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
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!
Pressure Point
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.
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