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Robert Phillips (1822-1900) was born in the Village of Dunning, Perthshire, Scotland on February 23, 1822 to John Philp (sic) and Margaret Ewan. He immigrated to Canada in 1842 and settled in the Village of Bath, in Lennox and Addington County. Beginning in 1843, he taught school in Bath, first at the Asselstine Factory (1842-1845) and later at the Bath Academy (1845-1855). While teaching, he studied medicine with Dr. Stewart of Belleville. After teaching in Bath for about 10 years, he moved into Napanee and became the principal of Napanee Academy for twelve years (1856-1867). While in Napanee, he assisted in building St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. In 1867 Robert Phillips and his family left Napanee and moved to Fergus, Ontario where he set up a pharmacy and became a druggist. His son, Robert Jr. later joined him in the business. Robert Phillips died August 26, 1900 in Fergus.

Catherine Talyor Wilson (1817-1894) was born to John Wilson and Grizal (Grace) Hally on October 27, 1817. In 1844 Robert married Catherine and they had six children Grace Margaret (1845-1912), Isabella Ann (1846-), Catherine (1849-1850), Rosa (1853-1931), John (1854-1857) and Robert (1858-1931).

Robert Phillips Jr. was born in 1858 to Robert Sr. and Catherine Wilson. He married his first wife, Annie Young Todd on January 16, 1884 and married his second wife, Christina Beattie on June 8, 1904. He died on April 4, 1931 in Fergus. Robert Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and also became a druggist. Their daughter, Helen Wilson Phillips, was born on April 22, 1905 and she later married Howard Allan Stevens on November 28, 1927.

Robert A. Stevens was born May 23, 1928 to Howard Stevens and mother Helen Phillips, and is a great grandson to Robert Phillips. In 1968-1969 he began researching about the Phillips family and later privately published a book, “The Path We came by” in 1973. This original addition was later followed by four other volumes, the second volume being published in 1996 and also pertaining to the Phillips family.

Sources used: Obituary, Phillips Family File; Notes in PastPerfect; Wellington County Museum and Archives.

The Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery was active for burials in the town of Port Hope from 1835-1871, located on Pine Street. The cemetery was closed in 1871 and in 1931 the remains were reported to have been moved to the Port Hope Union Cemetery and the land was sold toe the Trustees of the Port Hope High School. In 1931, a judge of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham approved the closure of the Wesleyan Methodist Cemetery on Pine Street, Port Hope and the removal of bodies to Union Cemetery on Toronto Road, Port Hope. In 2002, after the sale of the property (originally built as the Port Hope High School in 1896 and later used as Dr. M. S. Hawkins School) the development of the property into luxury condominiums began. During the excavation of what was the play ground, human remains were found, indicating that not all of the remains had been moved in 1931 to Union Cemetery. As a result, the Port Hope United Church, Municipality of Port Hope, the Port Hope Cemetery Board and the Ministry of Business and Consumer Affairs worked together with the developer to have the remains removed from the site to Trent University for examination and tests and later re-interred at Union Cemetery. In 2005 the last of the remains were re-interred at Port Hope Union Cemetery.

Fredrick (Fred) Albert Urquhart was a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto and the University of Toronto Scarborough. Born in Toronto in 1911, Urquhart studied biology at the University of Toronto, completing an MA in 1937 and a PhD in 1940. His first attempt at tagging monarchs, in 1937, met with limited success, but led to the development of the Alar Tagging Method in the 1940s. In 1945, he married Norah Patterson, who would become a partner in his research endeavours. He was appointed assistant director of zoology at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1945, becoming director in 1949; at the same time, he was appointed as an assistant professor in zoology at the University of Toronto. Urquhart took on full professorship in 1963. In 1966, he spearheaded a program in zoology at Scarborough College, a position that he held until his retirement in 1977. In 1975, two member of Urquhart’s extensive network of monarch trackers, Ken and Cathy Brugger, discovered millions of monarch butterflies in the Neovolcanic Plateau in Mexico, many of them tagged, proving that monarchs did indeed travel thousands of kilometres to breed. Urquhart and his wife were able to visit Mexico in 1976 to see the monarchs firsthand. An internationally renowned entomologist, Urquhart published both books and articles on the migratory patterns of monarch butterflies. He died in 2002.

