Mennonite Church Canada is hosting a new online community learning series. “Creator’s Call in a Climate Emergency” starts on Jan. 20 and lasts eight weeks. Co-hosted by the... Read More
News & Stories
Steve Heinrichs, director of Indigenous-Settler Relations for MC Canada, will co-host a learning series on the climate crisis based on the book, ‘A Good War.’ (Photo courtesy of Instagram.com/heinrichs_steve)
January 10, 2022 | Web First |
Ohio siblings Caleb, Bekah and Joshua Liechty, who perform as Girl Named Tom, recently won the NBC singing competition ‘The Voice.’ (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/girlnamedtom)
Last year was a big one for Girl Named Tom, a sibling band composed of Mennonites from Pettisville, Ohio. On Dec. 14, Caleb, Joshua and Bekah Liechty became the first group to win... Read More
January 7, 2022 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Alvin Klassen, Keith Rudance and Joy Dougans take a load to the dump in Princeton. Read about the efforts of Mennonite Disaster Service to help clean up the town in December, a month after severe flooding and mudslides wreaked havoc in British Columbia. (Photo by John Longhurst)
“The Mennonites are coming!” That was the buzz around the town of Princeton, B.C., in early December 2021, when the first 16 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers arrived to... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | John Longhurst
Pastor Desalegn Abebe, president of Meserete Kristos Church, baptizes a new believer in a barrel during a ceasefire in the Ethiopian civil strife. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite World Conference)
It is very difficult to go to the northern part of Ethiopia after the war broke out. Despite the security concerns, when I heard that members of our church in western Tigray were... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Desalegn Abebe
Cathrin van Sintern-Dick, MC Eastern Canada’s regional minister, centre, talks with Faith Glover, left, and Rielly McLaren at at Faith Mennonite Church in Leamington, Ont., at one of eight regional ‘Courageous Imagination’ gatherings last fall. (Photo by Yeabsra Agonfer)
It is “progress report” time, partway through Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s year-long discernment process. “Courageous Imagination: A journey together listening for God” was... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Janet Bauman
A variety of Mennonite bonnets are on display at an exhibit at Schneider Haus in Kitchener, Ont., that explores the symbolism and meaning of women’s head coverings. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
The vast majority of North American Mennonite and Muslim women do not wear any sort of veil or head covering. Why then do head coverings receive so much public attention? Do... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Janet Bauman
Inter-Mennonite Chaplaincy board members Helen Wang, left, and Susan Reynar, centre, and Mark Von Kampen, E-Menno Office’s chaplain, pack “Mind, body and spirit” care packages for University of Manitoba students who connect with Von Kampen through the E-Menno Office.
University of Manitoba students who gather online for peer support, topical discussion and spiritual guidance in the E-Menno Office had an unexpected surprise during the fall term... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Gladys Terichow
Hanley Mennonite Church, Sask. (MC Saskatchewan website photo)
In 2020, three Mennonite Church Saskatchewan congregations— Zoar Mennonite Church , Waldheim; Hanley Mennonite Church ; and Superb Mennonite Church , near Kerrobert—made the... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Emily Summach
Colin McCartney, left, prays with youth in Brazil at a young Brazilian youth mission gathering. (Photo by Judith McCartney)
Depictions of God have always informed the faith of Christian believers. Colin McCartney’s new book, Let the Light In: Healing from Distorted Images of God (Herald Press), on the... Read More
January 5, 2022 | News | Christen Kong
Tany Warkentin, left, is pictured with Adolphine, Marie and Hélène José, supervisors of the literacy program run by the Mennonite churches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Literacy teachers are trained and provided with basic teaching supplies, and they then offer classes in their own village to women and children who haven’t had opportunities to attend school. (Photo by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen)
Have you ever been introduced to a distant relative for the first time—maybe you didn’t even know that person existed—and yet you immediately felt a connection with them? After... Read More
January 5, 2022 | People | Tany Warkentin
David Troyer, general director of Christian Aid Ministries, addressed the public in a video message on Dec. 20.
