volume 28 issue 3
Four tributes, two announcements
With this issue, we bid farewell to columnists Ed Olfert, Joshua Penfold and Joon Park. While we are excited to welcome new columnists, the end of existing columns is a loss. Seasons change.
Responding to God’s call
Photo by Alexander Andrews/Unsplash.
New Year’s Day is often a time we reflect on the events and experiences of the past year. It is also the time we look forward to what might lie ahead.
In due season
Photo by 성두 홍/Pexels.
When I first started working out at a CrossFit gym, my muscles ached constantly.
After a few months, I asked one of the trainers, “When does the pain go away?” After clarifying what kind of pain I was referring to, he said, “Oh, that never goes away. This is your new normal.”
A different kind of yes-man
Photo by Jez Timms/Unsplash.
Since Will Braun’s strong editorial in the December 1, 2023, issue (“What kind of peace church are we?”), the pages of Canadian Mennonite have included some passionate responses.
This is a good thing. Perhaps I’ll add one more.
I begin with a story.
The unend of this story
Photo by Behnam Norouzi/Unsplash.
How many sermons do you remember from 25 years ago? Likely not many.
Even the most meaningful and formative sermons from long ago tend to fade and become less a specific memory and more an unrecallable influential moment; a ripple whose impact remains but becomes indistinguishable the further life goes beyond that moment.
Thoughts for our unfinished journey
Photo by Brad-/Unsplash
Becoming an intercultural church does not happen by accident or by wishful thinking.
It takes a lifetime to create space in which everyone can gather and be welcomed, celebrated, integrated and reconciled to God and one another.
Speaking in tongues: 5 responses to 2 key stats
Photo Terren Hurst/Unsplash.
The following is adapted from a sermon that Kevin Barkowsky, pastor of Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver, preached on January 28. Reprinted with permission.
Learning why
Camp Valaqua. Photo by Jon Olfert.
When campers first roll down our narrow road into the tall, tall trees, they are usually thinking about themselves: Will I have fun? Will I be scared?
When they return, they often begin to think about the people that surround them: Who will be my counsellor? Will the kids in my cabin be nice?
Connected at camp
Campers bond in the field at Silver Lake in Sauble Beach, Ontario. Photo by Jessa Braun.
Cam was working as a kitchen assistant at Silver Lake Mennonite Camp at the beginning of July 2022. It was his firstever week on staff. He’d had a lot of experience cooking, but it doesn’t take long for one to understand that the Silver Lake kitchen is a different beast.
OMMC grows musical leaders
Ontario Mennonite Music Camp. Supplied photo.
Ontario Mennonite Music Camp (OMMC) at Conrad Grebel University College is a small camp with a big impact. With a focus on communal music-making, campers receive exceptional instruction in voice or a variety of instruments, learn new musical techniques and explore church music and worship.
Journey to unity
Campers at Hidden Acres. Photo by Ben Watson.
Hidden Acres’ “Narnia Closet” carries the adventurous explorer on an unexpected journey. What begins as an innocent cleaning closet winds through a maze of stored items, a section so low you must crawl and finally a floor covered with basketballs, before exiting into the ping pong room on the other side of Stonehouse.
In but not of
Photo by Darryl Neustaedter Barg.
While I’m new in my role as associate program director for Camps with Meaning, I am not new to this place, or rather, these places. What has always shimmered at camp is the particularly thin space they are between us and God.
Breaking bread with broken people
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.
New Bible school opens in Thailand
Students at the Friends of Grace Bible School in Thailand. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada.
People gathered for the opening of Friends of Grace Bible School. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada.
Celebration of the opening of Friends of Grace Bible School. Supplied photo.
The Friends of Grace Bible School recently opened in the Issan area of Thailand. This school, supported by Mennonite Church Canada, will hold classes in the Friends of Grace Roi Et church. A Bible school had long been a dream for Friends of Grace, a network of about 100 worshipping groups in Laos and Thailand.
Students dream of new churches in South Sudan
Khan (Isaac) Gatkuoth, left, at Meserete Kristos Seminary in Ethiopia. Photo by Joanne De Jong.
A recent article in Anabaptist World stated there were no known Anabaptist congregations in South Sudan. Praise God that that is no longer the case.
Of rentals and relationships
North Star Mennonite Church and Prairie Light Christian Fellowship celebrate a New Years meal together. Supplied photo.
Big buildings; fewer people. It’s a fact that many Mennonite churches have fewer people involved in church life than they did 20 years ago.
Poems and paintings mark 499th anniversary
Gareth Brandt's painting, "A Baptism by Choice," shows the fountain from which the water for the first Anabaptism baptism was taken. (Supplied image.)
The story of Anabaptist origins came to life on Sunday, January 21, as Gareth Brandt marked the 499th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement with a presentation of art and spoken word.