The Permanent Committee on Ministry and Employment Policies and Services (PC-MEPS) is accountable to the Executive of the General Council and has the responsibility to provide advice to the Executive regarding ministry and employment policies and services. This committee assists the Executive of the General Council in its responsibilities as the legal employer of a considerable number of staff and the legal administrator of a pension fund and ensures that all the various personnel systems have fair, equitable and consistent values.

The committee has a number of specific responsibilities; overseeing policies in relation to ministry personnel, GCO and Conference staff, Overseas personnel, KAIROS, the pension plan and group insurance plans of the United Church of Canada, and Administrators of the Pension Plan.

The committee is made up of 12 voting members who reflect the diversity of The United Church of Canada (diversity with respect to sex, race, age, geography and vocation) and three voting members of the Executive of the General Council. The Chairperson is appointed as a voting member of the Executive of the General Council.

The Committee on Ecumenical Affairs was established by General Council in 1958 to cultivate an understanding of the ecumenical movement and its relevance to the United Church. Through participation in the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches, as well as through direct contact with several Canadian churches and coalitions, the Committee promoted interdenominational cooperation with other Christian denominations and later, other faiths. At the November meeting of the General Council Executive in 1969 the Committee on Ecumenical Affairs submitted the following recommendation: That the work of the following four committees – Ecumenical Affairs, Committee on Union, Protestant-Roman Catholic Relations, Joint Committees of Seven (Presbyterian-United Church) be subsumed into one Committee which would assume the present responsibilities of each Committee and that its name be “The Committee on Inter-Church and Inter-Faith Relations”. The Committee was superseded by the Committee on Inter-Church and Inter-Faith Relations in 1971.

The Purpose of the Committee, as stated in 1971, was to “challenge the Church to a vision of ecumenism which includes the whole inhabited world. The committee shall encourage, support, enable, and hold the Church accountable to its role as a sign of reconciliation and renewal among human communities at both the local and global levels. The Committee shall constantly remind the whole church that ecumenism is not an option, but rather, an integral part of its life and witness.”

A standing Committee of the General Council, the Committee on Theology and Faith was established by the 27th General Council in 1977 “to study, to clarify, and to make provision for the issuance of position statements expressive of the theology of The United Church of Canada”.

In 2009 the Committee on Theology & Faith and the InterChurch Interfaith Committee were integrated to form the Theology and Interchurch and Interfaith Relations Committee.

Peter Wyatt, Steven Chambers and Bruce Gregersen (2007-2015) have served on staff.

This committee brings to the Executive integrated recommendations on the program life of the church, including work to support justice and global initiatives, congregations and ministries, and our diverse and intercultural ministries. It was established in 2002 as successor to some of the work of the Divisions of World Outreach, Division of Mission in Canada and the Division of Communication.

The committee is responsible for coordinating and integrating the directions and priorities set by the Executive for program work, including resource production and distribution; maintaining connections with education and outreach personnel and with appropriate committees throughout the church; bringing to the Executive coherent, integrated and manageable recommendations on program priorities; ensuring that resources in keeping with the program priorities are created and distributed; supporting the program and resource units as they carry out their work with creativity and collaboration, while maintaining constructive dialogue with unit leaders of the program and resource production units as well as the Permanent Committee on Governance and Agenda.

The committee is made up of 25 voting members who reflect the diversity of The United Church of Canada with respect to gender identity, racial and ethnic identity, age, geography, vocation, including two voting members of the Executive of the General Council and a chair who also serves as a voting member of the Executive. Additionally, two global partners and one member from the Theology and Inter-Church Inter-Faith Committee are appointed.

