As the policy analyst for Mennonite Central Committee Ottawa, I’m constantly engaging with Canadian politics. I mostly love politics, but it’s also so easy to get drawn into toxic... Read More
Blog
'I still make paper cranes often...' (Image by Anke Sundermeier/Pixabay)
September 19, 2019 | Bekah Sears
"We all carry more profound debts than car loans and credit cards." (Image by Mohamed Hassan/Pixabay)
One of the terms I heard repeatedly at Gathering 2019 from June 29 to July 1 in Abbotsford, B.C. was “institutional church.” As in, “The institutional church would do things that... Read More
September 5, 2019 | Anthony G. Siegrist
'Our wanting is deeply influenced by what other people want, whether it’s a glass of expensive wine or the meticulously curated Instagram holidays of our friends.' (Image by StockSnap/Pixabay)
Most of us are at least dimly aware that our thinking and behaviour is influenced in important ways by our social circumstances. We tend, in general terms, to think and act like... Read More
August 22, 2019 | Ryan Dueck
'Her baby was crying loudly...' (Image by joffi/Pixabay)
Four weeks ago, just over 40 volunteers returned to Winnipeg from a week of service, learning and community engagement in Cross Lake, Man. This marked the 10th year that our... Read More
August 15, 2019 | Moses Falco
‘Just because we take a vacation from ordinary daily life does not mean that the events of ordinary daily life vacate us,’ Gareth Brandt writes. (Image by David Mark/Pixabay)
To “vacate” means to “leave a place once occupied.” In North America, summer is the time many people choose to leave home and travel somewhere else in order to rest and relax from... Read More
August 8, 2019 | Gareth Brandt
Dann and Joji Pantoja with their seven grandchildren. (Photo courtesy of Dann Pantoja)
My peace and reconciliation ministry is motivated ultimately by my love of the Creator, my service to Christ and my submission to the Comforter. Yet, I also have familial... Read More
August 1, 2019 | Dann Pantoja
Tim Wiebe, centre, stands with fellow Walk for Common Ground participants Cassidy Brown, left, and Allegra Friesen-Epp, right. (Photo courtesy of Steve Heinrich)
The image on the Treaty 6 flag is striking. The crest shows a European and Indigenous leader engaged in a never-ending handshake, a longstanding and well-understood symbol of... Read More
June 27, 2019 | Tim Wiebe-Neufeld
"If someone declares to us, 'I am a refugee,' we must listen carefully and discern. This has roots in Old Testament law which speaks about caring for the stranger in your land." (Image by Capri23auto/Pixabay)
What is a Christian response to migration? While on a day to day basis, I tend to deal with the nuts and bolts issues of refugee resettlement and Canadian and international policy... Read More
June 13, 2019 | Brian Dyck
Sara Wenger Shenk is president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. (AMBS photo)
Excerpt from MHEA vision statement Sara is focusing on: These schools form graduates who understand that the professional expression of their vocation will require deep roots in a... Read More
June 6, 2019 | Sara Wenger Shenk
'Scriptural Reasoning invites us into each others’ faith tradition by choosing scriptural passages from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur’an.' (Image by congerdesign/Pixabay)
As part of an effort among Alberta Mennonites to bridge understanding between Christians and Muslims, Christian-Muslim dialogues have been organized annually since 2013, under the... Read More
May 24, 2019 | Suzanne Gross
'We heard about monarch butterflies and how they are the symbol of migration. This really captured my heart and stayed with me during the following days.' (Image by PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay)
Mennonite Central Committee’s “People on the Move: Human Rights and Global Migration” student seminar in Ottawa this past February sparked in me a new curiosity and interest in... Read More
May 17, 2019 | Hannah Gray
'I left the jail one Monday morning last month feeling a heaviness that I have not felt in some time.' (Image by Fifaliana Joy/Pixabay)
I left the jail one Monday morning last month feeling a heaviness that I have not felt in some time. I don’t go there each Monday with some big agenda—I’m not there to reform or... Read More
May 7, 2019 | Ryan Dueck
Gareth Brandt speaks at the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly in Saskatoon in 2016. (Photo by Matt Veith)
