Salty language and coming to faith
“Ah, sorry about all the cussing! I’ll be sure to watch my language around you from now on.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard an embarrassing apology of this sort when someone discovers that I’m a pastor. Having spent time in hockey dressing rooms, on baseball fields and at construction sites,…
Hoisin glazed chicken recipe
The L’Arche Collective Kitchen in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, provides opportunities for people with and without disabilities to share life together. (See more of the story at “Collective Kitchen involves all abilities.”) This recipe is from our new cookbook, One Big Table: Recipes from Friends of L’Arche Collective Kitchen. We are sharing the recipe for Hoisin glazed…
Collective Kitchen involves all abilities
The act of eating and preparing food is my greatest joy. Creating the dance of different flavours upon my palate is a spiritual experience. Robert Farror Capon writes in The Supper of the Lamb, “Food and cooking are among the richest subjects in the world. Every day of our lives, they preoccupy, delight and refresh…
Singing off the wall
The phrase “singing off the wall,” referring to singing from projected words rather than a hymn book, first appeared in Canadian Mennonite in 2010. This image shows that the practice went back much further. Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., recently donated a collection of glass “lantern slides” probably in use circa 1924-45. This…
Jesus isn’t talking to you
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him…
Readers write: January 1, 2018 issue
More responses to Maple View’s paid supplement on sexuality Re: “Honour God with Your Bodies” insert, Sept. 25, 2017. Thank you, Maple View! I have waited for years to see a statement such as this in Canadian Mennonite and I commend CM for publishing it. A true biblical interpretation cannot read other than that…
We know who we are
Common knowledge helps to form our identity. It creates the basis from which to describe ourselves and helps us to understand others. Change can create a crisis of identity. When what we thought to be fact changes, it can create a distressing cloud of confusion and uncertainty. We wonder if there is anything we…
Believe the best about each other
“Believe the best about each other.” When delegates met for the Mennonite Church Canada assembly this past fall, there were swirls of questions, confusion, caution and qualms. From the dense detail and multiple pages on denominational restructuring that we waded through, it was this phrase of hope and encouragement that jumped out at me, and…
Be like Scrooge?
In the last few weeks, most of us have encountered some version of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. In the initial run-up to Christmas, I must admit I am often a bit of a curmudgeon myself. Perhaps it is hearing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in November, or perhaps it…
Every name deserves to be remembered
On the evening of Oct. 29, 2017, I found myself in Lubyanka Square by happenstance. This square stands in front of the Lubyanka Building. The vibrant yellow facade, delightful rather than imposing, disarms those passing by. But the suffering planned and perpetrated within its walls cast a heavy shadow for those who know the history…
