Herman Enns | Mennonite Archives of Ontario

Classification scheme:

Hist. Mss. 1.126

Title: Herman Enns fonds

Dates of creation: 1960-1977

Physical description: 3.2 meters of textual records

Biographical sketch: Herman W. Enns (7 April 1930-6 June 1977) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His parents lived on a farm at Springstein, Manitoba, twenty miles west of Winnipeg. His father was a farmer-preacher in a Mennonite Church. Herman was the third child in the family. Ile had two older sisters and two younger brothers.

Herman attended school in the home village up to Grade XI and attended a private Mennonite high school in Gretna, Manitoba to get his senior matriculation. His major extra-curricular activity was editing the school year book.

In the fall of 1950, after six months of teaching on a permit basis, Herman enrolled in the University of Manitoba in the pre-med program, and in 1952 was accepted into the School of Medicine in Winnipeg. Several rather traumatic religious experiences prevented him from proceeding in medicine and so he enrolled in an arts program at the United College, now the University of Winnipeg. He taught secondary school for one year at Swan River, Manitoba. He attended the Canadian Mennonite Bible College for one year and received his B.A. from the University of Manitoba in 1955.

Herman taught high school for four years at the United Mennonite Educational Institute in Leamington, Ontario. His intention and interest was to go on to seminary. It had become clear to him at the time he changed from medicine to the arts that he wanted to enter the ministry and be involved in preventive medicine. He enrolled at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary in the fall of 1959 and graduated in May 1962.

On 9 September 1961, after his second year at Seminary, he married Estelle Bartel, who was employed as cashier-bookkeeper at the Seminary.

On 9 September 1962 he was ordained to the Christian ministry by his home congregation in Springstein, Manitoba. On 15 September 1962 he assumed leadership of the Hamilton Mennonite Church. In 1965 a church building was erected and in 1966 a Community Service Project in the north end of Hamilton was begun.

Herman was heavily involved in extra-congregational activities. He served as secretary for the Ontario Conference of United Mennonite Churches as well as the Conference of Mennonites in Canada, each for a three year term. He was moderator of the Ontario Conference for three years. He served as vice-chairman of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada and on various Boards and committees. The Inter-Mennonite Board of Congregational Resources, the Board of the Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana were several of his other involvements.

Herman served on the executive for the Hamilton Ministerial Association and was involved with Telecare in Hamilton, serving as director of training for two years. He wrote a leader's guide for church membership instruction in 1969.

In 1970 he was able to work out a part-time arrangement with the church, and Herman took further education at McMaster University, concentrating on psychology.

In September 1971 he began a residency year of Supervised Pastoral Education in Hamilton, under the supervision of Archie MacLachlan. In September 1972 Herman continued his probationary and course assistant training in Toronto, under Bert Massiah's supervision. His assistant supervisor training was taken In the summer of 1973 in London under the supervision of Ralph Lebold.

In September 1974 Herman resigned as minister of the Hamilton Mennonite Church to accept the position of Chaplain at the McMaster University Medical Centre. This provided him the opportunity to move ahead in Supervised Pastoral Education, moving from acting supervisor to supervisor on 17 October 1975. he served as a supervisor in Supervised Pastoral Education with McMaster Divinity College and in a parish setting from 1975 - 1977. He was active in the Ontario Region of the Canadian Association for Pastoral Education.

In a paper on Clinical Pastoral Education, Herman states "a theory for Clinical Pastoral Education must draw its inspiration from Jesus, the true liberator (Luke 4:18-19), the great physician who healed all manner of diseases, the enlightened teacher, who knew about emotional and spiritual renewal and rebirth, the faithful pastor whose congruent life style became a light along the way which He Himself opened up. Ile summarized His own reason for living: 'I am come that they might have life in all its fullness'." This also would be fitting summary of what Herman was striving for.

Custodial history: Donated by Estelle Enns in late 1980s

Scope and content: The fonds includes research notes, sermons, files from denominational committees on which Enns served, and supervised pastoral education files (restricted).

Notes: Further information may be found in Herman's obituary in the Mennonite Reporter, 13 June 1977.

For photographs related to Herman Enns search the Mennonite Archival Image Database.

An encyclopedia entry for Herman Enns may be found in GAMEO.

The original archival description created 1999 by Sam Steiner.

File list:

The fonds consists of six series: