Canadian censuses have examined the relationship between religious affiliation and ethnic origin several times. For instance, in 1941, 31,469 of the 111,554 (28%) Canadian Mennonites gave “German” as their racial origin, 64,941 (58%) were of Netherlands origin, and 7,206 (6%) claimed Russian origin. These numbers are of doubtful accuracy, however. Canadian census authorities [1] and scholars have stated that during World War II thousands Canadians of German origin reported another origin, such as Dutch or Russian, in order to avoid stigmatization.
For 1961 and 1971, statistics are available on the interrelationship between ethnic origin and membership in a religious group. [2] In 1971, almost a quarter each of Canadians of German ethnic origin belonged to the Catholic or Lutheran churches, respectively, another 16% to the United Church, ca. nine percent to the Mennonites, and smaller numbers to the Anglicans, Baptists, and Pentecostals. Keeping in mind the traditional religious affiliations of the German ethnic group, it is likely that the members of the Anglican and United Churches – and possibly the Baptist and Pentecostal Churches – had a German forefather somewhere in their family past. After all, the 1971 Census asked respondents to state to which ethnic group they or their ancestors on the male side had belonged on coming to this continent.
There was relatively little change in the decade between 1961 and 1971. Among Canadians of German origin, the percentage of Mennonites claiming German origin increased slightly as did the percentage of Pentecostals and Catholics. On the other hand, of all Hutterites in Canada 86.3% claimed German ethnic origin in 1971, as did 68.3% of all Mennonites, 45% of the Lutherans, 16.8% of the Adventists, and 10% of all Mormons said that they were of German origin.
The 1991 Census also examined the relationship between religion and ethnic origin. Of the 21,495 Hutterites in Canada at that time, 18,630 (87%) claimed German ethnic origin, 215 (1%) Ukrainian origin, 1,375 (6%) other Western European origins, and 220 (1%) other Eastern European origins. Of the 207,965 Mennonites reported by the 1991 Census, 102,430 (49%) were of German ethnic origin, 24,115 (12%) of Dutch origin, and 1,325 (1%) of Ukrainian origin. [3]
In other words, the percentage of Hutterites having German origin remained virtually identical over the 20-year period while the percentage of Mennonites claiming German origin declined from 68% to 49%.
A. The Mennonites
In 1901, the Mennonites appeared for the first time as a separate religious group (although including the Hutterites) in the Canadian census. Their numbers grew rapidly from ca. 32,000 at the turn of the century to ca. 125,000 by 1950, and by 1991 exceeded the 200,000 mark (see Table 17). However, ten years later the total number of Mennonites in Canada fell by almost 8% to about 191,000, mostly in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Quebec. Ontario saw a strong increase, and in Alberta their number increased slightly because of the return of thousands of Mennonites from South America. It was also recently reported that some 2,000 Aussiedler (emigrants from the former Soviet Union) who had lived for a while in Germany have settled in southern Manitoba since ca. 2000. (See below for a detailed description of the various groupings)
According to Statistics Canada, of the 191,465 Mennonites across Canada 29,550 were immigrants in 2001. [6] 8,525 Mennonites had arrived in Canada before 1961 and 1970, another 3,070 came between 1961 and 1970, 4,155 between 1971 and 1980, 6,240 immigrated between 1981 and 1990, 3,405 in the five years between 1991 and 1995, and 4,160 between 1996 and 2001; 995 Mennonites were non-permanent residents. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, more than half of the newly arrived Mennonites went to Ontario (4,130), 545 to Manitoba, 125 to Saskatchewan, 1,055 to Alberta, and 535 to British Columbia. These new arrivals have been referred to several times as the reason for the strong growth of German as a mother tongue and a home language.
In 2001, the median age of Mennonites was 32 years. Of the 191,470 Mennonites across the country, 26% were children between 0 and 14 years of age, and another 15% were between 15 and 4 years old. These ratios are substantially higher than in the general population where 19% were children in the lower and 13% in the higher age group in 2001.
Table 18 Numerical distribution of Mennonites by age groups, for Canada and selected provinces [7]
It is wrong, of course, to presume that all Mennonites speak German. In fact, it was reported above that only 49% of Canadian Mennonites were even of German ethnic origin. The following Table 19 shows the diversity of mother tongues spoken by the Mennonites. It turns out that German was the mother tongue of 45% of Canadian Mennonites in 1991 – in other words, there appears to be a close relationship between German origin and German mother tongue. Similarly, 12% of the Mennonites claimed Dutch origin, and 12% indicated that they had Dutch as their mother tongue.
Table 19 Mennonites and their mother tongues, for Canada, 1991 [8]
The “Mennonites” are not, of course, a monolithic religious group – on the contrary, because of their respect for local circumstances and spiritual needs there is a huge diversity of Mennonite groupings in Canada, ranging from very traditional to very progressive in their view of the outside world and on church discipline.
More than 100 years ago, the ideal for all Mennonite groups was a rural community based on close, intimate ties of blood, land, and kinship; a community where people respected tradition and preferred to remain and interact with kind and friends of their own group, rather than with strangers in a more urban, cosmopolitan, and less rooted society. As soon as the Mennonites arrived in North America from Central and Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, divisions began to appear between the traditionally oriented and progressive factions. These divisions have not abated. In the period after World War II, progressive Mennonites – those now more open to contact with outsiders and who exercise little collective discipline any longer (e.g., Mennonite Church. General Conference Mennonites, Mennonite Brethren) – have left the rural community for the opportunities of the city. Often these moves are associated with higher education and upward social mobility.
More culturally conservative Mennonite groups (e.g., the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite; the Old Order Mennonites; Old Colony Mennonites, the Reinland Mennonite Church) – who are less open to outsiders, retain a higher degree of control over individual members, and take pains to maintain clearer boundaries between themselves and the larger society around them – hold more firmly to tradition in general and to the ideal of maintaining the rural community. [9]
The maintenance of the German language among these diverse groups also varies greatly; differences and implications will be discussed in the section on Ontario below.
Due largely to the resettlement of the Umsiedler from the Soviet Union and thousands of returnees from South America, the number of Mennonites who use German regularly has risen in recent years. However, in the urban areas, the impetus for German language maintenance has shifted from the churches to other organizations, such as the German-Canadian Congress and, in Manitoba specifically, the Manitoba Parents for German Education, which are strongly supported by the Mennonites. The Mennonites have also made use of the resources supplied by the Federal Republic of Germany for the encouragement and preservation of the German language.
Although a 1986 study showed that about 50 percent of Canadian Mennonites retained High German and/or Low German skills, the German language among Mennonites who do not live in a viable German community has become a thing of the past. This has meant that for some High German is at best a literary language, learned at school and perhaps used for academic, artistic, or professional purposes. Attempts have been made to preserve Plautdietsch by regularizing its orthography and publishing Mennonite classics. [10]
Alberta. According to the Canadian censuses, there were 14,645 Mennonites living in Alberta in 1971, 20,540 in 1981, 22,330 in 1991 and 22,785 in 2001. [11] According to the 2001 Census, there were 22,790 Mennonites living in Alberta, an increase by two percent between 1991 and 2001. [12] Based on 2001 Census data, of the 22,790 Mennonites, 3,085 were immigrants. [13] 800 Mennonites had arrived in Alberta before 1961; between 1971 and 1980 another 215 immigrated, in the following decade 370; between 1981 and 1990 645 Mennonites came to the province, and 1,055 between 1991 and 2001. According to newspaper reports, [14] as many as a thousand Mennonites came to La Crete in northern Alberta from drought-stricken Bolivia in 2001.
In 2001, almost one quarter of the Mennonites lived in the cities like Calgary (3,590) and Edmonton (1,525), but were otherwise spread out over the entire province. Large numbers of mostly conservative Mennonites have settled in the north of the province near Fort Vermilion and La Crete (e.g., in the Mackenzie SM) and in the Grande Prairie region near the Alberta-B.C. border (e.g., Clear Hills MD, East Peace MD, and Greenview MD).
East of Edmonton, Mennonites live in towns such as Tofield and Stettler, and in central Alberta there are large numbers of Mennonites in towns and villages such as Beiseker, Didsbury, and Linden. Other localities with large concentrations of Mennonites can be found in southwestern Alberta (e.g., in Lethbridge, Pincher Creek, Coaldale, Taber, and north to Vauxhall) and southeastern Alberta (Medicine Hat and north to Duchess, Rosemary, and Gem).
Many Mennonites in Alberta still speak German, but not all, of course, do: In 1991, 10,145 Mennonites of the ca. 22,000 Mennonites in Alberta – less than half – said that they had acquired German as their mother tongue. [15] As a matter of fact, in the traditionally Mennonites localities, such as Coaldale, Hanna, Tofield, and Linden, no children were reported by the 1996 Census to grow up with German as their mother tongue, and there were no children in these places who were learning German as their home language. On the other hand, in the Mackenzie MD in northern Alberta – in particular La Crete and its surroundings where conservative Mennonite groups (especially the Old Colony Mennonites [16]) have re-migrated from South America in recent years – the 2001 Census found 4,790 Mennonites. [17] In 1996, 4,385 persons in that MD stated that they had learned German as their mother tongue, and 3,740 indicated that they used German as their home language. By 2001, the number of residents of the MD with German mother tongue increased to 5,395.
The age distribution of Mennonites in Alberta is strongly skewed in favour of the younger age groups: In 1991, 6,640 Mennonites were children below the age of 15; there were 3,790 persons between the ages of 15 and 24 and another 6,860 between 25 and 44; 3,405 ranged in age between 45 and 64, and 1,630 Mennonites were older than 64. [18]
British Columbia. According to the 2001 Census, 35,490 Mennonites lived in British Columbia, most of them in the Fraser Valley Regional District (N=14,195), the Greater Vancouver Regional District (N=11,095), in the Central Okanagan Regional District (N=1,970), and the Peace River Regional District (N=1,615). Almost one third of all Mennonites in British Columbia resided in Abbotsford alone (N=10,120). Smaller numbers of Mennonites were located in Prince George, Williams Lake, near Terrace in the northwest, on Vancouver Island, and elsewhere. About 22% of the Mennonites in the province were children between 0 and 14 years of age, and another 14% ranged in age between 15 and 24 years.
The earliest Mennonite roots in British Columbia go back to about 1910 when a Mennonite settlement was established at Renata on the Arrow Lakes in southeastern British Columbia. The settlers' source of livelihood was fruit growing and timber processing. In the 1920’s thousands of Mennonites from Russia settled in the Lower Mainland: in 1925 Mennonites from the Prairies settled in Chilliwack and the Vanderhoof/Burns Lake area west of Prince George; in 1928 more Mennonites came to Yarrow southwest of Chilliwack (now part of the City of Chilliwack), later near Abbotsford, especially around Clearbrook (now part of the City of Abbotsford). Old Colony Mennonites came to Burns Lake in 1940 and to Fort St. John in 1961. [19] In 1990, the Old Colony Mennonite Church in British Columbia had three congregations with 700 members in the Christian community.
In 2001, 43% of the Mennonite immigrant population reported to have arrived in Canada before 1961. In each of the following decades an average of 800 Mennonites came to British Columbia, with Vancouver drawing most immigrants.
Dairy farming, fruit growing and poultry raising are still important ways of making a living, but since the 1950s the Mennonites have become more urbanized – and secular – as the Fraser Valley has acquired urban characteristics. Mennonites worship in a variety of languages, including German, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Punjabi, Spanish, Russian, Indonesian, Arabic, Farsi, Laotian, Korean, and American Sign Language. [20] German is certainly no longer a major language spoken at home. For example, the 2001 Census recorded 10,120 Mennonites residing in Abbotsford in 2001; there were 6,600 persons with German mother tongue (Mennonites and others), but only 485 persons spoke “only” German at home, and another 560 used “mostly” German as their primary home language. [21]
Saskatchewan. Since World War II, the urbanization of Mennonites in Saskatchewan has been increasing as the communities have continued their integration into the mainstream of provincial life. Mennonites have been involved in a wide range of trades and professions, business, the civil service, government services, education, and politics. This development has resulted in an almost total use of English as the first language, especially in the urban areas. [22] Sustained use of German is likely only with the Bergthaler (N=900 in 1990, mostly in the Herbert and Hague areas) and Old Colony Mennonites (1990: 750 members, mostly in the Carrot River area [23]; also in Blumenheim near Hague [24]).
The number of Mennonites in Saskatchewan has been declining gradually. In 1971, the census recorded 26,315 Mennonites; ten years later 26,265; in 1991 there were 25,240 Mennonites, and 19,570 resided in the province in 2001.[25] There has been some immigration to the province: between 1971 and 1980 there were 105 immigrants, in the following decade another 115, and between 1991 and 2001 another 90 Mennonites immigrated to Saskatchewan. Among the Mennonite population in 2001, all age groups were very well represented:
Of the 19,570 Mennonites reported by the 2001 Census, the vast majority lived in the area encompassing Saskatoon, Corman Park RM, and the towns of Warman, Osler, and Martensville (N=9,340). Another 3,850 Mennonites resided in and near the town and the rural municipality of Rosthern, Laird RM, the town of Hague, and the village of Hepburn. Another 300 lived in the town of Herbert. The old Mennonite settlements located north and south of a line extending from Swift Current to Waldeck and on to Herbert (in Swift Current, Coulee RM, Lawtonia RM, Morse RM, Victory RM and Excelsior RM) are still home to some 1,600 Mennonites.
845 Mennonites resided in Regina; in the reagion east of Prince Albert lived 915 Mennonites, with large populations in Moose Range RM (N=405), the town of Carrot River (N=180), and the rural municipality of Nipawin (N=115). In addition, smaller Mennonite settlements were scattered across the province.
