Clocks a symbol of Mennonite heritage
My cousin Arthur’s book about clocks of the Russian Mennonites, and about Kroeger clocks in particular, is the result of a life-long labour. He is the last in a Krueger/Kroeger lineage over two centuries long who created and sold these artifacts, and then cleaned and repaired them in subsequent decades. Many of the clocks served…
MWC beefing up online presence
Last year, the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) General Council approved a global communication strategy calling for changes in the reach, frequency, form and content of the organization’s communications. Undergirding the new plan is the goal of seeking to connect as many people as possible across cultures within the global Anabaptist family. The guiding conviction is…
Like a punch in the gut
Looper is an independent, critically acclaimed, futuristic, neo-noir, time-travel thriller. By itself, this is a unique set of characteristics guaranteed to attract viewers like me.
Ted Swartz documents life after loss of creative partner
Playwright and actor Ted Swartz has scripted his most personal work yet, this time in autobiographical form.
Mennonite radio spots distributed
New public service announcements produced by MennoMedia are being distributed to 13,000 radio stations across the U.S. A grant from Schowalter Foundation helped with funding.
New source documents in Mennonite history
What happens when an ethno-religious group feels their way of life is threatened? For over a century, before the October 1917 revolution in Russia, Mennonites in Ukraine had considerable independence in managing their own villages, churches, schools, and communities. As this way of life was threatened by a new Soviet regime, they sought a strategy…
Courage for Lydia
Elementary school student Lydia Herrle was thrown 25 metres after being hit by a truck as she stepped off her school bus in front of her family’s Country Farm Market on Erb’s Road near Waterloo in May. It took months before she came home from hospital and she has years of rehabilitation ahead of her.…
‘Job’ sings the blues
Ross Muir, managing editor of Canadian Mennonite, penned the lyrics to his blues’ opera, Job’s Blues, during one of the happiest times of his life, in 1988. The idea had been in his mind for a dozen years, ever since he had heard a twelve part sermon series on the Biblical book of Job while…
A compelling narrative of Russian Mennonites’ darkest hour
This personal narrative of one of the darkest hours for Russian Mennonites, suffering unspeakably under the repression of a ruthless regime, is one of the most compelling I have read. Reading like a novel with story after story of the suffering, yet remarkable endurance of her extended family, Anne Konrad keeps you glued to the…
Reconciling our vision of holiness with the reality of sin
If the grim historical associations with words like “purity” and “cleansing” are any indication, then Sider is right to suggest that the church has had trouble reconciling the messiness of life with its concept of holiness. To See History Doxologically is a direct engagement with the tendency to sever holiness from the difficulty of life.…
