-
Control issues
What is more countercultural than submission? In a time of unalienable rights and unfettered individuality, voluntary abdication of power, rights or personal expression is relatively unthinkable. These norms seep into church despite the fact that submitting, yielding and weakness are Gospel bedrock. The central image of our faith is our Saviour, not with a fist…
-
Church worker overboard
A few years back, I invited a new acquaintance to help with a hayloft restoration project. He was handy and between jobs. As we worked with old wood, we talked about our experiences of church. He had done church work for most of two decades. At one point, a light began to dawn. I stopped…
-
An intense editorial in three parts
Part I. Divine embraceOn pages 22-23, Melody Steinman writes about her relationships with people with developmental disabilities. With tenderness and vulnerability, she shares about a warm, though awkward, human embrace and a profound, transformative divine embrace. Melody’s stories of friendship, vocation and holy belonging touch the heart of Christianity. This is a gift. The article…
-
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…
-
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…
-
In praise of restraint
I have too much stuff and it’s not good for my soul. But let’s barge through whatever guilt we may lug around about material excess and look deeper. At a winter meeting of the More-with-Less Revival group I’m part of, one person said she could feel the “less” but not the “more.” Another person echoed…
-
A bullet point editorial
This issue of CM contains much intense material. I want to take this opportunity to not add to that, (though I had started writing about an unanswerable question I inherited when I took this job). Instead, I offer quick thoughts on a bunch of elements in the following pages (with page numbers in parentheses). I…
-
Risking Introspection
I recently met someone who is new to Anabaptism after decades in other churches. He was unrestrained and exuberant about the distinctive gifts that Anabaptist churches can offer young people in our society. I could have spoken with him for hours about Anabaptist values. At the same time, some discussions of Anabaptist identity feel tired and self-absorbed. With that risk in mind, this issue of the magazine explores the essence of Anabaptism (pages 9, 12-19). We do so with one hope and five caveats.…
-
Longing for transformation
I recently attended the Mennonite Church Manitoba annual general meeting (AGM) in Winkler. I find those events both energizing and demoralizing, which is why I have attended only a few in my life. You visit with good people, listen to inspiring words, weather the budget anxiety, then leave with the hollow feeling that key realities…
-
Do I see a hand?
I was sitting on Dave Scott’s porch on the Swan Lake First Nation a few years back when he started talking about a handshake treaty between his Ojibwe ancestors and Mennonites. I had never heard of this. Later, I discovered no Mennonite historians had either. Last year, a group of southern Manitoba Mennonites went to…