Manitoba. In the mid-1870s, the Canadian government set aside two large areas in southern Manitoba for Mennonite settlements, the so-called East Reserve (extending from Hespeler [Niverville] in the west to Blumenort in the east and to Landskron and Neubergfeld in the south, and including the communities of Steinbach, Blumengart, Heuboden, Gnadenfeld, and Bergfeld) and the West Reserve (encompassing an area from Morden in the west to Rosenfeld and Halbstadt village in the east and in the south to the U.S. border and including Sommerfeld village, Altona, Winkler, etc.). Most Mennonites still reside in these areas.
For most Mennonite immigrants, maintaining their German language and their culture was of the utmost importance. For some Russlaender, “Germanism” was indeed a “holy cause,” [26] and some Mennonites even believed that Christianity was tied to German. [27] This belief had strong roots. For many,
the preservation of the German language, as the preferred language of religious instruction and worship, or as a spiritual, cultural, or ethnic treasure, or simply as the necessary means to communicate with older members of immigrant communities was still a matter of great concern to some Mennonite leaders in the 1930s. [28]
Accordingly, the Mennonites established bible schools, published newspapers and journals in German, and finally set up language schools for the children. They also supported the teaching of German in the public schools; earlier private schools had been exclusively been taught in German.
The emphatic insistence on maintaining German as the language of the community was not shared by all Mennonite congregations and individuals. Not only did it hamper the missionary outreach to the neighbors, it also kept the Mennonites in isolation from the world surrounding them. In several congregations, this desire to use German or Low German as a “dike” against the encroachment of the world [29] was quite deliberate. A member reflected publicly on this question:
Could we possibly be using the German language in our church services, not for any love of its aesthetic beauty or its utilitarian values, but rather because it is so effective as a barrier against outside influences and thus a definite help in preserving our religion and culture in pristine purity? [30]
As early as the 1930s, English became more and more important as the language of the community, but the years after the Second World War brought even greater changes for the Mennonites in Manitoba, namely an end to their previous relative isolation. Modern means of transportation, the increasingly widespread availability of radio and television, the introduction of the large composite school, the disappearance of the small farm, and the resulting exodus of many young people to the city had a strong impact on the Mennonite way of life. The move to the city accelerated the changeover from the German to the English language, just as the loosening of family ties and intermarriage with individuals of non-Mennonite heritage encroached on the common culture. [31]
By the end of the 1950s, most Canadian Mennonite Brethren congregations had made the transition to English; in the rural areas, German was retained for a longer period of time, and the smaller and more traditional western congregations (e.g., the Old Colony Mennonites and Reinlaenders in the West Reserve) kept German worship well into the 1970s; [32] German services continue in a number of rural congregations. [33] The majority of congregations in the Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba had switched to English in the 1960s. [34]
Driedger’s survey of Mennonites in a Saskatchewan bloc settlement in 1955 [35] did indeed show that at that time Mennonites, in general, could, and often did, speak Low German at home, in business and at work. Fifteen years later, Anderson [36] reported that 97% of the Mennonites claimed to be able to speak their mother tongue, and 69% said that they spoke it “frequently” – a finding confirmed subsequently by Driedger. [37] In 1977, Driedger [38] was able to observe that the rural Mennonite communities in the former East and West Reserves were still highly German in language and culture. Low German could still be used in all community activities in church, in communication with neighbours, and in business transactions. As a matter of fact, some of the older Mennonites could hardly speak English.
In Winnipeg – the city with the largest Mennonite population in the world – , the situation was markedly different: Although in the mid-1970s cultural identity was still found to be strong among students (79% attended a Mennonite church at least twice a month; 77% chose mostly Mennonites as their best friends, and 79% reported no exogamy in their family), linguistic proficiency was said to be considerably less (44% of the students spoke Low German or German at home). Driedger concluded that adherence to Mennonite culture would likely continue, but that the use of the German language would decline. [39]
A number of the 38 Mennonite churches in Winnipeg (in 2003, there were over 50 [40] did indeed still hold services in German in the mid-1980s, but much of the business in the city was conducted in English, and English was used with neighbours. [41] A small-scale revival of the German language occurred in the 1980s as a consequence of the bilingual program sponsored by the Department of Education, but apparently few children of Mennonite Brethren churches attended these classes. [42]
It has been reported that thousands of Mennonite returnees from Latin American countries have settled in Manitoba. More recently, the Mennonitische Post reported that more than 2,000 Aussiedler from the former Soviet Union, who lived temporarily in Germany, have settled in southern Manitoba. [43]
Ontario. The Mennonites have a long and complex history in Ontario, and their many well-acknowledged sub-groupings make it impossible to make general statements about their desire and success to maintain German. The Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online [44] distinguishes the following groupings:
1. The Amish: The Amish in Ontario, which began as a split-off sect of the Swiss Mennonites during the late 17th century, came to Ontario in 1824 and were soon joined by other Amish folk from Alsace-Lorraine and southwest Germany. Many of them were headed to Waterloo County, first to Woolwich Township and then, in particular, to Wilmot Township (New Hamburg was founded by Amish and Old Order Mennonites in 1837). As more settlers arrived from Europe, the Amish community spread westward to what is now the South Easthope (Perth County) and East Zorra (Oxford County) Townships (1837); they also settled along the Huron Road to Goderich and towards the town of Tavistock. [45] By 1850 there were about 1,000 Amish in Upper Canada.
The third area in which the Amish settled was in the Hay and Stanley Townships in Huron County (1848) in the vicinity of what today is Zurich. Another congregation was organized in Wellesley Township in 1859. The settlement spread westward toward the town of Wellesley and towards North Easthope in Perth County (1859). Finally, Mornington, Ellice, and Elma Townships were settled in the 1860s and 70s.
In 1886, the rather small groups in Wellesley and Mornington Townships formed the nucleus of what was to be called “Old Order Amish” over the issue of whether to build meetinghouses for worship services. In 1905 a settlement was begun in Canboro Township (Haldiman County), but it did not survive for very long.
From 1953 to 1969 a wave of Amish migration from Ohio resulted in settlements in Aylmer, Chesley, and other parts of the province, such as near Norwich in Oxford County, St. Marys (Lakeside),Gorrie in Huron County, Wallacetown, and another one near Mt. Elgin north of Aylmer. Several other settlements were founded but did not last very long. [46]
Today, Amish congregations are located in Aylmer (3), Newton (Steckley District), Chesley (Owen Sound), Tavistock, Linwood, Elmwood, Wroxeter, Wellesley, Baden, Atwood, Brunner, Millbank, Ailsa Craig, Cassel, New Hamburg, Crosshill, Norwich, and Zurich. Their current population is believed to be around 1,500. [47]
• Among the Amish, the Old Order Amish are among the most conservative descendants of the 16th-century Anabaptists. The Old Order are usually distinguished from the Amish Mennonites (now largely absorbed into the Mennonite Church or various conservative Mennonite groups), Beachy Amish, and the New Order Amish by their strict adherence to the use of horses on the farm and as a source of transportation, their refusal to allow electricity or telephones in their homes, and their more traditional standard of dress, including the use of hooks-and-eyes fasteners on some articles of clothing. For many people, “Amish” has become synonymous with “Old Order Amish.” In 1988, the Old Order Amish had about 260 members in five congregations in Ontario (Perth and Waterloo: 3, Elgin: 1, Grey: 1). According to Raber’s 2004 Almanac, Old Order Amish congregations are located in Milverton, Green Bush, Kincardine, Aylmer, Victoria County, Owen Sound, Norwich, Mt. Elgin, Lakeside, and Lucknow. [48]
• In 1988, the Beachy Amish Mennonite Fellowship had five loosely affiliated congregations in Ontario, located in Mornington Township (Perth County), in Wellesley Township (Waterloo R. M.), and in Red Lake. [1997: nine congregations in Hudson, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, Dinorwic, Milverton, Brunner, Atwood, Fort Severn, Wellesley, Bearskin Lake (Fellowship).
