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The urgency of untidy joy
I’ve been thinking again about joy. I know this theme is counterintuitive. The scope of violence and injustice in the world is crushing right now, both far away and close to home, and it’s proving chronic in ways that undermine efforts…
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Open to the Spirit
Just over a year ago, I invited readers of Canadian Mennonite to share their Holy Spirit experiences with me (April 6, 2023). I was pleasantly surprised by the response. I was moved and encouraged by the messages I received. Thank you to…
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MCC executive directors respond to concerns of former workers
The following is an additional response by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to serious concerns raised in our “Involuntary” article (July 2024) as well as in the online petition and open letter referenced in that article and posted online by a…
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Community found in the kitchen
Categories: OpinionIn 1989, my grandmother, Lorraine Braun, began creating a cookbook for my mother, Maurya. For three decades, she handwrote recipes of foods that were significant in our family or the Mennonite community. This recipe book is a central memory from my…
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A bullet point editorial
This issue of CM contains much intense material. I want to take this opportunity to not add to that, (though I had started writing about an unanswerable question I inherited when I took this job). Instead, I offer quick thoughts…
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Threads of unity – Diversity in faith and tradition
The tilet is a quintessential feature of Ethiopian traditional attire, deeply rooted in our religious, ethnic and identity symbolism. Crafting the tilet involves intricate weaving techniques, utilizing continuous extra weft threads of varying colours to achieve specific desired designs. This intricate process requires a…
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Why we asked MCM to sign a call for a fossil fuel treaty
Categories: OpinionOur society is in the middle of a painful, promising and complicated shift. We know we need to stop burning fossil fuels. We need to transition to energy systems that are less polluting and less extractive while also learning to…
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A Place for Hate
Categories: OpinionHate – Ryan Dueck “My cellmate said a wild thing the other day; he told me that the word ‘hate’ is in the Bible, somewhere in the Old Testament. I told him he was full of s—, that God doesn’t…
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Navigating pastoral transitions
My interview with the pastoral search committee was wrapping up when one of the members asked me if I had any questions. They were not expecting the one question I had: “When my ministry at the church is finished, how…
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Learning unity
As Christians, we are called to be in the world but not of the world. We are urged to be transformed and renewed by the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:2). Whatever the dominant culture in the world says to us is not who we are. Instead, we are a community of faith that has Jesus at the centre of our lives. I believe that Jesus Christ came to tear down…
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To talk about God
When I started seminary three years ago, I realized I didn’t know how to talk about God. I was motivated to go to seminary because of my love for the Mennonite church. I wanted to deepen my understanding of how the church can draw people into forms of life…
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Am I Mennonite?
Although I’ve been a Mennonite pastor for over 25 years, I’m reluctant to call myself Mennonite. For several reasons. First, there’s an ethno-cultural component to the Mennonite identity that I lack. One does not simply become Mennonite, one is born Mennonite. Plenty of Mennonites would disagree with…
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Indigenous relations are not science fiction
It has been more than eight years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report, including 94 Calls to Action that various levels of government and religious communities committed themselves to implementing. Indigenouswatchdog.org is one of the sources…
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Gathering matters more than you think
I am a huge advocate for the local church. It is the gathering of people around the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus that frees our imaginations and forms our hearts to be a different kind of nation on…
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The maize of peace
By avocation, I am an historian with a strong interest in global geopolitics, so it feels odd to be a subsistence farmer. I spend much of my time just meeting my daily needs, while hearing about wars in Ukraine, Gaza…
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One more on unity and diversity
I’ve been writing this column for four-and-a-half years, and I’m sure I’ve used the same ideas more than once. In this, my last column, I return to the two core ideas that I get passionate about the most often. There…
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Lessons from the medicine wheel
Each year, A Common Word Alberta brings Muslims and Christians together in Edmonton to plan an annual interfaith dialogue. As the facilitator of Mennonite Church Alberta’s Bridge Building network (a re-imagined role that continues the good work of Donna Entz,…
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Nothing new under the sun
In Ndebele, my language, we have a proverb that says, Inala kayihambi, kuhamba indlala. It says that times of abundant harvest are not reported, but times of hunger and famine make good news. Too true. All news worth reporting, in…
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Circling back to simplicity
Categories: OpinionI’ve been thinking about simplicity. Are today’s Canadian Mennonites committed to faith-motivated simple living? Am I? I first encountered the spiritual discipline of simplicity 20 years ago when I read Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. I had grown up in…
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See all of us
Categories: OpinionGrace has increasingly become my lens for reading both scripture and other people. I have come to think grace—the wildly undeserved favour dispensed by God—is the most important feature of the gospel. Grace helps me ponder alternative understandings of biblical…
Opinion/columns
