Retreat sparks women’s spiritual gifts
Warmth was evident all around at the annual B.C. Women’s Ministry retreat. Held from Oct. 16 to 18, 2015, at Camp Squeah, there was warmth in the fire and fireplace decorations that adorned the lodge and warmth in the fellowship among participants. Continuing with last year’s retreat theme of “Spiritual gifts,” this year’s theme was…
Stewarding agricultural diversity across cultures
Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) made headlines this fall when it was revealed that workers at its CMU Farm had successfully grown an ancient variety of squash from seeds shared with them by the White Earth Seed Library in Minnesota. The squash was grown in collaboration with members of Manitoba’s Métis community. The story that accompanied…
Will Trudeau boost Mennonite causes?
When a provincial election brought a wave of optimism to Manitoba—or at least parts of it—in 1999, a colleague said, “Yep, the reign of God should descend upon us any time now.” So what might the change in Ottawa mean for a few issues of particular concern to Mennonites with the Liberals in power and…
Welcoming the stranger
“You maybe can’t save all the lives, but you can save some.” With these words, Doha Kharsa encouraged her audience to sponsor refugees. Kharsa, herself a Syrian refugee who arrived in Canada a year ago, spoke at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan’s Encounter and annual general meeting, held Nov. 7 at Parliament Community Church. In…
Leadership changing at MCC Saskatchewan
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan is entering a season of transition. Claire Ewert Fisher has resigned as executive director, a position she has held for the past seven years. In her final report to delegates, Ewert Fisher said, “It is time for new energy and vision in this role. It is time for me to…
A God bigger than this mess
As part of our occasional Faith Journeys series, we share Henry Paetkau’s experience with readers. As Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s area church minister, he originally presented this story as a monologue of a Sunday morning encounter with a neighbour at this spring’s annual church gathering: Hey neighbour! Beautiful Sunday morning! Yup, off to church. You’ve…
Miller had major impact on the church
The story of Orie O. Miller is also the story of how Mennonites in the 20th century moved from being isolationist and the “quiet in the land,” to being a church with strong institutions involved in North American society and around the world. In many ways, Miller was at the centre of these changes. He…
Coffee for Peace wins UN award
Coffee for Peace won a certificate of achievement from the United Nations Development Programme. It was one of six winners in the UN’s IIX N-Peace Innovation Challenge for “sustainable, scalable, inclusive peacebuilding, that has long-term and transformative impact.” The award was presented to Coffee for Peace founder and CEO Joji Pantoja in New York City…
Challenged, changed, rewarded
My partner Suzanne Braun and I spent three years as Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) service workers in South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho from 2011-14. As the connecting peoples coordinator and planning, monitoring and evaluation coordinator, we worked to support a wide variety of MCC partner organizations throughout the SwaLeSA area. Much of what we did…
Winnipeg churches throw wedding party for Syrian refugee couple
When Brian Darweesh and Reem Younes got married, they were living as refugees in Lebanon. They left their homes in Syria, fleeing violence and a threat on Darweesh’s life. At their wedding there was no white dress and no party. Just a civil ceremony in a foreign country. But then a little over a year…
