Submitted by pwadmin on Tue, 2021-05-11 16:44
Volume 25 Issue 3
Volume 25, Number 3
Cover Date:
February 1, 2021
Hope in a bleak midwinter
'Where do we find hope in this bleak midwinter?' (Image by Jörg Vieli/Pixabay)
Canadians are struggling with the heaviness of this winter. The prospect of several more months with physical gathering restrictions is as depressing as the grey skies of southern Ontario in February. As a society, we have started to squabble, point fingers and shift blame.
Stones of remembrance
Photo of Genesis (Photos by Danielle Raimbault)
“And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, ‘In the future when your descendants ask their parents, “What do these stones mean?” tell them, “Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground”’” (Joshua 4:20-22).
Readers write: February 1, 2021 issue
(Graphic by Betty Avery)
Might Jesus have really said ‘Our Mother’?
Re: “Gendered images of God,” Nov. 23, 2020, page 23.
The committee that worked on the new hymnal, Voices Together, says that “the decisions made about the language used for God may be unsettling for some.”
The crowd
(Image by Gerd Altmann/Pixabay)
Many of us are taking crowds very seriously these days and avoiding them as much as possible. For the sake of public health, I cannot encourage this enough. But there’s a crowd we have been avoiding since long before the pandemic started.
Jacob Kroeker
(Photo: Mennonite Heritage Archives)
Scarlet fever, cholera, diphtheria, smallpox, typhoid and whooping cough were some of communicable diseases that plagued communities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Jacob Kroeker (1836-1914) came to Manitoba in 1876 and settled in the village of Schoenweise. From 1881 to 1885 halskrankeit (diptheria) was a significant communicable illness that affected many.
Connections
"We attended regional, nationwide and international conferences in person, where we learned to know people from 'out there.'" (Mennonite Church Canada photo by Matt Veith)
I believe it is important that we are called to belong to a faith community that is beyond our own congregation. My main question today is: “How do we belong, how do we connect with the people in our Anabaptist church (regional, nationwide, international) beyond our congregation?
Losing freedom?
'I’m learning to pay attention to my gratitude level as a measure of my attunement with truth.' (Photo by Greg Rakozy/Unsplash)
I’m writing this on Jan. 18 and I’m wondering how tone deaf my article will seem by the time you read it. I have no idea what the world will be like in a few days, let alone a few weeks. Who knows what catastrophic event or pivotal moment in history will have occurred between now and early February?
Wise stories can build peace
In the aftermath of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, and the violence that boiled over in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 of this year, it feels as though tensions are rising in our society. As fear escalates, we wonder how to find a way for everyone to get along without violence.
You are invited to join the table
Mennonite Church Canada’s International Witness program invites congregations across its nationwide community of faith to join networks of support for its International Witness ministries.
The importance of a ‘generous space’ in Manitoba
Generous Space participants gather at one of the organization’s annual retreats. (Photo courtesy of Generous Space Ministries)
Appeal for funds garners no small potatoes
Wilf Funk, left, stands with Bob Wyma in the Friendship Inn kitchen, where 500 meals are prepared each day for Saskatoon’s vulnerable population. (Photo by Claire Ewert Fisher)
When the missions and service ministry team at Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon was trying to identify a giving project the congregation could rally behind, it thought of the Friendship Inn.
‘Help me to see how you see it’
Safwat Marzouk, keynote speaker at MC Eastern Canada’s Pastors, Chaplains and Congregational Leaders online event, explores the journey toward becoming an intercultural church. (Screenshot courtesy of MC Eastern Canada)
“I want to learn from you.” These words express the attitude in an intercultural church.
Teachers learn lessons, too
Linda Bartel, centre, volunteers at the Good Neighbours Food Centre in Rosthern, Sask., every week. She is pictured with fellow volunteer Rachel Wallace, left, and Good Neighbours community catalyst Pristine Chabaylo. (Photo courtesy of Good Neighbours Food Centre)
Linda Bartel taught Kindergarten at Stobart Community School for 20 years. She’s pictured with her last class in 1994. (Photo courtesy of Linda Bartel)
It’s not uncommon for Linda Bartel to meet former students while volunteering, and she’s always delighted to see them.
