A celebration of food and faith
Recently I stood in line-ups for two different kinds of “Mennonite” foods. In one line I waited, along with many others, for my order from the annual Laotian Mennonite spring roll sale. A week later I waited for my two dozen Russian Mennonite fleisch perishky (meat-filled buns). Both of these delicacies were received with delight…
Building a go-kart . . . and a friendship
Alfred Driedger and Andrew Dyck share a love of fixing things, and the fact that they are separated by 60 years or so only makes repair work more interesting. This seemingly unlikely pair was brought together by a set of circumstances that has proved beneficial to both of them. Just over three years ago, Driedger,…
MCC expands response for East Africa drought
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has surpassed its initial target of raising $1 million for the East Africa drought and is now expanding its response to the continuing crisis in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. At press time, nearly $2 million had come in, $1.6 million of it from Canadian donors and a further $300,000 from U.S.…
A hard look at hunger
Once again, famine plagues the headlines and swollen bellies afflict the airwaves. The Horn of Africa is hungry. Babies are dying. Statistics are swirling. And the rest of the global village, wired as it is, has pulled up a front-row seat. Since the food crisis in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya debuted in the news last…
An earthy wisdom
About 80 percent of Canadians are city-dwellers. Despite the expanse of our nation, slightly more than a third of us dwell in only three metropolitan areas: Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. I live in one of them. I grew up, however, in Hicksville. My backyard was an open field that provided the seasoned aroma of freshly…
Two gifts for our youth
Whenever a congregation gathers to look ahead and contemplate its future, you can be sure that questions about the youth will be raised: Where are they? How can we keep them? We have all likely heard—and possibly have spoken—these concerns in various forms. These are important matters and the church does well to keep them…
Heeding the call
As one amateur Mennonite historian likes to point out, the only real Mennonite name is Menno Simons. From there on down through history, the rest of the family names are just “add-ons.” But after a series of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) general secretaries named Dyck (1961-73), Kraybill (1973-90) and Miller (1990-2011), the García name stands…
A new Mennonite archetype
I have never met César García, but I am impressed with his story as told by Meetinghouse freelancer Kathy Heinrichs Wiest on page 4. García is the general secretary-elect of Mennonite World Conference. He seems to have a special narrative, one which might make him the new Mennonite archetype for the 21st century. He just…
