Vietnamese Fellowship drops ‘Mennonite’ name
A name change, effective immediately, heralds a time of direction-setting for the former North American Vietnamese Mennonite Fellowship. From June 30 to July 1, 2017, the Fellowship held its biennial conference at Calgary Vietnamese Mennonite Church, where the name change to North American Vietnamese Evangelical Fellowship (NAVEF) was approved. This reflects the fact that some…
Best practices begin with prayer
While many congregations are shuttering or repurposing their education wings, Leamington United Mennonite Church built a whole new addition in 2011, replacing a 1959 building that had been linked to their new worshipping and office space when they were built in 1984. The new wing includes a dedicated prayer space as well as a suite…
No longer ‘a repository of artifacts’
Oliver Friesen’s face lights up when he talks about history. “There’s something about the past,” he says. “It’s alive and so interesting.” For the past two summers Friesen has been making history come alive for visitors to the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Rosthern. A student of history at the University of Saskatchewan, Friesen has been…
Camp Moose Lake now sold
Camp Moose Lake, one of Mennonite Church Manitoba’s three Camps with Meaning (CwM) locations, has been sold to the Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine. Possession date for the camp, located in the southeast corner of Manitoba near the community of Sprague, is set for Sept. 29, 2017. “We are so thankful for the incredible ministry that has…
Lamenting the ‘discovery’ of North America
An American theatre company with Mennonite roots performed its newest production, which explores indigenous-settler relations, to a capacity crowd in Winnipeg earlier this summer. Hundreds gathered at Home Street Mennonite Church on June 28, 2017, as Ted and Company TheaterWorks presented Discovery: A Comic Lament. The play explores the Doctrine of Discovery, the legal framework…
‘Colombia fever’
Despite warnings from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Low German Mennonites from drought-prone regions of northern Mexico have bought over 20,000 hectares of land in Colombia. Kennert Giesbrecht, long-time editor of Die Mennonitische Post—a newspaper for Low German Mennonites throughout the Americas—notes the Liviney Colony and another 12,000-hectare parcel as two examples of land acquisitions. Another…
Pollution in the Heavenly Province
The first thought that struck me when I arrived in China’s Sichuan province was how green it was. Somehow, perhaps from tales of air pollution and reading “Made in China” stamped on most goods, I had formulated an image of China as a grey, smoke-filled country. This image might represent some parts of the country.…
A very special relationship
A relationship between a Winnipeg church and a community in northern Manitoba has resulted in a special friendship between two young women. Mekiah Yonda and Amber Muskego met when members from Yonda’s church, Sterling Mennonite Fellowship in Winnipeg, travelled to Cross Lake in 2010 to run a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program for children in…
