The Joint Committee officially convened in April 1904, in Toronto, bringing together appointed representatives from the Congregationalist, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, to negotiate church union. Meetings continued through to 1908, when the terms written in the Basis of Union were agreed upon and sent to the negotiating churches, for discussion and approval. By 1912, both the Congregationalists and the Methodists had agreed to the terms. The decision was more contentious for the Presbyterian Church, though in 1916, their General Assembly decided to go ahead with the union.
Between 1916 and 1925, the Joint Committee worked to complete the union and defeat those opposing it, including the newly formed Presbyterian Church Association.

Frank Hoffman was a Presbyterian and later United Church minister and missionary to Hungarians in Saskatchewan. He was born in Hungary, in 1877, the son of a Calvinist pastor. He taught agriculture and assisted the Hungarian Lieutenant-Governor until World War I, when he became an officer in the Hungarian National Guard. After being captured by the Russians, Frank Hoffman escaped to Canada. He studied at Manitoba College and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1922. He served as a home missionary to Hungarians in Saskatchewan from 1925 to 1945, then retired and moved to Vancouver Island. He died in October 1958.

G.G. Heffelfinger was a Presbyterian and later United Church minister, whose Saskatchewan pastorates included Buchanan, Grenfell, Vanscoy, Melfort, Sixth Avenue United Church (Regina), and Watrous.

Born in Nebraska, Heffelfinger and his family moved to Drinkwater, Saskatchewan, in 1907. He attended the University of Saskatchewan, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1916. During the First World War, he served as a stretcher-bearer with the Canadian Medical Corps (12th Field Ambulance) overseas, and was awarded the Military Medal. After the war, Heffelfinger pursued theological training, at New College (Edinburgh) and St. Andrew's College (Saskatoon), and was ordained by the Presbyterian Church, in 1921. He married Jean Watkins, in 1922.

Heffelfinger served as minister in Buchanan, Saskatchewan, 1921–1924, and Fort William, Ontario, 1924–1929. He received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from United College (Winnipeg). Returning to Saskatchewan, he served in Grenfell, 1929–1933, Vanscoy, 1933–1934, Melfort, 1934–1936, and Oxbow, 1937–1942. After receiving a Bachelor of Education degree, he became Saskatchewan director for the Canadian Legion Educational Services.

After the Second World War, Heffelfinger served as minister at Sixth Avenue (later called St. John's) United Church, in Regina, 1946–1956, then at Atwood and Springfield (London Conference), in Ontario, until he retired, in 1962. Returning to Saskatchewan, he came out of retirement to serve as minister to Watrous, where he remained from 1962–1964.

In 1908, the Basis of Union was formulated that would eventually lead to the creation of the United Church of Canada in 1925. Coinciding with this spirit of unity, the first Union church (Presbyterian and Methodist) was set up in Melville, Saskatchewan in 1908, followed a short time later by the church in Frobisher. In 1912, a committee of Union Churches approached the national church courts of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational denominations in order to seek affiliation with the parent churches. This committee formed the nucleus of what would become the General Council of Union Churches of Western Canada. An Advisory Council, with representatives of the Union Churches and the parent churches, was established in 1914 as a means of creating the sought after link between the Union Churches and the parent churches.

The residential school was preceded by a small day school, opened by J.C. Richardson in 1884 on the Little Black Bear Reserve and closed soon afterwards. In 1886, R. Toms reopened the day school and it operated until 1889, when the Woman's Missionary Society with the support of the Foreign Mission Committee of The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs built a new school just outside of the reserve’s boundaries. This was operated by The Presbyterian Church until 1924 when its operation was transferred to the United Church of Canada who managed it until its closure in 1949.