‘Sounding the Scriptures’
Categories: Feature ArticlesManaging editor Ross W. Muir was introduced to biblical storytelling when John Epp, a member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers Canada and Toronto United Mennonite Church, visited First Mennonite Church…
For discussion: Discipleship as Citizenship
Categories: Feature Articles1. Do your Christian values make you feel like a resident alien in Canada? How strong are your ties of loyalty to Canada? How strong is your allegiance to your…
Remembering and honouring ‘soldiers’ of Christ
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn Philippians 2:25-30, the Apostle Paul advises the violently besieged Christian community in Philippi to grant special “honours” to a “fellow-soldier” who has “risked his life” in service of Christ.…
Discipleship as citizenship
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn the first 300 years of the Christian church, before church and state became fused, preachers and leaders regularly used the language of “citizenship” to describe the Christian community and…
Imagine!
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn Charles Dickens' well-known story, A Christmas Carol, anyone who dares enter the inner sanctum of Ebenezer Scrooge's office with so much as a suggestion of Christmas is greeted with…
For discussion: Imagine!
Categories: Feature Articles1. Do you know anyone with a “Bah! Humbug! ” attitude towards Christmas? What makes you want to say “Bah! Humbug! ”? Where do you draw the line on sentimentalism?…
Reading list on atonement
Categories: Feature ArticlesAtonement, Justice and Peace: The Message of the Cross and the Mission of the Church by Darrin Snyder Belousek. Eerdmans, 2012. Instead of Atonement: The Bible’s Salvation Story and our…
Atonement metaphors/theories
Categories: Feature ArticlesChristus Victor/Ransom When humanity sinned in Genesis 3, they fell under the control of Satan. Due to personal sin, no human being was able to pay the ransom to free…
Atonement
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn the 1990s, when the Mennonite church in Ontario was deciding whether to add Hymnal: A Worship Book to its pews, a dear (now departed) saint approached me, saying, “I…
For discussion: ‘Let nobody judge them’
Categories: Feature Articles1. During the Second World War, what happened when young men in your family or community were called up for military service? What are the stories of your congregation dealing…
Uncle Sam goes to jail
Categories: Feature ArticlesOf memories I have of family members, the one about my Uncle Sam’s arrest on April 19, 1944, and his imprisonment, which became legendary in our community, left an indelible…
‘Let nobody judge them’
Categories: Feature ArticlesOf late, many peace-minded Canadians have been decrying the country’s increasing militarization, calling to mind this country’s proud peacekeeping tradition as if it was a defining feature of confederation. Unfortunately,…
For discussion: Rethinking peace
Categories: Feature Articles1. What would happen if someone in your congregation joined the military? Would your church have a prayer of blessing to send him on his way? What does peace mean…
Mennonite Church Canada Peace Audit: a long procession
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe General Council Peace Commission of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) requested a response from Mennonite Church Canada to the question, “How is your church doing in its desire to be…
Rethinking peace
Categories: Feature Articles“In the last 15 or 20 years, I have heard only one sermon on peace,” says Bernie Loeppky, a member of Grace Mennonite Church in Winkler, Man., and a member…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. Have you ever had an experience where you felt unjustly treated and there didn’t seem to be a way to make it right? How did you respond to those…
Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry contest prompts passionate responses
Categories: Feature ArticlesWhat do you see as the greatest divide between indigenous and settler cultures in Canada?
Clawing our way out of the morass together
Categories: Feature ArticlesElmer Courchene introduced himself as an Anishinabe elder whose home is Turtle Island. He carried himself with dignity, but his carefully chosen words reflected the uncertainty within: “I’m 77 years…
For discussion
Categories: Feature Articles1. What have been your experiences with the Roman Catholic Church? Do Mennonites today still have the same suspicions about Catholic theology that Will Braun says he grew up with?…
Holy contradictions
Categories: Feature ArticlesDespite gaping holes in the biblical basis for its elaborate hierarchy, and despite relatively widespread pedophilia among its priests, the Roman Catholic Church holds on to roughly twice as many…
Feature articles
