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From Inertia to Momentum: Restoring Institutional Integrity to MCC
First and foremost, I deeply acknowledge that Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) represents a global heritage for all Anabaptist and Mennonite communities worldwide. Despite our diverse contexts, MCC continues to serve as the humanitarian arm of the Anabaptist tradition. As someone deeply committed to both truth and organizational stability, I found myself wrestling with multiple perspectives.…
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The edge of meaning
I once read a history of the phenomenon of war. The author said that, though we have archaeological evidence of wars many centuries ago, often we don’t know who was involved or what they were fighting about. Thousands of people like me— with families and friends, dreams and desires, laughter and tears— fought over things…
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The Sixties Scoop brothers: A conversation
Mark: Our parents were extremely loving, amazing people. I remember a time I asked Mom why they had adopted kids. My mom’s response was so simple: because there was a need. I remember when we were still living on the farm, becoming very aware that Kelly and my other brothers’ ancestors had been on the…
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Feature Film Documents Migration
Toronto filmmaker Dale Hildebrand has lots on the go. In late November, he was preparing for a hospital series, had just shot a TV pilot for an Indigenous cop show and was looking ahead to work on a Western and a horror–sci-fi–thriller “type of thing.” “I’m all over, but I just love the idea of…
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Quilts for Survivors
The story isn’t about Mennonite Central Committee. That’s what Cam McEachern stresses. McEachern, Indigenous Neighbours program associate at the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario (MCCO) office in Timmins, Ontario, describes MCCO’s role as “an incidental, though helpful, element to this phenomenon.” “The story is about Vanessa and her undertaking and achievements,” McEachern says. Vanessa Genier is…
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Two parents, two kids and an in-law
Halfway up the street in midtown Kitchener, Ontario, is a single, detached home much like the other houses around it, but inside, something unusual is happening. At least the neighbours think so. How does it work? they ask. What are the common areas? How do you get privacy? Is there a limit if they start…
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Commitment to accommodate
Thomas Bumbeh talks about cultural commitment to care for aging parents Living with extended family under the same roof has made sense to Thomas Bumbeh on several different levels throughout the years. After arriving in Edmonton from Liberia in 2001, Bumbeh shared a house with three cousins. Now, the 50-year-old realtor and entrepreneur who attends…
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Tying Grandpa’s shoelaces
Grandpa’s shoelaces were round, not flat like my own. They were a challenge to tie up, even for my nimble fingers. He sat in his straight-backed chair at the kitchen table, and, since his fine motor skills had declined, it became my job to tie up those laces before school each morning. Sometimes he would…
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Care comes around
It’s been 20 years since Rebecca Harder, now 46, and her husband decided to permanently move into her family’s intergenerational home in Winnipeg’s western suburb of Charleswood. Harder’s grandparents, Mildred and David “Doc” Schroeder, who passed away last summer and in 2015, respectively, were the original proprietors, both of the 2,400-square-foot house and of the…
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The world’s most low-key Advent group
In the middle of the pandemic darkness of the fall of 2020, when church gatherings were fraught, a small idea ignited. I sent an email to people I knew, inviting them to meet online each Sunday in December for what I called, “The World’s Most Low-Key Advent Group.” A grand name for a small gathering.…