• The Conservative Mennonite Conference was organized in 1910 as the Conservative Amish Mennonite Conference. The word ‘Amish’ was dropped from the name with the adoption of a revised constitution in 1957. In 2001 the only Conservative Mennonite Conference congregation in Canada was the Red Lake Mennonite Church in Red Lake, Ontario.
Amish schools have been established in Aylmer, Chatsworth, Desboro, Kincardine, Millbank, Milverton, Newton, Tiverton, and Wingham. [49]
2. In 1988, there were 181 congregations of the mainstream and conservative Mennonite and Brethren in Christ bodies in Ontario, which cooperate closely in the Mennonite Central Committee, Ontario. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia Online, there are roughly 2,500 adult Brethren in Christ in Ontario. [50]
3. Another major group is the Ontario Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches which had 4,019 members in 24 congregations in 1996.
4. The Old Order Mennonites in Ontario stem from an 1889 division in the Mennonite congregations in Waterloo County who rejected the then current “modern, evangelistic practices” and wanted to continue to cultivate discipline, obedience, and discipleship, rather than the modern Sunday schools, prayer meetings, and revivals. [51]
The main body of the Old Order Mennonites is located in the northern part of Waterloo Regional Municipality and extends about ten miles beyond the boundaries of the county. There are meetinghouses for church services – all in the vicinity of Elmira – in Clear View, Weaverland, Linwood, Conestogo, Peel, Wallenstein, Elmira, North Woolwich, Olivet, Winterbourne, and Martins. [52] A daughter colony, established thirty years ago in the Mount Forest area, has four meeting houses (Westdale, Farewell, Spring Creek, and Cedarview). An additional 90 members reside in five new communities: Chesley, Teeswater, Kinloss (at Holyrood), Dunnville, and Lindsay. [53]
In 1990 the group had 2,470 baptized members [54] [2002 membership: 3,000]. Adherents (those under 18) could account for another 2,000.
5. The Old Colony Mennonites [55] have their primary roots in those elements of the Flemish congregations of Danzig and West Prussia which, in 1789, founded the Chortitza "Old" Colony in South Russia. In 1875 the first of some 3,200 persons from Chortitza, and its daughter settlement of Fürstenland (established 1864), settled along the Canada-United States boundary in Manitoba, west of the Red River. In 1876 the government of Canada accommodated them by establishing the Mennonite West Reserve of 17 townships (612 square miles/1,620 square kilometers) on their behalf. In Manitoba they proclaimed themselves the Reinländer Mennoniten Gemeinde, and set about recreating a cultural landscape characterized by a Straßendorf/Gewannflur pattern of occupancy, an internal self-administration in which ecclesiastical authority dominated, and an economy based upon grain crops and livestock. They persisted in viewing themselves, and continued to be viewed by others, as Altkolonisten (Old Colonists).
Over the years, the Old Colony Mennonites have tried to stay away from Canadian secular society by moving first to Saskatchewan, then to Alberta; in 1922, the majority of the Manitoba Old Colonists emigrated to Mexico. Until the early 1960s it was possible for the remaining settlers to avoid this threat by homesteading beyond the fringes of built-up settlement, on the agricultural frontiers of northern Saskatchewan and in the Peace River region of Alberta and British Columbia (Carrot River, La Crete, Fort Vermilion, Worsley, Ft. St. John, Burns Lake, Dawson Creek, etc.) When the secular world, and particularly the public schools, penetrated their settlements, the more conservative would move on. Upon the consolidation of the schools and raising of school-leaving age to 16 years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this strategy was no longer workable, and a substantial number emigrated to new frontiers of settlement in British Honduras [Belize] and the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia.
Despite majority emigration including that of their spiritual leaders, Old Colony Mennonites reorganized and have maintained a presence in all their original areas of settlement in western Canada. Since colonization in Latin America began in the 1920s, there has been a persistent flow of people of Old Colony background to Canada, capitalizing on retained Canadian citizenship or that of immediate forebears. In the 1930s returnees from Mexico tended to relocate in their former home communities, or on the frontiers of settlement, especially in the Peace River country of N.W. Alberta.
In the late 1950s and mid-1960s small numbers of people of Old Colony background from Chihuahua participated in settlement ventures in the Clay Belt of northern Ontario (Matheson), soon abandoned, and in the Rainy River area (Stratton) of Ontario. As of 1990 no further group agricultural settlements had been attempted in Canada by Old Colony Mennonites.
Old Colonists from Mexico began arriving in southern Ontario in 1954. Since the late 1960s the dominant destination in Canada has been the intensive farming and industrial region focusing on the Ontario county of Essex, and the Regional Municipalities of Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara, where many have become affiliated with the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference (EMMC).
According to the Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, there are Old Mennonite Colonists in Stratton (Rainy River), Moorefield (Mapleton TWP), Wheatley (Chatham-Kent City), Port Rowan (Norfolk C), and Aylmer (Elgin County). [56] In 1990, the community numbered 4,800 baptized members.
6. The David Martin Mennonites originated through division from the Old Order Mennonites by David B. Martin over doctrine, particularly how rigorously to use the ban on matters of church discipline. [57] There is a Meetinghouse in St. Jacobs (Woolwich TWP, Waterloo R.M.) and two more in Wallenstein (Mapleton TWP, Wellington County) where German is the language of worship.
7. The Waterloo-Markham Conference, founded in 1939 and stemming from the Old Order Mennonites, had 1,035 baptized members in ten congregations and was largely found in the Waterloo area in 1990.[58]
8. In Ontario, Conservative Churches of Pennsylvania Swiss Mennonite origin include:
• the Conservative Mennonite Fellowship (founded 1956; 118 members in two congregations in 1997 in Milverton, Parry Sound, Emo).
• The Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario (founded in 1959; 361 members in nine congregations in 1997 in Baden, New Hamburg, Heidelberg, Fort Stewart, Kippen, Hawkesville, Barwick, Mine Centre, Tavistock). The Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online also lists Manitou Rapids and Stratton (Rainy River District), Millbank and Carthage (Perth East), Lakeview (Malahide TWP, Elgin), Bancroft (Hastings), Zurich (Bluewater, Huron), Elmira (Woolwich TWP, Waterloo R.M.) as locations of congregations, but some are small and may have disappeared since.
