What is the Essence of Anabaptism?
We asked numerous people to share three to five words that express the essence of Anabaptism for them. We also invited them to elaborate if they wished. Personal faith. Christocentrism. Discipleship. Community and simplicity. – Sylvie Kremer, editor, Christ Seul (French Mennonite magazine) Serving Jesus through serving others. – Catherine Gitzel, pastor, The Gathering Church, Kitchener, Ontario Peace extremists in Jesus’ name. – Joshua Penfold, former Canadian Mennonite columnist Holistic, Jesus-centered discipleship, rooted in community. – Rachel Wallace, pastor, Eigenheim Mennonite Church…
A mother’s ‘yes’
Part I: For Junia Grace, 2017 Photo by Taylor Summach I don’t like to write sermons. I am, at best, an unlikely preacher in our small Mennonite church. I languished through theology courses in college, earning mostly high C’s. I feel easily overwhelmed when researching scripture, and I have no knowledge whatsoever of…
The Secret Treaty
The feature for our February 23, 2024 issue is a 12-page comic by noted graphic novelist Jonathan Dyck. For the piece, Dyck collaborated with Dave Scott, an historian and ambassador from the Swan Lake First Nation in southern Manitoba. See the sample below. For the full piece, subscribe here. Support for production of this comic…
Breaking bread with broken people
The disciples were shocked when Jesus said, “One of you will betray me.” Judas’s story is told in different ways in the gospels, giving us some insight into how the disciples and gospel writers came to terms with the betrayal of Judas. In John’s gospel, Judas is mentioned five times, and every single time the…
A prayer for impossible peace
The gulf appears impossible to bridge. As bombs continue to fall onto Gaza and rockets somehow continue to fly out of Gaza, a conflict nearly as old as time and as entrenched as the Jordan River spirals to depths unthinkable. To listen to people on either side is to hear vastly different narratives about the…
Jewish perspectives
An interview with Gustavo Zentner By Will Braun Gustavo Zentner will never forget visiting areas attacked by Hamas. “We walked into the homes where you can still smell the smell of burned flesh,” he recalled. “That smell will always accompany me.” Zentner travelled to Israel last November as part of a solidarity mission comprised of…
Understanding absolutist views
On October 1, we launched our book, The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other, at the Charles Pachter Museum in Toronto. Guests included Jews, Palestinians and others who are interested in overcoming the enmity between the two sides that for so long have been in conflict. There was music…
Mideast dialogue programs fall short
“Deeply rooted in our Mennonite psyche is this idea that peacemaking is as simple as sitting across the table from someone and hearing their story,” says Joanna Hiebert Bergen, chair of the Mennonite Church Manitoba Palestine-Israel Network. But Hiebert Bergen, along with a significant number of Palestinian academics and other former civil society workers in…
Lord, hear our prayer
We asked people who wrote for Canadian Mennonite in 2023 to share their wish and prayer for the church in 2024. I’m easily afraid. So is the church. I pray that we will listen for, and joyfully embrace, Christ’s “fear not, I’m here” in 2024. – Dora Dueck, Tsawwassen, B.C. God make us a shelter…
To thine own self be true?
Baptism rates among teenagers and young adults who grew up going to church have plummeted. Why? In response to this drop-off in baptisms, I could talk about what faith formation is, the role of ritual or how to make baptism feel less like graduation, but I think that would just be rearranging the deck chairs…