The Permanent Committee on Governance and Agenda (PC-GA) assists the General Council in practicing effective governance consistent with its values and priorities.

The Committee facilitates the Executive of the General Council in practicing effective governance (principles and processes for planning, budgeting and decision making), advises the General Secretary in the planning of the agenda of the Executive of the General Council and facilitates the meetings of the General Council.

Most of the tasks and responsibilities of this Committee were once part of the Permanent Committee on Governance Planning and Budgeting Processes (2003-2009).

The Permanent Committee Governance Planning and Budgeting Processes (PC-GPBP) was one of the four Permanent Committees set up to assist the General Council Executive in it’s work. The Committee was charged with assisting the Executive to develop it’s governance, planning and budgeting processes. It created and recommended strategies or processes through which the Executive could carry out its governance planning and budgeting roles. Specifically, it reviewed work coming before the Executive; ensured planning with the committees and units was held up and came to the Executive in a coherent, integrated and manageable form; co-ordinated and presented policy recommendations; ensured accountability for delegated tasks; made decisions as delegated in the area assigned and delegated other functions to Working Units, sub-committees or other task groups; ensured and modelled the principle of collaboration between staff and elected members; carried out other functions as requested and advised and guided the Executive on matters relevant to its mandate.

This committee was a Permanent Committee of the General Council from 2003-2008 at which point a new Terms of Reference was adopted and most work of the Committee moved to the Committee on Governance and Agenda.

Upon formation of the United Church in 1925, a Historical Committee (whose name changed in 1932 to the Committee on Archives) was given responsibility to preserve the records of the Church, albeit with no provision for a repository or a permanent archivist. The Committee's role was strengthened in 1940 when Victoria University agreed to serve as the repository for the Church's records; in 1953 the first full-time Archivist-Historian was appointed. The Archives occupied various places on the Victoria campus; in 1972 the Central Archives moved into the former Birge-Carnegie Library, which had been renovated to house the Archives. The Committee continued its dual role of operating the Central Archives, and coordinating archival activities across the Church. In 1978 the name was changed to the Committee on Archives and History. The Committee remains a standing committee of the General Council and is accountable to the General Council for the co-ordination and promotion of archival and historical activity for the United Church and all its Conferences, and for policies affecting the same. The committee is composed of an appointed membership.

The United Church of Canada has always sought the widest possible union of Christian communions, and a Committee on Negotiations with other Communions with a view to Union was instituted in 1926 at the first General Council. Apart from negotiations with some smaller Churches leading to unions (Wesleyan Methodist Church of Bermuda, 1930 and the Evangelical United Brethren, 1968), most of the union activity had been directed towards an organic union with the Anglican Church of Canada and the Church of Christ (Disciples). Beginning in 1943 the United Church Commission on Reunion, the successor body to the Committee on Negotiations, entered into earnest consultation with the Anglican Church which continued for thirty years.
The United Church Commission on Reunion was made up of smaller subcommittee groups of fifteen members, and also five representatives to report to the fifteens, which held joint meetings with corresponding Anglican Committee on Reunion members. In 1950, the Commission was renamed the Commission on Union and by 1959, subcommittees were organized to include discussions with the Evangelical United Brethren. By 1968, the Evangelical United Brethren formally joined the United Church of Canada.
In 1969, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada formally joined union talks alongside the United and Anglican Churches. Generally, talks up to this point attempted to formulate a general basis of union, although study guide materials were created. In 1958, a Montreal sub-committee produced “Outline Scheme of Union,” which became an initial working paper for a basis of union, however, such development never arose at the national level. While cooperation continued along local and regional lines, union development stalled until the mid-1960s when the “Principles of Union” put forth by the joint union committees was officially accepted by the Anglican church of Canada in 1965 and the United Church in 1966. Thus, in 1967, the General Commission was established along with five special commissions focusing on their respective fields: Church in the World, Legal, Constitution, Liturgical, and Doctrine. Reverend Robert B. Craig of the United Church and Canon Ralph Latimer of the Anglican Church acted as Executive Commissioners. Besides those on the commission, critiques and opinions on matters of union were openly sought after from members of various denominations and theological backgrounds as part of the consultation process. International and ecumenical perspectives were also actively incorporated into the General Commission, including the World Council of Churches and foreign church bodies.
After initially releasing drafts and seeking input, the General Commission formally endorsed their document, the “Plan of Union,” in November of 1972 and presented to the churches in February of 1973. This officially ended the General Commission. The Committee on Church Union and Joint Mission (CUJM), led by Rev. Craig, took over continued union collaboration and revisions of the Plan of Union through to 1974. In early 1975, however, the Anglican Church rejected this basis of union, never reaching a congregational vote, and withdrew from joint union work. Discussions between the United Church and the Christian Church (Disciples) continued through the Joint National Committee on Union Negotiations until talks ended in 1985.