• and the Midwest Mennonite Fellowship whose eight churches in Ontario are part of a 34-congregation fellowship in North America. The Ontario congregations resulted from divisions in the Conservative Mennonite Church and the Old Order Amish.
9. Reformed Mennonites have a congregation in New Hamburg and at Stevensville with a membership of 162 in 1988.
10. Southern Ontario is home to various other groups of Russian Mennonite origin, including a congregation of Sommerfelder Mennonite immigrants from Mexico. A major movement of Old Colony Mennonites to Canada from Mexico occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. Ontario was home to four such congregations of 1,122 members in 1990. The New Reinland Mennonite Church in Leamington and Aylmer, which was formed out of a division within the Old Colony Mennonites in 1984 has three congregations with 464 members (worship in German and English, 464 members). [59]
11. The Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference [60] was formed on July 1, 1959 from the Rudnerweider Mennonite Church, which had been organized in 1937. There were a number of factors leading to this reorganization. While the centralized ministry had its strengths, many felt that a more localized leadership would be more effective. The growing diversity in the church made it difficult for all ministers functioning in the circuit to relate well to every community. Increasing urbanization, higher education, the shift to the English language, and new vocational interests among members all contributed to the call for change.
In southern Ontario, the Conference discovered a spiritual need among Mennonite immigrants returning to Canada from Mexico. By the mid-1980s EMMC efforts had resulted in at least six church centers in the Aylmer, Leamington and Kitchener areas. Also by this time the Aylmer Bible School, established to meet the unique needs of these congregations, had been in operation for about a decade.
According to the Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, there are congregations in Aylmer (Elgin County), Tillsonburg (Oxford County), Port Burwell (Norfolk TWP), Leamington (Essex County), Kitchener (Waterloo R.M.), Blenheim and Collingwood (Chatham-Kent City), Palmerston (Town of Minto, Wellington County), and Stratford (Perth County).
12. Other Mennonite churches represented in Ontario include the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference (with congregations in Aylmer, Leamington, and St. Thomas), and Church of God in Christ, Mennonite.
The use of German by Ontario’s Mennonites. The more conservative Mennonite groups are, by definition, more likely to maintain traditional customs, including the use of German. In southern Ontario today some groups, such as the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite, continue to use Pennsylvania Dutch in everyday communication although English is taught and Standard German is used in church matters; often English is the predominant language in home and community, and a change of language in worship may be inevitable. [61]
According to the Librarian and Archivist at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, the only groups that still routinely speak German dialects (Pennsylvania German or Low German) are the Old Order Mennonites, David Martin Mennonites, Old Order Amish and Old Colony Mennonites. Markham-Waterloo Conference Mennonites, Beachy Amish, and some small Amish-Mennonite groups speak a lot of dialect, but English is likely the language of the children in most cases. Some smaller "Russian Mennonite" groups (Evangelical Mennonites, Evangelical Mission Mennonites) would also speak Low German, but again children will probably use English fairly early on. [62]
The Old Order Mennonites continue to hold on to the German language or related dialects; Although services are usually in German, the ministers usually preach at least some in English if they realize that there are people in attendance who understand no German. [63] Old Order Mennonite children learn Pennsylvania German as their mother tongue. Before they start school, most of them have learned English as well. All classroom work is conducted in English in Mennonite parochial schools, except for a few hours of German lessons per week. English speaking is recommended on the playground as well.[64] The reason why this group has maintained Pennsylvania German so well is the fact that the languages are kept separate: Pennsylvania German is only spoken and is the language of the home and community. English is read and written and is only spoken when dealing with non-Pennsylvania German-speaking outsiders. According to sociolinguists, this sort of strict “compartmentalization” of the languages is necessary if the languages are to survive alongside one another. [65]
The early Amish Sunday schools were German language schools for children and young people. A German ABC reading book was used to teach the German language in most congregations till about 1930. Even though the Amish did not object to having their children taught the English language in the public schools, they were opposed at first to the use of English in their worship services. But soon English became acceptable in Amish worship. Today the only German spoken is perhaps an occasional hymn in some of the congregations. [66]
Virtually all of the Beachy Amish congregations have made the transition from German to English as the language used during public worship services.
According to the Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, many congregations of the Conservative Mennonite Church of Ontario are holding their worship services in English; in most cases the language of worship cannot be determined. Many Russian Mennonite churches in Canada continue to have German church services, and people still speak German regularly. The younger generations, however, are mostly speaking English.
Old Colony Mennonites from Latin America began to arrive in 1954. Since the late 1960s, the dominant destination has been the intensive farming and industrial region focusing on the County of Essex and the regional Municipalities of Haldimand-Norfolk and Niagara [e.g. Chatham, Aylmer, St. Jacobs, Frogmore]. Most recently, large numbers of Low German-speaking returnees from Mexico, Belize, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. According to the Regional Manager of the MCC Aylmer Resource Center, at least 10,000 people in the area are estimated to listen to a low-power FM Low German radio station which was put up recently. [67]
Despite having lost the actual dialect, many Ontarians of Mennonite ethnic background maintain some of this accent in their use of the English language. But for most Mennonites of the 1980s, who do not live in a viable German linguistic community, the German language has become a thing of the past. This has meant for some that High German is at best a literary language, learned at school and perhaps used for academic, artistic, or professional purposes. In the case of Plautdietsch attempts have been made to retard its loss by regularizing its individualistic orthography and publishing the Mennonite classics of Arnold Dyck and other authors. Some writers, like Rudy Wiebe and Armin Wiebe, have made effective use of Plautdietsch in their English novels, the latter by inventive translations of the dialect idiom (referred to as "Flat German") into a comic context not too different from that created by Arnold Dyck in his Koop en Bua stories. [68]
Thus, while for many the original view that saw a necessary connection between faith and language has largely been overcome, the original “mother tongue”, whether Low or High German, is still much in evidence.
The Old Order Mennonites [and Old Order Amish] are triglossic – Pennsylvania German, English and High German. Pennsylvania German is usually only spoken and is the language of home and the community; English is read and written and is only spoken when dealing with non-Pennsylvania German-speaking outsiders. High German – the version of the Luther Bible is only used for religious purposes. [69]
The size of the Mennonite population. The number of Mennonites in Ontario has steadily grown since separate records for Mennonites and Hutterites were kept for the first time in 1971. In that year, the Census reported 40,115 Mennonites; in 1981 there were 46,485, ten years later 52,645, and by 2001 the Mennonite population of Ontario increased by 15% to 60,595. [70] A large portion of this increase is attributable to immigration: Between 1981 and 1990, 4,130 Mennonites immigrated to Ontario, and another 4,130 arrived between 1991 and 2001. [71]
More than a quarter of the Mennonite population of Ontario resided in the Waterloo Regional Municipality in 2001 (see Table 20); about 6,000 Mennonites each lived in the Niagara Regional Municipality and in Essex County.
