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Winnipeg churches throw wedding party for Syrian refugee couple
When Brian Darweesh and Reem Younes got married, they were living as refugees in Lebanon. They left their homes in Syria, fleeing violence and a threat on Darweesh’s life. At their wedding there was no white dress and no party. Just a civil ceremony in a foreign country. But then a little over a year…
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Bethany Mennonite reaches half-century milestone
The way Bill Goertz remembers it, every time it seemed that the building plan for Bethany Mennonite Church was settled, Victor Dyck would come to yet another caffeine-fuelled Founders Committee meeting and say, “Maybe we can do a little more.” Eventually, rather than building only the education wing with a gymnasium, the entire building was…
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Parkview Home celebrates 50 years of service
The Parkview auditorium was filled on Sept. 27, 2015, as residents, past and present board members, and community supporters gathered to celebrate 50 years of service to the community by Parkview Home. Established jointly by people from local Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Missionary churches in 1965, it has provided a caring Christian environment for…
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Halloween means more than costumes and candy
October 31 in Canada and the USA is widely acknowledged as Halloween. It is marked by costumes, candy—and tales of horror. But the date has deeper historical connotations for Christians—especially Anabaptists. It also marks Reformation Day. On that day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg,…
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Growing apples to feed hungry people
You don’t have to be a grain farmer to support the Canadian Foodgrains Bank through a growing project. And you don’t even need to be a farmer, as members of Petitcodiac Mennonite Church in New Brunswick have once again shown. Each fall, church members take advantage of the province’s abundance of apples and turn them…
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Shantz Mennonite Church celebrates 175 years
On the weekend of Oct. 3 and 4, 2015, Shantz Mennonite Church congregation celebrated its 175th anniversary. Church members recalled how, in the late 1830s, Mennonite families began to settle along what eventually became Erb’s Road in Wilmot Township, west of Waterloo. By 1840, a congregation formed there at the corner of Erb’s and Sandhills…
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Shannon Moroney makes art from pain
“You should do something with all this,” was the doctor’s prescription. “All this” were the art supplies scattered across Shannon Moroney’s husband’s studio in their house. Jason, her husband of only four months, had at that point been in prison for three months awaiting trial for two violent sexual attacks on other women. Moroney was…
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Making a difference
In the Bible, there’s a well-known story about Jesus miraculously feeding five thousand with only a few loaves and fish. That story inspired the Arnaud (Manitoba) Mennonite Church youth group in its quest to help make a difference for hungry people around the world, but its success wasn’t due to a miracle—at least not the…
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Church leaders learn to pastor people of peace in a country at war
“We don’t practise peace because it always works, but because we are called to be faithful to Christ’s way.” Scott Brubaker-Zehr, pastor of Rockway Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., made this statement in response to speakers at the “Pastoring people of peace in a country at war” seminar held on Sept. 26, 2015, at Conrad…
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MCC cyclathon raises $1 million for Syrian refugees
One-hundred-and-fifteen cyclists braved the rainy weather on Sept. 19, 2015, and brought in nearly a million dollars to support Syrian refugees now living in Lebanon. Participating in the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) B.C. Pedaling for Hope Cyclathon, the riders chose one of two routes—20 or 50 kilometres—and asked friends and family to sponsor them. The…
