Source: Wikipedia Commons

Vancouver, the great Canadian seaport (2006 estimated population, 611,869; 2007 metropolitan area estimate, 2,249,725) on the Pacific coast, is situated at the southwest corner of the province of British Columbia. Mennonites have been living in Vancouver since 1930. By the late 1950s their number was about 3,000, including Van­couver's smaller twin city, New Westminster. At that time most of the Mennonites lived in South Vancouver, where the four churches were located - two General Conference Mennonite and two Mennonite Brethren. There were 5 Mennonite physicians practicing in Van­couver. In the late 1950s, two homes, the Mary Martha Girls' Home and Bethel Girls' Home, cared for the single women working in the city.

Following World War II the number of Mennonites in Vancouver increased due to the relocation of Mennonites from the Fraser Valley and other areas of Canada as well as the immigration of Mennonites from Europe and South America. The population of Vancouver increased dramatically beginning in the 1980s due to immigration from Hong Kong and mainland China, other south-east Asian countries, India, and in more recent years, from South America. Both provincial Mennonite conferences focused much of their church planting work within a number of these immigrant groups, drastically changing the face of the Mennonite church in Vancouver.

 Mennonite congregations in Metro Vancouver, 2008

The information for this table is taken from the 2007 directories for the British Columbia Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches and Mennonite Church British Columbia.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Mennonite church in Vancouver was multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, with approximately 10,000 members and several thousand more attending worship services every Sunday.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 798. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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