In the Waterloo Regional Municipality, the localities with the largest numbers of Mennonites (see Table ON.23) were Woolwich Township (N=4,270), Wellesley TP (N=4,175), and the Kitchener (N=3,115), Waterloo (2,500), and Wilmot Townships (N=1,835), but the locality with the largest number of Mennonites was the town of Leamington (N=4,385) in Essex County. Other localities with large Mennonite populations were Perth East TP (N=3,165) in Oxford County, Mapleton TP (2,990) in the Halton R.M., the City of Norfolk (N=2,840) in the Haldimand-Norfolk R.M., St. Catharines (N=2,610) in the Niagara RM, and the Township of Malahide (N=2,120) in Elgin County.
Table 20 Counties, divisions, and regional municipalities with a Mennonite population of more than 1,000, for 2001 [72]
It is difficult to compare the Mennonite populations of various localities between 1991 or 1996, respectively, and 2001 because almost 600 changes in boundaries and names of localities were made for the census in 2001. [73] A good example is Leamington which had 1,385 Mennonites in 1991 and ten years later 4,385: however, it turns out that it was amalgamated with the TP of Mersea before the 2001 census.
A sampling of those localities which did not undergo an administrative change between the two census shows a mixed picture: In Howick TP, the number of Mennonites jumped by 167% from 260 to 695, in Southwest Oxford the increase was 90% (from 150 to 285), and in Wellesley TP the number grew from 3,725 to 4,175 (+12%). In towns and cities like Waterloo, the number also rose by 21% (from 2,065 to 2,500) and in Stratford by 103% from 195 to 395. On the other hand, in Kitchener the number of Mennonites fell from 3,480 to 3,115 (–10%), in St. Catharines by 18%, Niagara Falls by 20%; in some of the rural areas, such as Wilmot TP the number decreased from 1,990 to 1,835 (–8%), in East Zorra-Tavistock TP by 10% and in North Dumfries by 33%.
New Brunswick. The number of Mennonites in New Brunswick is small, totalling 150 in 2001. They had been living there for a long time, but only 10 of them were immigrants who had immigrated before 1961.[74]
There were Mennonites living in Campbellton (N=35) and Addington Parish (N=10) nearby in Restigouche County; in Moncton (N=20), the town of Riverview (N=10) and the village of Petitcodiac (N=20) to the east of Moncton; and in the Johnston (N=15) and Kingsclear (N=10) Parishes in the Fredericton-Oromocto area. [75] But it not at all clear to what extent these Mennonites are of German origin.
According to the Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia, there are Mennonite churches in Lower Sackville, Dartmouth (closed down a few years ago [76]), Moncton, Campbellton, and Petitcodiac. [77] Localities where Mennonites had settled showed substantial numbers of older German mother tongue speakers: In Johnston Parish, all German mother tongue speakers in 1996 were 55 or older; the same was true in the town of Riverview and the village of Petitcodiac. Only in Kingsclear Parish west of Fredericton were the ca. 30 German mother tongue speakers distributed over the entire 25 to 65 age group. Table NB.10 shows that German is virtually not spoken as a home language in these areas.
All Mennonite churches in New Brunswick, except Petitcodiac, belong to the Mennonite Brethren congregation. They are relatively new plants, and German is not spoken in any of their churches. Almost 100% of these congregations do not have an ethnic Mennonite German background; they are locals from the Maritimes who were attracted to the MB denomination through the efforts of church planters, and the pastors do not have Mennonite background themselves. [78]
The church in Petitcodiac belongs to the Mennonite Church Canada. Its congregation was founded by five families who from there from Ontario. About half of the pioneers had ethnic Mennonite background, but only one or two have a knowledge of German. A number of families have since joined the congregation, some of whom speak German, but German is not spoken in church. At least three families immigrated from Germany some time ago, and occasionally after the service a few of the German speakers will carry on a conversation in their mother tongue. [79]
It may be concluded that German does not play a significant role in New Brunswick’s Mennonite community.
Nova Scotia. According to the Mennonite Encyclopedia, Mennonites came first to Nova Scotia in 1954, and in the 1980’s two colonies of conservative colonies were established in the province; more than 30 families of the Kleine Gemeinde from Belize settled at Northfield, ca. 40 km southwest from Truro in East Hands MD. Several families of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite, also purchased farms near Tatamagouche, [80] west of Pictou. [81]
The Northumberland Church of God in Christ, Mennonite Congregation, began services in 1985. In 1996 there were 34 members; in 2000, the congregation had 40 members. [82]
The 2001 Census recorded 795 Mennonites living in Nova Scotia, 100 of whom were immigrants. 55 had arrived in the 1980s, another 40 in the 1990s, and 40 between 1991 and 1996.[83] The Census showed 55 Mennonites residing in Subdivision B of Colchester County where Tatamagouche is located, and another 10 Mennonites in Pictou.[84] There were also 15 Mennonites living in Antigonish, 10 in Cumberland County, and 30 in Truro. Significantly larger numbers of Mennonites were found in East Hants MD at Northfield (N=235), in Kings County, Subdivision A and C (N=175), 275 in Halifax RGM, and 10 persons in Annapolis, Subdivision A. Almost half of the members of the Mennonite community were youngsters between the ages of 0 and 14.
Quebec. In 2001, there were 425 Mennonites in Quebec, 325 of whom lived in Montreal.
B. The Hutterites
The Hutterites appeared as a distinct group in Canadian censuses in 1981 for the first time; previously they had been included with Mennonites or other religious groups (see Table 21). They numbered 16,530 in 1981, 21,495 in 1991 and 26,295 in 2001 – an increase by more than 22%. Most Hutterite colonies are located in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba; there are two colonies in British Columbia, and a few individuals in Ontario.
Table 21 Numerical distribution of Hutterites, for Canada and the provinces and territories [85]
It has been shown in this study that the rate of German language maintenance among the Hutterites – facilitated by their relative isolation from the surrounding world – is very high. As a group, they also enjoy a very high growth rate. In 2001, the median age of Hutterites was 22.2 years, in British Columbia an astounding 15.5 years. Across the country, 9,615 of the 26,300 Hutterites (=37%) were children below the age of 15, another 18% were between 15 and 24 years of age. In other words, 55% of the Hutterite population of Canada was less than 25 years of age, compared to 32% of the general population:
Table 22 Numerical distribution of Hutterites by age groups, for Canada and selected provinces [86]
This age distribution clearly has an impact on the extent to which German will be spoken on Hutterite colonies in the future as well as on the state of German as a mother tongue and home language in the provinces where they are located.
Hutterites use a dialectal variant of German on the colonies while High German is taught in the colonies’ schools.
Alberta. According to the censuses, there were 6,100 Hutterites in Alberta in 1971, 7,395 in 1981, 9,980 in 1991, and ten years later 12,330 Hutterites resided in the province. Of the latter, the great majority lived in the south of the province: in the Lethbridge area (N=ca. 4,400), the Medicine Hat area (N=1,680), the Calgary area (N=2,000), east of Drumheller (N=400), in the Red Deer region (N=2,200), north and east of Edmonton (N=1,100), and in the Grande Prairie area (N=400). Twenty colonies were founded between 1996 and 2000[87]: two in the Medicine Hat area, eight around Lethbridge, four in the Drumheller area, three near Red Deer, two east of Edmonton, and one north of Grande Prairie.
