Potluck faith
Every year around this time, the congregation I belong to makes plans for Gathering Sunday. After a summer of sparser attendance at worship services, our gathering on the first Sunday after Labour Day is always a celebration, a reunion for those of us who vacationed outside the area and for those who stayed put during…
Hooked on volunteering
Eileen Klassen Hamm recalls how, as a young adult, she considered a Mennonite Voluntary Service term to be a good and natural thing to do. “It was an earlier era, where the church that owns Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) really fostered that sense of voluntary service,” she says. “There were a whole host of opportunities…
Readers write: August 17, 2020 issue
Dandelion cover inspires flower arranger Re: Dandelion front cover, June 8. I laughed out loud when I saw the dandelion on the cover. Growing up on the farm in Virgil, Ont., we had Italian neighbours. As soon as the dandelions were out in the spring, they would be out in the ditches along the road…
‘The long wait’
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to born and a time to die . . . .” (Ecclesiastes 2:1-2). Over the years, I have come to refer to the process of dying as “the long wait.” Although it is true that we begin dying the…
Volleyball game
The Conference of Mennonites in Canada annual session was held in July 1975, in Swift Current, Sask. Hot weather put participants’ “cool” to the test. The assembly was not only about business but also about relationships and, as such, there was time for work and play, including a game of volleyball, pictured. While our lives…
Why ‘third way’?
I’ve been asked recently why my column is called “Third Way Family.” The question has prompted me to share my reasoning behind choosing this title and what it means to me. I first started blogging after we moved to the Philippines. I wrote a lot of newsletter updates for our friends and supporters. I also…
The role of the church today?
I am listening these days to stories of how people and their churches are responding to the physical and emotional needs around them due to COVID-19. Every congregation is finding ways to help those around them who need food, assistance with their rent, connecting digitally or some other kind of accompaniment. I am pleased to…
Antifragile church
The past few months have awakened us to our fragility as individuals, communities and nation states. We’ve observed the fragility of our health-care system, food-supply chain, economies, global trade, international relations, institutional accountability. It seems that everything in our world is fragile, including ourselves. We’re also becoming acutely aware of the fragility of the Canadian…
Western Christianity misinterprets Jesus
When H.S. Bender came out with The Anabaptist Vision in the 1940s, he offered a Mennonite theology that was different from the evangelical fundamentalism widely accepted in the church at the time. The author of Jesus of the East does something similar, offering a sharp critique of western Christianity and presenting a different perspective of…
