Accession 2011-019
Title and Physical Description
Swift Current Bible Institute fonds, 1966-1997. 1.28 m.
Administrative History
The Swift Current Bible Institute (SCBI) was founded in 1936 by N Banmann with the support of leaders of the General Conference of Mennonites in Canada. The Institute was located at 512 Cheadle Street, Swift Current where, over the years, three buildings were erected. They provided administrative and classroom space, dormitories and a teacher’s residence.
The Institute offered training for Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, choir members and conductors, catechism classes and courses in Mennonite history and missions. It operated in winter for about five and a half months, usually with three teachers and support staff.
After the closure of the Rosthern Bible School in 1961, interested students from the Rosthern area were encouraged to attend the Swift Current Bible Institute. The Conference of Mennonites in Alberta decided, in 1966, to amalgamate its Bible School, the Menno Bible Institute in Didsbury, with the Swift Current Bible Institute. Thereafter SCI was administered by a Board whose members were appointed by the Conference of Mennonites of Saskatchewan and the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta
Land was acquired and architectural drawings commissioned in 1980 for the development of a new campus on the eastern edge of Swift Current, adjacent to Highway 4 and the railway. Construction of the new campus resulted in a temporary increase in student enrolments, but by the mid 1990s it dropped sharply. As a result, the supporting conferences withdrew their support. Efforts to reorganize the school as an independent but conference supported Marpeck School of Discipleship failed, and SCBI was closed in 1996.
Custodial History
The material accessioned as 2011-019 was put into temporary storage in Swift Current after the school ws closed. Henry Goerzen, historian of Mennonite Church Alberta (Formerly the Conference of Mennonites in Alberta) picked up the records and stored them on his farm. There he divided the fonds into two parts, Material which Henry Goerzen thought related mainly to Saskatchewan was sent to the archives of the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. The remaining material was donated to the archives of the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta in 2011.
Scope and Content
The fonds only includes material related to the last decades of SCBI’s existence. It includes school constitutions, by-laws, policy statements, board minutes, reports, correspondence, architectural drawings and plans for the new campus, financial and student records, documentation pertaining to the closing of the school, admissions applications, class lists and reports of intern assignments completed by students and staff.
Source of Supplied title
The title is based on the contents of the fonds
Source of Acquisition
Donated by Henry D. Goerzen
Access Restrictions
Access to student records may be restricted in accordance with Alberta privacy legislation and MHSA privacy policies.
Finding Aids
Related Material
Many of the school’s yearbooks are the the MHSA Library. See also the Menno Bible Institute Collection in the MHSA archives. Information on the Mennonite Bible Schools in Western Canada is available in Bruce L. Guenther, “Training for SErvice: The Bible School Movement in Western Canada.1908-1960,” Ph. D. Thesis, McGill University. See also Bruce Guenther, “The Origin of the Bible School Movement in Western Canada: Towards an Ethnic Interpretation,” Historical Papers, 1993, Canadian Historical Society of Church History (n.p.: Canadian Historical Society of Church History).
Notes
Accession 2011-019
Box 1 – files 1-
1 1997 List of SCBI Files tranfered to MHSA archives
2 SCBI Constitution
3 SCBI 1966-1973 Board minuets correspondence and supporting documents
4 SCBI 1968 Board minutes and correspondence and supporting documents
5 SCBI 1979 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
6 SCBI 1980 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
7 SCBI 1981 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
8 SCBI 1982 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
9 SCBI 1983 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
10 SCBI 1985 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
11 SCBI 1984 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
Box 2
12 SCBI 1985 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
13 SCBI 1986 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
14 SCBI 1987 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
15 SCBI 1988 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
16 SCBI 1989 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
17 SCBI 1990 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
18 SCBI 1991 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
19 SCBI 1992 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
Box 3
20 SCBI 1993 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
21 SCBI 1994 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
22 SCBI 1995 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
23 SCBI 1995 Board minuets and correspondence and supporting documents
24 SCBI 1986 Joint delegate conference correspondence and supporting documents
25 SCBI 1986 1987 1988 Conference of Mennonites of Sask and Alberta annual joint delegate meeting
26 SCBI 1987 Joint delegate conference correspondence and supporting documents
27 SCBI 1988 Joint delegate conference correspondence and supporting douments
28 SCBI 1989 Joint delegate conference correspondence and supporting documents
29 SCBI 1990 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting documents
30 SCBI 1991 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting docements
31 SCBI 1992 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting docements
32 SCBI 1993 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting docements
33 SCBI 1994 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting douements
34 SCBI 1995 Joint delegation conference correspondence and supporting docements
35 SCBI 1996 jJoint delegation conference correspondence and supporting docements
Box 4
36 SCBI 1984 1985 Conference pastors and leaders
37 SCBI 1987 Conference of Mennonites of Alberta correspondence and supporting docements
38 SCBI 1987 1995 Conference of Mennonites of Sask correspondence
39 SCBI 1989 Conference of Mennonites of Manitoba
40 SCBI Policy manuals
41 SCBI 1987 Policy manuals
42 SCBI 1984 1993 Student Hand Books
43 SCBI 1994 1996 Community hand book
44 SCBI Architects construction planning meetings
45 SCBI Personal resume
46 SCBI 1978 Staff meetings
47 SCBI 1979 Staff meetings
48 SCBI 1980 staff meetings
49 SCBI 1981 staff meetings
50 1986 1987 Staff meetings
51 1984 1988 Staff files
52 SCBI 1995 1996 Staff lists
Box 5
53 SCBI 1994 1994 Student list
54 SCBI 1976-77 1981-83 1994-95 1995-1996 student lists
55 SCBI1981 1982 student workday lists
56 SCBI Year Book
57 SCBI Alumni Lista
58 SCBI Music Holdings
59 SCBI 1991 task force Bible eduation of Mennonite youth Man Sask Ab
60 SCBI Seminer on wheels
61 SCBI 1995 Marpeck school of discipleship proposal adn buisness plan
62 SCBI 1994 Marpeck proposal to board and by board of directors by Ray Friesen
63 SCBI 1995 Marpeck school of dicipleship by laws
Box 6
64 SCBI 1985 Evaluation Committee
65 SCBI 1996 Closure
66 SCBI 1992 Organization for the future
67 SCBI 1995-1996 Board structure
68 SCBI 1995 Incorporation and by laws
69 SCBI 1996 Appraisal and sale of SCBI
70 SCBI 1980-1988 Property development
71 SCBI 1997 Finance
72 SCBI 1996 Sale
73 SCBI 1997 Property and titles
74 SCBI 1997 Managment Committee
75 SCBI 1946-1947 Applications
76 SCBI 1947-1948 Applications
77 SCBI 1948-1949 Applications
78 SCBI 1949-1950 Applications
79 SCBI 1950-1951 Applications
80 SCBI 1950-1952 Applications
81 SCBI 1952-1953 Applications
82 SCBI 1953-1954 Applications
83 SCBI 1954-1955 Applications
84 SCBI 1955-1956 Applications
85 SCBI 1956-1957 Applications
86 SCBI 1957-1958 Applications
87 SCBI 1946-1958 Class Lists
Box 7
88 SCBI 1975 Intern Lists
89 SCBI 1976 Intern Lists
90 SCBI 1977 Intern lists
91 SCBI 1978 Intern Lists
92 SCBI 1979 Intern Lists
93 SCBI 1980 Intern Lists
94 SCBI 1981 Intern Lists
95 SCBI 1982 Intern Lists
96 SCBI 1983 Intern lists
97 SCBI 1984 Intern Lists