The Manual Committee was appointed by the Executive of the General Council following the Council of 1960 to give a thorough revision to The Manual. It has been continued in this activity by succeeding General Councils.

Within the newly-formed United Church of Canada, a Committee on Law for the Church was authorized by the First General Council (1925). The Committee’s mandate was to take charge of the legal problems following Church Union--many pertaining to property--and to examine all proposed legislation of the Church to advise about conformity with provisions of the Basis of Union or provincial and federal legislation. It continued the work of the Subcommittee on Law (Law and Legislation after 1921) which was established at the first meeting of the Joint Committee on Church Union in 1904 to provide the legal framework for the achievement of Church Union. The Committee was disbanded by General Council in 1942; its work was continued by Sessional Committees on Law and Legislation which met during General Council.

The Committee on Nominations was proposed by a study committee in 1968. The Committee was an attempt to expand the process of finding suitable candidates for the several committees and commissions appointed by the General Council, by inviting representatives of the Conferences and the Church at large to participate. The Committee was responsible for compiling biographical and other information on prospective candidates, and also for the appointment of members of the Judicial Committee and other standing committees of General Council. The Committee reports to the Executive of the General Council.

The Judicial Committee was established in April, 1933; it was to sit at the request of the Moderator and decide on appeals of decisions by the General Council and its Executive, the Boards or Division of the Church, and the Conferences and Presbyteries, on matters of law and jurisdiction. Its decision are binding on the parties involved in an appeal until the following General Council either approves or returns the decision for the further study to the committee. Appeals to the Committee include those of ministers over transfer and removal from charges, and interpretation of The Manual and Basis of Union regarding church property, doctrine, powers of church courts and other varied matters.

The Uffelman family has a long history in the Kitcehner/Waterloo region. Jacob Uffelman (b. 1860) purchased the Ontario Seed Company in 1911, which continues to be one of Canada’s largest suppliers of wholesale seeds, and was Mayor of Waterloo from 1904-1905. Jacob and his wife Eliza nee Elsley (1865-1930) had four sons and a daughter: William (b. 1889), Orley (b. 1891), Walter (b. 1893), Sheldon (b. 1894), and Gladys (b. 1895). Sheldon, William and Orley all served in the First World War. Sheldon was killed at Ypres in November 1917, and his name is inscribed on the Menin Gate. William and Orley survived the war. The Uffelman Fonds, which includes a digital collection of the First World War letters of Sheldon, William, and Orly, are courtesy of descendants Scott Uffelman and Clare Martin.

The Faculty of Science at Wilfrid Laurier University was founded in 2000, when the Faculty of Arts and Sciences partitioned into distinct faculties of Arts and Science. The Faculty consists of the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Kinesiology and Physical Education, Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science, Psychology and the Health Sciences program. Deans of the Faculty of Science have been Dr. Arthur Szabo (2000-2007), Dr. Deb MacLatchy (2007-2009), and Dr. Paul Jessop (2009- present).

