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 view to worldly culture
“You’ve given in to the culture.” I’ve heard this plenty as a Christian – in churches, schools, on social media. From what I can make of it, it is ultimately an allegation of compromise or failure. One Christian party charges another with abandoning the faith to embrace “cultural” (“worldly”) ways. Accusations of giving in often…
Pressed into the ground
“It’s nice to get to choose our humility,” my father reflected recently. Sometimes, however, we don’t get to. What do we do when we feel forced to be humble—what we often call humiliated? Our dictionary says the words humble, humility, humiliate, human, homage and humus all share a common etymological root relating to earth and our…
The path to peace includes Hamas
I am not, and have never been, a supporter or apologist for Hamas. I am a Christian, and Hamas is an avowedly Muslim organization. I am a pacifist, and Hamas believes in armed struggle as the path to liberation. Yet, I know that there is no path to peace that does not involve Hamas, as…
MCC executive directors respond to concerns of former workers
The following opinion piece is an additional response by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to serious concerns raised in our “Involuntary” article (July 2024) as well as in the online petition and open letter referenced in that article and posted online by a group of seven former MCC workers. – Eds. As the executive directors of…
The urgency of untidy joy
I’ve been thinking again about joy. I know this theme is counterintuitive. The scope of violence and injustice in the world is crushing right now, both far away and close to home, and it’s proving chronic in ways that undermine efforts to be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). We need urgent action…
Open to the Spirit
Just over a year ago, I invited readers of Canadian Mennonite to share their Holy Spirit experiences with me (April 6, 2023). I was pleasantly surprised by the response. I was moved and encouraged by the messages I received. Thank you to all who responded. These messages were shared in confidence, and confidentiality is sacred. Although I…
Community found in the kitchen
In 1989, my grandmother, Lorraine Braun, began creating a cookbook for my mother, Maurya. For three decades, she handwrote recipes of foods that were significant in our family or the Mennonite community. This recipe book is a central memory from my childhood. The book’s pages are covered with the ketchup we used to make rib sauce…
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…
Threads of unity – Diversity in faith and tradition
The tilet is a quintessential feature of Ethiopian traditional attire, deeply rooted in our religious, ethnic and identity symbolism. Crafting the tilet involves intricate weaving techniques, utilizing continuous extra weft threads of varying colours to achieve specific desired designs. This intricate process requires a diverse range of colours, thread types and patterns, demanding significant time and effort to create…
