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A story that ‘wanted to be told’
After high school, Susanna Compton took a gap year before heading off to university. She turned that experience into her first published book. Her former pastors from Wilmot Mennonite Church in New Hamburg, Ont., Glyn Jones and Susan Allison-Jones, had moved to Botswana with their daughters, where they were involved in Mennonite ministries. With their…
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Updated history of Mennonites in Canada commissioned
The last time a history of Mennonites in Canada was published, it covered the period from 1920 to 1970—the year Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, Canada was converting to the metric system, the federal voting age was lowered to 18, and the October Crisis rocked Quebec. It was a long time ago, in other words.…
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Conspicuous absences
The Absent Christ is a clearly written and compelling exploration of Anabaptist-Mennonite theology that engages with both historical Anabaptist sources and contemporary political concerns, in order to advance a constructive argument centred on the figure of the empty tomb. Accessible to a wide readership without compromising its complexity, The Absent Christ argues for a distinctive…
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Intriguing novel explores family trauma
Unsettled with her status as a newly retired person, an archivist uses her skills to look into the difficult parts of her own family history. Along the way, she uncovers a shocking event that explains the intergenerational trauma in the family. The experience helps her learn to accept herself and love others more unconditionally. This…
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Classics of the Radical Reformation series relaunched
Over the past 50 years, the Institute for Mennonite Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., has published a series of books making primary works of the Radical Reformation available in English. Herald Press published the first nine volumes between 1973 and 1999, including translations of writings by Anabaptists such as Conrad Grebel, Michael…
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Spring 2020 List of Books & Resources
Theology, Spirituality The Absent Christ: An Anabaptist Theology of the Empty Tomb. Justin Heinzekehr. Vol. 12 of the C. Henry Smith Series, Cascadia Publishing House, 2019, 160 pages. This book explores Anabaptist theology and its relationship with postmodern philosophy and contemporary understandings of class, gender and racial power. How do we understand the presence of…
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Journal connects Korean Anabaptists across the globe
Eight years ago this fall, a group of 10 Korean Mennonites met at Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver and decided to start a magazine. The publication would be a resource for Korean Anabaptists around the world and connect them to one another. Nov.17, 2019, marks the seventh anniversary of the first issue of the Korean…
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Book explores healthy masculinity
Once upon a time, living in splendid isolation, Mennonite men were moulded differently from the rest of society. Worshipping in a traditional peace church with a different set of values, they didn’t fit the western stereotype of a male. But today, Mennonite men are diverse; as much urban as rural, as much men of colour…
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‘I realized I had been duped!’
Gordon Toombs was deceived by the Canadian military when he tried to register as a conscientious objector (CO) during the Second World War. His recent book, L74298: Recollections of a Conscientious Objector in World War II, is dedicated to Conrad Stoesz, archivist at Winnipeg’s Mennonite Heritage Archives, in gratitude for revealing the deception. The 98-year-old…
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Overcoming the siren diversions of our digital age
What was your response the last time a good friend asked you how you were doing? If you said with a laugh or a moan, “Too busy,” or just offered an eye roll, this book might be for you. In The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, author Justin Whitmel…
