Collage of images by Marek Piwnicki/Unsplash, Sunguk Kim/Unsplash, Anne Boese.
In our May 2024 feature section, you will find:
Allan Rudy-Froese got sick of sermons—including his own—in which ethics overshadowed God, so he took a deep dive into grace.
To put names and faces to these partnerships, Canadian Mennonite’s correspondents across the country have profiled Witness workers and the churches that support them. Following are stories from B.C. and Alberta.
Collage of images by Marek Piwnicki/Unsplash, Sunguk Kim/Unsplash, Anne Boese.
Allan Rudy-Froese says he “got sick” of hearing sermons that spoke more about “what we should do” than the life of faith.
God comes to us in many ways. Sometimes we are keenly aware of God’s presence; at other times we just don’t pay attention.
Collage of images by Marek Piwnicki/Unsplash, Sunguk Kim/Unsplash, Anne Boese.
“I think you are a contemplative.” Spoken by my spiritual director, those words caught
Collage of images by Marek Piwnicki/Unsplash, Sunguk Kim/Unsplash, Anne Boese.
“This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Photo by Diego Gonzalez/Unsplash.
We asked numerous people to share three to five words that express the essence of Anabaptism for them.
Photo by Taylor Summach
Art by Jonathan Dyck
The feature for our February 23, 2024 issue is a 12-page comic by noted graphic novelist Jonathan Dyck. For the piece, Dyck collaborated with Dave Scott, an historian and ambassador from the Swan Lake First Nation in southern Manitoba.
See the sample below.
Photo by Jon Tyson/Unsplash.
The disciples were shocked when Jesus said, “One of you will betray me.” Judas’s story is told in different ways in the gospels, giving us some insight into how the disciples and gospel writers came to terms with the betrayal of Judas.
Emergency response personnel in the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City on October 23, 2023. Photo by Mohammed Zaanoun/ActiveStills.
The gulf appears impossible to bridge.
As bombs continue to fall onto Gaza and rockets somehow continue to fly out of Gaza, a conflict nearly as old as time and as entrenched as the Jordan River spirals to depths unthinkable. To listen to people on either side is to hear vastly different narratives about the same reality.
Gustavo Zentner and Richard Marceau. Supplied photos.
An interview with Gustavo Zentner
By Will Braun
Gustavo Zentner will never forget visiting areas attacked by Hamas.
“We walked into the homes where you can still smell the smell of burned flesh,” he recalled. “That smell will always accompany me.”
On October 1, we launched our book, The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other, at the Charles Pachter Museum in Toronto. Guests included Jews, Palestinians and others who are interested in overcoming the enmity between the two sides that for so long have been in conflict. There was music and poetry.
Tarek Al-Zoughbi. Supplied photo.
“Deeply rooted in our Mennonite psyche is this idea that peacemaking is as simple as sitting across the table from someone and hearing their story,” says Joanna Hiebert Bergen, chair of the Mennonite Church Manitoba Palestine-Israel Network.
Photo: mstudio For Pexels
We asked people who wrote for Canadian Mennonite in 2023 to share their wish and prayer for the church in 2024.
I’m easily afraid. So is the church. I pray that we will listen for, and joyfully embrace, Christ’s “fear not, I’m here” in 2024.
– Dora Dueck, Tsawwassen, B.C.
(Pexels photo by Antoni Shkraba)
Baptism rates among teenagers and young adults who grew up going to church have plummeted. Why?
The ruins of Al Zahra, south of Gaza City, after Israeli airstrikes. (Photo by Mohammed Zaanoun/Active Stills)
A child reacts during an Israeli military raid on Balata refugee camp near Nablus, West Bank, on November 9. (Photo by Wahaj Bani Moufleh/Active Stills)
At the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, a child carries the body of his brother, killed by an Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza on November 21. (Photo by Mohammed Zaanoun/Active Stills)
What will Christmas be like in Bethlehem this year? What can we learn about the birth of Christ from those who live where he was born and where he lived?
Selenna Wolfe (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-wiebe)
Kennedy Froese (left) and Valerie Alipova (right). (Supplied photos)
It might seem unlikely that young women would be drawn to church leadership and feel compelled to enter pastoral ministry. As young people, they are part of an underrepresented demographic in the church, one that is leaving organized religion in increasing numbers. As women, they have been barred for generations from leadership roles in the church and turned away from the pulpit.
(Photo by Aaron Epp)
There were nineteen beds in the hospice, that’s what I heard, most of them occupied, but I paid no attention to them.
(Photo by Aaron Epp)
The "memory tree" at Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship. (Photo by Aaron Epp)
There’s one church service that Fran Giesbrecht makes a special point not to miss: Eternity Sunday.
Observed at his Winnipeg church on the last Sunday before Advent, Eternity Sunday provides opportunity for Giesbrecht and others at Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship to commemorate members of their community who have died.
Nelson Groh was a Mennonite killed in the Second World War. (Photos by A.S. Compton)
This bear was among Nelson Groh’s personal effects, returned to his family after his death.
Nelson Groh’s personal effects, returned after he died in the Second World War.
“Sir,” said the man, “you and your family can be very proud of your son.”
Protesters rally in Washington D.C. We altered the placard, which originally read, “Thoughts & prayers don’t save lives / Gun reform will.” (Photo by Lorie Shaull, Used as per creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0. adapted by Betty Avery)
(Image adaptation by Betty Avery)
(Flickr photo by Tony Webster, Adapted by Betty Avery (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/))
When conservative Christians in the southern U.S. were agitating to erect monuments with the 10 commandments on them in front of courthouses, I heard someone suggest that they put up the Beatitudes instead.
The idea stuck with me, as did the reaction of my Trump-loving, warm-hearted neighbour when I floated the idea by her. She loved it.
(Photo by Alexander Alexandrov from Pixabay)
Robert Bruinsma remembers the day his friend, Sam, told him he was going to die.
It was a few days before Christmas 2017, and Bruinsma was visiting Sam (not his real name) in the hospital. Sam told Bruinsma that his request for medical assistance in dying (MAID) had been approved and would be carried out on New Year’s Day.
Curtis Wiens leads a forest church service the first Sunday of every month at Shekinah Retreat Centre. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Aberdeen Mennonite Church at Trinity Place. (Gameo photo by Bert Friesen)
Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship in Winnipeg. (Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship Photo)
Florence Driedger turns to look out the window before she replies to my question. “Well, we never know from one year to the next who and how many . . . whether we’ll still be functioning. We think we will be, but you never know.”
The Wiederkehr family applying compost to a dry corn breeding experiment. (Supplied photo)
The woodworking shop. (Photo by Will Braun)
On a hundred hilly acres near Mildmay, Ontario, the Wiederkehr family is quietly pushing the limits of human energy, spiritual integrity and disconnection from the consumerist web. The following is the first in a series of bi-monthly dispatches from their family.
