MC Canada invites submissions for virtual choir
Mennonite Church Canada is putting together a virtual choir for Gathering 2022, and you are invited to join. The choir will record “Greater Things Than These,” a song that Winnipeg pastor and songwriter Phil Campbell-Enns composed for the event. The song starts with a reflection on Jesus’ birth before meditating on the notion that Canadian…
Watch: How to read church financial statements
Regional churches are preparing to hold their annual gatherings in the coming weeks, and Mennonite Church Manitoba is offering a resource for delegates who are feeling anxious about discussing financial matters. In a video posted on the regional church’s YouTube channel last week, MC Manitoba executive minister Michael Pahl offers a brief introduction to reading…
MC Canada leaders denounce white nationalism
The day after thousands of truckers and other protesters converged on Parliament Hill to call for an end to COVID-19 mandates and other public health restrictions, Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers released a statement decrying the white nationalism being expressed at related protests that are springing up across the country. Released Sunday, Jan. 30, the…
Common Read continues with ‘Been in the Struggle’
Common Read, an initiative of Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church U.S.A. and Herald Press that encourages Mennonites to engage in a shared reading experience, continues January 2022 through March 2022 with Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Antiracist Spirituality. The book was written by Regina Shands Stoltzfus and Tobin Miller Shearer, co-founders of the Roots…
MC Canada issues call to prayer for Burkina Faso
Leaders from the Evangelical Mennonite Church of Burkina Faso, Mennonite Church Canada’s sibling church through Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission, are calling on MC Canada to pray for security and peace in their country. Violence in Burkina Faso has escalated since 2016, as terrorist attacks wreak havoc in many of the northern and eastern areas. As many…
Top 10 online stories of 2021
Vaccines, sexual misconduct and defunding the police were the subjects of some of the most popular stories Canadian Mennonite published on its website in 2021. Here are the top stories we published last year, based on the number of page views. 10. “A hymn by any other number,” published last February, tells the history of…
Series will explore responses to climate crisis
Mennonite Church Canada is hosting a new online community learning series. “Creator’s Call in a Climate Emergency” starts on Jan. 20 and lasts eight weeks. Co-hosted by the national church’s Indigenous-Settler Relations office and Sustainability Leadership Group, the series is open to anyone wishing to learn about decarbonization and decolonization as ways forward for the…
Watch: Ohio band Girl Named Tom’s big year
Last year was a big one for Girl Named Tom, a sibling band composed of Mennonites from Pettisville, Ohio. On Dec. 14, Caleb, Joshua and Bekah Liechty became the first group to win the NBC singing competition The Voice. Competing on the show’s 21st season resulted in international exposure, US$100,000 and a recording contract for…
Christian Aid Ministries hostages released
After a two-month ordeal in Haiti, the last 12 kidnapped staff members of Christian Aid Ministries made their way to freedom on Dec. 16, 2021. Seventeen people were taken hostage by the “400 Mawozo” gang in October. Christian Aid Ministries (CAM), which is supported by Amish and Conservative Mennonite churches across Canada and the U.S.,…
Ethiopian Mennonites killed, churches burned
More than 400 Mennonite churches in Ethiopia have been affected by civil strife that started in November 2020. Though information is hard to verify and numbers will likely rise, about eight Mennonite churches have been burned and eight church members have died, including two full-time ministers. This according to Pastor Desalegn Abebe, president of Meserete…
