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Battle for the character of Israel
Uri Weltmann says support for Israel’s government and support for the people of Israel are two different things. “This is not one and the same,” he says, speaking by video call from Tel Aviv, where he lives. Weltmann is one of the founding members of Standing Together, a grassroots political movement of Jewish and Palestinian…
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Witness workers visit from Philippines
Growing up as a member of the Sumacher Indigenous peoples group in the Philippines, Tala Bautista listened to American music. She longed to see snow and perhaps roast chestnuts on an open fire. She wanted to see the West Virginia country roads of which John Denver sang. American cultural influence is pervasive in the Philippines,…
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Peace from the podium
Working for a more peaceful world can take place anywhere. For Susanne Guenther Loewen it takes place at the front of the classroom at Saskatchewan’s largest public university. Guenther Loewen is in her third year of teaching Introduction to Peace Studies at Saint Thomas More College on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon. She…
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Housing seminar reimagines living space
A recent seminar in Abbotsford, B.C., considered how churches can help fellow British Columbians find reasonably priced housing. The November 18 event was hosted by Emmanuel Mennonite Church. The Affordable Housing Task Group of Mennonite Church B.C., formed after the 2023 MCBC AGM, recognized that some church communities are ideally positioned to apply faith-based resources…
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Affable colony ‘rock star’ steps down
How do you adjust after stepping away from the work to which you’ve dedicated two decades of your life? That’s the question facing Kennert Giesbrecht now that he’s no longer the managing editor of Die Mennonitische Post, the German-language paper that serves conservative Mennonites throughout the Americas. Giesbrecht’s tenure at the paper was bookended by…
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Calm and quiet carols
John Van Deusen plays in a pop band called Telephone Friends and a punk band called Buffet, but he suspects it’s his Christmas album that you’ll like best. In the Bleak Midwinter features Van Deusen playing 14 holiday hymns, his acoustic guitar and tenor voice augmented by rich string arrangements. He released it digitally last…
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Ten insights from CM’s online event about MAID
End-of-life care, current legislation and faith were the focus of an online panel discussion about medical assistance in dying (MAID) that Canadian Mennonite hosted last month. The event included Lisa Heinrichs, a Master of Divinity student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary who is specializing in chaplaincy; and Rhonda Wiebe, who has advocated as a member…
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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,…
