The church will prevail
While personally rejuvenated from my four-month sabbatical, I am saddened to come back to a faith community that seems wounded and immobilized with what one of our interim editors, Barb Draper, called a “difficult debate” over sexuality. As the conversation intensifies, we, the churches of Mennonite Church Canada/U.S.A., seem to have veered into a one-issue…
The joy of pizza
My wife Rachel and I wanted to start practising radical hospitality, but we live in a cosy basement apartment. It would be so much easier if we had our own house with lots of common space. But we felt Jesus was calling us to open up our doors with the room we did have. We…
Potluck picnics in the park
If you find yourself in Victoria Park in Kitchener, Ont., on a Thursday evening in the summertime, wander down the tree-lined path and over the bridge until you reach the island. You will pass families from many cultures out for an evening stroll or a drum circle under the gazebo. Keep going. Just past the…
Readers write: February 16, 2015 issue
Conscience Canada offers ‘peace tax’ alternative to taxpayers Current global events feel overwhelming. Here we are on a globe that seems to be rolling down a mountain, swelling with the detritus of violence as it plummets toward chaos. Is it possible for peace-minded people to get off? No, but if all the earth-loving people would…
For better or worse we are Pharisees
The Pharisees were Jesus’ nemesis, his constant sparring partners, fellow citizens who conspired eagerly against him. The Pharisees (spit) are the bad guys in the story even as it is told to children. “I don’t want to be a Pharisee” is still irritatingly hummed from one generation to the next. What’s lost on us, however,…
Celebrate the gift of leadership
As I scan the directory of pastors and congregations in our area church, I am inspired and immensely grateful. I know that very fine pastoral leadership is happening. I know that intense hours are being spent crafting biblically sound sermons. I know that lonely people are being visited, small people are being noticed and subdued…
‘Where’s God in my song?’
Music plays an important role in most teenagers’ lives. Through music they connect with peers and with issues that matter to them. Perhaps that’s why the Saskatchewan Mennonite Youth Organization (SMYO) chose “Where’s God in my song?” as the theme for its recent senior-high retreat. Twenty-three youth from seven Mennonite Church Saskatchewan congregations gathered at…
A positive space to speak out
It was a “magical” and “spirit-filled” Jan. 24, 2015, evening for many who attended a Wildwood Mennonite Church event, held to provide a positive space for members of the lesbian/gay/bisexual/ transgender/queer (LGBTQ) community, family and friends to tell their stories and be vulnerable with each other. Some people felt safe to share publicly, even those…
Langley church adopts indigenous protocol
Langley Mennonite Fellowship has become the first Mennonite Church B.C. congregation to acknowledge in writing that it sits on unceded first nations territory. At last year’s MC B.C. annual general meeting, Brander McDonald, the area church’s indigenous relations coordinator, challenged member congregations to consider posting a written declaration to that effect in a prominent place,…
