Learning generosity
Generosity doesn’t just happen. It can be learned. ZenithOptimedia projects that advertisers in Canada will spend $11.3 billion in 2012, hoping that consumers will learn to spend money on their products. Rather than just succumbing to this tide, why not commit to engaging with at least one generosity resource this year? Devotional guides can help…
Worship as drama
Occasionally, because of my background in dramatic arts and pastoral ministry, I have been asked how well worship and drama mix. The query often assumes a disconnect between the two, or, at best, a sense that if the “dramatic element” is missing, it can simply be added to an existent worship outline with a skit,…
Readers write
Aid funding redirected to international trade The hammer that had earlier fallen on faith-based organizations such as Kairos and Mennonite Central Committee (“On shaky ground,” March 6, page 20) has now fallen on the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P), which heard recently that the funding proposal made to the Canadian International Development…
Food safety bureaucracy proves a minefield for MCC Relief Sale
Anne Wiens is determined to avoid food safety inspection hassles like those experienced the last time the annual Mennonite Central Committee Relief Sale was hosted in Didsbury, Alta., in 2009. Even though regulations were complied with according to information the sale committee had received, a zealous inspector made things difficult. The inspector focused on the…
Big box churches
Springtime was in full theatre as we travelled back from Virginia on a Sunday morning recently after a week’s break. Viewing the redbud, dogwood and lilacs providing the backdrop for lush green meadows was as much worship as meeting with the saints in song, scripture and sermon. We turned off the radio and drove in…
A great year for spiritual films
My four favourite films of 2011 all had Christian themes, something that has certainly never happened before. Two of them—Of Gods and Men and The Way—were reviewed in Canadian Mennonite last year. The other two, which are the subject of this review, will not appeal to audiences expecting a plot-driven narrative, action or even dialogue,…
Reading Mennonite novels as works of art
Although sailing troubled waters over the past 50 years, Mennonite novelists have taught Mennonite readers how to approach their texts with boldness and humility as “we learn more about ourselves through their works of art,” Paul Tiessen said last month in wrapping up a nine-week series of lectures by Mennonite writers at Conrad Grebel University…
African goat project demonstrates group power
A goat project among Kenya’s Maasai people is giving birth to more than baby goats. It is powering to life a cooperative group ethic that is helping 2,000 Maasai families cope with cultural change and ecological challenges. The traditionally pastoralist Maasai have struggled for years to redefine themselves in light of reduced grazing land, pressure…
