To ‘clothed’ Anabaptists
Sometimes it takes an outsider to tell us quiet, unassuming Mennonites that we do indeed have clothes. Stuart Murray, a British biblical scholar from the Baptist tradition who has just published The Naked Anabaptist, wonders, in an interview with John Longhurst on page 4, why North American Mennonites have so little interest in Anabaptism when…
Join ‘Naked Anabaptists’ on Facebook
No, it’s not what you might be thinking—nobody is nude. At least, not literally, although more than 300 people have joined the Naked Anabaptist group on the Facebook social media site to metaphorically explore what it means to strip down to the bare essentials of the Anabaptist faith. The new group was formed by Winnipeg…
Specializing in a Google world
In a Google world where millions of written works are at your fingertips, it’s tough for the average user to discern appropriate resources for Christian formation, leadership, peace and mission. And it’s an even greater challenge to keep Anabaptist and related resources as visible and accessible as we’ve come to expect them to be. Fortunately,…
They call it ‘couple-love’
A season of weddings. That’s what I see as I look ahead to the next few months. Many of the children born in the 1980s are now young adults falling in love, pledging their troth and bravely preparing to marry. Several invitations for these weddings dot our family bulletin board, some of which include photos…
Take good care of your children
“Who will take care of our children if something happens to us?” The decision about guardianship of minor children is one of the major hurdles facing parents when writing a will. Often it is because parents can’t agree on whom to name. Each parent may want his or her side of the family to be…
‘From farm to fork’
So many people spend their time and energy accumulating things, but what they really want are simpler lives and deeper connections with others. Knowing that reconnecting with friends and family always involves food, the owners of Pine View Farms All Natural Meats near Osler offer grain-fed, hormone-free food products to those living in their small…
When faith collides with academic freedom
After stories went national earlier this year announcing that Trinity Western University (TWU) in Langley, B.C., had fallen afoul of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) over issues of academic freedom, Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg now finds itself implicated in the same controversy. CAUT vs. TWU Late last year, CAUT issued a…
Church growth, expansion lauded by B.C. delegates
Beginnings, endings and growth marked the Mennonite Church B.C. annual meetings at Eden Mennonite Church, Chilliwack, on April 10, under the banner of “The hope of the reconciling gospel of Jesus.” Delegates welcomed one congregation while saying goodbye to another, witnessed the passing of the leadership torch from one moderator to another, and heard about…
Canada a ‘hard soil’ for the gospel
Being the church in the 21st century is no easy task, Robert J. Suderman told the delegates and pastors gathered at Eden Mennonite Church, Chilliwack early last month for the annual gathering of Mennonite Church British Columbia. It was a sort of Pauline farewell for the retiring general secretary of MC Canada. “Some writers suggest…
The next step: Helping to build infrastructure in rural Haiti
The response of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to Haiti’s Jan. 12 earthquake will gradually shift from the capital city of Port-au-Prince to rural communities that are expected to play an integral role in rebuilding the country. By 2011, MCC’s work will centre in the Artibonite Valley, about 90 minutes north of Port-au-Prince. Eight MCC staff…