After a two-month ordeal in Haiti, the last 12 kidnapped staff members of Christian Aid Ministries made their way to freedom on Dec. 16, 2021. Seventeen people were taken hostage... Read More
December 24, 2021 | Web First | Barb Draper
Meserete Kristos Church leaders visited the conflict region in Ethiopia in June 2021. Left to right: Gelagay Himiru, Tilahun Wase, Desalegn Abebe, Abayneh Anjulo and Addisu Legesse. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite World Conference)
More than 400 Mennonite churches in Ethiopia have been affected by civil strife that started in November 2020. Though information is hard to verify and numbers will likely rise,... Read More
December 24, 2021 | Web First | Will Braun
(Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Congregations in Mennonite Church B.C. have been observing Advent in various ways through December. Yarrow United Mennonite celebrated First Advent, the Sunday of joy, with a... Read More
December 24, 2021 | Web First | Amy Rinner Waddell
‘Whether stretching our bodies for fitness, or stretching our spirits in worship, we experienced the empowering sabbath rest of God as we pulled “away from the crowds” for this short time,’ says Rudy Dirks. (Photo courtesy of Rudy Dirks)
Travelling from Canada to meet with Congolese and Angolan church leaders in Africa, Rudy Dirks is struck not by the cultural, social and economic differences between himself and... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Katie Doke Sawatzky
Gary Dyck, left, MHV’s executive director, is pictured with Carolyn Peters, Steinbach Community Christmas hamper’s co-ordinator.
In response to a fundraising appeal letter from Steinbach Community Christmas in October, Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) determined that it didn’t have any money to give, but... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News |
An electric vehicle ‘fills up’ at the charging station at the Shekinah Retreat Centre near Waldheim, Sask. (Photo by Jared Regier)
The Shekinah Retreat Centre, located near Waldheim, Sask., is now home to an electric vehicle (EV) charging station. Shekinah, which is one of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Emily Summach
Pastor Rachel Navarro, left, and Angelika Dawson, right, reveal the finished artwork that members of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., worked on collaboratively in fall. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
A new art project on the subject of “journey” that members of the Emmanuel Mennonite Church congregation took part in painting is now hanging above the building’s front doors. The... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Two CMU students offer musical talents to community orchestra in Winnipeg. (Photo by Stanley Wiebe)
The Mennonite Community Orchestra (MCO) broke the pandemic silence with a concert featuring two Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) students on Nov. 14 in Winnipeg. The concert... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
In December 2018, Sophie Tiessen-Eigbike and her husband Christopher Eigbike visit the church she had served at while with SALT in 1982. (Photo courtesy of Sophie Tiessen-Eigbike)
In the summer of 1982, 20-year-old Sophie Tiessen-Eigbike was about to get on a plane bound for Zimbabwe. She didn’t know it yet, but this trip was going to change the trajectory... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Jason Dueck
The Common Ground Growing Project near Rosenfeld, Man., harvested 12 hectares of wheat in August. (Photo by Gordon Janzen)
The coronavirus has intensified a multitude of world issues, including hunger. The United Nations’ State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report revealed a big increase... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Highway 1 in B.C. washed out by severe rain on Nov. 17. (B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure photo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))
Climate change has been on the agenda of our global village for a generation. The science, the discourse and the mood have shifted over time. As has reality. What was once a dark... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Will Braun
Pictured above is a Mennonite Central Committee relief kit filled with towels, shampoo, soap and other essential items. (MCC photo by Paula Holtzinger)
In January 2021, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada and MCC Manitoba declared that they would close their warehouse in Plum Coulee, Man., about 100 kilometres south of... Read More
December 15, 2021 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Pursuing a career in music education was a dream for Ann L. Schultz, who was always passionate about making music. Now after 30 years and on the cusp of retirement from Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Kitchener, Ont., as a music teacher and principal, she has been announced as the recipient of Conrad Grebel University College’s 2021 Distinguished Alumni Service Award. (Photo courtesy of Ann L. Schultz)
Pursuing a career in music education was a dream for Ann L. Schultz, who was always passionate about making music. Now after 30 years and on the cusp of retirement, she has been... Read More
December 15, 2021 | People |
In this 1983 photo, Jake Tilitzky, left, moderator of the General Conference Mennonite Church, and Ross Bender, moderator of the (Old) Mennonite Church, lay their separate stones on the one stone (symbolizing Jesus Christ), as the two denominations moved toward union. (Mennonite Library and Archives photo)
Jacob “Jasch” Tilitzky, longtime pastor and leader in Mennonite Church British Columbia and the wider Mennonite church family, died on Nov. 9 in Abbotsford. He was born in... Read More
December 15, 2021 | People | Amy Rinner Waddell
Lisa Martens Bartel preaches to her congregation in Kelowna, B.C., via Zoom from her home in Drake, Sask. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Martens Bartel)
Over the course of the pandemic, many pastors and church leaders have grumbled about the woes of technology and the rise of Zoom worship gatherings. But for Lisa Martens Bartel,... Read More
December 15, 2021 | People | Emily Summach