MC B.C. divided on BFC7
“Who is MC B.C.? What kind of family are we and what kind of family do we want to be?” These questions were posed by Garry Janzen, executive minister of Mennonite Church British Columbia (MC B.C.), to a gathering of 200 billed as “Hearing each other with regard to the BFC [Being a Faithful Church]…
Donna Entz has ‘a lot of sun in her bones’
Donna Entz, an outreach worker for Mennonite Church Alberta, has many friends in the North Edmonton communities in which she lives and works. Manna Ali, a member of the Somali community, is among them. She told a gathering at First Mennonite Church on Sept. 23, 2016, to celebrate MC Alberta’s North Edmonton ministry, that Entz…
‘Social media: The good, the bad and the beautiful’
Selfies just might be God’s idea. Remember, you are smarter than your smartphone. What if virtue went viral? With these three ideas front and centre, David Balzer, assistant professor of communications and media at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, spoke to multiple audiences of students, faculty, staff and parents on the topic of “Social media:…
Faith formation for leaders today
Spending half of Canadian Thanksgiving in the U.S. away from my family is not how I usually like to plan things. But this past summer as I was thinking through my fall schedule, the speakers and themes from the Deep Faith conference that was being planned at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., kept…
The journey of a feather
Among many aboriginal people the eagle feather communicates respect, humility, courage and wisdom. Several years ago, I received an eagle feather as a sign of appreciation for my ministry at the prison in Saskatoon. I was honoured but troubled because the feather did not feel like it belonged to me. I brought my concerns to…
Serving at the centre
Church planter Mario Marchand responded to being licensed toward ordination on Oct. 16 by reciting his vision for the church in Québec: “Jesus, the centre of faith; the community of faith, the centre of life; and reconciliation, the centre of our mission.” Église Mennonite Ichtus, the church plant of Marchand and his wife, Line Lemieux,…
Church growth the result of actions, not words
Recently, I have become curious about the life of the early church. What did its members believe? What did they preach and what did they practise? More to the point, what did they do that made the church grow? We read of no great missionaries spreading the Word after the time of the apostles. Yet…
Reaching out to help other people
For Johise Namwira, being a student and being an activist go hand in hand. During the 2015-16 school year, the 19-year-old was involved with a variety of different groups on campus at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. She served as the women’s liaison on the Arts Student Body Council, ensuring that all of the…
Give a little means a lot
Two-and-a-half years ago, I took over a long-running column that appears in the Winnipeg Free Press. Each week, I write about a different volunteer in the city. The column is simply called “Volunteers,” but I think my editors should re-name it “People who make Aaron feel lazy.” Often, the people I’m profiling are altruistic all-stars…
Devastation in Haiti: ‘Yesterday, we lost everything’
When rushing water of the River Gris, overflowing with rain from Hurricane Matthew, washed away Sarditren Dete’s and Antovan Enit’s houses and possessions, it destroyed their livelihoods too. “Yesterday we lost everything: our chickens, our pig and our garden. This is how I eat, this is how I feed my children, this is how I…
