Mennonites in Panama oppose clear-cutting, request prayer
With the future of the Wounaan indigenous people of Panama being chopped down before their eyes, the largely Mennonite leadership of the group is asking the global Mennonite community to stand with them, and kneel with them in prayer for fair treatment. The Wounaan are known for carvings they make from hard, rich cocobolo wood,…
More on the Wounaan people
The Wounaan indigenous people of Panama, renowned carvers of cocobolo wood, are fighting the incursion of outsider loggers into their territory. About 600 of the roughly 15,000 Wounaan in Panama are Mennonite. See the main story, “Mennonites in Panama oppose clear-cutting, request prayer.” The links below provide background to that story. The Artisan (8:55 min.…
Mennonites have yet to reckon with their role in ‘sixties scoop’
Marcel French’s tanned complexion and dark hair easily identify him as Anishinabe. Which is why he likes to drop a Low German word or expression into his speech and watch the surprise on his listeners’ faces. “When I go to Jake’s Restaurant in Steinbach, I always ask for Gnurpel,” he says with a chuckle. Marcel…
Sunday dinners with the homeless
Mennonite Central Committee B.C.’s offices and thrift shop may be closed on Sunday, but two Sunday afternoons a month there is plenty of activity in the back parking lot of the MCC Centre. Here homeless and low-income people meet with volunteers for a hot meal, friendship, and free clothing and groceries. Lifeline Outreach Ministries of…
New director hopes to increase restorative justice
Parkland Restorative Justice has a new executive director. The agency, which is supported by Mennonite Church Saskatchewan (MC Sask), hired Heather Driedger to fill the position recently vacated by Ryan Siemens. Originally from Saskatoon, Driedger is a 2004 graduate of Rosthern Junior College. She earned a BA degree in peace and conflict transformation studies from…
Ontario Mennonite Music Camp explores ‘pride and prejudice’
When Linnea Thacker suggested to her co-director of Ontario Mennonite Music Camp, Elizabeth Rogalsky Lepock, that they perform a shortened version of My Fair Lady as the musical at the camp’s closing program, Lepock wondered at its non-religious content. In other years the camp performed Fiddler on the Roof, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar, exploring…
Beholding the grey area
The Tent of Nations is a family farm situated in the Palestinian hills near Bethlehem in the West Bank, owned by the Palestinian-Christian Nassar family since 1916. The farm overlooks the valley of a small Arab village. When our group visited the farm for a tour this past spring, the environmental and educational farm seemed…
Seniors and youth find common ground at Friendship Manor
For Beverley Winter, the Friendship Manor community includes teenagers from the Altona Mennonite Church (AMC) youth group. Winter looks forward to monthly Sunday morning breakfasts with the youth group, a tradition started in 2011. “We become a ‘nutcase’ when we’re isolated,” Winter says. “But it’s been so nice since [the youth group] have been here.”…
