MCC cuts Canadian programs to focus on advocacy
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada is cutting about $350,000 from its Indigenous Neighbours, Restorative Justice and Low German programs. The changes are driven by a decrease in thrift store income, a shift to more international spending, and a decision to “go deeper” rather than wider. Rick Cober Bauman, MCC Canada’s executive director, says the thrift…
‘This is about us’
How do churches prevent sexual harassment and abuse in their midst? How do they respond when abuse happens? How do they shift the culture in their ranks so that victims feel safer to share their stories? These questions were all addressed during a recent seminar on the practical and spiritual dimensions of #ChurchToo—a spinoff movement…
Freedom on two wheels
If you ever see a candy-apple-red tandem bicycle cruising through the streets of Winnipeg, you can be sure it’s the Dueck family. “We go out pretty much daily, weather permitting, from as early in spring as we can go out until as late fall as we can,” says Linda Dueck. “We are well-known in our…
They put a spell on you
Don’t expect to hear anything by Bach, Brahms or Beethoven if you attend a performance by Winnipeg’s Incantatem. The a cappella choir’s repertoire has a unique focus: music from movies, TV shows and video games. The choir is an offshoot of Geekdom House, a program founded by two Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) alumni that aims…
‘To the heart through dal’
During my year of living in Canada as part of the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP), sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), I made dal (lentil soup) a number of times. In my country, India, dal is a basic everyday food. My IVEP placement was at Thrift on Kent, an MCC thrift shop in Kitchener,…
Ashisha’s spinach lentil soup
In 2018 Ashisha Lal, a young Mennonite from India, worked at the Mennonite Central Committee thrift shop in Kitchener, Ont. This spinach lentil soup (Palak dal) reminds her of her mother who died of cancer. Read her story here. Ingredients: ¼ cup pigeon pea lentils or yellow split peas ¼ cup red lentils 2 cups…
Lessons in the Kinderforest
About once a month, 24 students from the Goshen College Laboratory Kindergarten class—a partnership between the college’s education department and Goshen Community Schools—spend the day climbing trees, building shelters and making mud pies in Witmer Woods. While it may sound like the children are given a whole day of recess, they are actually participating in…
The arts remind us to ask what it means to be human
At Conrad Grebel University College, students engage the arts in two ways. Those enrolled in academic programs immerse themselves in questions central to the human experience: how to compose a moving work of music, how to understand the Bible in the 21st century or how to effect peaceful social change. As they learn their discipline,…
Volunteers ‘go beyond’ in the community
Our journey at Rockway focuses on students developing an ability to lead with compassion when classroom learning is extended so they can live out Christ-centred values, develop empathy and perspective, and serve the community locally and globally. This is the inspiration behind Rockway’s new Students Learning in Community (SLIC) partnerships. Volunteers travel with students to…
Seminarians study sustainability at Merry Lea
A vision for incorporating sustainability into seminary education came to fruition in the fall of 2018 when two students from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Ind., joined the Sustainability Leadership Semester at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen (Ind.) College. Benjamin and Rianna Isaak-Krauss are the first AMBS students to take advantage…
