Reflections of creation
Categories: Feature ArticlesGod’s creation is now facing unprecedented destruction brought on by human activity. Attentive hunters know this just as well as vegan environmentalists. Caring for the ecosystems that God created doesn’t…
Evil is right here with me
Categories: Feature ArticlesSomething needs to be done about all the hate in the world. This morning I encountered no fewer than three pieces of media expressing incredulity that the internet seems not…
How long until the fullness of time?
Categories: Feature ArticlesThere is an old story that when Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Pope Julius would come by to yell up at him in the scaffolding, “When…
Called to bleed and die for the sake of the nation
Categories: Feature ArticlesAs a minister of the Mennonite church in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Hermann Gottlieb Mannhardt knew how to challenge and encourage his congregants in matters of faith and moral conduct.…
Holding hands with the FARC
Categories: Feature ArticlesThere we were, standing in a prayer circle holding hands. While not really that unusual, what was extraordinary was that some of the hands we were holding were likely bloody.…
Welcoming the stranger at Christmas
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe Christ Child has arrived. We’ve waited through four weeks of Advent to light that fifth candle, the Christ candle, symbolizing the presence of Christ in our midst. And we…
An everlasting light
Categories: Feature ArticlesGod of grace, today we pray for peace for the City of Bethlehem. It has had more than its share of conflict, as it has changed from a sleepy little…
Pregnant with peace
Categories: Feature ArticlesFrom the moment we learned I was pregnant, the baby we longed for was continually on my mind. What would it look like? What kind of personality would it have?…
Full stomach, faulty memory
Categories: Feature ArticlesWe are daily awash in choices and opportunities, and many of us are affluent enough to be able to choose among many options. Many of us make many choices even…
Biblical characters as spiritual companions
Categories: Feature ArticlesThe Bible is full of stories about people, real people with bodies and minds, and with an array of experiences, relationships and emotions. How odd, then, that we so often…
A united witness
Categories: Feature ArticlesThis month marks the 65th anniversary of English-language magazine publishing for Mennonites in Canada. The Canadian Mennonite, a precursor to the magazine you are holding in your hands (or reading…
From ‘never a teacher’ to ‘why not?’
Categories: Feature Articles“Never a teacher,” I declared from the time I was in public school, growing up in the Leamington district of southwestern Ontario. When I finished high school in Ontario, I…
Tending the in-between spaces
Categories: Feature ArticlesIn the midst of significant structural change in Mennonite Church Canada, a group of Canadian Mennonite University students came together in December 2015 around the question, “Do young people care…
Experiencing the good news
Categories: Feature Articles“You . . . were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people” (Ephesians 1:13-14, NRSV).…
Remembering my baptism
Categories: Feature ArticlesI was baptized on an Easter Sunday morning, in the midst of a beautiful service celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. By the first rays of morning light, we greeted each…
From belief to belonging
Categories: Feature Articles“Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for…
‘God just isn’t finished with me yet’
Categories: Feature ArticlesI was raised in a family with Scottish Presbyterian roots, where no one talked about faith for fear of being “too religious.” We trusted that seniors had it all figured…
Paving the way to the Promised Land
Categories: Feature Articles“You don’t go quickly from Egypt to the Promised Land,” quips Harold Schlegel. “The wilderness is where God forms us.” The wilderness Schlegel speaks of is the transition in a…
‘Acceptance without exception’
Categories: Feature Articles“And whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, and the…
An empty bowl
Categories: Feature Articles“Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended…
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