Peter J. Dyck

Peter J. Dyck (December 4, 1914 – January 4, 2010) was a Canadian Mennonite relief worker and pastor best known for his work resettling Russian Mennonite refugees after World War II.

Peter Dyck was born on December 4, 1914 in the Am Trakt Mennonite Settlement in Russia. He married Elfrieda Klassen on October 14, 1944 and they had two daughters, Ruth and Rebecca.

He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1927 with his family. They eventually settled in Tiefengrund, Saskatchewan. He was baptized in the Tiefengrund Rosenort Mennonite Church in 1934. He graduated from Rosthern Junior College and attended the University of Saskatchewan, but dropped out to pastor several struggling local churches. In 1949 he finished his education, studying at Goshen College, Bethel College, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, and Bethel Theological Seminay in Chicago, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1968.

He was called by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in 1941 to serve in England. There he assisted victims of World War II and met his future wife, who was serving as a nurse. Together they were asked to begin an MCC relief program for Mennonites fleeing the Soviet Union. The program was based in the Netherlands and escorted most of the refugees to Paraguay. In 1947, he was ordained as a minister of the Gospel, to give him authority in his spiritual guidance of Russian Refugees.

Upon returning to the United States, Elfrieda and Peter embarked on a speaking tour, where they presented their story and films they had made to over 100,000 people. For many Mennonites it was the first time they viewed a film in a religious setting. Audiences were thrilled by their modern day exodus of Mennonite refugees from Berlin to the American zone of Germany, through the Soviet Occupied Zone.

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