Rooted in community
“If an alien ship were to come take our church away, would anyone notice?” This is the question that members of Jubilee Mennonite Church asked themselves more than a decade ago. When they realized the answer might be no, they dedicated themselves to being an active presence in their community. Fast forward to today, and…
Exploring ‘flourishing congregations’ in secular society
Key factors surrounding flourishing congregations in Canada, and how congregations can thrive and grow in an age of diminishing importance of the church in society, were the topics for a May 4 seminar entitled “Flourishing congregations: From understanding to practice.” Sociologist Joel Thiessen of Ambrose University in Calgary and president of the Flourishing Congregations Institute,…
Coming in the front door
Charles Olfert is enthusiastic about creating buildings that meet their users’ needs. A principal architect with AODBT Architecture + Interior Design, he recently applied that passion to the study of accessibility. Olfert attended the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification training program held in Calgary between April 24 and May 11. The course included simulation exercises…
Extending the table
On May 14, Breslau Mennonite Church hosted an iftar meal after sunset, marking the end of the daily fast for Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan, a season of fasting, prayer, reflection and charity observed by millions of Muslims around the world. Each week during Ramadan, a different church in Waterloo Region hosted an…
A home for human trafficking survivors
“When God has a plan,” says Christine Langschmidt, “it just happens, despite us.” Langschmidt is director and chair of Aurora House, which provides community-based housing for human-trafficking survivors. The project began with a house owned by Toronto United Mennonite Church. The church wanted to find a way to use the property for good, and Langschmidt,…
Worshipping across cultures
Every year, Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ont., facilitates worship services at churches in the area, to build bridges between the school and its constituency. This year, the senior choir students had a particularly moving experience when they sang and led worship at Kitchener’s Chin Christian Church, a member congregation of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada,…
Giving back
“We’ve experienced a lot of humbling stories,” says Phyllis Roth of her participation in the Saskatchewan Valley Hospital home-building project, but one story in particular stands out. When Roth and a group of friends began building a home as a fundraiser for the new Saskatchewan Valley Hospital Foundation in Rosthern, they hoped local businesses would…
Vegan Mennos
Type the words “Mennonite vegans” into your search engine and you likely won’t come up with much. But being a Mennonite vegan is very doable, whether you are culturally Mennonite or not. And with a birth name of Carrie and a married name of Steven, I am clearly not culturally Mennonite. Why did we go…
Easy Beans recipe
Vegan cooking can be as easy or challenging as you want to make it. I’m a “10-minute—five ingredient” kind of gal so here is a crockpot bean recipe that takes minutes to make. If you put it together in the morning, it will easily be ready for supper. (Read the accompanying Gathering Around the Table article, “Vegan…
An indoor yard sale says a lot about St. Clair O’Connor
It’s the morning of May 10 at about 11 a.m., and in the large meeting room of the St. Clair O’Connor Community in Toronto there are about 10 residents examining a myriad of cardboard boxes containing both “gently used items” and others that could charitably be called junk. The former are being placed on sale…
