The Pacific Mountain Regional Council Archives

Welcome to The Archives

The United Church of Canada Pacific Mountain Regional Council Archives is known as ‘The Archives’. The physical facility is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.

You are warmly welcome to visit The Archives in person.  However, appointments are necessary; please contact the archivist in advance.

Archives Building 312 Main Vancouver BC

We are situated at what's more recently known as 312 Main Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, between historic Chinatown and Powell Street (Paueru Gai) neighbourhoods.

For parking, logistics and lunch ideas, visit Linda Yip's blog post, A trip to the United Church Archives, Vancouver.

PMRC Archivist

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

The Archives on YouTube

Click the image below, or jump over to The Archives YouTube Channel.

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

Dr. Don Watt

By reception | January 28, 2019

Dr. William Donald Watt served as a medical doctor within The United Church of Canada.  He and his spouse, June (a nurse), began their adventure […]

More stories of Times and Tides

By reception | July 13, 2018

The book had to have a beginning, middle and an end, but this meant several stories had to be left untold.

It’s God’s Country … evolving with Times and Tides

By reception | June 20, 2018

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

By reception | June 1, 2018

This new book aims to provide a lasting record of some of the times and tides of change in BC Conference. Copies available!

BC Conference Archives closed for move

By reception | April 17, 2018

The BC Conference Archives will be closed to the public as of April 10, 2018, as we prepare for our move to 312 Main Street.

Joan Fidler Burrows

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By adminalison | February 6, 2018

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

By Tressa | September 2, 2016

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 …”

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