Reddig appointed to archives position

Winnipeg

Ken Reddig has been appointed the new Director of the Mennonite Heritage Centre, a research and archival centre located in Winnipeg and operated by the Conference of Mennonites in Canada. Reddig's background is in both archival and church work. A three-year term with Mennonite Central Commmittee in Jordan and France in the 1970s was followed by studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS). During this time, Reddig was introduced to archival work at the Goshen archives where he worked through the John S. Funk papers. This brought him into association with Melvin Gingerich, who mentored and guided him into the archival world.

Reddig graduated from AMBS with a Master of Divinity in 1974. He taught at Mennonite Brethren Bible College, now Concord college, in Winnipeg for a year, and served for a year as interim pastor at the MB church in Minot, N.D. A three-year stint teaching Bible and English at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute (MBCI) in Winnipeg rounded out this period.

His career in archives took off in 1979 when he became Director and Conference Archivist at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies. The following year he completed an Archivist Certificate Course, offered out of the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. In 1990 he joined the staff of the Provinical Archives of Manitoba as head of the textual records and public service branch. To some people, Ken Reddig might seem an odd choice for the Mennonite Heritage Centre director. He was born and raised in Kansas. He is a member of McIvor Mennoite Brethren Church in Winipeg. His family has been Mennonite for `only' a couple of generations-->his grandparents were Lutherans in the town of Kirschwald, Ukraine, east of the Molotschna colony, who joined the Mennonite Brethren in the 1870s.

But Reddig views these cross-border and cross-conference connections as providing a better perspecitve on the Mennonite world. What with movements towards integration, mergers, and cooperation in many areas and on many fronts, an understanding of many currents in essential--especially in the world of archives.

"Coming from an environment (in the provincial archives), where you focus basically on Manitoba . . . to moving back into a church setting, and also to a Canada-wide and an international setting, there is a much broader scope", says Reddig.

The Heritage Centre position will also provide the opportunity to do some writing and research.

CMC release

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