This is the third of four digital-only issues of Canadian Mennonite in 2022. Click on each story to read it on the website. There is no pdf of this issue. We appreciate your interest in our digital content and welcome your comments.
Senses open new doors
First, a disclaimer: I love books. With a father in the bookstore and publishing business, I grew up in a household that always had books available. I’ve volunteered and been employed in a library. I currently own cards to two local libraries. For me, books have been a source of learning, inspiration and connection to people in other places and times.
For much of my life I associated Ethiopia with famine. I’m just old enough to recall the searing scenes from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s: windswept, dull-beige landscapes; skeletal cattle; distended bellies; flies; people crowding trucks laden with sacks of food; and charitable rock concerts.
On July 30, my brother was getting married in Williston, N.D., and I was the officiant. It was a lovely celebration, with little kids taking over the dance floor at the reception, and I’m delighted to have my brother’s partner join the family.
Sara Garnet and I were cleaning out the Sunday school classrooms of Faith Mennonite Church in Leamington, Ont., with heavy hearts one Wednesday afternoon. We had put it off for a long time. It felt like we were cleaning out a home after a death had taken place. I went home at lunch time and wrote this lament for the end of Sunday school since the beginning of COVID-19, with a sense that this is really the end of the model of Sunday school as we have known it. For a pastor who has taught Sunday school for 33 years-plus and the education coordinator, this is a deep loss and lament.
Are you browsing the library shelves aimlessly, uncertain as to which book to take home? Did you spend the entire summer gardening or at the lake, unable to find time to read? Or are you looking for a wonderful story to carry you through the gloomy winter? Look no further! Avid readers from across Mennonite Church Saskatchewan have plenty of recommendations to share.
I was caught off guard when I got the call that my friend Paul Phomsouvanh was in the hospital with COVID-19 last fall. At that time, the new more contagious Delta variant had recently arrived. Cases were on the increase, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Lifetime experiences and vegetables are being harvested at Winnipeg’s urban farm, Metanoia Farmers Workers Cooperative Ltd., located on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg.
The first Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) thrift store opened in March 1972 in Altona, Man. In 2022, the thrift stores are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this first store in Canada. Celebrations are taking place at various times in different locations.
Bridgefolk asks how to repair harm to Indigenous Peoples
Participants in the Bridgefolk movement for dialogue and greater unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics have long made the phrase, “Proceed through friendship,” their byword.
Jubilee Mennonite votes to become an affirming congregation
After more than a year of discussion, study and prayer, Winnipeg’s Jubilee Mennonite Church—which is part of both Mennonite Church Manitoba and the Manitoba Mennonite Brethren Churches—has decided to welcome members of the LGBTQ+ community to become full members of the congregation.
MCC calls on PM to remove barriers to humanitarian assistance
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada has joined other leading Canadian aid organizations to launch Aid for Afghanistan, a national campaign calling on the Government of Canada to immediately act to remove barriers that have blocked and deterred the provision of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for the past year. The campaign encourages Canadians to take action by writing to their MPs.
A business built more by accident than by arrangement
Chris Steingart’s journey to owning a professional web-design business was unanticipated. In 2005, he was working as a youth pastor at Waterloo-Kitchener Mennonite Church in Waterloo, Ont., and he decided that the church needed a website.
If you missed any past issues, here are direct links to complete copies of the last five issues before this one. You can download older back issues from the Past Issues section of our web site.
August 22, 2022 (Volume 26, No. 17): Looking back, looking forward / Humble confessions, compelling stories / Music builds bridges to Africa
August 8, 2022 (Volume 26, No. 16D): Myanmar church growing, though half its members displaced / Biking and hiking raise funds for Alberta organizations / Mennonite Brethren leaders remove section of book July 25, 2022 (Volume 26, No. 15): World assembly small but full of joy / Bursary helps recipients develop and explore / Indonesia 2022 watch parties July 11, 2022 (Volume 26, No. 14D): ‘Following’ Mennonites / Middle Eastern adventure for Winnipeg students / Church connects with Witness workers in Thailand June 27, 2022 (Volume 26, No. 13): Loss cannot be counted / Small town, big heart / Is violence the best response to Putin?
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