There has been some immigration of Hutterites to Alberta. According to the 2001 Census, of the 12,330 Hutterites in the province, 200 were immigrants. 95 had entered Alberta before 1961; subsequently, about 20 Hutterites have immigrated every decade.[88]
British Columbia. In 2001, there were two Hutterite colonies in British Columbia, one of them located in the Peace River District in the province’s northeast near Farmington with 120 members (by 2003 there were two colonies[89]), the other one in the Okanagan Similkameen district south of Princeton (100 members).[90]
Saskatchewan. Currently existing Hutterite colonies have been founded in Saskatchewan from the 1950s on. The 1971 Census, which for the first time counted Hutterites separately from Mennonites, recorded 2,215 Hutterites; their number increased to 2,980 ten years later, to 3,950 in 1991, and 4,895 in 2001.[91] In 2003, there were 60 colonies in Saskatchewan,[92] most of them located in the western half of the province bordering Alberta.
Manitoba. The Hutterite presence in Manitoba goes back to the fall of 1918 when first a few – and soon almost all seventeen – original Hutterite communities in South Dakota migrated to Canada because they did not perceive their religious and political beliefs to be sufficiently respected and safeguarded in the U.S. when anti-German and anti-Kaiser feelings ran high, and Hutterite men were brutally mishandled at induction centres. They settled in southern Alberta and rural Manitoba, especially in the rural municipality of Cartier west of Winnipeg; between 1918 and 1922 nine colonies were founded in Manitoba and fourteen in Alberta. [93] [94]
The Hutterites were no strangers to Canada. As early as 1873 they had visited Manitoba, and later again in 1899, when they considered seriously emigrating from the U.S. in the event that military conscription became an issue during the Spanish-American War. In 1898, a colony was set up east of Dominion City on the Roseau River, but this group returned South Dakota in 1905 when the threat of conscription had passed.[95] In the 1930s, some hostility arose against the Hutterites because of their substantial land purchases that allegedly resulted in a decline of the rural population and of rural prosperity. Although this sentiment was not as strong in Manitoba as it was in Alberta – where the 1942 Land Sales Prohibition Act prevented the sale of land to “enemy aliens, Hutterites, and Doukhobours” – and fewer restrictions were imposed, it persisted into the 1940s and 50s and, sporadically, beyond.
According to Peters’ estimate, [96] there were 3,059 Hutterites in Manitoba in 1957. In 1958, there were 25 colonies in Manitoba; the R.M. of Cartier west of Portage la Prairie alone had ten colonies, and the rural municipality of Portage la Prairie was second with five Hutterite communities. The 1971 Census showed that 4,790 Hutterites in the province; by 1981 their number had risen to 5,940, and to 7,445 by 1991. By 1993, there were circa 90 Hutterite colonies in Manitoba, most of them located in the region between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg, and the others spread over much of the province. [97] Between 1996 and 2001 at least 12 colonies were founded (two in Franklin RM, two near the town of Carman, and one each near Somerset, Neepawa, Elkhorn, Oak River, Portage la Prairie, Petersfield, Hazelridge, and Piney). In 2001, 8,795 Hutterites in Manitoba lived on 101 colonies. [98]
Ontario. According to the 2001 Census, there were 55 Hutterites in Ontario, 15 in the town of Richmond Hill and 40 in the City of Toronto.[99] Ten of them came to Ontario in the period from 1991 to 1995. [100] Tourist guides occasionally refer to market days in St. Jacobs where Hutterites are selling meat, but these persons more likely belong to a different groups, such as the Old Order Mennonites. No other information is available. |
[1] CC 2001, http://www.statcan.ca/english/concepts/definitions/ethnicity.htm.
[2] CC 1971, Vol. 1.4-7, Table 18.
[3] CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319, Table 6.
[4] Kennert Giesbrecht, „Tausende Deutsche in den letzten Jahren nach Südmanitoba gezogen,“ Die Mennonitische Post, July 4, 2003.
[5] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-3, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population. Note: Mennonites in Canada before 1961: 1901 (N=31,797), 1911 (N=44,625), 1921 (N=58,797), 1931 (N=88,837), 1941 (N=111,554), 1951 (N=125,938), 1961 (N=152,452). Mennonites were included with the Baptists in 1871 and 1881. In 1891, they were included in “other” denominations. Between 1901 and 1961 they included the Hutterites.
[6] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004.
[7] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01002.
[8] CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319, Table 7.
[9] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Rural Life.” http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopdia/contents/ R86ME.html. Accessed on August 25, 2003.
[10] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “German language.” http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/ contents/ G476ME.html. Accessed on August 25, 2003.
[11] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-2, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population.
[12] CC 2001, Census of the Population (Provinces, Census Divisions, Municipalities: Housing costs and Religion. Alberta. E-STAT.
[13] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004, Alberta.
[14] National Post, July 2, 2002.
[15] CC 1991, 93-319, Tables 6 and 7.
[16] Diether Götz Lichdi and Loretta Kreider (eds.). Mennonite World Handbook. Mennonites in Global Witness (Carol Stream, Ill.: Mennonite World Conference, 1990), p. 406.
[17] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population.
[18] CC 1991, 93-319, Table 2.
[19] Calvin Wall Redekop, The Old Colony Mennonites. Dilemmas of ethnic minority life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969), p. 20.
[20] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Language.” http://www.mhsc.ca/mennos/clanguage.html. Accessed on March 12, 2004
[21] CC 2001, B.C., Income and Social and Economic Characteristics of Individuals, Families and Households; Housing costs and Religion.
[22] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online,” Land distribution (Canada and Latin America,” http://www. mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/ contents/L323ME.html. Accessed on September 29, 2003.
[23] However, the 1996 Census reported only 15 persons in Carrot River who spoke German as their home language.
[24] The Old Colony Mennonite Church in Saskatchewan has four congregations with 750 members in the Christian community. See Calvin Wall Redekop, The Old Colony Mennonites. Dilemmas of ethnic minority life (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969), p. 408.
[25] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-3, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population.
[26] Frank H. Epp, Mennonites in Canada, 1920-1940 (Toronto: Macmillan, 1982), p. 518.
[27] T.D. Regehr, Mennonites in Canada, 1939-1970: A people transformed (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), p. 313.
[28] Regehr, p. 231.
[29] William Neufeld, From faith to faith. The history of the Manitoba Mennonite Brethren Church (Winnipeg: Kindred Press, 1989), p. 209.
[30] Quoted in Regehr, pp. 312-313.
[31] Gerhard Lohrenz, The Mennonites of Western Canada (Steinbach, Manitoba: Derksen Printers Ltd., 1974), p. 43.
[32] Regehr, p. 314.
[33] Personal communication from Lawrence Klippenfeld (November 23, 2003).
[34] Anna Ens, In search of unity. Story of the Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba (Winnipeg: CMBC Publications, 1996), p. 118.
[35] Leo Driedger, A sect in a modern society: The Old Colony Mennonites of Saskatchewan. University of Chicago: Unpublished M.A. thesis, 1955.
