Learning to let go
It takes me a long time to learn a lesson. The book Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst was required reading when I was in seminary, and my lasting impression of its message was that life is a series of losses. Right from birth, life is a process of letting go. My instinctive response was that,…
Hauling strawberries
In February 1928, the first trainload of Mennonite farmers from the Prairies arrived in Yarrow, British Columbia, with prospects of farming the newly accessible land in the Fraser Valley. The introduction of raspberry and strawberry farming in the early 1930s increased the viability of these farms. The photo shows Len Doerksen (b. 1936) with his…
Readers write: January 29, 2018 issue
When community discernment leads to a golden calf Re: “Recognizing potential in an uncertain future,” Dec. 11, 2017. When I read, at the very end of the article, that “the church is experiencing a shift away from the Bible as authority, to community discernment,” curiously a picture of Moses coming down the mountain came…
All gifts are important
Sometimes when I am very tired or discouraged, or both, I have trouble trusting God. I read the lovely promises that Paul writes to the church in Corinth and I wonder. I read Paul’s words, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given…
One word
A year ago, a friend issued a challenge. He urged me to select one word as the word for me in 2017. A word on which to focus and meditate. A word of (at least hoped for) transformation. Perhaps because it was January, perhaps because of the Spirit’s leading, I responded positively to the challenge.…
Does your financial plan include giving?
In the early years of our marriage, my wife Sharon and I often sat through our pastor’s annual sermon on tithing consumed by the feeling that we should do more. A serious discussion always followed, but with monthly bills, a mortgage, car payments, and school fees for our daughter, it was difficult to find the…
Love is acceptance and transformation
Does loving people and things as they are mean accepting them as they are? If so, what are we to do with the call to join the Spirit’s transformative work of making all people, places and things new? The call to transformation certainly seems to contradict acceptance. It focusses on what is wrong in the…
Bloodvein Reserve
Many years ago, our archives first described this photograph as “School children at Bloodvein Reserve, ca. 1956.” The subject heading included the phrase, “Indians of North America,” correct for the time. If you go to the photograph description now, you will see that the word “Reserve” has been replaced with “First Nation,” and “Indians” with…
#MeToo in the pew next to you
The incredible wave of disclosure around sexual abuse has dominated the front pages of our newspapers and our news feeds these past months. Women, in particular, are saying, “It’s about time that the pain and suffering of victims are acknowledged. It’s time to bring into the open what has been covered up and supressed for…
Readers write: January 15, 2018 issue
‘Come to the table . . . and meet Jesus’ Re: “A memorable remembrance,” Nov. 20, 2017, page 12. I want to affirm Troy Watson’s assertion that our communion services should “result in our hearts being set ablaze within us.” It is now more than a year since we found a welcoming church home…