I am not one of those people who says, “I’m not religious, I just love Jesus” or “I don’t belong to any denomination, I’m just a Christian.” Rather, I have sometimes said, “Those... Read More
April 30, 2019 | Gareth Brandt
(Image by Larisa Koshkina/Pixabay)
One of the most persistent questions I hear about the Christian faith relates to what we believe about the future—our future, the future of our communities, the future of the... Read More
April 25, 2019 | Anthony G. Siegrist
Easter moves because its date is determined by the lunar calendar and proximity to Jewish Passover. It can be celebrated by the Western church anywhere between March 22 and April 25. (Image by Germán R/Pixabay)
This year, Easter is on April 21. Last year, it was April 1. Next year it is April 12. Why does it move around so much? And would it be easier if it was the same date every year?... Read More
April 18, 2019 | John Longhurst
Jack Penashue and Rick Cober Bauman, executive director of MCC Canada, sit together in Sheshatshit during a visit to Labrador in December 2018. (MCC photo)
Mennonite Central Committee shares God’s love and compassion for all in the name of Christ. We have a vision of communities worldwide in right relationships with God, one another... Read More
April 16, 2019 | Rick Cober Bauman
Miriam Toews (above) has a complicated relationship with her hometown, writes MaryLou Driedger. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/MiriamToewsAuthor)
Alexandra Schwartz writes a lengthy feature in the current issue of The New Yorker magazine about author Miriam Toews, who was born and raised in Steinbach, Man. Toews’ eighth... Read More
April 4, 2019 | MaryLou Driedger
'I want to learn from our history and remind others that cultural and religious differences must not make us complicit in denying dignity and equality for all,' Leona Lortie writes. (Photo by Johannes Plenio/Pixabay)
In contemplating where our passions come from and why we do what we do, we often look to our childhoods. In my childhood, I was faced with several tensions, which formed me and... Read More
March 21, 2019 | Leona Lortie
In 2006, a Kansas City pastor challenged his congregation not to complain for 21 consecutive days—the time, he says, it takes to break an ingrained habit. (Photo by philm1310/Pixabay)
“You better stop whinin’, pinin',” Dolly Parton sings in her song, “Better Get to Livin'.” If you’re “underpaid or under appreciated,” you’ll get no sympathy from her. Her advice... Read More
March 12, 2019 | John Longhurst
'It’s the place where I can be formed and reoriented to what’s really important.' (Photo courtesy of Pixabay)
Times are a-changin’. They always are, and one of our challenges and joys is to figure out how we should live in a changing cultural and social context as followers of Jesus. In... Read More
February 21, 2019 | Moses Falco
Darryl Neustaedter Barg leads worship in Laurelville, Pa. last month. (Photo by Kreg Ulery)
How many of the songs in our Hymnal: A Worship Book (HWB), and the two supplements Sing the Journey and Sing the Story do you think are Mennonite? What does that even mean? If it... Read More
February 12, 2019 | Darryl Neustaedter Barg
Sue and Sam Steiner celebrate Sam’s Canadian citizenship in 1974.
My husband Sam and I went out for lunch at the end of October to celebrate Sam's 50th anniversary of arriving in Canada as a Vietnam-era draft resister. Back in Indiana, I had... Read More
February 5, 2019 | Sue Steiner
Photo by Marcello Gambetti from freeimages.com
As I’ve continued to follow the process set in motion by the Future Directions Task Force (FDTF), I’ve come to a different place with my thoughts on this major restructuring of... Read More
May 26, 2016 | Susie Guenther Loewen
Chilean mothers of the “disappeared” gather, holding signs of their missing loved ones. (Photo by Kena Lorenzini, from Wikimedia Commons)
When I was a young child, my family lived in Chile, where my parents worked at an inter-Protestant seminary. We happened to be there to witness the end of the brutal, U.S.-backed... Read More
May 7, 2016 | Susie Guenther Loewen
Tear gas containers litter the gardens near the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank Palestinians know that every Friday they can expect tear gas to be lobbed into the refugee camps outside of Bethlehem. (Photo by Brandi Friesen Thorpe)
‘How you experience holy is different than you expect it to be.’ -Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith After a year of travel, seeking faith and justice on four continents, there are... Read More
April 11, 2016 | Brandi Friesen Thorpe