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Watershed discipleship
What does a transformative, earth-honouring Christianity look like at ground level and lived out in daily action? Reforms of personal habits—such as recycling, eating locally and shopping responsibly—are important steps. But we’ll need to embody a more vibrant Christian environmental ethic if we are to become the people God yearns for us to be, and…
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A tale of two ethnic groups
To start, a little bit of history. The Mennonites evolved out of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. As Anabaptist pacifists who practised adult baptism, they often held themselves apart from the surrounding communities, and in turn often had trouble finding safe havens. They were persecuted by Catholics and Protestants alike, but in this persecution they found…
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Cooking up discipleship
When I was a small child, my parents took our family on assignment to Chile as church workers. In a country which at that time had no Anabaptist-Mennonite churches, our ties to the Mennonite community took other forms. Among these, my parents’ use of Doris Janzen Longacre’s More-with-Less Cookbook was perhaps the most tangible. So,…
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Christian reflections on balance and the Middle East
Not long ago I returned from a trip to the Middle East, where I led a group of ten students from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute (MBCI) in Winnipeg through many parts of Palestine, Israel and Jordan. We met many people, stayed in local homes, saw many sights of biblical and recent significance, and I trust…
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Can sex with a pastor be an affair?
(The following article discusses a difficult topic in story form. All characters are fictional, although the events referred to are based on an amalgamation of true experiences.) She went to her pastor for advice, not sex. Another woman accepted her pastor’s invitation to chair a committee he oversaw, not an invitation to be sexually preyed…
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“Walking with God”
Debora Prabu, from Indonesia, sings during one of the nine worship services at Mennonite World Conference Assembly, held July 21 to 26, 2015. She was part of the 17-person international music ensemble led by Marcy Hostetler, of the U.S.A. Each day they focussed on music from one of the continents. Read more coverage of the…
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Mennonite World Conference assembly roundup
Walking with God and each other (overview) Video series: Charting Walks with God Worship services MWC PA 2015 opens with celebration, call for walking together Speakers share doubts from their settings, journeys Praising in painful times Testimony of a church-conflict casualty Mukawa calls for reconciliation with God, others Confession and forgiveness part of loving your…
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Walking with God and each other
In his friendship group at the Mennonite World Conference assembly, Francis Ojwang found that getting to know fellow believers from distant places brought an unexpected blessing. The Kenyan pastor had hoped that his wife, Everline Achieng, could travel with him to the 16th global assembly of Anabaptists. The once-every-six-years event drew more than 7,500 people…
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Music brings unity at world conference
Worship rises to the rafters as Mennonites and Brethren and Christ join their voices in music from around the world at PA 2015 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Differences exist in theology and culture, yet music is a unifier at the conference, even when it stretches comfort zones. Whether new or familiar, songs are among the highlights…
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MWC youth program supported by MC Canada
Megan Breidigan may be only 16, but she’s already figured out there’s nothing quite like a Mennonite World Conference assembly. The Douglasville, Pa., high school student says this is different from national youth conventions because of the diversity of the young people you can meet: “all different cultures are coming together and it’s really an…
