The Winnipeg City Mission,” both prepared for the 2006 Manitoba convention. All photos courtesy of the Centre for MB Studies.