Assembly: Pray for grace
Prospects for an intense conversation on several issues appear to be gaining traction for our upcoming assembly in Saskatoon in July. The agenda features the conclusion of the Being a Faithful Church (BFC) process after seven years of discernment. And many delegates will come with serious questions about the Future Directions Task Force recommendations. The…
An open letter on Future Directions
We are a group of pastors from each of the five area churches who have gathered around the current Future Directions Task Force conversations in an effort to understand and respond together. We write as younger pastoral leaders with hopes for many years yet in service to the Mennonite church in Canada, and so with…
Prayer of preparation for Assembly 2016
As delegates prepare to gather for Assembly 2016, a group of 10 pastors from across Mennonite Church Canada wrote an open letter on the Future Directions process. They write, “In a spirit of pastoral response, we offer the following prayer to help gather God’s people around both the Future Directions and BFC processes as they…
Readers write: June 6, 2016 issue
Recommendation of same-sex inclusion will lead to exodus Re: “It could soon be ‘time to run’ ” letter, April 25, 2016, page 10. This letter refers to the upcoming Assembly 2016 in Saskatoon assembly and the recommendation that “we create space/leave room within our body to test alternative understandings [of same-sex issues] . . .…
‘Who’ before ‘how’
Mennonites are blessed with traditions and aspirations that many admire: nonviolent peacemaking, mutual aid, voluntarism, relief efforts, generosity and so on. But these values alone do not inherently communicate the one whose name we bear as Christians. Focussing on our ethical practices comes with the risk of becoming preoccupied with “how.” How will we be…
Lessons from spilled milk
“Don’t cry over spilled milk.” This little English phrase must have been coined by a parent watching her child pour milk into a cup. When our emerging independence turns to “needing” to pour our own milk, a parent can only watch with horror. The cup is off-centre, the pitcher trembles, and the liquid is like…
Dish washing
In 1963, the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches held its annual convention in Herbert, Sask. Here, dishes were washed by hand and, of course, re-used as other delegates waited in line. Mennonite World Conference Assembly 2015 took a different approach to reduce the event’s environmental footprint by using compostable cups, dishes and cutlery. Compostables,…
In a 21st-century storm of change
A seminar for pastors may have begun with marine imagery, but it was the cascade of effects that happened in Yellowstone National Park in the United States that caught the imagination of 30 pastors gathered at Conrad Grebel University College on May 11, 2016. Betty Pries of Associates Resourcing the Church showed the YouTube video…
Saskatchewan pastors wrestle with Scripture
“People assume that reading the Bible should be easy,” said Derek Suderman, adding, though, “That’s not the way the Bible works.” If they are to truly understand Scripture, they must be prepared to wrestle with it. Suderman, who is professor of Old Testament at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., sees the story of…
