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2024 highlights
Maoz Inon: In February, we held a pair of online events. Jewish Israeli social entrepreneur and peace advocate Maoz Inon shared his audacious and infectious vision for peace. Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The Wall Between: In the second event, Raja Khouri—a Palestinian-Canadian—and Jeffrey Wilkinson—an American Jew—expanded on the message…
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Adventures in reading the Bible together
With the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism this year, I am looking forward to receiving my copy of the Anabaptist Community Bible. During the winter of 2022–23, I was part of two Bible study groups which were formed in response to a call from MennoMedia as part of this Bible project. The idea was to have…
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A word about winter blues
Note: This article discusses suicide and depression Suicide is a delicate and complicated subject. As I’ve walked with people enduring the brutal grief process in the wake of such loss, I’ve had few words to offer. As I’ve reflected on my own relationships with people who’ve taken their lives, I have only questions. The primary one being, “Is there something I could have done?” This past holiday season, I found myself being…
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Readers Write: January 2025
Effects of dismissal linger for decades In 1980, I returned to Canada from my mission assignment, happy to be home after four very difficult years. I looked forward to telling the mission staff about my experience, but the very people I thought would be the most supportive did not listen or ask about my time…
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Readers Write: December 2024
A sprinkling of change As I read the “Exit Interviews” issue of CM (September 2024), I thought of the words of Jessica Herlein in a Rejoice devotional from October 30, 2021: “All our systems for righting wrongs and making amends pale in comparison to God’s overtures of mercy and restoration.” Born and raised Mennonite, I…
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The ordinary dark
Dawn comes slowly. There is no rush in it. Often—not always—the hour is still and quiet when the dark so gradually abates in the east. The dawn comes slowly. As it must. We can but wait. I have not always been an earlier riser, but since Cinnamon the milk cow moved into the barn on…
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Awakening to the Church’s true vocation
“God has been at work from the beginning to form a covenanted people of God to help bring about God’s plan for reconciling the world to its intended purposes.”– From The Baby and the Bathwater, by Robert (Jack) Suderman When I heard that Jack and Irene Suderman were visiting Winnipeg this fall, I reached out…
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With God, all things are truly possible
I am honoured and delighted to share my faith journey and to witness to the grace and love of Christ in my life. I am a proud Eritrean-Canadian who has called Canada home for eight years. I am a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, grounded in the teachings and love of my Saviour. I live…
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The challenge of Anabaptist leadership
In the faith community of my youth, church leaders were held in extremely high esteem. The expectation of respect for leaders weighed heavily, for better and worse. To respond to a call, to serve and to be an elder or pastor in the church, meant equal parts responsibility and regard. Growing up, I was taught…
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Waiting in the uterverse
On every one of my previous visits to the fertility clinic, the waiting room was full. Women of different ages, ethnicities and income brackets would take their seats in fertility limbo. Some would sit on their own, while others sat with partners who held their hands and brought them water or coffee until they were…
