‘Peace is for everyone’
These days, with many congregations searching for ways to carry on with existing children’s programming, Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon has launched a brand new peace club for children aged seven to 11. “We’ve been working at this club for a long time,” says Susanne Guenther Loewen, the church’s co-pastor. Knowing that the church…
Webinar addresses Doctrine of Discovery
A Sept. 29 webinar helped 260 participants learn more about the Doctrine of Discovery and how a proclamation made more than 500 years ago still has repercussions for Indigenous peoples today. The theatre group Ted and Co., based in Harrisonburg, Va., was invited to bring its We Own This Now production to British Columbia, but…
‘Be bold! Make yourselves known!’
Giugovaz is not a Mennonite name, but Steven Giugovaz is definitely an Anabaptist. Son of immigrants from Italy and with a Croatian heritage, he has been on a journey that has led him to embracing a Jesus-centred theology whose world isn’t flat, a commitment to peace and an admiration for the early “re-baptizers.” Now a…
Women supporting women across borders
Pamela Obonde came to Winnipeg from Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2019 to study in the master of arts in peacebuilding and collaborative development program at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU). But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Manitoba in March, it threatened to foil all her plans. “I remember the day very well, when things just started…
Minority Mennonites organize a support group
When Gabby Martin mentions that she’s a Mennonite, she’s often met with, “Okay, but where are you from?” Her father is Black and her mother is Syrian; she was adopted by Mennonites. Martin grew up in Langham, Sask., and has been Mennonite her whole life, yet, because of her appearance, it feels like she’s expected…
Zwiebach from Saint Johanna
My earliest memories of food go back to my childhood in the Chaco, Paraguay, where my family lived from 1947 to 1952. Our family, like the others in our village, were refugees from Ukraine. We had arrived from Germany on the the S.S. Volendam, a Dutch freighter, with nothing but the clothes on our backs.…
‘There is always a way’
Christen Kong, 27, was part of the community outreach team at Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church when the group started a local butterfly garden to encourage pollinators. Kong marvels at how that small garden project became a “community connector” and a place of healing and wholeness. In a neighbourhood with food insecurity and high unemployment, the…
Zwiebach recipe
Now that I am retired, I love to bake zwiebach and have become known at Jubilee Mennonite Church in Winnipeg as the “Zwiebach Lady.” You can read more about my story here. My zwiebach recipe comes from a cookbook made as a fundraiser for Parkwood Mennonite Home in Waterloo, Ont., called 1999-International Year of Older Persons. The recipe…