[36] Alan Anderson, Assimilation in the bloc settlements of North-Central Saskatchewan: A comparative study of identity change among seven ethno-religious groups in a Canadian Prairie region. University of Saskatchewan: Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1972.
[37] Leo Driedger, “Mennonite change: The Old Colony revisited, 1955-77,” Mennonite Life, 32, 1977, 4-12.
[38] Leo Driedger, Mennonite identity in conflict (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), p. 124.
[39] Driedger, 1988, p. 176.
[40] Personal communication from Lawrence Klippenfeld (November 24, 2003).
[41] Driedger, 1988, p. 124.
[42] Neufeld, p. 210.
[43] Kennert Giesbrecht, „Tausende Deutsche in den letzten Jahren nach Südmanitoba gezogen,“ Die Mennonitische Post, July 4, 2003.
[44] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Ontario,” http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/ O5830 ME.html. Accessed on September 13, 2003. Locations of the various congregations were identified by a search of the entire website of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada.
[45] Names and dates of Amish settlement areas have been taken from Orland Gingerich, The Amish of Canada (Waterloo, Conrad Press, 1972), 29-39.
[46] Gingerich, pp. 162-164.
[47] The Canadian Encyclopedia Online reports 1,000 baptized persons (http://www. thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0000071. Accessed on May 12, 2004).
[48] Raber’s Almanac (Baltic, OH: Raber’s Book Store, 2004), pp. 75-76. Personal communications from David Luthy, Director of the Heritage Historical Library in Aylmer. Received on June 15 and July 5, 2004.
[49] CC 2001, http://80-www.statcan.ca.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/english/concepts/ESIS/ institution/ institution22.htm
[50] Canadian Encyclopedia Online, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm? PgNm= TCE&Params= A1ARTA0000978. Accessed on May 11, 2004.
[51] Isaac R. Horst, A Separate People. An insider’s view of Old Order Mennonite customs and traditions (Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 2000), p. 29.
[52] Horst, p. 18.
[53] Horst, p. 30.
[54] Diether Götz Lichdi and Loretta Kreider (eds.), Mennonite World Handbook. Mennonites in Global Witness (Carol Stream, Ill.: Mennonite World Conference, 1990), p. 408.
[55] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Old Colony Mennonites, http://www.mhsc.ca/ encyclopedia/contents/O533ME.html.
[56] Lichdi and Kreider (eds.), pp. 405, 407.
[57] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “David Martin Old Order Mennonite Meetinghouse (St. Jacobs, ON)“, http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/ D27.html.
[58] Lichdi and Kreider (eds.), p. 405.
[59] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Ontario,” http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/ O5830 ME.html.
[60] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference,” http://www.mhsc.ca/ encyclopedia/contents/E9365ME.html.
[61] Gingerich, p. 174.
[62] Personal communication from Sam Steiner, Librarian & Archivist at the Conrad Grebel University College. Received on May 18, 2004.
[63] Horst, p. 35.
[64] Horst, p. 220.
[65] Kate Burridge, “Steel tyres of rubber tyres—Maintenance or loss: Pennsylvanian German in the ‘horse and buggy communities’of Ontario,” in David Bradley and Maya Bradley (eds.), Language endangerment and language maintenance (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2002), pp. 216-217.
[66] Gingerich, pp. 69, 110.
[67] Personal communication from Abe Harms, Regional Manager of the MCC Aylmer Resource Centre. Received on June 2, 2004.
[68] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “German language,“ http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/ contents/ G476MEhtml.
[69] Burridge, pp. 210-211.
[70] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-3, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population.
[71] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004, Ontario.
[72] CC 2001, Income and Social and Economic Characteristics of Individuals, Families and Households; Housing Costs and Religion, Ontario (Census Subdivisions), E-STAT.
[73] For details see http://stds.statcan.ca/english/sgc/2001/2001-sgc96-to-sgc01.asp.
[74] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004.
[75] CC 2001, Census of the Population (Provinces, Census Divisions, Municipalities: Housing costs and Religion. New Brunswick. E-STAT.
[76] Personal communication from Pastor Werner De Jong, Petitcodiac Mennonite Church, received on September 24, 2003.
[77] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Atlantic Provinces.” http://www. mhsc.ca. Accessed on August 22, 2003.
[78] Personal communication from Pastor Werner De Jong, Petitcodiac Mennonite Church, received on September 24, 2003.
[79] De Jong. The view that very few if any members of the congregations in Campbellton, Halifax, and Riverview (part of Greater Moncton) speak German at home or anywhere else is confirmed by Pastor Scott Mealey, pastor of the Pool in Moncton.
[80] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Atlantic Provinces.” http://www.mhsc.ca/ encyclopedia/contents/ A85ME.html. Accessed on August 22, 2003.
[81] In 2000 there were three congregations in New Brunswick and two in Nova Scotia (Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, “Atlantic Region Mennonite Brethren congregations,” http://www.mbconf.ca/ mbstudies/holdings/ma/conf.en.html. Accessed on September 23, 2003).
[82] Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, “Northumberland Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Tatama-gouche, NS),” http://www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/ N67866. html. Accessed on September 23, 2003.
[83] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004
[84] CC 2001, Census of Population; Income and Social and Economic Characteristics of Individuals, Families and Households; Housing Costs and Religion; Nova Scotia: North Shore, Annapolis Valley, Halifax. E-Stat.
[85] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-3, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population. Note: The Hutterites were included with the Mennonites between 1901 and 1961.
[86] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01002.
[87] Ibid.
[88] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004.
[89] James Valley 2003 Address Book. (James Valley, MB: James Valley Book Centre, 2003).
[90] 2001 Census of Population (Provinces, Census Divisions, Municipalities): Income and Social and Economic Characteristics of Individuals, Families and Households; Housing Costs and Religion. Peace River D and Okanagan Similkameen A.
[91] CC 1971, Vol. 1.3-3, Table 10; CC 1981, Vol. 1, Catalogue 92-912, Table 2; CC 1991, Catalogue 93-319; CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004; Table 075-0016 – Historical statistics, principal religious denominations of the population.
[92] James Valley 2003 Address Book (James Valley, MB: James Valley Book Centre, 2003).
[93] Victor J. Peters, All things common: The Hutterites of Manitoba. M.A. Thesis. Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba, 1958, p. 34ff.
[94] See John Ryan, The agricultural economy of Manitoba Hutterite colonies (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977), p. 278ff, for the names and locations of Hutterite colonies in Manitoba.
[95] John A. Hostetler, Hutterite society (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), p. 126.
[96] Peters, p. 105.
[97] Map of Hutterite Colonies of Manitoba, 1993.
[98] Map of Hutterite Colonies of Manitoba (Hawley, MN: Spring Prairie Printing, 2000); James Valley 2003 Address Book (James Valley, MB: James Valley Book Centre, 2003).
[99] CC 2001, Income and Social and Economic Characteristics of Individuals, Families and Households; Housing costs and religion. Ontario. E-STAT.
[100] CC 2001, 97F0022XCB01004. |
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