Watch: ‘You need to try out,’ coaches sing
“You Need to Calm Down” may be a song in which pop superstar Taylor Swift addresses her detractors, but in the hands of the coaching staff at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, it’s a song about trying out for athletics. Coaches at the Kitchener school showed their parody of Swift’s Grammy-nominated hit, titled “You Need to Try…
Learning to farm with droughts and deluges
The weather patterns in Nepal used to be regular about 15 to 20 years ago, says Durga Sunchiuri, who grew up helping his parents farm their land in the mountainous terraces of Nepal’s Terhathum District. Not anymore. Today, he says, the monsoon season lasts just a month or five weeks, instead of three to four…
Theology for a climate emergency
Students, scholars and community members alike filled Marpeck Commons at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) on Nov. 13, hoping to lay a firmer hold on one essential subject: Actionable theology for the age of climate change. Just days before the forum, 11,000 scientists from around the world unanimously declared a global climate emergency. The scope and…
Watch: MCEC church helps Montreal’s homeless
Montreal has been hit with unseasonably cold weather this month, and a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) congregation is doing what it can to help members of the city’s homeless population get by. Hochma church is the home to Care Montreal, an outreach program that opens its doors to around 30 people every night. The program…
‘We don’t have to stop just because someone says no’
Ana Iris Constante says she used to be nervous just to introduce herself. She would never have guessed that one day she would be part of a group of women that makes regular trips to the mayor’s office with petitions in hand—a group of women that insist on having a voice. Although they are often…
Watch: ‘Peace be with you’ in nine languages
Peace Sunday is coming up on Nov. 10 and Ontario Mennonite Music Camp has created a resource to help churches mark the occasion. In the short video below, OMMC campers and staff demonstrate how to say “Peace be with you” in Amharic, French, German, Lao, Mandarin, Spanish and three other languages. “We would love if…
Ethiopia’s Meserete Kristos College at 25
The beginning of 2019 marked the silver anniversary of Meserete Kristos College. In January 1994, there were only a handful of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) leaders trained in Bible or theology. Now there are 1,864 men and women who have graduated from one of the college’s certificate, diploma or degree programs in Bible and Christian…
Voices Together committee holds final meeting
A stack of paper containing 780 songs and a binder of 320 worship resources greeted each member of the Voices Together committee when they arrived for their 10th and final committee meeting in early October. In nine previous meetings, the committee had discussed content to include in this new worship and song collection for the…
Bible study works at decolonizing scripture
A Bible study in Winnipeg is asking the questions, “How is our faith shaped by our history?” and, “Can we decolonize how we read the Bible?” Kelsey Enns leads the group in reading, examining and discussing scripture, with the help of resources like Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, edited by Steve Heinrichs, director…
A meaningful way to dispose of unwanted Bibles
Tim Martens carefully unwraps a pair of tattered-looking old books. One is an ancient German Bible, its text printed in fine Gothic script, the other an old Gesangbuch or songbook. The Duck Lake, Sask. resident believes these worn and frayed tomes, no longer wanted or needed by anyone, deserve to be treated with respect. To…
