While many churches in rural Canada face closure, Arnaud Mennonite Church recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. Located in the prairie town of Arnaud, Man., the church is home... Read More
News & Stories
Church members brought back the circle games they used to play at weddings and church events when they were young. (Photo by Rick Friesen)
July 3, 2019 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Sarah Johnson, of the Voices Together hymnal committee, displays the blank pages of the new hymnal mock-up, reminding participants at a regional worship service, held at Rosthern Mennonite Church, that the contents of the new hymnal haven’t yet been decided.
The people of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan love being together. In particular, they enjoy singing and worshiping with one another. This apparent enjoyment sparked the idea of... Read More
July 3, 2019 | News | Donna Schulz
The 2019 feature quilt, “Little Brown Church.” (Photo by St. Jacobs Printery)
Over the last 53 years, the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale has raised more than $12 million for relief, development and peacemaking efforts around the world by Mennonite... Read More
July 3, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman
Zoe Matties and Scott Gerbrandt work for A Rocha Canada. Zoe is the Manitoba program manager and Scott is the Manitoba director. (Photo courtesy of Zoe Matties)
Climate change is doing more than triggering environmental disasters. It’s also triggering mental health crises and a sense of impending doom for some people. Zoe Matties, 30, is... Read More
July 3, 2019 | News | Rachel Bergen
Youths and sponsors who attended the retreat at Camp Elim display their dragons. (Photo courtesy of Kirsten Hamm-Epp)
Twenty-five youth and sponsors gathered at Camp Elim, on Lac Pelletier, south of Swift Current, Sask., for Saskatchewan Mennonite Youth Organization’s youth retreat. Held May 24-... Read More
July 3, 2019 | People | Kirsten Hamm-Epp
The SheCycle team of Anna Kuepfer (left), Abby Loewen and Leah Wouda, won first place at the World’s Challenge Challenge in London, Ont. (Photo courtesy of Leah Wouda)
For many women around the world, accessing pads, tampons or menstrual cups isn’t as easy as making a trip to a drug store, nor is it affordable. Some women and girls resort to... Read More
July 3, 2019 | People | Rachel Bergen
The University of Waterloo Balinese Gamelan in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Conrad Grebel University College)
Over the last two years, Conrad Grebel University College’s YouTube channel has become a go-to source for quality gamelan videos. This moderate internet fame is spurred on by one... Read More
June 28, 2019 | Web First | Conrad Grebel University College
Jeanette Hanson will begin as interim director of Mennonite Church Canada’s International Witness program on Aug. 1. (MC Canada photo)
Jeanette Hanson, associate director for Mennonite Partners in China, will begin as interim director of Mennonite Church Canada’s International Witness program on Aug. 1. Jason... Read More
June 20, 2019 | News | Mennonite Church Canada
St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minn., has hosted numerous Mennonite-Catholic gatherings. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Ewing, Creative Commons)
One could say Anabaptism began as a rebellion against Catholicism. Our forebears bled and died so we could be not-Catholic. Time does not erase the past, but intervening centuries... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Will Braun
The Anglican Church of Canada-Mennonite Church Canada dialogue began in 2016. It had its first face-to-face meeting in 2018. (Image by Ron Porter/Pixabay)
There are hundreds of denominations within Christianity, and it can be easy to focus on the differences between them all. But a group of Mennonites and Anglicans is breaking... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
A group walks from the Fort Langley United Church to the Kwantlen Nation Longhouse to begin B.C.’s fourth annual Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation. (Photo by Ian Funk)
In solidarity with their First Nations neighbours, Mennonites in the Fraser Valley joined others in a Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation from May 31 to June 2. The event was a... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Valerie Proudfoot of Edmonton First Mennonite Church, right, presents Irma Fast Dueck with a picture of a Mennonite Mary. Entitled ‘Mennonitische Madonna,’ the artwork by Helena Dueck of Pennsylvania was originally given to Proudfoot in 1986 as a gift of encouragement. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
“We grew up never talking about Mary. It was like the Catholics got Mary in the divorce settlement and Mennonites got a 30-minute sermon,” said Irma Fast Dueck in her opening talk... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Joanne De Jong
Muriel Bechtel, right, and Dennis Flaming, organizers of the 'My Place is Right Here' play and joint fundraising event, are pictured with Alie Teetzel-Edmondstone and Yasmine Mohamed, representatives of the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank, who accepted the food donations. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
