Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The West Coast Mission was created as an amalgamation of the Ahousat, Bamfield, Alberni Valley Indian, and Long Beach Pastoral Charges in 1969 by the Comox-Nanaimo Presbytery, although the names West Coast Mission and West Coast Marine had been used as early as the 1930s to refer to the mission work in the area. It began operation in January of the following year, its initial status being that of a "Pastoral Charge (Experimental)," apparently changed to that of a regular pastoral charge in 1974, the same time that its responsibilities were expanded to include the Pacific Rim Marine Project, the new Port Alberni Project, and the Franklin River congregation. The Mission had a Council and an executive elected by the Council, with the Mission's full-time clergy sitting on both. Although it was constituted as a pastoral charge, the Mission was involved in rural and urban native ministry in the area, and regarded missionary work as one of its core responsibilities, in the Alberni Valley area succeeding the Advisory Committee to Indian Work in the Alberni Valley (previously the Advisory Board to the Alberni Indian Residential School) in this function. Full-time clergy who were active in the Mission included D.M. Hoops, Bob Baird, Terry Whyte and Bill Dixon. The first chair of the Committee was Mary Myrfeld, who remained prominent within the Mission throughout the period covered by the records. By October of 1976 the Mission was no longer listed as a pastoral charge of the presbytery, but it did continue to hold monies and operate as a coordinating body until 1977 or later. If Rev. Bill Dixon's 1977 Study and Plan was adopted, the Mission may have ceased to be a United Church body, but remained in operation.