Food for body and soul
While the aroma of fresh-baked zwieback filled the air, members of the “Mennonite Girls Can Cook” blog group launched their newest book at the Mennonite Heritage Museum on Aug. 3, 2016. Bread for the Journey: Meditations and Recipes to Nourish the Soul is the latest in the series of books from a group of Mennonite…
‘Living autonomously’ in the Age of the Spirit
True to its name, this year’s Skylight Festival focussed on how the church can regain its place in a post-Christian society, exploring a larger movement of faith, arts and justice for this time. Citing the story of God calling Abram to leave everything and “depart for a land I will show you,” Brandan Robertson insisted…
Balance and beauty found in The Harmony Tree
Yearning for eloheh (ae-luh-hay) is clearly evident in Randy Woodley’s new children’s picture book, The Harmony Tree, published by Mennonite Church Canada this year. Richly illustrated by Ramone Romero and with an afterword by theologian Walter Brueggemann, the story speaks about healing and community through a deeply rooted, God-centred indigenous view of creation. Woodley, who…
‘Mennonite’ composers headline concert at WLU
Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) celebrated the 40th anniversary of its Faculty of Music with a concert on April 3, 2016, that featured the premiere of works by two composers with Mennonite roots and connections. Glenn Buhr, WLU’s professor of composition and director of the Improvisation Concerts Ensemble, comes from Mennonite roots in Gretna, Man. His…
Cousins write family saga: Daughters in the House of Jacob
Two Canadian Mennonite women, one a pastor and the other a professor, introduced their new book, Daughters in the House of Jacob: A Memoir of Migration, at the Mennonite Heritage Museum on June 4, 2016. Cousins Dorothy M. Peters, adjunct assistant professor of religious studies at Trinity Western University, and Christine Kampen, co-pastoral elder at…
Pennsylvania Dutch a language with merit
Pennsylvania Dutch has often been ridiculed and viewed as a corrupted German dialect with a mishmash of English words, but author Mark Louden argues that it is actually a distinct language with a proud heritage. The fact that it continues to be spoken, living for hundreds of years within an English-language society, makes it quite…
Shenk adds to Christian-Muslim dialogue
David W. Shenk’s latest book, Christian. Muslim. Friend.: Twelve Paths to Real Relationship, comes at an opportune time for Canadian Christians, since the country has received more than 25,000 refugees from Syria since last fall. While Syria is a multi-faith society, the majority of these refugees are Muslim. Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey listed…
Future of the church appears grim
Following in the footsteps of Reginald Bibby, sociologist Joel Thiessen examines how Canadians of today view Christianity. In his book The Meaning of Sunday, he concludes that religion is increasingly being pushed to the margins of society and is regarded as less important as the years go by. Canadians tend to believe that religion should…
Celebrating the resilience of Mennonite women
There are courageous women around every corner, especially at the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon, where the 26 paintings of Ray Dirks’s Along the Road to Freedom exhibit are currently on display. Wanting to give Dirks’s paintings a local context, the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan partnered with the…
One camera, five continents, seven farming communities
A filmmaker is teaming up with a historian to document how Mennonite farmers relate to the land in seven different communities around the globe. “When you get down to grassroots, people bring their faith to bear on their relationship to the land in very different ways,” says Mennonite historian Royden Loewen. “If you go to…
