Opioid crisis: A view from the inside
Timothy King found himself addicted to opioids when complications after surgery led to intense pain and serious illness. In Addiction Nation, he describes what it feels like to be trapped in a cocoon of addiction and how he was able to achieve recovery with the help of a kind doctor and a supportive family. Although…
‘I am getting help now’
“Close your eyes and imagine you are walking to your garden,” says Saint-Hilaire Olissaint, a community mental-health worker. His calm, soothing voice carries over the din of the nearby street market and the curious chatter of the children watching nearby. “You open the gate and see the plantain leaves glistening with dew. The trees are…
Murky lessons from a political firestorm
As the partisan jostling over SNC Lavalin wanes, we can more clearly examine the ethical questions at the core of a scandal that Mennonite cabinet minister Jane Philpott stepped right into the middle of. Philpott and former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould brazenly called out the Prime Minister, sacrificed promising political careers, took…
Calgary church offers space for community events
“Light up the church.” That’s what members of Calgary Inter-Mennonite decided they wanted to do when asked about ways to engage with their local community. What that meant for the congregation of about 40 households was making their building, located in the northeast part of the city, available for use by others during the week—not…
Tuesdays at Faith
Like at many Mennonite churches, the back of any given pew at Faith Mennonite in Leamington includes a blue hymnal, an offering envelope, and, for the lucky few, a small, colourful, hand-made encouragement card. These one-of-a-kind cards are something new and they point to a wily group of seniors who are helping to bring new…
CM brings home 10 CCP awards
Canadian Mennonite executive editor Virginia A. Hostetler returned from Winnipeg following the 2019 Canadian Church Press (CCP) convention and awards banquet earlier this month with a total of 10 certificates for writing, photography, layout, and socially conscious journalism work CM published in 2018. FIRST-PLACE ENTRIES • A.C. Forrest Memorial Award for Socially Conscious Journalism, circulation…
‘I just want to help people’
Like many of his peers, Nathan Bartel is fielding questions about what he plans to do after graduation. But, unlike some of them, he has a ready answer. He wants to be a firefighter. Bartel grew up in Arnprior, Ont. His older brother, Emerson, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which, he says, “gave me a different…
Pacifism and the art of theatre combat
Jacqueline Loewen just spent the weekend riding a motorcycle as a stunt double for a science-fiction TV show and will be rolling on the ground with strangers tomorrow, choreographing combat for Shakespeare in the Ruins’ production of Hamlet. Jacqueline Loewen. Loewen, 36, is well-versed and well-known in the theatre world. She is an actor, stunt…
Canadian faces of MDS in Texas
What do you get when you put Mennonites from all over Canada, and from all sorts of different Mennonite conferences and churches—along with Christians from other denominations—in the same place? A Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) unit—that’s what. In February, I visited volunteers in three communities in Texas hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017—La Grange, Bloomington…
What resilience looks like
From dealing with disaster to mental health recovery, partners of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Nepal and their beneficiaries demonstrate resilience. That was the theme of MCC’s first-ever trekking learning tour. From April 1 to 19, participants from all over Canada and the United States hiked around Nepal, taking in the vistas while visiting MCC…
