Readers write: November 11, 2019 issue
Categories: Opinion‘This is our church’ Re: “How to talk about money at your church,” Sept. 30, page 10. I read this Viewpoint piece, which I thought may give me insight into the responsible use of my resources. But Lori Guenther…
I smile because I’m grateful
Categories: OpinionThere’s canola in my bed and it makes me smile. Perhaps I should explain. Currently, harvest is in full gear. I see my husband at mealtimes (maybe), and when he crawls into bed after combining fields well past the middle…
Speed sprayer
Categories: OpinionReaders raised on fruit farms—including this archivist—may remember the high-pitched whine of an orchard pesticide sprayer in action. Pictured, Peter J. Sawatzky of Ruthven, Ont., is operating a “speed-sprayer” in his apple orchard. This photo accompanied an article in The…
Allow a little child to lead you
Categories: OpinionMy good memories of Thanksgiving 2019 will be focused on children. On Oct. 13, I preached a sermon at Grace Mennonite in Prince Albert. Church culture has me arriving an hour before the service. It’s a 100-kilometre drive. I will…
Confronting a drastic future
Categories: OpinionIt’s been a month since Greta Thunberg—the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden—came to my town for a climate rally. The Edmonton reception was decidedly mixed. One reception was evidenced by around 10,000 people who gathered at the Alberta legislature. Most…
Readers write: October 28, 2019 issue
Categories: OpinionPoint:Counterpoint—Differing views on AMBS hiring Re: “Boshart next AMBS president despite expressed concerns,” Sept. 30, page 27. Thanks to Canadian Mennonite for covering the opposition to the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) announcement about its new president. As the only…
Speak Jesus
Categories: OpinionIn the mid-1960s, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman coined the phrase “the social construction of reality.” The phrase emphasizes that the world of power and meaning is created through the careful management and manipulation of social symbols. This is done…
Bethel Bible Institute
Categories: OpinionCan you help identify these three men at Bethel Bible Institute (BBI)? Is John Poettcker in the centre? The formation of Bethel in Abbotsford, B.C., was proposed in 1937 at the ministers conference of the Conference of United Mennonite Churches…
Rhythms of reconciliation
Categories: OpinionMy two-year-old has developed a habit of throwing his bowl across the kitchen when he’s finished his food. Sometimes it clears the dining area and we find it in the playroom with a messy trail of porridge! Every time I…
Walking in the church
Categories: OpinionWho is a Canadian Mennonite? I stood in line for supper at the start of a church convention this summer, and looked at my turquoise toenails, a splurge in the airport during a two-hour delay, and wondered if that had…
Credible Christians
Categories: Opinion“People are no longer interested in religion or church, but they are still interested in Jesus.” This is a statement many Christians, including myself on occasion, proclaim confidently. However, blanket statements like these are misleading. The assumption that everyone is…
Walking a different path
Categories: OpinionWhen we first started telling people we were going to hike the Masar Ibrahim Trail in the West Bank, Palestine, they were incredulous. “You’re going where? You’re doing what?” Over a three-week period, starting in Rummana at the northern Israeli/Palestine…
Readers write: October 14, 2019 issue
Categories: OpinionQueer hymns cause deep concern for Ontario churchgoers Re: “Queer hymns now online,” Aug. 19, page 35. The undersigned from St. Catharines (Ont.) United Mennonite Church are deeply concerned about directions our Anabaptist faith is going in. Are we…
Just say ‘hi’
Categories: OpinionWe live in a fearful world. People persecute, slander, ignore, bully and oppress other people. It can be depressing catching the news of yet another hate crime, whether it’s on the other side of the globe, the other side of…
Helena Kruger’s sewing class
Categories: OpinionAccording to CBC, Canadian households buy four times as much clothing as they did 30 years ago, and throw away 46 kilograms of clothing per year, of which 85 percent ends up in the landfill, where it creates greenhouses gases…
Informed ethics
Categories: OpinionA man saw the title of the book I was reading with my morning coffee. It was something religious-sounding, so he engaged me about faith. Eventually he asked what I did, and I said I teach at the nearby Christian…
A burning issue
Categories: OpinionIn Elise Epp’s “Clothes to match your values,” she pointed out the ecological harm posed by the overuse of highly processed leather products. I immediately felt warm . . . and righteous. That bears explanation. I have a small business venture…
Readers write: September 30, 2019 issue
Categories: OpinionSenior aches over ‘what the issue of LGBTQ+ has done’ Re: “Queer hymns now online,” Aug. 19, page 35. This, as I remember it, is my second letter to Canadian Mennonite over the many years. It is disturbing to…
Where heaven and earth meet
Categories: OpinionThe Temple of Heaven is one of my favourite places in China. It was the place where the emperor went several times a year to offer sacrifices and receive wisdom from the spiritual realm, in order to rule wisely. The…
Aylmer community store
Categories: OpinionThe Aylmer (Ont.) Mennonite Community Store and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Aylmer Resource Centre are pictured after 1989. Both represent the response of the local community, Low German Mennonites and MCC Ontario to the increase in immigration of Low German…
Opinion/columns
