Success Stories

Mennonites in Canada

Digitized Canadian Mennonite Encyclopaedia and a historical overview of the Mennonite Church

From its Reformation origins in 16th century Europe to its contemporary presence across Canada and around the world, the story of the Mennonite Church is one of extraordinary movement, progress and change.

Thanks to the efforts of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada and funding support from the Canada’s Digital Collections (CDC) program, the Mennonite story, including a new Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia, is now available on the Internet. The Mennonites in Canada Web site project is one of a series of CDC initiatives funded by the Youth Employment Strategy to provide young Canadians with valuable multimedia work experience.

The project was overseen by Sam Steiner, librarian and archivist at the University of Waterloo’s Conrad Grebel College Library and Secretary of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada. Steiner, who received project funding after successfully completing CDC’s competitive application process, says the project goal was to provide Canadians with free, easily accessible and useful information on Mennonite life and history in Canada.

With this goal in mind, he used CDC funding to hire five students to begin researching, editing and digitizing material for the new Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia. A key challenge for Steiner and his youth team was to adapt original source material, Canadian references from an American Mennonite encyclopedia published primarily in the 1950s, to a contemporary Canadian context. “We were surprised at how much extra research and editorial work had to be done to ensure that our new entries were current and relevant,” says Steiner.

Despite the heavy workload, Steiner says he is very pleased with the quality of work produced by the project’s youth team members, who scanned and digitized 465 images and created 1,500 encyclopedia entries during the five-month project. “The team worked very well together. They were all keenly interested in the subject material and offered good suggestions for improvements to the site throughout the project.” Steiner says the encyclopedia, which includes genealogical resources and lists of Canadian Mennonite archives and historical libraries, is an ongoing project for the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.

In addition to developing the initial digitized Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia, the Mennonites in Canada project created an introductory Who Are the Mennonites? Web site section, which offers fascinating background information on Mennonite history, culture, beliefs and spirituality. The section’s engaging narrative, researched and written by CDC team coordinator Derek Suderman, traces five centuries of Mennonite history from the founding of the Church and the early persecution of its members to immigration in search of religious freedom.

“We wanted to tell the story of the Mennonite Church in a way that would be informative and interesting for both Mennonites and non-Mennonites,” says Suderman, who holds a degree in History from the University of Waterloo and a degree in Theology from the Canadian Mennonite Bible College.

Another goal of the section, adds Suderman, was to portray the amazing diversity of the Mennonite Church in Canada and elsewhere. Who Are the Mennonites? paints a vivid picture of a worldwide religious community numbering over 1 million people. Site visitors may be surprised to learn that Mennonites speak more than 75 languages and are found on all five continents, with Africa having the fastest growing Mennonite Church anywhere in the world.

Of particular interest to Canadian visitors is the story of Mennonites in this country. It begins with wagon treks of Swiss Mennonites from Pennsylvania to Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula following the American Revolution and continues with the arrival of large groups of Russian Mennonites in Western Canada, particularly in Manitoba, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, Winnipeg has one of the largest urban populations of people of Mennonite background in the world.

Suderman says the project was a unique opportunity to learn more about his Mennonite roots while acquiring useful technology skills. “I had very little computer experience before the project, so this was a great learning opportunity,” he says. “It has given me a lot of confidence in web site design and writing for the Internet.”

While currently studying for his Master’s Degree in Theology, Suderman says he is using his new skills to help create a Web site and searchable database for a non-profit organization promoting restorative justice and peaceful conflict resolution in Canada.

Visit the Canada's Digital Collections World Wide Web Site at http://collections.ic.gc.ca