Our Story

Every church has a story.

​

Our story begins with two congregations coming together on January 1, 1995: Northdale Mennonite Fellowship, a General Conference Mennonite church, and Valley Gardens Community Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation. Both congregations had been undergoing re-evaluation, and seemed ready for a new venture.  

​

The building we are currently in had been built by the Northdale congregation in 1975-76. Before that, the congregation had been meeting in the theatre of River East Collegiate since Oct. 1972. Valley Gardens Community Church had been meeting in the Valley Gardens Jr. High School for about ten years.

​​

One of the important dynamics of the merger was the excitement we felt about bridging two Mennonite conferences. There had been much pain, suspicion and misunderstanding between the two conferences since the split in Russia in 1860. We spent time studying each other’s history, and felt that moving together was a positive step of reconciliation, and a witness to the larger Mennonite community.

​​

Since those early days, our congregation has been community oriented. Initially, with a desire to truly embrace the family of Jubilee, and then by extension to the community we live, work and serve in.