Classification scheme: III-29
Title: Kingsfield-Zurich Mennonite Church fonds
Dates of creation: 1865, 1916-2007
Physical description: 5 cm of textual records
Administrative history: Located at 37818 Zurich Hensall Rd. (County Rd. 84), Zurich, Ontario. In 1950 there were 143 members; in 1965, 140; in 1975, 185; in 1985, 233; in 1995, 268; in 2000, 276. The congregation has been affiliated with the Mennonite Conference of Ontario and Quebec (1908-1988), Mennonite Church (1908-1999), Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (1988-2020) and Mennonite Church Canada (1995-2020). The language of worship is English.
The Zurich Mennonite Church began in spring 1908 when services began to be held in a former Baptist church on the main street in Zurich. The fledgling congregation was primarily composed of persons formerly affiliated with the nearby Blake Amish Mennonite congregation were revival meetings held by Peter Ropp of Berne, Michigan resulted in a number of converts. However these converts would not accept the dress restrictions required by the Amish Mennonites and were refused baptism. Jonas Snider, a Mennonite bishop of the Mennonite Conference of Ontario from Waterloo County then performed the baptisms. Peter Ropp temporarily moved to Zurich to help organize the congregation in its first year. Elderly Minister John Gascho and about 50 other members transferred from the Blake congregation the summer of 2008. A building was erected in 1910 at a cost of $3,600, with renovations and additions in 1948 and 1975. A new building was constructed outside of town in 1989 at a cost just under $1,000,000.
The congregation developed a full range of activities for its members and the community. A women's sewing circle began in 1937. Vacation Bible School began the same year, and later developed into a community effort. The congregation helped develop a coffee house in Grand Bend, Ontario in the 1960s, as well as a mission outreach in Exeter, Ontario known as the Thames Road Mission.
In the 1990s the congregation again talked about a church planting initiative. This finally resulted in the formation on 28 October 2007 of Kingsfield-Clinton. The Zurich congregation also began to use the prefix Kingsfield, and the two groups considered themselves part of a multiplying church. "Kingsfield" was derived from 1 Corinthians 3:9, which says "you are God's field," reflecting the congregation's desire to be part of a "multiplying movement of churches who bring the kingdom of Jesus Christ to relevant reality where we live and everywhere we go." In March 2020 Kingsfield-Zurich withdrew from Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church Eastern Canada and became an associate member of the Ontario Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches. The withdrawal from MC Canada was rooted in disagreement with the theological directions taken by that conference.
An earlier Mennonite congregation in the area had been known as the Hay Mennonite Church.
Custodial history: Programs and deed donated at unknown time; other items from Steve Gingerich, May 2007.
Scope and content: There are three series: Formal records, Informal records and Bulletins
Notes: Original description created February 2002 by Sam Steiner. Administrative history significantly modified in 2025, drawn from the Global Anabaptit Mennonite Encyclopedia Online article published in 2020.
For further information see: Zurich Mennonite Church : Seventy-five years 1908-1983. Zurich, ON: The Church, 1983;L.J. Burkholder, A brief history of the Mennonites in Ontario (1935), 99-100, 125.
Series 1: Formal records
- "Indenture of Bargain and Sale between Jacob Wideman to Trustees of Old Menonists Church," 16 September 1865 (Also includes signatures of Mary Ann Wideman, Heinrich Neuschwenger and Abraham E. Reist) This land for a church building was part of Lot 9, 10th Concession of the Township of Hay.
- Annual meeting reports and minutes
1980, 2003-2006 - Church Council minutes
November 2004-April 2007
Series 2: Informal records
- Miscellaneous programs, 1916-1999.
- Historical narratives
Zurich Mennonite Church: Seventy-Five Years, 1908-1983
"Historical resume of the Zurich Mennonite congregation," Selda Steckle, June 1981
"History of Zurich Mennonite Church"
Series 3: Bulletins
1981, 1982, 1989 (few random issues)
2004-2007 (Incomplete)