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Holy Land pilgrimage planned for May
Mennonite Church Canada’s Palestine-Israel Network is inviting people to join its Palestine-Israel tour, scheduled for May 11-26, 2024. If you’re passionate about peace wedded to justice, biblical perspectives on the land many call “holy” and the thriving of the global church, this may be the opportunity of a lifetime. You will see key biblical sites…
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MDS Canada closes response in Cape Breton
For Amanda McDougall-Merrill, mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, volunteers with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada did more than repair homes damaged by Hurricane Fiona in Cape Breton. “You brought hope and love to the community,” she told about 90 people gathered Aug. 24 at the Sydney River United Protestant Church in Sydney River,…
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Anabaptist Bible project gets feedback
Local contributors to an Anabaptist Bible that is set for publication in 2025 met with the Bible’s advisory group last month. The advisory group for the Anabaptist Community Bible met in Waterloo, Ontario, in early August to do its first round of editing. Managing editor Mollee Moua invited contributors to join the group for dessert…
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Angola settlement big step for colonies
Several families from a Mennonite colony in Campeche, Mexico, arrived in Angola earlier this year to begin a new settlement in the African nation. It is believed to be the first settlement developed by Low German-speaking Mennonites in Africa and could be the first such organized migration away from North and South America. Die…
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Singing to Ukraine
February 23, 2022, was a relatively ordinary day on our planet. Until 10:30 p.m. Ontario time—early morning of February 24 where Nataliia Kurhan lives—when I heard a reporter announce breathlessly, “Missiles are being fired; the invasion has begun.” I saw streaks descending behind the reporter on the screen and heard the sound of rockets. In…
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Historical society apologizes to Semá:th First Nation
“The draining of [Sumas Lake] and our settlement on your ancestral lands was devastating and demoralizing and disrespectful.” That was part of an apology offered to Semá:th First Nation Chief Dalton Silver and his people by Richard Thiessen, president of the Mennonite Historical Society of B.C. The statement was part of a July 24 event…
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Musical sharing at Muskeg Lake Cree Nation
About 75 people gathered at Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, located an hour’s drive north of Saskatoon, on August 6 for the Singing in the Arbor event. The event, which included music, food and relationship-building, was sponsored by the Cree Nation and Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s Walking the Path initiative. Muskeg Lake elder Harry Lafond has been…
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Grassroots reconciliation at Spruce River Folk Fest
Music is a universal language. In Saskatchewan, music is also the language of reconciliation. On August 15, the Spruce River Folk Fest was held to encourage friendship and understanding between Mennonites and Indigenous neighbours. Ray Funk, who hosts the event on his farmyard near Spruce River, Saskatchewan, expressed excitement and relief at re-launching the event,…
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The facility of faith
John Enns remembers a time when 200 children filled the Sunday school classrooms at Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church (WKUM). Currently, the congregation has 225 registered members, but less than half attend. The majority are in their 70s. Enns, who chairs the vision team at the church, says most newly retired members prefer to spend…
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Jam
In 2004, at the age of 70, Hans Juergen Wiens sold his business, including several farms, a feed business, and his last pig, all in one year. He was unemployed and restless. But then, one night, he remembered his mother’s resourcefulness. After the Second World War, when there was a food shortage all over Europe,…