The Faculty is predominantly housed in the Science Building which was officially opened in 1995. Eventually the Science Research Centre (opened in 2004) was added between the Science and Bricker Academic Buildings. The Research Centre is a dedicated research building for faculty and students.

In 2000, the Faculty of Science mandate was as follows:
“Laurier’s Faculty of Science is dedicated to collaboration between and beyond its six departments. In that spirit, the Faculty offers selected high quality programs with homes in Biology, Chemistry, Kinesiology & Physical Education, Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science and Psychology. Its programs are contemporary and competitive, designed to attract the highest quality students, and to provide them with a stimulating education and thorough preparation for employment or further studies. That Faculty holds the advance of scientific knowledge as one of its key values, and as such is committed to sustaining a supportive climate for research in the pure, social and applied sciences. The Faculty’s spirit of shared enterprise is highly valued by its members.”

The Waterloo Lutheran University Graduate School of Social Work was founded in 1966 with a curriculum based on clinical practice as well as community organization practice. Students specialized in one of five concentrations: community development, social planning, social administration, research, or individuals, families and social groups. The first class graduated in 1968, the same year that the Graduate School of Social Work was accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. In 1974, the name of the program was changed to the Faculty of Social Work to reflect the expansion into part-time, continuing education and undergraduate social welfare courses (offered in the Faculty of Arts and Science). In 1981, the Faculty of Social Work created an undergraduate Social Welfare Option, considered to be a minor.

The Doctor of Social Work program was established in 1987, making it the first doctoral program at Wilfrid Laurier University.

By 1988 the Faculty had moved from the seminary to the Peters building and then to the Aird building before moving to the St. Jerome’s Duke Street building in 2006. This Laurier Kitchener campus was a 12 million dollar conversion from historic landmark to professional school.

The first Dean of the Faculty of Social Work was Sheldon L. Rahn (1966-1968), followed by Francis J. Turner (1969-1979), Sherman Merle (1980-1983), Shankar A. Yelaja (1983-1993), Jonnah Hurn Mather (1994-2001), Luke J. Fusco (2001-2006), Leslie Cooper (2006-2009), and Nicholas Coady (2011-).

The Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier University opened in 1999. The campus is located in downtown Brantford, Ontario and awards Bachelors degrees in Business Technology Management, Contemporary Studies, Criminology, Education, English, Health Administration, Health Studies, History, Human Rights and Human Diversity, Journalism, Law and Society, Leadership, Psychology and Youth and Children's Studies.

Planning for the creation of a university in Brantford began in 1996, when the Brant Community Futures Development Corporation commissioned a business plan for the establishment of a university in Brantford. The city of Brantford had experienced economic decline in the wake of the collapse of the farm equipment industry. Community leaders, including members of the Grand Valley Educational Society, hoped that a university would contribute to urban renewal of the city’s downtown core. They also sought to provide local post-secondary educational opportunities for local students. In 1998, the City of Brantford, The Grand Valley Educational Society and Wilfrid Laurier University signed a “letter of intent” to form a campus of Laurier in Brantford.

The first building occupied by Laurier Brantford was the Carnegie Building on George Street, originally constructed as a library, and renovated as a university building. As it expanded the university has constructed new buildings, including the Student Centre built by the Student Union in 2005. Other university buildings, like Grand River Hall which opened in 2001, are examples of adaptive re-use, and have been renovated to meet the needs of the university.

Laurier Brantford is administered by a Vice-President/Principal who reports to the President of Wilfrid Laurier University. The faculty report to the Dean of Brantford, and govern through the Brantford Divisional Council. Library service is provided by Laurier librarians at the Brantford Public Library.

Brantford students are members of the Wilfrid Laurier University Students Union (WLUSU).