Mennonite Women dissolve national ministry
With tears, hugs and 67 years of memories, participants at the Mennonite Women Canada annual luncheon meeting, held on June 30, said goodbye to each other and to their national organization. With the theme for the afternoon, “To everything a season,” members recognized the season had come for ending the nationwide women’s body. Declining attendance…
Holding growth and the past in tension
For the first time since Mennonite Church Canada restructured, delegates from the five regional churches met in Abbotsford, B.C., to discuss the future of the nationwide church body. Among these delegates were a number of younger adults who hope to contribute ideas from their imagination to the future of MC Canada as it shifts and…
Kids make friends at Gathering 2019
“Our God is a God who makes friends,” sang children from three provinces while playing a clapping game with a partner, laughing as the refrain and the clapping got faster. The words of this song by Bryan Moyer Suderman were ignited into action at Gathering 2019 as they participated in a weekend packed with relationship-building…
Mennonites find warm welcome at Indigenous theological symposium
Under the bright blue sky, on the grassy hill of Tyndale University in Toronto, situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Huron-Wendat peoples, Casey Church performed an Anishinaabe pipe ceremony, acknowledging the Creator and the sacred directions. He gave thanks on behalf of the 200 or so people gathered in two large…
Not because they were male
Don Neufeld shared his reflections on the themes of masculinity and Anabaptism at a “Probing the potential for peace” discussion series held at Grace Mennonite Church in St. Catharines on May 3. His insights came from years of experience working for House of Friendship in Kitchener, Family and Children’s Services in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and for almost…
‘Working at home is over-rated’
After years of dreaming of a Mennonite hub in Edmonton, it finally came to pass. Mennonite organizations that were formerly in basements, spare rooms and kitchens have come together to share space at the invitation of Mennonite Mutual Insurance (MMI). MMI, an Alberta-based insurance company that officially formed in 1960 to meet the needs of…
‘In this together’
A sidewalk chalk sign invites people into Nutana Park Mennonite Church to ‘Prep for Pride.’ (Photo courtesy of Susanne Guenther Loewen) This wasn’t the first time Mennonites participated in the Saskatoon Pride Parade, but it was the first time they walked together as a group. According to Susanne Guenther Loewen, co-pastor of Nutana Park Mennonite in Saskatoon,…
A life-long journey for freedom
For the first time in more than a century, the isolated island of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is now connected to the rest of mainland Canada. The Indigenous community, located on the Manitoba-Ontario border, just celebrated the official opening of Freedom Road, a 24-kilometre, all-season road that links to the mainland via the Trans-Canada…
Cycling into the future
When Philip Martin discovered several years ago that “cycling education in Canada is almost non-existent,” he set out to do something about it. With the help of his students at Sheppard Public School in Kitchener, Ont., he designed a program that would fill the gap. It was those students who pushed him to make the…
‘The hands and feet of Jesus’
This year, Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) is celebrating 75 years of placing young adults in service positions across Canada and the U.S. About 20 years ago, when the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church merged and became Mennonite Church Canada and MC U.S.A., they planned to have separate service programs owned by each…
