Volume 27, Number 4
Red carpet hayloft
(Photo by Will Braun)
(Photo by Will Braun)
I prefer books and sky to screens and Hollywood, but the fact that kerchief-clad colony women will appear on-screen at Hollywood’s biggest event creates a moment of opportunity for our church.
Film review: sorrow, joy, anger and faith
Actors Rooney Mara (left), Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod and Jessie Buckley on the set of Women Talking. (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
Ben Whishaw (left) stars as August, Rooney Mara are Ona and Claire Foy as Salome in Women Talking. (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
Actors Emily Mitchell, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara. (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
What do we do when we are wronged: Nothing? Stay and fight? Or do we leave?
These questions form the backbone of Women Talking, a 2022 film directed by Sarah Polley and adapted from Miriam Toews’s acclaimed novel of the same name.
What about the women of Manitoba Colony?
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (in the yellow shirt) pictured in Manitoba Colony in 2013. She is pictured with the family that hosted her and her now-husband Sebastian Malter who joined her for her first couple days in the colony. (Photo courtesy of Jean Friedman-Rudovsky)
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (Photo courtesy of Jean Friedman-Rudovsky)
After opening in select movie theatres before Christmas, Women Talking received a wide release last month. For Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, it marked 10 years since she interviewed some of the women who inspired Miram Toews’s novel the film is based on.
Barns and kerchiefs
The set of Women Talking at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
Director Sarah Polley on the set of her film Women Talking. (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures
(Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
(Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)
Not many farmers walk out of a movie theatre and say, “It’s a lot of fun seeing our farm on the big screen.” But that’s what Chris Burkholder thought after he watched Women Talking at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall.
Readers write: February 27, 2023 issue
(Graphic by Betty Avery)
Complexities of pacifism
Below are four responses to “Conscientious” (Jan. 30), which critiqued the Canadian government purchase of fighter jets.
Camp really matters
(Photo by Tegan Mierle/Unsplash)
The smell of pancakes on the griddle, the roar of laughter while trying new activities, and the joyful noise of campfire singing are forever etched in my heart.
CMC Yearbooks
(Photo: Conrad Stoesz)
The Konferenz der Mennoniten in Canada—now Mennonite Church Canada—was formed in 1902. In 1928, the conference started publishing an official Jahrbuch (yearbook) which documented proceedings and decisions at the annual gatherings.
Dump truck affirmation
(Photo by Alden Jewell, Flickr)
In this new-ish year, I find myself searching out new-ish challenges.
Beyond free speech
(Photo by Claudio Schwarz/Unsplash)
The fellows at the next table were running on and on about refugees. So many false statements! I gritted my teeth as I sipped my coffee that morning. “No!” I wanted to holler, millions of refugees were not going to overrun Canada. Then the fellows changed topics. It got worse. The new topic was climate change.
A shielded sleep
(Photo by Rob Oo, Flickr)
What keeps you up at night? Do the anxieties of your day taunt you as you lay awake?
Two Ohio families move to Ontario
Kauffman family members (left to right): Roger and Rachel, Neil and Simon, Ryan and Valerie (parents of Neil and Simon).
Two Ohio families with 300 years of history in the U.S. began to consider leaving America when the two brothers and their wives faced workplace transitions in 2021.
B.C. church supports Indigenous art project
Pastor Ian Funk stands next to art at Uplands Elementary School. (Photo courtesy of Henry Krause)
Three panels with images of bears, butterflies, salmon and eagles grace the central hallway of Uplands Elementary School in Langley, B.C. Part of a joint project by the school and Langley Mennonite Fellowship (LMF), the panels were created by Elinor Atkins of the Kwantlen First Nation.
‘Maria and the Mennos’ set to air in September
Kenton Dyck and Victoria Exconde play lead roles in Maria and the Mennos. (Photo by Paul Plett)
The story of a young Filipina woman who marries into a Mennonite family and moves in with her in-laws will soon be broadcast on screens across Canada. Maria and the Mennos is a Manitoba-made television show that depicts the interaction of these different cultures and the hilarity, frustration and joy that ensues.
The question of camps
Members of Superb Mennonite Church gather for a meal at Camp Shekinah in 1987. (Superb Mennonite Church / Mennoite Heritage Archives photo)
“People used to work at camp because it was the right thing to do. They’d say things like: ‘I’d work 18-hour days, was paid very little, never got breaks, took care of kids and had the best time of my life, it was great!’ But that’s less motivating now.”
‘More of a home than my actual home’
Three 2022 Fraser Lake Camp staffers, from left to right—Edlyn Laneva, Zoe Suderman, Gaelle Cineus—offer fist bumps to the campers. (Photo by Shadrack Jackman-McKenzie)
Conor Mcloughlin, a Fraser Lake counsellor last year, and his camper get ready to take a trip in a time machine. (Photo by Shadrack Jackman-McKenzie)
A Fraser Lake cabin at dinner in 2022. Counsellor Gwynneth Kolbold is pictured at back left, and Haram Jeon, a counsellor/lifeguard is pictured centre right. (Photo by Shadrack Jackman-McKenzie)
A long, long time ago—way back in 1955—Fraser Lake Camp was born in the hearts and minds of three Mennonite pastors: Emerson McDowell, John H. Hess and Glen Brubacher.
‘A camp cabin is a messy thing’
Shirley John, an Indigenous elder, enjoys strawberries with Silver Lake staff. (Silver Lake photo)
When thinking of the word “faith,” Silver Lake comes directly to mind. Camp provides me with the space to integrate faith into daily life. Campfire songs, morning and evening reflections, and sessions are all valuable parts of camp that invite faith-based reflection.
Camp and mental health
Campers enjoy the water and sun at Camp Koinonia. (MC Manitoba photo by Darryl Neustaedter Barg)
The summer of 2022 was a re-opening in a multitude of ways. After two summers in various states of restrictions, we were able to be together in all of our spaces and to provide a full spring and summer of camp programs.
Connecting with faith at camp
Fun at Hidden Acres. (Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp photo)
Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp was excited to celebrate 60 years of camp over the past season. It was a season of seeing new things that the Lord is doing, and reflecting on all that he has done over the past 60 years.
