Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada)
The Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM) is an interdenominational Christian organization evangelizing the Native peoples of Canada. It organized in 1946, and by 2011 had 120 full time missionaries in 40 different stations and five Bible camps across Canada. Throughout its history about one quarter of its workers have been Mennonite or Brethren in Christ. NCEM’s 50th anniversary history indicated that about 150 of its 620 service workers throughout its history were Mennonites or of Mennonite background. These mission workers have served alongside Christians from many other evangelical denominations.
Canadian Sunday School Mission began work in northern Canada in the late 1920s mostly with children. Many early northern mission workers first associated with this organization. By the mid 1940s a number of loosely connected missionaries working in the northern prairie bush realized that ministry to aboriginal people could best be served through its own organization. Thus in June 1946 NCEM was founded. One of the first mission workers was Mennonite Annie Koop [later: Heal] who joined in the first year as did John and Hulda Penner.
Though NCEM work began through preaching and literature distribution in the bush of northern Saskatchewan, it expanded quickly to the other prairie provinces and then west to British Columbia, north to Yukon and North West Territories and east as far as to Nova Scotia. It has translated scriptures and its literature into several native languages, published Northern Lights since 1945, spread it messages over radio with "Indian Gospel Broadcast" and ventured in 1981 into television broadcasting with "Tribal Trails."
Over the years the Evangelical Mennonite Conference (EMC) has NCEM as one of their “Partners in Mission.” The Mennonite Brethren congregations in northern Alberta and British Columbia have been regular contributors to NCEM as have the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference. These churches have been active in promoting and NCEM work and in providing workers. The NCEM and its workers have been popular speakers in many Canadian Mennonite congregations and its mission work has inspired many to support and join NCEM.
Timber Bay Children's Home, a dormitory for public school children was operated by Northern Canada Evangelical Mission for 19 years until it was taken over by the Brethren in Christ denomination in 1969. They also operated a Girl’s Home at La Ronge, Saskatchewan.
See also Indian Ministries, North America
Bibliography
Hodgman, Rollie. Light on the horizon: Northern Canada Evangelical Mission’s fifty years of ministry to Canada’s First People. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: NCEM, 1996, 252 pp.
Palmer, Bernard. Journey to a lonely land: the birth and growth of the NCEM. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: Northern Canada Evangelical Mission, 1971. 171 pp. [Chapter 5 is on Annie Koop]
Additional Information
Address: PO Box 3030, 6110 Holmes Drive, Prince Albert, SK S6V 7V4
Phone: 306-764-3388
Website: Northern Canada Evangelical Mission
| Author(s) | Victor Wiebe |
|---|---|
| Date Published | June 2011 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Wiebe, Victor. "Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. June 2011. Web. 19 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Northern_Canada_Evangelical_Mission_(Prince_Albert,_Saskatchewan,_Canada)&oldid=83695.
APA style
Wiebe, Victor. (June 2011). Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 19 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Northern_Canada_Evangelical_Mission_(Prince_Albert,_Saskatchewan,_Canada)&oldid=83695.
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