MC Eastern Canada gathering hears stories of faith
Paul Wideman, moderator of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, challenged the 28th annual church gathering, saying, “How can we encourage one another by sharing our faith?” The day-and-a-half event was filled with faith stories and had little actual business. Advertised as such, the gathering at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener on April 24 and 25 was…
Building houses and learning to serve
It may not be typical summer camp staff training, but Mark Wurtz says the Youth Farm Bible Camp’s annual trip to Mexico is “probably more worthwhile than orientation.” The camp has been taking senior staff members and youth on short-term mission trips for the past eight years, and Wurtz sees the trips as highly valuable…
A warming world should make us uncomfortable
It’s time for some uncomfortable conversations about climate change and poverty, says Willard Metzger, executive director of Mennonite Church Canada. “We’re trying to work for a better environment, but we’re benefitting from the industries that are ruining the environment. Somehow we need to at least acknowledge that,” said Metzger, speaking with Canadian Mennonite on a…
Churches ‘on the healing side’
“We are all equal. Not one person is above others.” Elder Marie Linklater’s words set the tone for a day of learning and discerning on April 18, when about 200 women and men from Saskatoon and area gathered at Mayfair United Church for an ecumenical response to murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. Representatives…
Saskatchewan youth take small steps toward big changes
Worms, balloons, dolly carts and minimal sleep were all part of a Saskatchewan Mennonite Youth Organization event held in partnership with Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan on April 8 and 9. This year’s Honouring the Earth event focussed on how making small changes to food consumption habits can have a big impact on the global food…
A giant has passed
Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) lost one of its most enduring and faithful supporters on Feb. 11 with the passing of Roy G. Snyder of Waterloo, Ont. He was 99. He was a MEDA stalwart for more than half a century. He was one of the initial board members of MEDA Canada and a signatory…
History surprises
Lewis Burkholder’s A Brief History of Mennonites in Ontario, published in 1935, is a “brief” book compared to Sam Steiner’s new book on the same topic: In Search of Promised Lands: A Religious History of Mennonites in Ontario. The book was released on March 28, 2015, at Conrad Grebel University College, where the retired Grebel…
Youths change lives on MDS trip . . . including their own
A group of Manitoba youths and young adults from the Bunker, a ministry of Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church, recently went to High River, Alta., to work with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS). They thought they would leave tired and covered in drywall dust, but had no idea they that they would actually help heal a man’s…
The Mennonite and the Lurmen
Are there parallels between the Star Wars universe and Anabaptism? I asked myself that recently after watching an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated TV series. The episode, entitled “Defenders of the Peace,” begins like any other episode in the series: Separatist forces are winning and the Jedi arrive to help turn…
