Lament for Sunday school
Categories: OpinionSara Garnet and I were cleaning out the Sunday school classrooms of Faith Mennonite Church in Leamington, Ont., with heavy hearts one Wednesday afternoon. We had put it off for a long time. It felt like we were cleaning out…
Readers write: August 22, 2022 issue
Categories: OpinionPoint: Teachers are fallible, but God can use them Over the past decades, as a “dyed-in-the-wool” Anabaptist Mennonite, I have come to value the teaching/preaching of several “new Anabaptists.” Recently, Brian Zahnd’s sermon of May 29 (Word of Life Church,…
A season of Jubilee
Categories: Opinion“Called to proclaim good news to the poor . . . release to the captives . . . sight to the blind . . . freedom for the oppressed . . . and the time of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).…
J.J. Thiessen
Categories: Opinion“All beginnings are hard” said J.J. Thiessen. He began his public ministry in 1930 in Saskatoon, hired by the General Conference Mennonite Church to operate the Maedchenheim, helping young women find work and providing spiritual guidance, and to give leadership…
Can we see it?
Categories: OpinionIt’s a summer of church gatherings. It’s a summer of truth-telling about the devastating impact of colonization by the church. It’s a summer of reflection on what it means to be a post-colonial church. I took in what I could…
Sharing across languages
Categories: Opinion“Dear friends, we’re one in Jesus’ love, restored to hope, so trust him fully, he’s the Lord who calls us friends.” Voices Together’s No. 525, is a simple and lilting Laotian traditional melody, with lyrics that describe Jesus’ followers as…
In the tension
Categories: OpinionA couple weeks ago, I came across this verse in I Samuel 18: “David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him.” I stopped reading and paused to process this bizarre statement. You see, the…
Diversity in our unity: Belonging to each other in the body of Christ
Categories: OpinionWhen I was a young adult volunteer in Jamaica, part of Mennonite Central Committee’s Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program, I brought a pie to a Mennonite church-sponsored baking competition and was disqualified because my mango pie did not fit…
Finding redemptive peace in Revelation
Categories: OpinionThe idea that Christ will return someday “riding on a horse, galloping through town and lopping off heads, is a blatant misreading of what is going on here,” writes Jeremy Duncan about the book of Revelation. He argues that this…
Notes from afar
Categories: OpinionIn early July, I was in Indonesia—virtually. Like approximately 800 other Anabaptists around the world, I registered as an online participant of Indonesia 2022, the 17th assembly of Mennonite World Conference (MWC). You’ll find coverage of that significant event on…
Readers write: July 25, 2022 issue
Categories: OpinionA ‘sad day’ for Indigenous-Settler Relations Re: “Indigenous relations work revamped, reduced,” May 30, page 14. The governing body of Mennonite Church Canada has abruptly let Steve Heinrichs go after more than 10 years of service in the Indigenous-Settler Relations…
An undefended spirit
Categories: OpinionBought tires for my pickup and determined to install them myself. I no longer have the specific equipment, so tire work involves scrabbling on a concrete floor with hammer and pry bars. The first wheel went well. In short order,…
Cycling the Black history of Ontario
Categories: OpinionWhen I moved from Alberta last year, my explorations of Ontario began by bike. My cycling companions showed me things I had not heard of. Once, we biked past the towering statue of some military guy on the heights above the…
A trickle of trust
Categories: OpinionThe camping trip had a rough start. While packing to go we got a phone call with a heart-stopping estimate for our car repairs, the first of two vehicles needing work. We were definitely feeling the financial crunch. My wife…
Thoughtful and prayerful changeovers in ministry
Categories: OpinionSometimes it is just best for the previous person to get out of here and let the new person start with a clean slate. Some say that pastors and denominational leaders should just give a month or two notice and…
Middle Eastern adventure for Winnipeg students
Categories: OpinionAfter two years of living through a pandemic, we never expected that we would be able to travel to the Middle East. After so much uncertainty, we were so fortunate to be able to be a group of 15 graduating…
Readers write: June 27, 2022 issue
Categories: OpinionKeep on keeping on After many years of supporting the withholding of military taxes and volunteering with Conscience Canada Peace Tax Trust Fund (CC), I have at last retired from the board. We have not yet achieved our goal: that…
Receiving a life-giving word
Categories: OpinionWhen God’s story connects with our story, the Holy Spirit is at work, bringing life. As author Anne Lamott says, “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but doesn’t leave…
Ladies at MWC
Categories: OpinionA large audience gathered for one of two “Women’s Section” meetings at the Mennonite World Conference held in Kitchener, Ont., in 1962. The women met to consider the conference theme, “The Lordship of Christ,” from the perspective of personal faith…
These are our people
Categories: OpinionWe welcomed two babies and their families with words of blessing and commitment into our local congregation today. The wide-eyed babies took in all the people watching them and waving at them, with our pastors saying “Look, these are your…
Opinion/columns
