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Students dream of new churches in South Sudan
A recent article in Anabaptist World stated there were no known Anabaptist congregations in South Sudan. Praise God that that is no longer the case. Gatjiak (Simon) Tongyik, one of the new students sponsored by Mennonite Church Alberta to attend the Meserete Kristos Seminary in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, says there is now one small Mennonite church in…
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Of rentals and relationships
Big buildings; fewer people. It’s a fact that many Mennonite churches have fewer people involved in church life than they did 20 years ago. Many churches across Canada were constructed or remodeled when attendance was higher; when the church was busy with events and programming every night of the week. In the current reality of…
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Poems and paintings mark 499th anniversary
The story of Anabaptist origins came to life on Sunday, January 21, as Gareth Brandt marked the 499th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement with a presentation of art and spoken word. The event was held in a portable gallery set up at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., where Brandt serves as an interim member of…
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New church launches in Kelowna
The new year has brought a new church to the Glenmore area of Kelowna, and it has given an old church building new life. Valley Road Church, a ministry of Mennonite Church B.C., held its first worship service on January 7 with Jordan Pilgrim as pastor. Pilgrim relates a remarkable story of how this new…
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The power of the pencil
When it comes to making art, Alvin Pauls isn’t concerned with the outcome. “It’s all in the doing,” the Winnipeg artist says. “The end result is not important.” Dressed in a black sweater over a brown turtleneck, jeans and blue slip-on shoes, Pauls is walking around “From Here to There,” a retrospective exhibit of his…
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‘We’re capable of lots of things’
Welcome to “Life in the 80s,” a semi-regular series in which we ask people in their 80s or 90s to share their wisdom. Margaret Balzer (nee Epp), 82, grew up on a farm near Didsbury, Alberta, and attended Bergthaler Mennonite Church. Following graduation from Rosthern Junior College, she attended nursing school in Calgary. Balzer served…
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Resource centre finds temporary home in Winnipeg church
It’s brighter than ever in the basement at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. Sunshine House, a community drop-in and resource centre, is operating there temporarily while its headquarters undergoes renovations. The organization, which offers programming focused on harm reduction and social inclusion, moved into the church at the beginning of November. The Sunshine House community…
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Pursuing a career in worship music
While pursuing degrees in health studies and music at the University of Waterloo, Mykayla Turner stumbled into a plethora of worship songs that left her wondering why and how she’d never heard them before. Growing up, she attended Zurich Mennonite Church in Ontario. In this rural congregation, music consisted of what Turner describes as contemporary…
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B.C. churches mark Christmas and New Year’s
Mennonites in British Columbia celebrated the holidays in a variety of ways last month. With both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve falling on Sundays, churches were presented with the question: How many services should be held, and what kind? Will congregants come to multiple services on a holiday weekend? United Mennonite Church of Black…
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Landing out of hot water
One winter day in 2022, our family was discussing the problem of our society’s dependence on fossil fuels. One of our young-adult sons, who perhaps felt we were slipping into finger-pointing, brought the focus back around to our own household by asking: “What about our hot water heater?” It was a loaded question. Though we’d…
