Readers write: July 20, 2020 issue
Today’s society is a progression of Canada’s colonial past Re: “ ‘Decolonize’ and ‘settler’ meaningless terms” letter, June 8, 2020, page 8. It is a nice idea that “our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers . . . through industry and innovation, built our advanced, civil, 21st-century society with its advanced parliamentary government, social system and compassionate health-care system.”…
I’m thinking about sparrows
I am thinking about sparrows today, about how many of them there are, and yet how little I notice them until they stop for a quick perch on the railing of my deck and I find myself wishing that they were some other variety of backyard bird, perhaps something with just a little more colour—like a…
Public school teachers
Public school teachers Samuel B. Nafziger, Dick Neufeld, Sara (Lehn) Harder, Martin Goerzen, Grace Harder, John C. Harder and C. Boldt, are pictured in the most northerly Mennonite farm community in the world, at Fort Vermilion, Alta,. in 1958. Their presence was controversial, as some Old Colony Mennonite settlers resisted the development of public schools,…
‘Lining things up’
A recent article in Canadian Mennonite included a story of the closing of Superb Mennonite Church. Superb was my home. I was dedicated, married, baptized and raised a family there. It is the late 1980s, and the Holly and Ed Olfert family are in their bench, fully engaged in Sunday morning worship. They sit five strong,…
CM awarded 12 CCCA certificates
In the inaugural awards ceremony of the new Canadian Christian Communicators Association (CCCA), Canadian Mennonite received 12 awards for writing, photography, design and original art for work published in 2019. First-place entry Service Journalism, open. Elise Epp, the coordinator of the Manitoba Fashion Revolution, author (“Clothes to match your values,” Sept. 16, page 17).…
Why I’m not a Canadian
I am an immigrant. After serving with Mennonite Central Committee in Canada, I chose to stay in this amazing country. The Canadian way was closer to the “thousand points of light” to which one of the leaders of my left-behind country called his own people. (I’ll leave you to guess what country.) Canada Day has just…
A living metaphor
It’s outlandish really, what God asks Hosea to do. To think that someone known for his holiness and intimate relationship with the divine would take up residence with a woman everyone knew was promiscuous. It would have been one thing if God had sent Hosea to Gomer to pass on a message, although even that…
In a perfect storm
Years ago, I saw a movie about a fishing crew caught at sea when two storms and a hurricane converged to create a “perfect storm.” I have been reminded of this as widespread protest after the death of yet another African-American man in the custody of white police officers crashed into an already devastating novel-coronavirus…
