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Scholar seeks wisdom from Mennonite green projects
Joanne Moyer is looking for stories. Moyer, who is the associate professor and director of Environmental Studies and Geography at The King’s University in Edmonton, is undertaking a large-scale research project on environmental initiatives that involved Mennonites. Through archival work, interviews and focus groups, Moyer is aiming to collect as many stories as possible about…
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Poetic justice
For Di Brandt, being a poet is a natural extension of her upbringing in the Manitoba Mennonite village of Reinland. She says the hymns of her youth were poetic, and poetry was part of sermons and family life. Speaking by video from her home in Winnipeg, Brandt says she was “brought up in the old…
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Single Moms’ Camp brings golden healing
“It’s so hard to explain something that feels so sacred to you,” Amanda Pot said when asked to describe Single Moms’ Camp at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp in New Hamburg, Ontario. Pot has been running the camp for over a decade. “[It’s] absolutely exhausting,” she said, “but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Single Moms’…
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Six stories of women’s ordination in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s
Esther Patkau In the 1950s, Mennonite churches in Canada had the practice of ordaining missionaries. What church leaders could not imagine at home seemed acceptable for women who would be sent far away. Esther Patkau, ordained as a missionary in 1951, returned to Canada as a seasoned pastor from Japan. In 1976, she began serving…
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Bledsoe joins Edmonton First Mennonite
Debbie Bledsoe began her role as a co-pastor at First Mennonite Church in Edmonton on August 23. Bledsoe, who is a recent graduate of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, describes her journey to pastoral calling as wrestling with God. When she was part of Raleigh Mennonite Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, her pastor said to her,…
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RJC stakes its claim on Anabaptist identity
Four years ago, things were looking dire for RJC High School in Rosthern, Saskatchewan. Enrollment was the lowest ever, at 65 students. It had been slowly declining for 20 years, according to Ryan Wood. Wood, who served as principal previously, is now president and CEO of RJC. “We knew that we couldn’t lose another 20…
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Mennonites join call for landfill search
Mennonite Church Canada, along with the regional churches, has issued a statement calling on “all levels of government” to support a search of the Prairie Green Landfill near Winnipeg for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, two murdered Indigenous women who are believed to be buried there. The Sept. 1 document comes after…
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Indigenous camps draw church-goers
For David Driedger, who serves as leading minister at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, the Manitoba government’s refusal to fund a search for the remains of two murdered Indigenous women believed to be buried in a landfill feels like a continuity of a pattern. “These women were not only killed but then discarded like trash,”…
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Horsing around for global relief
Mission is the place where your passion and the needs of the world meet. Donita Wiebe-Neufeld’s passion for horses led her to participate in a unique fundraiser for Mennonite Central Committee. The Edmonton resident has undertaken a fundraising project called “Faces with Ace” as part of MCC’s annual Go! 100 campaign, which invites participants to…
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Squeah director reflects on summer challenges and successes
Despite challenges including a fire ban and a staffing shortage, Mennonite Church B.C.’s Camp Squeah enjoyed a successful summer, according to camp director Rob Tiessen. Rob Tiessen. “We were thankful for the summer season as it was,” Tiessen says. “It was a good turnout in terms of lots of campers, but we had to limit…
