Mississauga Mennonite Fellowship

Classification scheme:

XIII-2-18

Title: Mississauga Mennonite Fellowship fonds

Dates of creation: 1988

Physical description: 53 cm of textual records ; 9 photographs

Administrative history: The Mississauga Mennonite Fellowship in Mississauga, Ontario began services in 1980, and formally organized as a congregation of the Conference of United Mennonite Churches in Ontario in 1981. It later became a part of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. The congregation came together to provide a Mennonite Anabaptist presence in Mississauga and drew members from Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Mississauga, Oakville and Toronto. Many of its members had formerly been part of the Toronto United Mennonite Church.

The congregation placed an emphasis on lay leadership. It never had a full-time pastor, and has gone stretches of time with no one identified with that role. Worship leading and preaching has often been done by members of the congregation. It met in rented facilities, primarily the Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga. Decision-making took place in monthly "fellowship meetings." In early 2019 the congregation began meeting at Erindale United Church's Gardner Hall. Due to decline in participants, the congregation closed in 2022.

Custodial history: A small number of items were donated by Sam Steiner at a previous time. In 2022, the congregation donated the bulk of the fonds to the Archives.

Scope and Content: Contains meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, membership records, brochures, and other records of congregational life. The congregation organized both formal and informal records in one chronological system; the Archives has for the most part retained this original order.

Notes: An encyclopedia entry for this congregation may be found in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
The congregation's website was at https://mississaugamennonite.com.
Original archival description created by Sam Steiner and updated by Laureen Harder-Gissing in 2023. The updated administrative history draws largely from Sam Steiner's Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online congregational article (2016).

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