Cancer buddies connect at assembly
Categories: Feature ArticlesThey walked together through a valley of shadows for two years, yet Assembly 2014 is the first time Elizabeth Wall and Lorraine Reimer have met face to face. Reimer, a…
‘Spiritual disciplines are not magic’
Categories: Feature Articles“It only takes a scrap of time to turn to God.” April Yamasaki shared this anonymous piece of 14th-century wisdom in her “Cultivating spiritual disciplines” workshop at Assembly 14. Sometimes…
Sisters equipped to care for their sisters
Categories: Feature ArticlesWhat are the needs of women, and how are they working to meet those needs? Rhoda Keener, co-director of Mennonite Women U.S.A., led a presentation and discussion surrounding these needs…
‘We are all cousins’
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe Cree word “kiciwamanawak” means “we are all cousins.” In Canada, however, this familial relationship between settler and host is fractured. This was the theme of the “Broken covenant: Indigenous…
Subversive guest
Categories: Feature ArticlesAfter seminar leader Chris Lenshyn began his post-Christian landscape session by reading chapter 1 of Daniel, he invited participants—48 adults and one baby—to gather in twos to converse about this…
A splashing good time
Categories: Feature ArticlesUnique timing and collaboration led to one of Manitoba Church Manitoba Camps with Meaning sites hosting two days of the children’s assembly—a first in Assembly gathering history. And they did…
Jesus taught equality, regardless of sexual identity
Categories: Feature ArticlesProbably the two most divisive issues in the church at the moment are women’s status and rights in the church, and the moral legitimacy of same-sex covenant relationships. The parallel…
‘They will know we are Christians by our love’
Categories: Feature ArticlesDuring the 2013-14 academic year, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) was engaged in intense conversations on and off campus regarding its hiring policy concerning individuals in covenanted same-sex relationships. Research professor…
For discussion: Jesus taught equality, regardless of sexual identity
Categories: Feature Articles1. Does your church give equal status and rights to women and men? How did earlier generations explain their assumption that powerful roles were reserved for men? How much does…
The truth about sexual abuse will set you free
Categories: Feature ArticlesI came across an editorial by Dick Benner a few months ago and was distressed to read about the late—and highly regarded—John Howard Yoder having sexually violated 80 women “at…
Deepening community
Categories: Feature Articles“I really do not want more community than we already have at this church,” shared a congregant during a Sunday morning adult Sunday school discussion. “What I like about this…
For discussion: Deepening community
Categories: Feature Articles1. What are some examples of things you do to support others in your family, congregation, team or club? In what situations have you received support from others? In what…
A time to die
Categories: Feature ArticlesWhen Susan Griffiths of Winnipeg went to Switzerland a year ago to die by doctor-assisted suicide, it was headline news and re-ignited the debate around end-of-life issues. Responses to her…
For discussion: A time to die
Categories: Feature Articles1. Have you participated in any end-of-life decisions? Under what conditions would you consider withholding possible treatment for yourself or a family member? How would you respond to a loved…
How to heal a nation divided?
Categories: Feature ArticlesOne could attribute the current crisis in Ukraine to the lack of sympathy for democratic practice. Repeated fisticuffs in Ukraine’s Parliament were one indication of that deficit. And why was…
‘Blessed are the peacemakers’
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe following announcement was released by Vyacheslav Nesteruk, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, and Aleksey Smirnov, president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, after…
For discussion: How to heal a nation divided?
Categories: Feature Articles1. William Yoder suggests that democracy requires compromise and a sharing of power. Have you had experiences in public, church or family life where compromising or sharing power was difficult?…
The shape of church to come?
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe skyline is liberally punctuated with steeples, but they loom like tombstones over the churches of Montréal. The beautiful buildings are mostly dead on Sundays, and I wonder where the…
Honouring a cross-country request
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe first Skype conversation I ever had was with someone in Germany about a guy from Montréal who wanted to be baptized in Edmonton. This extraordinary testament to a globalized…
‘Peace be with you’
Categories: Feature ArticlesAs in many environments today, “peace” was a conventional salutation in the ancient world. In the Gospel of Luke, when the risen Jesus appears among the disciples in Jerusalem, he…
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