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Teachers learn lessons, too
It’s not uncommon for Linda Bartel to meet former students while volunteering, and she’s always delighted to see them. Bartel, who is 86 years old, volunteers two or three days a week, dividing her time between the Good Neighbours Food Centre and the Mennonite Central Committee Clothes Basket in Rosthern, where she lives. In both…
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‘What will happen to us now?’
COVID-19 has given Jake Buhler pause to reflect on his family history and how it has been shaped by pandemics. In 1918, when both the Spanish flu and tuberculosis were wreaking havoc in South Russia, Buhler’s mother Maria was an 11-year-old girl growing up in the Mennonite village of Grigoriewka. She was the second of…
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Strengthening faith for the coming year
When a new year begins, many people resolve to lose weight or begin exercising. But the dawning of a new year is also a good time to consider improving one’s spiritual fitness. Josh Wallace, who is Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s church engagement minister, says spiritual practice is essential to a healthy faith. “Our lives depend on…
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When change is your only option
When the pandemic hit in March, Chris and Laura Mullet Koop, who own and operate Elmwood Farms Inc., were profoundly impacted. Their farm, located in Jordan, Ont., in the designated green belt area on the Niagara escarpment, is an egg production and grape-growing enterprise, started by Chris’s family in 1932. The farm has seen many…
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Pastor addresses radio audience about church gatherings
With a message of “Love your neighbour as yourself,” a Mennonite Church B.C. pastor reached a wide audience on the radio with a message about in-person church gatherings. On a recent call-in talk show on radio station CKNW, broadcast from Vancouver across the Fraser Valley, senior pastor Frank Berto, of Living Hope Christian Fellowship in…
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Mennonite milestones through an artist’s lens
The year 2020 featured some big moments in the Mennonite world. MennoMedia launched Voices Together, the new worship and song collection; and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) celebrated its centennial. Although COVID-19 prevented people from gathering in person to mark these milestones, one artist still found a way to commemorate them. Lynda Toews, the artist-in-residence…
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Canadian students come second, third in binational speech contest
Catherine Bergs, a student at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., and Jubilee Dueck Thiessen, a student at Canadian Mennonite University when she gave her speech earlier this year, came second and third in the 2020 intercollegiate C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest administered by Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Bergs placed second with her speech,…
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CMU practicum student helps shape Anabaptist worship
Amelia Pahl, a fourth-year Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) student doing an interdisciplinary degree in religion and narrative, did a three-month practicum placement with Together in Worship, a website of free Anabaptist worship resources that was launched in November. Volunteers from across Canada and the United States have curated and developed words, music and visuals for…
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Christmas pudding a long-time tradition
For many of us, sitting around the table with extended family is a very important part of our Christmas celebration. In my family of origin, the traditional menu included turkey and dressing, while dessert was always iced sugar cookies and fruit salad with cubes of red and green Jell-O. I’m sure each family has its…
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Pastor uses medical assistance to die
Before his death in November 2019, John Regehr of Winnipeg said he wanted to start a discussion about death and dying. Regehr, 93, a former Canadian Mennonite Brethren pastor and professor at Mennonite Brethren Bible College (a founding college of Canadian Mennonite University), did just that when he chose to die using medical assistance in…
