Yarrow Mennonite Brethren Church

The first settlers of Yarrow arrived in February 1928 and began meeting in the homes of Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church families. In the summer of 1928 the group began meeting in a one-room public school. The Mennonite Brethren organized as a separate congregation of 96 members on 3 February 1929 with Peter Dyck as the first leading minister. The congregation's first baptism was held 14 July 1929. In 1930 the church was officially accepted into the Northern District conference of the Mennonite Brethren Church, and became a founding member of the B.C. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches in 1931. In 1931 Johann A. Harder was elected to serve as leading minister after Peter Dyck moved to Vancouver. Harder served for 18 years and was also an instrumental leader in the larger Mennonite Brethren conference. Soon after the congregation organized, a significant number of members began holding their own services in neighboring Greendale, formally organizing in 1931 as the Sardis Mennonite Brethren Church (later Greendale Mennonite Brethren). The Yarrow church quickly organized Elim Bible School in 1930 and hired Peter D. Loewen to be the instructor. Loewen also served as the congregation's Sunday school superintendent for 35 years, overseeing a ministry that at its peak in 1953 included 461 students, 40 classes and 72 teachers. The school ceased operations in 1955. At the high school level the church, in cooperation with the Greendale and Chilliwack MB churches, started Sharon Mennonite Collegiate Institute in 1945. Owing to the collapse of the raspberry market, this school was closed in 1949. However, by 1951 the Yarrow MB church opened Sharon Mennonite Collegiate, which by 1960 had an enrollment of 114 students in grades six to twelve, along with a staff of seven teachers. The school closed in 1969. Church leaders were elected by congregational vote. However, in the early years leadership in the church rested in the non-elected church council (Vorberat) comprised of all ordained ministers, whose numbers were considerable. As result of membership agitation, in 1937 the church council was changed so that the congregation elected a majority of its members.