coping grieving remembering
Categories: Feature ArticlesHolly (a pseudonym) began experiencing serial pregnancy loss several years ago, after the birth of her youngest son. In her mind, the words “church” and “support” don’t really go together.…
When your services are no longer required
Categories: Feature Articles“So this is how Mennonite Church Canada handles layoffs due to shrinking budgets. This was my mom’s experience today: show up to work; given the news; laptop taken away; password…
Advice for those ‘no longer required’
Categories: Feature ArticlesSince I shared my husband’s painful job loss through no fault of his own, I’ve received many emails and other private messages from people who have also experienced difficult endings…
We can always afford to be generous
Categories: Feature ArticlesPeach Blossom Church almost always meets its budget, although some years involve more drama than others. It still engages a full-time pastor, fixes the roof and supports mission workers. In…
Hope through lament and loss
Categories: Feature Articles“A season of change,” lament, fear, anxiety, confession, uncertainty, safe space, brave space . . . hope. Mennonite Church Canada, which held its biennial assembly, “God~Faith~People,” in Saskatoon from July…
The lucky struggle
Categories: Feature ArticlesFortune and misfortune can look the same in a world of incomprehensible inequality. Each year, many thousands of Jamaicans apply for coveted temporary jobs on Canadian farms. The lucky applicants…
Meet the pastors who moonlight
Categories: Feature ArticlesSomeone once said, “There’s no such thing as part-time pastors, only part-time salaries.” If this is true, a lot of congregations within Mennonite Church Canada are getting good value for…
An open letter on Future Directions
Categories: Feature ArticlesWe are a group of pastors from each of the five area churches who have gathered around the current Future Directions Task Force conversations in an effort to understand and…
Prayer of preparation for Assembly 2016
Categories: Feature ArticlesAs delegates prepare to gather for Assembly 2016, a group of 10 pastors from across Mennonite Church Canada wrote an open letter on the Future Directions process. They write, “In…
Guard your heart and mind
Categories: Feature ArticlesI memorized Philippians 4:4-9 more than 20 years ago when I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with my son Aaron. I had lost three babies before him—and one…
Communion and Cabernet
Categories: Feature ArticlesAlcohol has become ubiquitous in Canada, so much so that on April 5 even Starbucks began serving beer and wine in three of its Toronto outlets. How does this preponderance…
What’s up with Mennos and mission?
Categories: Feature ArticlesAbout eight years ago, Daniel Pantoja shared the approach he and his wife Joji employed as Mennonite Church Canada Witness Workers in the Philippines: “Toss aside western church culture and…
Marriage in embodied mystery
Categories: Feature ArticlesMarriage has always been, and continues to be, a perplexing reality for Christians. From the Apostle Paul’s confusing advice to the more recent agonizing over divorce, Christian marriage has been…
Easter is past . . . where is Jesus now?
Categories: Feature ArticlesExcerpted and translated from a sermon preached at Niagara United Mennonite Church, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., on April 26, 2015. It is based on chapter 21 of the Gospel of John, the…
Encountering the vulnerable Jesus
Categories: Feature ArticlesLent is a 40-day season on the church calendar that brings the story of Jesus into the nitty-gritty of community life. It brings the story into everyone’s own particular time…
For what purpose has Christ grabbed hold of you?
Categories: Feature ArticlesA year ago, when a colleague and I spent an intense two days in the beautiful Fraser Valley of B.C. with the writing team for our Leader magazine, I met…
What is ‘good’ and ‘acceptable’?
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn a time when western society is rapidly altering its image of marriage and government institutions have legally recognized same-sex marriage, the church is pressed to decide: Shall we follow…
Witness workers bring forth concerns about ‘Future Directions’
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe following is an abridged version of a letter sent to the Future Directions Task Force and Mennonite Church Canada leaders that was signed by all 24 Witness workers in…
Witness workers’ concerns acknowledged
Categories: Feature ArticlesOn behalf of the Future Directions Task Force I express sincere thanks for the thought and time you’ve put into the open letter received last week from Norm Dyck, Mennonite…
The challenge of diversity
Categories: Feature ArticlesToday, our community of Anabaptist-related churches spans the globe, incorporating people from many different cultural, ethnic and political backgrounds. We are, without a doubt, a diverse community. Whenever we gather,…
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