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‘It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake’
More than 50 years ago, Walter Paetkau founded Abbotsford Community Services (ACS), an umbrella organization bringing various local service organizations under one roof. From humble beginnings in a two-room office, today ACS is now the largest community services organization in the province, with 90 programs fostering community well-being and social justice that encompass employment services,…
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A small congregation with a big heart
Lucy Roca bundled herself up warmly and made her way through the blustery streets of Sherbrooke, Que., on the way to Refuge de Paix early one Sunday morning. It was the kind of grey, stormy day when Sunday worship services are cancelled because it is too wintry to be outside. It was also a morning…
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Watch: Spotlight on Cris Derksen
The bio on Cris Derksen’s website says it well: The “Juno-nominated and classically trained cellist and composer braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music.” In 2018, the half-Cree, half-Mennonite musician from northern Alberta wrote a piece for the Eybler Quartet.…
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Resurrection hopes for a once-shared ministry
Kansas was not an exotic place to hold annual orientations for Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS). Yet when MVS was a shared U.S.-Canada program, Brad Reimer and Miles Reimer, two of its leaders living on opposite sides of the 49th parallel, considered the gathering a highlight. Miles, MVS’s director for the American side from 1996 through…
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AMBS celebrates the Class of 2019
GOSHEN, Indiana — Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) celebrated the achievements of 20 graduates earlier this month at its 73rd commencement service. The graduating class included two Canadians, as well as eighteen students from eight other countries — Australia, Germany, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States — on five continents. The…
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Watch: Foothills bids Doug Klassen farewell
Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary, Alta. recently said goodbye to pastor Doug Klassen and his wife, Rose. After 20 years of ministry at the church, the Klassens are headed to Winnipeg. Doug will begin his new role as executive minister of Mennonite Church Canada on June 1. Watch a short video from May 12, the Klassens’ final Sunday…
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MCC assisting after Cyclone Idai
Issa Ebombolo was not expecting the level of malnutrition he encountered among people displaced by flooding in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. But upon arriving in southern Malawi, where he helped distribute food and relief supplies, Ebombolo was taken aback by the dire need for food assistance. “The picture I had in mind was of…
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Remembering Rachel Held Evans
When Rachel Held Evans died on May 4 at the age of 37, it shocked the thousands of people who follow her work. Through her four books, blog, social media presence, speaking events and podcast appearances, Evans “challenged conservative Christianity and gave voice to a generation of wandering evangelicals wrestling with their faith,” as the…
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Watch: “I Am a Mennonite” trailer
Winnipeg filmmaker Paul Plett has announced his next project: a documentary exploring his Mennonite roots. “I’m going to retrace the steps of my ancestors and find out where I came from,” Plett says in a video he posted online earlier this week alongside a campaign to raise funds to complete the film. “Along the way,…
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Watch: International Witness update
Mennonite Church Canada has released a video that provides an update on its International Witness ministry. The video was shown at regional church gatherings over the past few months and posted to YouTube. Watch it below. The video introduces viewers to MC Canada’s 11 Witness workers, summarizes the new funding model for Witness and concludes with an invitation to…
