The REAL thing at Bethany College
Every February, high school students from across Canada brave the cold, snow, and winter wind to make the trip to Hepburn, Saskatchewan for Bethany College’s Youth Advance (YA)! Bethany’s annual youth retreat brings people together to be challenged through dynamic teaching, drama, music, art and loads of fun activities. It is one of the most…
Seduced by our abundance
Beware of seduction by accumulation. That was one of the money issues explored by Walter Brueggemann, a world-renowned Old Testament scholar, in talks to as many as 700 people gathered at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) Jan. 16 through 18. In his three packed lectures at EMU’s annual School for Leadership Training, Brueggemann talked about two…
Mennonites writing in Canada: The first 50 years
The chapel at Conrad Grebel University College was packed to hear renowned Mennonite author Rudy Wiebe read through his life of writing on Jan. 11, 50 years after his 1962 novel, Peace Shall Destroy Many, was published. Hildi Froese Tiessen marks the publication of Wiebe’s first novel as the beginning of Mennonite writing in Canada,…
New Grebel program encourages agents of peaceful change
In the culmination of more than a decade of dreaming and a year of intense work, Conrad Grebel University College announces the launch of a new master of peace and conflict studies (PACS) program. Combining interdisciplinary scholarship with concrete application, the program will empower students with the knowledge, research and practical skills needed to contribute…
Keep the Bible central: Wally Unger
Columbia Bible College is proof that “where there is a vision, people will support,” said president emeritus Wally Unger at an Oct. 22 banquet to celebrate the school’s 75th anniversary. As part of that vision, Columbia’s faculty “didn’t teach students for information,” he said, “we taught them for transformation.” At the banquet, attended by 485…
Billy Graham meets the evangelist of outrage
I recently received two books by authors in their 90s: Nearing Home by Billy Graham, and Time for Outrage by Stéphane Hessel, a retired French diplomat and concentration camp survivor who helped draft the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Each book conveys a strong sense of mission and each is made more compelling by…
New church emerges in Winnipeg
When Barrette and Sandy Wiebe Plett returned from Egypt in 2008 after a three-year assignment under Mennonite Central Committee, they tried to move back into the church life they had left behind. But it wasn’t the same. They had changed. Their family now included two preschool children. The small group and close friends that were…
Question-shaped faith
Seven years ago one of my professors suggested our class watch the television series LOST to better understand life in postmodernity. I followed up on the homework assignment and my wife and I became fans of the show immediately. (It did go downhill after the first two seasons unfortunately.) LOST takes place on a mysterious…
An unsung hero of the church
When was the last time you prayed for your treasurer or thanked him or her for his or her work? Your treasurer is a key person in church operations and carries a great deal of responsibility for the finances and legal status of the church. Treasurers must issue correct charitable receipts on behalf of the…
