Edmonton church becomes inclusive, affirming
On Feb. 7, 2016, Edmonton’s First Mennonite Church voted to become an inclusive and affirming Christian community. Two motions, one stating that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer people are welcome to become full and equal members of the church, and another to approve the statement: “God calls us to be an inclusive, affirming, Christian…
MC Canada wants to know who is caring for refugees
Mennonite Church Canada congregations are taking the words of Deuteronomy 10:18-19 to heart by caring for Syrian refugees. The passage shares God’s desire to clothe and feed strangers. It’s a rather fitting way for Mennonites to express God’s love, as many were once refugees to Canada themselves. Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary is one of …
Is climate change real?
A reader of this magazine sent an e-mail admonishing me not to associate our Mennonite faith with the “fear narrative” of climate change. He provided some links to seemingly credible people who refute the common global-warming argument. My impulse was to either delete or politely—or impolitely—sidestep it. Instead, I took it seriously. Some of you,…
Breakfasts, burnt curtains and a surprising friendship
Across the parking lot from Altona Mennonite Church stands a long, yellow brick building with narrow halls and tiny bachelor suites that rent out for $285 per month. Friendship Manor is a government-run housing facility for people on social assistance. It’s a snowy Sunday morning in early February, but the tiny kitchen in the Manor’s…
Former soldier leaves legacy of Christian pacifism
Siegfried Bartel, the former German army officer who became an ardent advocate for peace and an influential Mennonite figure in Canada, died at the age of 101. Siegfried Wilhelm Bartel was born in Prussia, now Poland, into a successful Mennonite farming family. Pacifism had ceased to become important to the Prussian Mennonites, and Bartel voluntarily…
Camping ministry a common thread for AMBS students
What do 10 of the 33 first-year students at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) have in common? A background as staff members at Mennonite camps and retreat centres. Scott Litwiller of Hopedale (Ill.) Mennonite Church is one of the 10. Litwiller has a bachelor of arts degree in biblical and theological studies from Canadian Mennonite…
Deep in the marrow: Silver Lake Mennonite Camp
I never went to camp as a kid because growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan seemed sufficiently uncivilized that I didn’t need to spend another week or two sleeping in a forest. My children, though, aren’t me: they’re growing up in a city, where they rarely see the sun set or the stars shine,…
CMU and Camps with Meaning prepare leaders of faith
Summer may be a distant memory at this time of year, but Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) student Jonas Cornelsen fondly recalls how he spent last July and August working as the Bible instructor at Camp Koinonia, one of three run by Mennonite Church Manitoba’s Camps with Meaning (CwM) ministry. Cornelsen had never worked at camp…
Camp installs ‘green’ roof
Last fall, workers installed a “green” roof over the Stonehouse meeting room at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp. The old flat roof was in need of replacement and while it would have been easy to simply replace it with the same materials as before, the Hidden Acres board and staff are always looking for ways to…
‘God has a vision for Shekinah that’s exciting’
It’s not the kind of news Shekinah Retreat Centre executive director Nick Parkes likes to share with his constituency, and it’s not the kind of news the constituency likes to hear. In a statement to Mennonite Church Saskatchewan dated Feb. 9, 2016, Parkes announced that Shekinah is in a deep financial crisis. The trouble, says…
