MCC partner serves people ‘society doesn’t want’
Natalia Mezentseva oversees a household of “women in difficult circumstances.” With an affirming and instructive place to live, thanks to a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner, their circumstances are better already. A group of visitors on an MCC learning tour heard their stories, cuddled a baby, applauded a child’s poetry recital and prayed with them…
Shackled together in perfect unity— ‘Blame it on God’
God’s success is our problem. But it’s a good problem. From these thoughts of Tom Yoder Neufeld came a catch phrase of MennoCon19: “The church is a mess. Thanks be to God!” A professor emeritus of religious studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., Yoder Neufeld led 495 Mennonite Church U.S.A. delegates in Bible…
Who was Mary Magdalene?
Who was Mary of Magdala? What impressions do people have of her, and where do those impressions come from? With these questions, Amanda Witmer, an instructor in religious studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., opened her lecture, “Mary Magdalene: The dedicated apostle in the very early church.” Aptly held on July 22,…
Fairy tales at the Fringe
Hansel and Gretel—I mean Peter and Tina—enter the woods and end up at a house made entirely of waffles and white sauce, where they are led by their evil stepmother to pick rhubarb. And when they need to find their way home, they follow Peter’s trail of knaczot (sunflower seeds). This is The Mennonite Fairytale,…
Learning from the wisdom of children
“I’ve had many teachers, most of them children,” says Patricia Erb. “The best ones.” It could be seen as a surprising assertion from Erb, who, at 63, has been involved in human-rights work since her early teens. She has three decades under her belt at Save the Children Canada—the Canadian arm of the development organization…
Queer hymns now online
Growing up, Cedar Klassen loved singing hymns. Klassen’s family would gather around the dinner table singing verses from Hymnal: A Worship Book, and later Sing the Journey and Sing the Story, in four-part harmony. After taking a course in hymnology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., Klassen chose to write a thesis on…
A journey from fundamentalism to freedom
Donna Dinsmore never felt she fit into church life. “I wanted to serve in the church and I loved God, but I didn’t feel called to work with small children and I didn’t make casseroles,” she says. “Becoming an adult single woman in the church was difficult. I was a third-class citizen. Women were treated…
Grounded and shaken
“We want to be shaken not by what the world throws at us, but by what Jesus throws at us.” With these words, Kirsten Hamm-Epp welcomed participants to Shake: Rattled by the Radical. Hamm-Epp, regional church minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan, partnered with Kathy Giesbrecht, associate director of leadership ministries for MC Manitoba, to plan…
