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Making space for grief
When Kari Miller tells people her major in university, they either look uncomfortable and walk away, or begin sharing deeply personal stories. That’s because she studied thanatology—the study of death. “Death is a fascinating subject, but also a very scary one for many people,” she says. “I think a lot of us fear death and…
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That sacred space in between
Is it news if a crime doesn’t happen? What about when a guy who did break-and-enters for his whole life stops, or if a sexual offender learns how to express emotion in a healthy way and there are no more victims? Rielly McLaren is a bivocational pastor, serving part time at Windsor Mennonite Fellowship in…
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Artist explores faith through scrap-metal sculpting
Old agricultural equipment left to languish in junkyards or alongside highways gets a second life in Don Engbrecht’s workshop. He has created approximately 200 works over the 20 years he has been sculpting in Boissevain, Man., with scrap metal and welding tools. After seven years, he has finally completed his most recent masterpiece. The project,…
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‘Covid composition’ wins Chronos competition
When the novel coronavirus pandemic broke out last spring, shutting down so many activities, Leonard Enns gave himself a challenge: to write a short choral work of three to four minutes in length each week. It is a commitment he kept up from April to June 2020. “A Little More Time,” the last of his…
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Remembering John H. Neufeld
John H. Neufeld died on Jan. 11, 2021, after a life of serving the church in numerous places and in various roles. Born in Winnipeg, he lived and served in British Columbia, where he directed a camp and taught school at various grade levels over the years. He also taught at the Seminário Bíblico Mennonita…
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Spontaneous joy in this time of pandemic
Louisa Adria, Foothills Mennonite Church’s congregational support worker, and Ruth Bergen Braun, communications coordinator of Mennonite Church Alberta, sparked joy when they spontaneously decided to do a photo shoot on Feb. 26, next to a brightly painted shipping container near downtown Calgary. Inspired by a random bunch of balloons left in the back of Adria’s…
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Communicating at the table
A formative experience for me was a youth work camp I participated in during my teenage years. The event was organized in connection with the ninth assembly of Mennonite World Conference, held in Curitiba, Brazil, in July 1972. The week before the large multinational assembly, Mennonite youth from different parts of the world gathered in three…
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Brazilian beans
I grew up in Brazil, a child of missionary parents. One regular item on our family menu was the traditional Brazilian rice and beans meal. These are the daily staples of cuisine throughout Brazil, a wholesome and inexpensive combination eaten by people of all economic classes. To read a story about eating rice and beans,…
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Lecture-recital highlights women composers
Celebrating the contribution of women composers in Voices Together means reclaiming the voices of historical women whose work has been overlooked and also to “elevate the voices of women who are living,” said Anneli Loepp Thiessen. She led a recent lecture-recital as part of the virtual Noon Hour@Home Concert Series at Conrad Grebel University College. …
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Church members enjoy ‘snail mail’ during pandemic
In this time of isolation, some members of Abbotsford’s Emmanuel Mennonite Church are discovering the delights of a relationship based on the old-fashioned medium of handwritten letters. At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown last March, Angelika Dawson began thinking of ways she could encourage people. As a writer, she recalled that, even as a…
