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Peace Mennonite Church (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada)

As the Prince of Peace Mennonite Church began the dissolution process, representatives from both Prince of Peace Mennonite Church and Sherbrooke Mennonite Church met with the intention of forming a steering committee that would oversee the establishment of a new fellowship in Richmond, BC.  John Sawatzky from Prince of Peace and Erwin Cornelsen from Sherbrooke met initially in 1977, and eventually First United Mennonite Church and Mountainview Mennonite Church were brought on board to assist in the endeavour. 

Palmer Becker was the first pastor of this new congregation in 1979, and a new church building was soon built in 1980 on land that was previously purchased by Sherbrooke and by using proceeds from the sale of Prince of Peace's church facilities. Initially, this new congregation met twice a month at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church by holding services in the evenings.  With the dedication on 7 September 1980 of the new church building, which included a 135-seat sanctuary, education wing and gymnasium, Peace Mennonite Church was poised to officially organize, which it did on 30 November 1980 with 135 chartered members.

While most of the congregation is of European descent, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Laotian, Ethiopian and Punjabi people also call Peace Mennonite their church home.  This diversity is illustrated aptly in the launch of Peace Chinese Mennonite Church in 1988. The congregation joined Mennonite Church British Columbia and Mennonite Church Canada in 1981.

Map

Bibliography

Lehn, Cornelia. Frontier Challenge: A Story of the Conference of Mennonites in British Columbia. Clearbrook, BC: The Conference of Mennonites in British Columbia, 1990: 135-137.

Mennonite Reporter (22 June 1987): 16; (26 November 1979): 4; (26 May 1980): 14; (13 October 1980): 4; (5 January 1981): 11.

Wiens, John R. "The Development of Peace Mennonite Church, Richmond, B.C." Research paper, Canadian Mennonite Bible College, 1982, 35 pp. Mennonite Heritage Centre.

Additional Information

Address: 11571 Daniels Rd., Richmond, BC  V6X 1M7

Phone: 604-278-0111

Website: www.peacemennonite.ca

Denominational Affiliations:

Conference of Mennonites in British Columbia / Mennonite Church British Columbia (1981-present)

Conference of Mennonites in Canada / Mennonite Church Canada (1981-present)

General Conference Mennonite Church (1981-1999)

Peace Mennonite Church Leading Ministers

Minister
 Years
Palmer Becker 1980-1987
Donovan Smucker (interim)
 1988
Sven Eriksson 1989-2002
Tim Kuepfer 2003-present

Peace Mennonite Church Membership

Year Members
1980 135
1985 221
1995 184
2000 198
2006 190
2010
 206

 

©1996-2012 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

To cite this page:

MLA style: Epp, Marlene and Andrew Klager. "Peace Mennonite Church (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. April 2010. Web. 14 February 2012. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P4245.html.

APA style: Epp, Marlene and Andrew Klager. (April 2010). Peace Mennonite Church (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 14 February 2012, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P4245.html.
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