It was all about working together for the good of the local Cambridge community when Preston and Wanner Mennonite churches partnered with a local theatre group to support the work... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman
Meg Harder stands in front of her artwork at the Conrad Grebel University College Centre for Peace Advancement Gallery. (Photo courtesy of the Centre for Peace Advancement)
An Ontario artist is enlivening a Mennonite folk-art tradition that hasn’t been widely practised for more than 150 years. Meg Harder’s six-piece exhibit, “New Fraktur,” draws on... Read More
June 19, 2019 | News | Rachel Bergen
According to Elaine Presnell, a funeral officiant and a commissioned lay pastor at Pleasant Point Mennonite Church, the best gift one can offer a grieving family is non-judgmental listening. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Elaine Presnell has presided at around 600 funerals. That’s a number most pastors won’t achieve in a lifetime. But Presnell isn’t an ordinary pastor. For more than 10 years, she... Read More
June 19, 2019 | People | Donna Schulz
Dona Park painted a mural at a school in Cambodia during her term with MCC. (Photos courtesy of Dona Park)
For Dona Park, making art is the equivalent of eating, sleeping and breathing. She does it every day because she needs to. The 24-year-old attended Goshen (Ind.) College, from... Read More
June 19, 2019 | People | Rachel Bergen
A shopper admires the wares of Irene Harms at the artisan market, new to this year’s MCC Saskatchewan Relief Sale and Auction. (Photos by Donna Schulz)
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan hosted its 49th annual relief sale and auction at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park on June 7 and 8. An estimated 750 people took in a... Read More
June 18, 2019 | Web First | Donna Schulz
Francesco Zuba, coordinator of the Association for Assistance to Orphan Children, stands in front of the damaged preschool in the Munhava neighbourhood of Beira, Mozambique. (Photo by Paul Shetler Fast)
Two broken chalkboards thrown by the 190-kilometre-per-hour winds of Cyclone Idai bake in the sun on what remains of the crumpled tin roof of one neighbourhood’s only preschool... Read More
June 18, 2019 | Web First | Paul Shetler Fast
David Martin, executive minister of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, speaks about confronting ministerial sexual misconduct. (Photo courtesy of Darryl Neustaedter Barg)
In the midst of the #MeToo movement, in which those in positions of power are being called to account for sexual abuse, a conference hosted by four Manitoba Mennonite... Read More
June 17, 2019 | Web First | Rachel Bergen
More than 5,400 people volunteered with MDS last year. (Facebook.com/MennoniteDisasterService)
The folks who volunteer with Mennonite Disaster Service are “gettin’ it done.” We recently published a photo essay featuring Canadian Mennonites who are volunteering with MDS in... Read More
June 7, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Kuri is singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Scott Currie. (Photo by Rachel Pick)
Almost two years after he started recording it, Kuri has released his new album. Titled No Village , the 10-song collection came out today via Nevado Records. No Village is the... Read More
June 7, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Over coffee and Turkish sweets at The Mennonite Story in St. Jacobs, Jim Loepp Thiessen, left, has an animated conversation with Faruk Ekinci and Mustafa Ustan while Mustafa Jr. listens in. These Turkish Muslims were interested to learn that many Mennonites also came to Canada as refugees. (Photo by Barb Draper)
On April 30, several Muslim families from Waterloo Region toured The Mennonite Story in St. Jacobs, in order to understand more about Mennonites. Leon Kehl of Floradale Mennonite... Read More
June 5, 2019 | News | Barb Draper
Mary Funk stands in the community garden at Jubilee Mennonite Church’s Community Roots Resource Centre. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
“If an alien ship were to come take our church away, would anyone notice?” This is the question that members of Jubilee Mennonite Church asked themselves more than a decade ago... Read More
June 5, 2019 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
The Flourishing Congregations Institute’s Joel Thiessen, holding the microphone, speaks at Columbia Bible College on May 4. The seminar was sponsored by the Mennonite Faith and Learning Society in conjunction with Columbia Bible College. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Key factors surrounding flourishing congregations in Canada, and how congregations can thrive and grow in an age of diminishing importance of the church in society, were the... Read More
June 5, 2019 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Charles Olfert, with white cane, participates in a simulation exercise as part of the Rick Hansen Accessibility Certification Program. Pictured with Olfert is classmate Cal Schuler and his service dog, Sierra. (ABE Factor, Inc. photo by Samantha Proulx)
Charles Olfert is enthusiastic about creating buildings that meet their users’ needs. A principal architect with AODBT Architecture + Interior Design, he recently applied that... Read More
June 5, 2019 | News | Donna Schulz