Urban Missions

Immigrants arriving in Winnipeg’s north end, starting in the 1880’s, were welcomed by what became the United Church’s largest inner city mission network.  Iconic names like J.S. Woodsworth and All Peoples’ Mission pepper the history.  Providing social services and Christian outreach the mission shaped the city and its culture.  Read more …

Fresh Air Camps

The Fresh Air Camp movement was a response to to the slum conditions that existed in inner city Winnipeg, benefiting children with a holiday experience in the healthy country air.  In addition, hundreds of young people, over 5 decades, had leadership training in the network of camps.  Read more …

Indian Residential Schools Overview

For about a century the United Church was involved in the management of residential schools for Aboriginal children.  To discover more about the schools and the records in this archives start your journey here …

General IRS Documents

This collection of documents, a small sample of the thousands of documents related to IRS in the United Church Winnipeg Archives, provides a sampling of issues and attitudes through the decades up to the present time.  Read more …

Brandon Industrial Institute

Under United Church management from 1895 to 1969, the school was a farm, a school and latterly a residence.  It was initially intended to serve Methodist converts in the north, yet the school was located south of Brandon, Manitoba.  Read more …

Norway House Indian Residential School

Sixty years after Methodist James Evans founded Norway House, the residential school opened it doors on the picturesque shores on northern Manitoba’s Little Playgreen Lake in 1899.  To read more …

Portage Indian Residential School

Portage la Prairie Residential School, about 100 km west of Winnipeg in southern Manitoba, began as a small day school initiated by ten women of Portage la Prairie’s Knox Presbyterian Church in 1886.  Read more …

Making Room for Women

A coordinated effort to identify and preserve personal papers and organizational records of United Church of Canada women and their organizations.  To find out more …

Bill Gillis: United Church Homes and Stories

“Church” has many meanings: a community, a building, an experience of worship. Bill Gillis weaves all three of these definitions together in a rich exploration of church homes throughout Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. To view the exhibit …

Honouring Our Heritage: Historic Commemorations

“Honouring Our Heritage – Celebrating The United Church of Canada Historic Commemorations Program”; an opportunity to commemorate aspects of the history and culture of The United Church of Canada. Read more …

Mary Bruce: Norway House

Matron at Norway House Residential School from 1929 to 1932, Mary Bruce’s photographs provide a remarkable view of life a the school and in the larger community. To view exhibit

Northern Elders Conference

One of the most important Elders’ Conferences ever held in the North is documented in this slide show created in the 1970s to communicate the need for change in Aboriginal ministries to the wider church … to view the slideshow

Remembering: The Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario 1925-2018

As the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario faces its last days, we were asked to organize a session remembering the past.  Of course, we wanted to honour our history.  We also needed to acknowledge that this history has not always been faith-filled… To see the story click here…

Jennifer Brown: Mission Life in Cree-Ojibwe Country

In 1868 Elizabeth Bingham Young and her missionary husband Egerton Ryerson Young arrived in northern Manitoba. Her memoir and eldest son Eddie’s reminiscences are woven and annotated by Brown to present a vivid picture of mission life … read more and download the book

Caryn Douglas: Secret Lives of Deaconesses

Over 700 women served the United Church as Deaconesses between 1894 and 1980. Douglas documents their ministries, too often forgotten or dismissed as simply, “women’s work”.  To read more …

Susan Gray: I Will Fear No Evil: Ojibwa-Missionary Encounters

In exploring the story from the point of view of those the missionaries came to convert, Susan Gray is able to trace the ways in which Christian beliefs have become incorporated into the traditional Ojibwa worldview.  To read more …

Pauline Greenhill: Make the Night Hideous

When a loud, late-night surprise house-visiting custom known as charivaris resulted in the  death of Brookdale, Manitoba man in 1909, Pauline Greenhill knew she had stumbled on to a bit of archival information worth exploring.  To read more …

Pat Hardy: Investigation of Voice and Context

Sleuthing through an archival document thought to be written by a woman, Pat Hardy investigates authorship by examining the voice and context.  To read more …

Loraine Mackenzie Shepherd: United Church Mission

Discrepancies between domestic and foreign mission strategies reveal colonial attitudes toward Aboriginal people have negatively shaped United Church mission work and have hampered a strong indigenous church.  To read more …

Brenda Suderman: Activist Life of Carl Ridd

From professional basketball player to social justice advocate, United Church minister Carl Ridd left a legacy for the church and the city of Winnipeg. Read more …