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‘I hear you, I see you’
“Youth need to experience God for themselves. . . . We need to offer Jesus to our youth,” said Michele Hershberger, a Bible and ministry professor and department chair from Hesston (Kan.) College with experience in youth ministry and postmodern culture, at a recent Mennonite Church Eastern Canada youth workers event. “They need to be…
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Discussing the future of an inclusive church
Twenty-three people gathered in the basement of Hamilton (Ont.) Mennonite Church, together with remote groups in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary, to discuss the future of In This Together (ITT): LGBTQ+ Anabaptist Network of Canada. The idea for ITT came about after an event put on by Pastors in Exile last April called “Beyond binaries:…
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Is technology on ‘Team Human’?
Elkhart, Ind.—In an age when people turn instinctively to Siri for directions, Mennonite church leaders and educators found that Divine Lady Wisdom’s words from Proverbs have an amazing wealth of guidance for navigating digital culture. Lady Wisdom, six fools—Schemer, Scoffer, Gossip, Lazybones, Glutton and Adulterer—and a wise person all emerged from the pages of the…
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Watch: Worship led by MC Canada leadership
Doug Klassen, executive minister for Mennonite Church Canada, has recorded a sermon for churches to use during this time of social distancing. It is expected that many congregations will not meet on Sunday, March 22, and for several Sundays afterward, to limit the spread of COVID-19. MC Canada created the video in recognition that leadership…
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Mennonite organizations cancelling events, making adjustments in response to COVID-19
Mennonite churches and organizations across Canada are cancelling or postponing services and other events in response to COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. Here is a list (last updated at 12:45 p.m. EST on March 19), broken down by region. BRITISH COLUMBIA Mennonite Church British Columbia – In a letter sent to MCBC churches on…
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MC Canada offers pandemic preparedness web resources for congregations
As of March 11, the World Health Organization is now describing the global outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 as a pandemic. This move is not to incite fear but to motivate governments to ramp up their preparation efforts before the virus spreads more quickly in their own countries. Mennonite Church Canada has updated web resources…
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Mennonite World Conference cancels event, meetings in B.C.
With the World Health Organization using the word “pandemic” to describe global infection from the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Mennonite World Conference leadership has cancelled the March Renewal 2027 public event and April executive committee meetings that were scheduled to take place in Abbotsford, B.C. “We are cognizant of our global witness,” says César García, MWC’s…
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Words that bear repeating
Thanks to a shift in approach, Tuesday all-campus worship gatherings at Canadian Mennonite University are attracting a better, more consistent turnout from the student body. Danielle Morton. (Photo courtesy of Facebook) What’s different? Danielle Morton, CMU’s spiritual life facilitator, says that incorporating liturgy has brought much-needed stillness, rest and intimacy back to a campus worship…
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Water from stone
With a series of quick, practiced strokes, Aïchatou Hamidou clears the area around a newly built latrine with a long broom made from dry grass. After the trash and waste are swept into a tidy pile and safely disposed of, she unties the brightly patterned red handkerchief over her nose and mouth and adjusts the…
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Watch: Eco-anxiety spurs creativity
How do you reckon with the feeling that everything is changing? That sense that crises are converging? With the notion that we have some big choices to make individually and collectively? Those questions get at some of the ideas at play in “Caring at the End of the World,” a new video from Eco-Anxious Stories…
