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Practicing peace in a polarized world
Polarization was on the agenda as Mennonite Central Committee Alberta hosted its first-ever peace conference earlier this month. Held November 3-4 in Calgary, “In Tune: Finding Harmony in a Polarized World” attracted participants from across denominational and professional lines. “The idea for this conference came out of our world emerging from the pandemic,” said Ryan…
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The song of Mary
Mary, whose heart is full of things to ponder, goes to see her older relative Elizabeth in the hill country. Both are pregnant. Both are in on the secret of the Messiah. They are brimming with possibility and responsibility. They have both surrendered in a visceral, physical way to the flow of divine will. Mary…
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Mennonites and the state
I love mosaics. Mosaics are artworks that show an image—a message—made up of many small pieces. In Christian art, it is common to find mosaics representing an image of Jesus. One example of a Christian mosaic is in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy. In that piece, called Cristo attorniato da angeli e santi,…
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Old Testament stories resonate with rural Colombian women
The stories of women in the Old Testament serve as an advocacy tool for Colombian women who face paramilitary and gang-related violence in rural communities. This is the outcome of persistent efforts of Mujer y Paz, a branch of Justapaz, a Mennonite peace and justice organization based in the Colombian capital of Bogotá. The goal…
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Pastors gather for retreat
Twenty-seven Mennonite Church B.C. church leaders and their families gathered at Camp Squeah from November 3 to 5 for a weekend of renewal and relationship-building. Four worship and discussion sessions were framed around the centred-set church model, from the work of Mark Baker. Baker was the guest presenter at the 2023 MCBC annual gathering and…
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Adjusting our structures
In 2017, Mennonite Church Canada put new structures into place based on the work of the Future Directions Task Force (FDTF). Over the last six years, we have been living into the newly imagined structures, with varying degrees of success. As we have attempted to do this, I have often thought of Jesus’s parable about…
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Restorative justice takes root in Zambia and Malawi
A restorative justice curriculum has been introduced at 100 correctional facilities in Zambia and Malawi. In 2019, Rod Friesen, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Ontario Restorative Justice Coordinator, was invited to facilitate a week-long training session for officers in the Zambian Correctional Service (ZCS). This training session was part of a pilot project of MCC Zambia…
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Palestinian MCC partner providing relief amid devastation of Gaza
The first thing they said was “Can you help us help?” recalls Sarah Funkhouser, who, together with her husband, Seth Malone, is Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) representative for Jordan, Palestine and Israel. MCC staff were reaching out to MCC partners in Gaza to see if they were safe in the wake of days of bombing…
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MDS responding to Carstairs tornado
Elisa Humphreys was sitting on her couch in her home in Carstairs, Alberta, when she got the emergency alert about the tornado. It was July 1 and Humphreys, 63, who manages Clothing for a Cause—a ministry that recycles clothing and household textiles to provide financial assistance to non-profit partners in Canada and in the developing…
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Turning church inside-out
During her community outreach work, Judith McCartney will typically ask people: “Did you know Christ walked 22,000 miles in his lifetime of ministry?” McCartney believes in venturing outside the church doors and putting on some miles. She’s spent nearly 40 years in ministry and non-profit work, and she worries that churches do not focus enough…
