Église évangelique mennonite de Joliette

Title: Église évangelique mennonite de Joliette fonds

Dates of Creation: 1958-1996

Physical description: 5 cm of textual records

Administrative history: 

The Église évangelique mennonite de Joliette began services in 1958, and formally organized in 1974. Harold and Pauline Reesor were the founding missionaries for the group, choosing this small industrial town, 70 km northeast of Montreal, because it had no French Protestant congregation at the time. Previous French United Church work had been abandoned. This mission venture originated through the Mennonite Conference of Ontario and the Mennonite Board of Mission (Elkhart).

The Reesors met together with fellow missionaries Tilman and Janet Martin, along with the Schmidt family from Rawdon for fellowship and worship in French. Harold Reesor visited many homes as follow-up for an evangelical effort to mail French Protestant material to every household in Quebec. In 1963, the Reesors handed over the responsibilities for the congregation to Clyde and Elisabeth Shannon, moving themselves to farm nearby Mascouche.

A church council was begun in 1974. Growth in the late 1970s led to gradual splitting off the members from nearby Rawdon for their own church and the  buying of the present larger church building in Joliette in 1982. Since 1982, the congregation has had native French-speaking Quebecers in leadership but from 1994 to 2005 there was no resident pastor.

Custodial history: Early accession from Janet Martin; additional minutes and materials from 1990s from MCEC in 2016.

Scope and Content: There are three series: Formal records, Informal records and Bulletins. Most of the documents, except for the histories, are in French.

Notes: Any photographs related to this congregation can be found in Hist.Mss.10. 

Series 1: Formal Records

1. Quebec Bill 121 recognizing the Mennonite Church and Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, 1962
2. Constitution and Confession of Faith, n.d. (pre-1980)
3. Members meeting minutes, 1981-1990
4. Congregational profile, 1988

Series 2: Informal Records

1. Correspondence, 1958-1961, 1988
2. Clippings, 1984, 1993
3. Historical documents
   "A family's experience in Quebec" by Janet Martin, n.d.
   "History of the Mennonite Church in Quebec" by Tilman and Janet Martin, 1971
   "A short history of the Joliette congregation," 1982
4. Special services
   Ordination service for Armand Roussin 13 Nov 1988

Series 3: Bulletins

June 1993