Visiting The Archives
The United Church of Canada Pacific Mountain Regional Council Archives known as ‘The Archives’ is open by appointment only. Please contact the archivist to arrange a research visit.
We continue to observe COVID safety protocols:
- Research by appointment only
- Do not visit if you are unwell
- Wear a mask while at the Archives (preferably KN95)
Regional Archivist:
Blair Galston
Email: bgalston@united-church.ca
Telephone:
Call toll free in BC 1-800-934-0434
or +1-604-431-0434. Ext. 6358
Street/Mailing Address:
312 Main Street, Suite 320
Vancouver BC, V6A 2T2
Search the Holdings
To search the Archives' holdings, visit the United Church Archives online catalogue for descriptions of all our collections. Our descriptions include file lists that give detailed contents. Please note: Unlike larger organizations, we are not able to provide digital copies of documents on our site.
The Central United Church Archives in Toronto give researchers easy access to information on other United Church archives across Canada.
The Archives holds records of the:
- founding denominations of The United Church of Canada within B.C., up to 1925
- Indigenous Church
- Pacific Mountain Regional Council (formerly BC Conference) of The United Church of Canada.
The Holdings include records created by local communities of faith such as registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials; historic membership rolls and communion rolls; minutes of church boards, committees, and organizations (including women’s groups); printed annual reports of local congregations; congregational newsletters; local church histories; correspondence; and photographs.
The Holdings date from 1859 to present (1895-2010 predominant), and approximately 500 communities of faith, including closed congregations, have deposited original records in The Archives!
Recent News from The Archives
It’s God’s Country … evolving with Times and Tides
And so a book was written, and it took only seven years—a personal best for the Archives Committee. And just in time for the official ending of BC Conference as we have come to know it.
Times and Tides: BC Conference – An Overview 1970-2017
This new book aims to provide a lasting record of some of the times and tides of change in BC Conference. Copies available!
Joan Fidler Burrows
Joan Fidler Burrows is so steeped in The United Church of Canada that she was even baptized by our first moderator! In this interview, Joan …
Donna Ziegler
Donna Ziegler is well known in BC Conference and has been an active member of Prince Rupert Presbytery for many decades and has served on …
Eunice Williams
Eunice Williams is one woman who actually remembers Church Union in 1925. A longtime member of West Point Grey United Church (Vancouver), she has worked …
Marion Carr
Marion Carr has been a faithful lay member of the United Church all her life. She has donated her time to the Church at all …
Dr. Marion Best
Marion Best is one of the most widely known women in The United Church of Canada and hardly requires an introduction. In this interview, she …
Dr. Donna Runnalls
Donna Runnalls has many a captivating story to tell: from traveling overseas to Korea as a missionary in the 1950s … to living and working …
Plura Hills Revisited
A vision is a compelling thing. Have you ever heard someone’s idea of a different way of being, and you were so captivated by the vision that you wondered why it would be any other way? Of course you have!
If you’re old enough, Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech may have been such a vision for you in 1963. Or, more recently, the call to get on board with the Leap Manifesto, to care for creation and work toward a fossil-free world. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth …”
Oriental Home and School Photos Online
April 12, 2016
Did you know? The United Church once operated a home and school in Victoria for Chinese and Japanese girls and women. Today, many are surprised to learn this.
Margery Hadley, a professional archivist and member of First Metropolitan United Church in Victoria, has recently completed a digitization project that makes the images of the Oriental Home and School available online. It opens to us a now distant world and its concomitant issues.
Archives submits Residential School records to TRC
July 2, 2015
After a thorough search of BC Conference Archives for all records related to Indian Residential Schools, Blair Galston finished submitting all historic and present BC Conference residential school records to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission office in Winnipeg this May.
Maverick Jack comes to Conference Archives
Blair Galston, May 11, 2015
Something really special happened at the Archives last month. I received an email from a family that is well-known in these parts—a family of one of the saints of our church: the Rev. Dr. Jack Shaver (1918–2001). They were wondering if the Archives would accept a donation of Jack’s records. Would we!
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