Archive for the 'Canadian Mennonite staff' Category

Yes, there’s more action at MWC

Published on July 17, 2009 by Dick Benner. Closed

Apolo­gies for not keep­ing my promise of report­ing in daily from Asun­cion.  What with the inten­sive activ­i­ties, the spo­radic inter­net con­nec­tion and the demands on me as a con­fer­ence reporter, this activ­ity, though well-intentioned, got pushed to the bot­tom of the daily routine.

What an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence!  The gath­er­ing of nearly 6,000 Men­nos from around the globe, includ­ing the diver­sity of tongue and nation­al­ity, is truly an uplift­ing and life-changing event.

It is dif­fi­cult to put into words–the wor­ship inspi­ra­tion, the singing, the drama of scrip­ture pre­sen­ta­tions by per­sons with national garb and ges­tures, the whirl­wind of activ­i­ties, includ­ing stim­u­lat­ing work­shops, musi­cal groups per­form­ing in the chapel, chil­drens’ parades, local tours and the expe­ri­ence of eat­ing in the mass din­ing hall in the base­ment of this large complex–hospitality of the local Paraguayan churches.

There are the moments of seri­ous his­tor­i­cal reflec­tions, like the work­shop I attended where Larry Miller, exec­u­tive sec­re­tary of MWC, had six pre­sen­ters from the “churches of the world.”  I was espe­cially struck by the rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the Vat­i­can, who jok­ingly intro­duced him­self as “the guest from Baby­lon,” but who, in a more seri­ous vein, named the divi­sion we have nursed for nearly 500 years as a “sin” by both sides of the conflict.

In another post I will describe my feel­ings about the obvi­ous dis­con­nect between our “talk” about peace and jus­tice being our high­est pri­or­ity at the moment and look­ing across the street to hous­ing and liv­ing con­di­tions of the worst pos­si­ble kind.  And to see the street ven­dors hawk­ing their food out­side our “court” is another reminder that within these walls of priv­i­lege and power we have a long way to go to address what is right under our eyes–not only Paraguay, but in Canada and the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and other Latin Amer­i­can countries.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JMYovPxE-0[/youtube][/youtube]

Introducing Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

Published on December 9, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. 1 Comment
Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

Hinke Loewen-Rudgers

I’d like to wel­come Hinke Loewen-Rudgers as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

I am a third cul­ture kid who spent most of my child­hood in Tan­za­nia and Kenya and moved to Vir­ginia for col­lege. After a very brief career in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try, I switched voca­tional gears and did a mas­ters in the­ol­ogy in Man­i­toba and even­tu­ally ended up work­ing for the Men­non­ite Church. Now I am a Wit­ness Inter­na­tional Vol­un­teer with Men­non­ite Church Canada and am cur­rently in Israel. I love learn­ing about cul­tures, study­ing lan­guage and form­ing new rela­tion­ships as part of liv­ing out my faith.

Wel­come Hinke! I look for­ward to your contributions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Rebecca Janzen

Published on October 3, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Rebecca Janzen

Rebecca Janzen

I’d like to wel­come Rebecca Janzen as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

Rebecca Janzen grew up in Ottawa, and attended the Ottawa Men­non­ite Church. She spent most of her child­hood in Ottawa, except for two years in Cairo, Egypt. She stud­ied His­tory and Span­ish at the Uni­ver­sity of Water­loo and while study­ing, enjoyed liv­ing at Con­rad Grebel. Last year, she par­tic­i­pated in the MCC SALT pro­gram and lived in Man­agua, Nicaragua. She is cur­rently study­ing Span­ish at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. Cur­rently, she spends her time read­ing, writ­ing essays and drink­ing coffee.

Wel­come Rebecca! I look for­ward to your contributions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Cheryl Woelk

Published on October 2, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Cheryl Woelk

Cheryl Woelk

I’d like to wel­come Cheryl Woelk as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how she described herself:

Cheryl Woelk grew up in Swift Cur­rent, Saskatchewan and grad­u­ated with a B.A. in Eng­lish from Cana­dian Men­non­ite Uni­ver­sity in Win­nipeg, Man­i­toba. She spent six years serv­ing with MC Canada Wit­ness as a peace edu­ca­tor at the Korea Anabap­tist Cen­ter in Seoul. She is now on a “sab­bat­i­cal year” adjust­ing to liv­ing between cul­tures. Her inter­ests include eat­ing fair trade choco­late, learn­ing lan­guages, and run­ning marathons.

Wel­come Cheryl! I look for­ward to your con­tri­bu­tions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing Will Loewen

Published on October 1, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
Will Loewen

Will Loewen

I’d like to wel­come Will Loewen as a con­tribut­ing author to this blog. Here’s how he described himself:

William Loewen has at dif­fer­ent times been a play­wright, a pas­tor, and a pon­tif­i­cater. A his­tory com­mit­tee he was in decided that a play would be the best way to tell their story and he was cho­sen as the writer, mostly because he had the most free time.  He got the idea to write the sec­ond play, this time a musi­cal, when he real­ized it would allow him to spend more time with a cer­tain young lady. He also enjoys writ­ing skits for church pro­grams and wor­ship ser­vices. He served for three years in youth min­istry in Tavi­s­tock, Ontario.

One of the things he enjoyed the most about that job, besides the overnight pizza par­ties and early morn­ing donut mak­ing ses­sions, was the reg­u­lar chal­lenge of preach­ing ser­mons that pleased seniors, inspired par­ents and didn’t put teenagers to sleep.

He is cur­rently work­ing in South Korea as a Mis­sion Part­ner­ship Worker with Men­non­ite Church Canada Wit­ness and Jesus Vil­lage Church, serv­ing in an edu­ca­tion and resource devel­op­ment role.

He and his wife (the afore­men­tioned young lady) are eagerly antic­i­pat­ing the arrival of their first child lit­er­ally any day.

Wel­come Will! I look for­ward to your con­tri­bu­tions here.

Tim Miller Dyck
Editor/Publisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Introducing David Driedger

Published on September 19, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed
David Driedger

David Driedger

I’d like to intro­duce our first con­trib­u­tor, David Driedger.

David is a pas­tor at Hill­crest Men­non­ite Church in New Ham­burg, Ontario. Before com­ing to Hill­crest Men­non­ite, he attended The Wel­come Inn Men­non­ite church in Hamil­ton. He grew up in the Russ­ian Men­non­ite tra­di­tion at Som­mer­feld Men­non­ite Church in Altona, Manitoba.

Wel­come David!

Tim Miller Dyck
Edi­tor and Pub­lisher, Cana­dian Mennonite

Launching the blog

Published on September 17, 2008 by Canadian Mennonite staff. Closed

Wel­come to Cana­dian Mennonite’s blog!

This is a new ini­tia­tive at the mag­a­zine to pro­vide a place for online post­ing and dis­cus­sion of faith in life from a Cana­dian Men­non­ite perspective.

Online writ­ing is often dif­fer­ent in style than print writ­ing, and a blog pro­vides a place for imme­di­ate and fre­quent pub­lish­ing, and for reader/author inter­ac­tion through com­ments that isn’t pos­si­ble in the print ver­sion of the magazine.

The posts here are exclu­sive online con­tent; you will not find them in the print ver­sion of the magazine.

I hope this is a place that helps all of us reflect on our faith and see ways to live more faith­fully to God’s calling.

Tim Miller Dyck
Edi­tor and Pub­lisher, Cana­dian Mennonite