-
MCC program shares ‘tools’ to combat homelessness
In 2013, the first cast of Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz’s “Homeless Jesus” was installed. The bronze statue, which depicts the Christ figure as a person sleeping on a park bench, was offered to two churches before being installed at Regis College at the University of Toronto. When Pete Olsen, coordinator of the Mennonite Central Committee…
-
Staging change behind bars
Ontario’s Theatre of the Beat has a mandate of staging change and creating conversations around social justice issues, but that’s also happening in communities beyond the Mennonite enclaves the company brings its plays to. Once a week, a couple of the members of the theatre troupe provide therapeutic drama classes to the inmates incarcerated at…
-
‘That school kit saved my life’
Ly Vang was 16 and stuck in a refugee camp in Thailand with a pair of shoes and two sets of clothes. She was lonely and sad. She struggled with suicidal thoughts. “What is the meaning of living like this?” she complained to God. “Being dead would be better.” One day, though, she noticed a…
-
Three generations find working for MCC a blessing
Bob Lebold made his first donation to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) when he was about 10 years old. It was Christmas, sometime in the late 1960s, when he tagged along to the MCC centre in Kitchener with his mom Elaine, who was the material aid supervisor. His task was to help sort and bale clothing…
-
Expect to have your worldview challenged
Are you over 18 years old with a love for your regional, nationwide and global Mennonite church? Mennonite Church Canada is seeking representatives from each of the five regional churches to represent their respective communities at the next Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Global Youth Summit (GYS) in Salatiga, Indonesia, in 2021. Past delegates for MC…
-
Learning from the wisdom of children
“I’ve had many teachers, most of them children,” says Patricia Erb. “The best ones.” It could be seen as a surprising assertion from Erb, who, at 63, has been involved in human-rights work since her early teens. She has three decades under her belt at Save the Children Canada—the Canadian arm of the development organization…
-
Queer hymns now online
Growing up, Cedar Klassen loved singing hymns. Klassen’s family would gather around the dinner table singing verses from Hymnal: A Worship Book, and later Sing the Journey and Sing the Story, in four-part harmony. After taking a course in hymnology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., Klassen chose to write a thesis on…
-
A journey from fundamentalism to freedom
Donna Dinsmore never felt she fit into church life. “I wanted to serve in the church and I loved God, but I didn’t feel called to work with small children and I didn’t make casseroles,” she says. “Becoming an adult single woman in the church was difficult. I was a third-class citizen. Women were treated…
-
Canoe trip deepens pastoral connections
For three days and two nights in June, six Mennonite Church Eastern Canada pastors journeyed by canoe and camped in the wilderness of Massasauga Provincial Park, near Parry Sound, Ont. Two of them were experienced in the backcountry. But the other four—pastors belonging to the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Ministerial, a group of pastors in Kitchener,…
-
A blessing from God
The idea that Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp is a sacred space where God is at work came up over and over again at the farewell event for Campbell and Chris Nisbet, held on July 13 at the camp near Shakespeare, Ont. Surrounding all the stories and memories expressed, there was deep respect and appreciation…
