Feature
Divorce ministry resources
- Becoming a National Church by Adolf Ens. CMU Press, Winnipeg, Man., 2004.
- Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce by Elizabeth Marquardt. Three Rivers Press, New York, N.Y., 2005.
- The Children of Divorce: The Loss of Family as the Loss of Being by Andrew Root. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, Mich., 2010.
Who gets the church … when a couple divorces?
For discussion
1. What percentage of the adults in your congregation attended a church school at some level? Do you agree that fewer young people are choosing Mennonite schools today? What is the major deterrent? Should congregations provide tuition assistance to encourage students to attend Mennonite schools? Does yours?
What’s to become of Mennonite schools?
Thirty years ago, Anna (a pseudonym) took her first tentative steps through the doors of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ont., and entered a very different world than she was used to.
“It was hard explaining to my friends why I was going to a Mennonite high school,” she recalls. “They didn’t know what to make of it.”
For discussion
Creative connections
Like many pastors, Donita Wiebe-Neufeld, who co-pastors First Mennonite Church in Edmonton with her husband Tim, enjoys creating space for creative gifts to flourish. “It’s totally selfish. I love working with people like that,” she says in a telephone interview. Her enthusiasm is evident in her voice.
Art that speaks volumes
Art with a mission
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Sashira Gafic: Day 1. Acrylic on Canvas. This is the first of a series of seven pieces inspired by Genesis 1:1-5.
While some creative arts like prose and hymnody have been accepted as natural forms of expression and worship in Mennonite churches, visual arts are often viewed with less certainty. For painters, sculptors and other artists who craft for the eye, this can be disheartening.
Aiming at evil: Bin Laden's death an occasion for soul searching
On the surface, the story is simple and satisfying: The good guys got bin Laden. Justice has been done. The fight against the forces of evil will continue.
This is the underlying plot that western leaders have used to speak about the U.S. strike on Osama bin Laden. But some religious leaders warn against over-simplifying the script.
Ross T. Bender, educator, pastor and church administrator, dies
Ross T. Bender, dean emeritus of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died late Thursday, April 21, in Goshen, Ind. In his 81 years of life, he devoted himself to service and leadership in the Mennonite church, including congregational, denominational and global ministries.
For discussion
‘The ministry of war’
Pastor Epp (a pseudonym), finding himself in conflict with his church board, became increasingly depressed. Sharing his emotional ill health with the board, they arrived at a compromise about the number of times he should preach. Or so he thought.
For discussion
1. What aid agencies do the people of your congregation support? Do Mennonites in Canada see Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as primary or just one of many agencies? How strong is the connection between MCC and the people in the pew? Does your congregation distinguish between the work of your provincial organization and the national or international parts of MCC?
What has made MCC work well?
I grew up with the admonition, “self-praise stinks,” a phrase best expressed in the Pennsylvania-German dialect. During my years as executive secretary of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) from 1985-96, I was reluctant to be too overtly enthusiastic about this well-regarded service ministry. I also believe in the imperative of personal and organizational self-criticism.
‘Readers deserve another perspective’
Without Love, We’re Dead
“We have cracked the code of love,” announced Sue Johnson, EdD, author of Hold Me Tight to 1,200 people attending “Conversations on Attachment – Integrating the Science of Love and Spirituality,” a three-day conference held Mar. 31-Apr. 2 at Eastern Mennonite University.
Blanket exercise plums the depth of injustice to aboriginals
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Hilda Epp, holds a blanket symbolizing the exposure to new diseases (small pox, tuberculosis, measles) that arrived with the European settlers on Turtle Island—an aboriginal term for North America—as Diane Tiessen looks on. On the far left is Denise Bartel and on the far right is Eve Klassen. (Photo by Dick Benner)
Early relationships between European settlers and aboriginals were characterized by cooperation and interdependence, John Bartel, a farmer from Drake, Sask., and a member of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s Ministries Commission, told a crowd of 75 huddled on 12 blankets representing Turtle Island—an aboriginal term for Nort
Election Tools for Your Church: Challenge Your Candidates
It’s election time in Canada once again. You might be wondering if this election really matters, or if your vote can really make a difference.
For discussion
1. How was your spirituality formed as you grew up? In what ways has Mennonite spirituality been changing?
2. Do you feel that you encounter God through your current spiritual practice? How important is it for our congregations to work at renewing spirituality? Is this best done individually or as communities? How can we best work at renewal?
We don’t need to be more Anabaptist
Over thirty pastors and lay people gathered earlier this year to hear Arnold Snyder, retiring Conrad Grebel University College professor of history, give two two-hour long lectures on Anabaptist-Mennonite spiritual formation in a historical perspective.
Spiritual formation resources
A way of life
However difficult this book is to read, Dawn Ruth Nelson has done the church a significant service in her study. Her effort to both diagnose the malaise in North American Mennonite spirituality and propose remedial measures suffers from a poor choice of title and could have benefited from tighter editing.
My journey into prayer
Encountering the living God
God is a living God who encounters us in our daily lives.” So said Arnold Snyder, professor of history at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., during a Reformation Sunday sermon last fall at Wilmot Mennonite Church, New Hamburg.
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