RJC performs Godspell
Every year, as part of homecoming and graduation weekend at Rosthern Junior College, the students present a large-scale musical. This year they performed Godspell by John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz. Godspell has been around since the late 1960s and is based on the story of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. Through parables and lessons,…
Decolonization through unsettling Scripture
Mennonite Church Canada recently released Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, the latest of several publications that explore reconciliation and Indigenous-settler relationships. The book, edited by Steve Heinrichs and illustrated by Jonathan Dyck, is a collaboration of more than 60 contributors who engage with the Bible in a new way to confront Christianity’s role…
Serving in Japan as ‘ordinary people’
Retired missionary Mary Derksen didn’t start out to write a book about the 45 years she and her late husband spent as missionaries in Japan. But she has just completed the story of the couple’s ministry there: Rise and Shine! 45 Years in the Land of the Rising Sun. She describes it as “the story…
Not a ‘mirage’
Karen Scott Booth, head of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s Grade 10-12 visual arts program, exudes pride in the work of her students. “Mirage: An exhibition of visual art,” held at the school on April 24, 2018, showed why. Working in many media—acrylic on canvas, watercolour, printmaking of many kinds, multimedia, industrial design and drama—the evening was…
A must-see for all Canadians
Only in the last decade has the extent of Canada’s mistreatment of its Indigenous peoples been widely recognized. The most horrific example of this mistreatment was the residential school system that saw 150,000 Indigenous children taken from their families in an attempt to forcibly assimilate them into white Christian culture by driving out Indigenous…
Singing into the future
Music is an integral part of Mennonite worship. Whether it’s in church, at camp, at school or in everyday activities, songs have been faithful companions to Mennonites for centuries. They can get so invested in music that it can be a point of unification but also a dispute that causes tension and division. The importance…
‘That’s the Spirit’
Talking birds, paper and rose petal beads, walking jewellery, found-art sculptures. With these and other works, Carolyn Good’s recent show at the WalterFedy-Architecture, Engineering, Construction offices on Queen Street in Kitchener showed off her Mennonite roots of reusing and recycling. Good, a member of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, has long worked with paper beads…
The Anthrocene revisited
Annemarie Rogalsky, a member of First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., had a solo show of her landscapes at the Minto Gallery in Harriston during the month of February. Of her images, she says: “I am interested in nature that is accessible to everyone. That is, nature in the city or the bits of parkland…
Gospel songs with an edge
Jess Reimer recalls the first time a friend told her about Jeremy Hamm, the man who would become her musical partner and husband. “I remember being excited there was a guy who wasn’t a senior citizen who was into bluegrass like me,” she says. When the two met in 2002, they connected immediately. “Within 10…
The ordinary lives of ordinary Mennonites
Seven Points on Earth, Paul Plett’s documentary about Mennonite farmers around the world, premiered at Winnipeg’s Real to Reel Film Festival on Feb. 21, 2018. The hour-long film tells the story of seven Mennonite farming families in seven different countries: Canada (Manitoba), United States (Iowa), The Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Bolivia and Russia (Siberia). Plett followed…
