Native awareness
Freeman Simard is pictured in traditional indigenous regalia in the front of a church in Manigotogan, Man., which is about 200 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. A small portable record player is helping Freeman as he participates in an event called ‘Native awareness’ around the Christmas season in 1979. Manigotogan is one of the communities where…
Volunteering: Is it still part of our DNA?
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10 NIV). Many times over the years I have been asked to volunteer here or there, but at the same time I have also been asked, “Why do you do…
Readers write: February 29, 2016 issue
Magazine should ‘continue to challenge and question’ Re: “Do church and journalism mix?” by Will Braun and “Are congregations up to it?” by Dick Benner, Feb. 1, pages 14 and 2, respectively. Kudos to Braun and Benner! Braun’s timely column raises important points about the role of church-related media in providing independent analysis of critical…
History matters
Last summer, the Mennonite Heritage Centre was given a German language database of more than 110,000 family registries. We were ecstatic! With this new resource, we could reconnect families torn apart during the Second World War. The “lost” had been found. A branch from our faith family tree could be grafted back on. Just like…
Aging gracefully
On a soft spring day, I looked out my window to see the neighbour’s mature crab tree in full bloom. Its tall, fully rounded shape was blanketed in a carpet of pink-lilac blossoms. Unbidden, a thought emerged, “I want to be like that when I’m old.” Years later, I can still recall the beautiful, magnificent…
Autonomy and community
“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. . . . The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and…
First Mennonite Church in Greendale, B.C., 1948
In the spring of 1948, First Mennonite Church in Greendale, B.C., was inundated with water. Dikes had been built along the rivers some 50 years earlier, but they had suffered from neglect. During the winter of 1947 and early 1948, a lot of snow built up, and the late spring and fast melt triggered a…
The pursuit of truth (Pt. 2)
I can’t imagine two scientists debating something of a scientific nature and concluding, “Well, you have your truth and I have mine.” Yet this attitude is quickly becoming the norm when discussing matters of spirituality in Canada today. Why is that? It comes from the idea that science deals with objective reality and faith deals…
Readers write: February 15, 2016 issue
Giving and receiving are complicated transactions Re: “God loves a cheerful receiver,” Jan. 4, page 9. When I receive a gift accompanied by a script dictating my response, I feel like returning that gift. I do not feel grateful; I feel controlled. That’s how I felt when I read Arnie Friesen’s “God, Money and Me”…
We are not in control
Summers in central Saskatchewan are short. Okay, they’re too short. And so when the snow finally melts, the ice disappears and the risk of frost is nearly non-existent, we clear out of the cities (and the pews) and head into the wilderness. Unfortunately, last year, summer was even shorter. From about mid-June to mid-July, a…
