The witness of heterogeneity
Categories: OpinionThe world has become heterogeneous. We live in an era of cultural boundarilessness. Go to the nearest McDonald’s and see who is sitting there. Tune into CBC’s My Farmland, in which a Chinese immigrant family move to rural Saskatchewan. (I…
Readers write: May 19, 2023 issue
Categories: OpinionPerfection In response to various recent articles and letters about banning and cancel culture: Most of what I’ve seen, heard or read about cancel culture appears to define it as the denigration of those whose actions or ideas may fall…
Time to be a champion
Categories: OpinionThese days I’ve been thinking about youth and the church. Connecting youth to the church is a passion of mine, and I’m fortunate that the wonderful people of Saskatchewan see fit to pay me to do this work. I am…
Mennonite Men of Canada
Categories: OpinionBy 1961, men’s groups in General Conference churches had proliferated to the point where a national organization, “Mennonite Men of Canada,” was formed. Here, in 1962, are executive members Henry M. Dick (Calgary), Carl Ens (Saskatoon) and Ted Friesen (Altona,…
Standing ready for the end
Categories: OpinionRecently, another of my old aunts died. Aunt Anne was my dad’s sister. The Olfert family was a large one, with six boys and six girls. Three sisters and a brother remain. Aunt Anne was a grand old lady, who…
Everything is connected
Categories: OpinionThis column is going to attempt two tasks, because, well, everything is connected! As usual, I may be trying to do too much—let’s see! First of all, May is mental health month. Several years ago, I wrote about my own…
Paths of kindness and truth
Categories: OpinionI grew up believing that God’s will was specific. God had a plan for my life and I was either living faithfully along that path or veering from it. It wasn’t necessarily defiant disobedience that caused one to fall off…
Readers write: May 5, 2023 issue
Categories: OpinionReader finds assurance in the Holy Spirit’s presence Troy Watson has exposed us to the topic of the Holy Spirit among us as believers, in his April 7 column, “Many Christians do not believe in the Holy Spirit.” The presence…
‘Camp shapes people’
Categories: OpinionI am looking ahead to my last summer as associate program director of Mennonite Church Manitoba’s Camps with Meaning (CwM) program; my last summer spent travelling to and from Assiniboia and Koinonia; my last summer training and supporting an amazing…
Pauingassi Trading Post
Categories: OpinionThis picture is of the Pauingassi Trading Post, located 276 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and 16 km from the Manitoba and Ontario border. Mission worker Henry Neufeld brought a request from community elders for a store focused on community well-being,…
Talking more about power
Categories: OpinionIt was Easter Sunday, and after the sun came up over the horizon during our congregational sunrise service, we all tramped inside to share an amazing potluck breakfast spread. My husband Keith landed at a men’s table, and I watched…
Darkness and light in worship
Categories: OpinionWhen Sarah Kathleen Johnson was an undergraduate student at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., she wrote a hymn text based on Psalm 139. More than a decade later, Len Enns, her former choir director at Grebel and a…
Extending grace instead of labelling enemies
Categories: OpinionAccording to a recent Wall Street Journal-Norc poll, the smallest percentage of Americans (12 percent) said they were “very happy” since 1972. These “very happy” people share a number of common traits. They are more likely to value community, personal…
Revisiting intentionality
Categories: OpinionOnce upon a time, there was a belief in the Canadian Mennonite church that if it welcomed new people of colour, immigrants and refugees, these newcomers would eventually join and integrate into the church. This was an illusion. The church’s…
Readers write: April 21, 2023 issue
Categories: OpinionThe religion of peace The week the F-35 fighter jet was on the cover (Jan. 30), I had pulled an antique book of sermons off the shelf that my wife had from her grandmother. Published in 1896, it is titled…
Jesus and the 4 Cs
Categories: OpinionHave you ever heard of the 4 Cs? In education, the 4 Cs refer to 21st century learning skills including critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating and collaborating. In my role now, I have been thinking about how Jesus connects to…
Bernhard Schellenberg
Categories: OpinionIn 2023, the Mennonite Heritage Archives celebrates 90 years of service to the Mennonite community. It can trace its roots to the Conference of Mennonites in Canada’s annual sessions held June 26-28, 1933, in Gnadenthal (near Plum Coulee, Man.), when…
‘An old nose’
Categories: OpinionA recent weekend was exhausting, delightful, enlightening, hilarious, touching . . . and exhausting. The stars lined up in such a way that we kept our youngest grandchild, seven-year-old Jaxon, here for the weekend. Usually when he’s here, he is…
Dandelions for the Gospel
Categories: OpinionA dandelion tattoo festoons my left forearm, a puffball ready to launch its wispy seeds. Asked to speak at one of our congregations one Sunday, I intended to start the children’s feature by showing the tattoo. “Can you do that?”…
What more could I want?
Categories: Opinion“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). Despite regular self-reminders of my abundance, I want. Despite the ongoing conversations with my children about our relative wealth, they want. Despite overflowing shelves of books and games, and…
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