A call to strengthen our core
A year ago I asked my oldest daughter, who was in the middle of a master of physiotherapy program at the University of Manitoba, to help me figure out what was wrong with my left foot. Her assessment was, “Dad, you are messed up. Make an appointment to see a physiotherapist.” I dutifully went. It…
Cultivating hope
In the first days of 2020, our newsfeeds were full: confrontations over a pipeline in western Canada, devastating fires in Australia, an earthquake in Puerto Rico, the death of 176 people whose airplane was shot down and speculations of a possible war in the Middle East. Many of us deal with the constant barrage of…
Learning to live with technology
The internet and the myriad technologies that have accompanied its rise to media supremacy have transformed the way people communicate. For better or worse they have also transformed education. As principal of Rosthern Junior College (RJC), a Mennonite high school in Rosthern, Sask., Ryan Wood has seen the impact of technology in the classroom and…
Readers write: January 20, 2020 issue
High praise from a loyal reader I look forward to reading Canadian Mennonite. The contributions are usually wide-ranging, with sermon-based feature articles that I find uplifting and confirming. The Opinion section with its “Readers write” letters gives me an idea about what and how Mennonite people think. News from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) brings back…
No longer predictable
The church we inhabit today is a lot different than the one I grew up in. Whether it was an English congregation or a German one, the worship services tended to have a familiar look and feel. “Mennonite” was somewhat predictable. No longer! The worship debates of the 1970s and ’80s pale in comparison to…
MCC annual meeting
In 1984, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) held its annual meeting in Richmond, British Columbia. Pictured from left to right are board members Hugo Jantz, Leo Driedger, Henry P. Yoder, Bruce Janzen and Florence Driedger. Money is a form of power. With it, a person or organization can fulfill needs and wants. How does God want…
Partying ‘behind the wall’
Through the frantic Christmas season, I was part of many gatherings connected to churches, families, schools and workplace settings. All were good. However, none were better, or more significant to the Christmas season, than the banquet sponsored by Parkland Restorative Justice for federal inmates and their volunteer visitors in Prince Albert. There were actually two…
Transformative experiences
A thoroughly ragged and stained potholder has hung next to my kitchen stove ever since 1988. It was stitched together from scraps of cloth by some unknown Pennsylvania Mennonite. In those days, a group of women made potholders for every person who came through Akron, Pa., for a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) orientation before a…
Eating God’s words
Two years ago I embarked on a Bible reading challenge. What started as an attempt to read the Bible in a year, morphed into a slower reading and reflection practice. I realized I didn’t want to read everything just to say I had. I wanted to engage with Scripture, wrestle with it, let it speak…
