Bound to disagree, freed to love
Conflict within, uncertainties without. Perhaps it was because of these that planners of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s annual delegate sessions chose “Bound together, freed to serve” as their theme for the March 11 and 12, 2016, event. Chains encircling a Bible provided a visual reminder of that theme as three speakers shared thoughts on Ephesians 4.…
Alberta youth enjoy snow camps
Despite a warm winter, there was enough of the white stuff for youth from Mennonite churches across Alberta to call their annual winter retreats “snow camps.” On the weekends of Jan. 15 to 17 and Feb. 26 to 28, 2016, junior- and senior-high youth, respectively, enjoyed fellowship, outdoor games and Bible study at Mennonite Church…
The Bible says what?
In her opening address to this year’s Pastors Week event at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, held during the last week of January 2016, Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, the school’s dean of lifelong learning, highlighted widespread confusion in the church today about what to do with the Bible, but implored listeners not to “put the Bible on…
Do young people care about the future of the church?
Never let it be said that young people don’t care about the future of the church. Late last year, Katrina Woelk, a sociology student at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) and a member of the student council, was having a conversation with some other students and members of the university administration about the challenges facing Mennonite…
A hope for home
For the most part, Syrians forced from their homes dream not of going to Europe or Canada, but of going back home. “They are in love with their country,” say Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) representatives for Lebanon and Syria, who cannot be named for security reasons. MCC staff—who work with local partner organizations in some…
Who is matching whose funds?
The federal government sometimes “matches” donations made by Canadians for specific causes. Does this mean that if you give $100 to MCC for Syria, Ottawa gives another $100 to MCC, and thus you can credit yourself with $200 going to Syria? In short, no on both counts. So-called matching funds go into Ottawa’s Syria Emergency…
A Red Sea kind of life
Scott Eyre, residence director of Cedarwood Hall at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), sports photographer for the Royals, and soon-to-be-graduate, says the journey to the present day has included “a lot of Red Sea parting stuff.” Despite a circuitous route through one hardship after another, the waters have repeatedly parted, and Eyre has not walked through…
Celebrating the resilience of Mennonite women
There are courageous women around every corner, especially at the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon, where the 26 paintings of Ray Dirks’s Along the Road to Freedom exhibit are currently on display. Wanting to give Dirks’s paintings a local context, the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan partnered with the…
Researching the past to understand the present
“Why couldn’t I have been more interested in Caribbean history?” That’s what historian Stefan Epp-Koop asked himself during a December 2007 visit to Winnipeg, as he trudged through a deep layer of fresh snow in -30 C weather to the City of Winnipeg Archives. Epp-Koop was visiting the archives to research Winnipeg in the 1920s…
Welcoming the vulnerable
From Feb. 18-20, I was part of a group of 30 students and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) staff from across Canada who met in Ottawa for the annual MCC Student Seminar to learn about refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons. We heard from United Nations staff, MPs, MCC staff who work with refugees, and volunteers…
