Readers write: April 12, 2021 issue
Categories: OpinionReader calls on Mennonites to reject COVID-19 vaccines Re: “A duty to love our neighbours,” March 1, pages 1 and 18. I am deeply saddened that so many leaders of the Mennonite church are endorsing vaccinations for COVID-19, and that…
Called to hear
Categories: OpinionI have a selective hearing problem. When I’m at home on a Thursday night, weary from a day’s worth of important religious listening, the certain pleas of a younger family member of mine to discuss the latest plot twist in an…
Herman Walde
Categories: OpinionHerman Walde stands in front of the sign of First Mennonite Church in Edmonton, where he served as pastor from 1963 to 1966. Historically, as Mennonites became more accepted, their churches began to look like the churches of their neighbours.…
A precious gift
Categories: OpinionI visited an elderly friend in a small-town hospital. Gaining permission to see “Esther” (all names are pseudonyms) involved a slight untruth, but it was merely a sin of omission, as I simply withheld “retired” when I identified myself as…
What does UN ‘peace’ mean?
Categories: Opinion“Making Peace with Nature” is the peculiar title of a scientific report recently tabled by the United Nations. That’s an attention-getting title for a peace-church eco-geek. My inquiring mind begs to know: How does the UN conceptualize “peace with nature”…
Matters of life and death
Categories: OpinionI waffle a lot when it comes to death. Sometimes I welcome the idea, especially when faith in being united with Christ is high, when the weight of the world and its heartache is great. But other times I fear…
Making welcoming spaces for all
Categories: Web First – OpinionWhen I was a pastor, I learned we had a few young people with autism in our youth group. In order to begin creating an environment that felt more comfortable, I provided a big basket of fidgets on the table…
Readers write: March 29, 2021 issue
Categories: OpinionFascism by any other name Re: “Committed to seeking a deeper understanding,” Feb. 1, page. 13 It is a good idea that Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is willing to re-examine the role Mennonites played in National Socialist Germany. One would…
‘Rooted in Christ, reaching out in love’
Categories: OpinionCOVID-19 has forced most of us to embrace that most rousing of Anabaptist virtues: simplicity. Our lives have been simplified, stripped down to the essentials. We have gone out only when needed, we have bought only what we must, we…
Group photo
Categories: OpinionNothing says “occasion” like a panoramic group photograph. Pictured, Sharon Mennonite Church in Guernsey, Sask., commemorates its 50th anniversary in 1955. The congregation consisted primarily of Mennonite settlers from the Waterloo, Ont., region. The special panoramic camera brought from Saskatoon…
Accountability
Categories: OpinionJean Vanier. Ravi Zacharias. John Howard Yoder. We add to this list in our own Canadian Mennonite church community every year. My Lenten reading in March was from Matthew 23, where Jesus chastises faith leaders who do not practise what…
Cave of emptiness
Categories: OpinionI spend at least 30 minutes a day in silent prayer and meditation, but sometimes this isn’t enough. A few times a year I need a fuller and deeper experience of silence. I need solitude. Paul Tillich says, “Loneliness expresses…
What would Jesus think about factory farms?
Categories: OpinionIn Genesis 9:3, God says to Noah: “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” But when God declared this, did he have factory…
Readers write: March 15, 2021 issue
Categories: OpinionHistory and generosity ‘should count for something’ Re: “MCC centralizing relief warehouse in New Hamburg,” Feb. 1, page 14. It was reported—as a “no-big-deal” item—that the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) warehouse in Plum Coulee, Man., will move to New Hamburg,…
Beginning the journey in prayer
Categories: OpinionAs the people of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, we’re going on a journey of courageous imagination. Over the course of the next year we will dream, imagine and listen to each other’s stories of faith as we seek to hear…
Modern life
Categories: Opinion“The car [is] the child and charm of modernity,” writes sociologist Donald Kraybill. A century ago, this new technology became another dividing line between Mennonites who contested or accepted—even embraced—modern life. This photo of horse sheds outside Elmira Mennonite Church,…
We are now family
Categories: OpinionSome years ago, the person who shares my life experienced a blip in her physical well-being. This resulted in Holly spending several days in hospital. One result of that experience was encountering a couple whom we will call “Bill” and…
Don’t be like Jonah
Categories: OpinionJonah suddenly became a favourite book of mine after I went to Iraq. Forget the fish! The book is a comedic satire against ethnocentrism, nationalism and a narrow-minded exclusivity regarding God. In the story, the whiny fellow is sent 900…
Like an adult on a spinning teacup
Categories: OpinionI love watching my kids twirl endlessly around at the park on those self-propelling spinners. It reminds me of my childhood spinning on tire swings until we were nearly sick, and then quickly jumping off and attempting to walk, looking…
Readers write: March 1, 2021 issue
Categories: OpinionA sombre revelation for a former neighbour Re: “ ‘What will happen to us now?’ A son recalls his mother’s experience of the 1918 pandemic,’ ” Jan. 18, 2021, page 24. Living at the parsonage in Osler, Sask., from age 6 to…
Opinion/columns
