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

Oriental Home and School Photos Online

By reception | April 12, 2016

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

By adminalison | July 3, 2015

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

By adminalison | May 12, 2015

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!

Pressure Point

By adminalison | March 28, 2015

The Bob Stewart Archives of BC Conference has launched a YouTube channel featuring select digitized episodes of the former television program .

“They say God always opens a window when fate closes a door and in the mid-70s the window turned out to be Community Cable Television.

Nobody thought it would go anywhere; but the indefatigable Lois Boyce was convinced otherwise. She started her (mainly anti-nuclear) cable show while the industry was in its absolute infancy – recruiting fellow students from a BCIT night school course to assist her with the modest production.”

“It was to evolve into Pressure Point, one of the longest-running, volunteer-operated, community television shows in Canadian television history. It ran weekly for 26 years, ceasing production only in 2001, and some of those original volunteers stayed with it almost to the end.

Rev. Lydia Emelie Gruchy

By reception | November 29, 2012

Lydia Gruchy was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in The United Church of Canada. This 26 minute audio interview with her was recorded in 1975.

Scroll to Top