Indigenous elder leads series on history, reconciliation
This fall, a collective of people in southern Manitoba working at Indigenous-settler reconciliation, called the Truth and Action Working Group, is hosting a series of talks with David Scott, an elder and policy advisor from Swan Lake First Nation. The group is made up primarily of people from a handful of churches in the Morden-Winkler…
Violence in Myanmar, prayers in Canada
What for many of us may be a fleeting headline about strife on the other side of the world is for others within our faith family a heartbreaking reminder of a painful past and ongoing hardship for relatives in their country of origin. Such is the case with news from Myanmar, limited though it has…
Second year of Common Read begins
In September 2020, Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church U.S.A. and Herald Press began encouraging Mennonites to engage in a “common read,” a shared reading experience focused on specific books written to nurture Christian faith in this cultural moment. Sara Wenger Shenk Common Read continues September 2021 through November 2021 with Tongue-Tied: Learning the Lost Art…
Ordinary time
Traditionally, Mennonite churches have recognized the special times of the church year: Christmas (along with the season of Advent and Epiphany) and Easter (with the season of Lent and the Day of Pentecost). Then there’s the time in between—what is labelled “ordinary time” in the church calendar. The season begins with the Sunday after Pentecost;…
Defund the police?
On March 11, 2020, the day before Manitoba reported its first infection of the coronavirus, Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land stood up in a multipurpose room at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg to give a lecture exploring the question: How is it that Winnipeg has so many police, and so little justice and peace? Over the course of…
Readers write: September 27, 2021 issue
What if there had been no war in Afghanistan? While it is water under the bridge, it is still worth pondering what would have happened if the United States and allies had not gone to war in Afghanistan some 20 years ago. What if the doves had won out and all that money (some two…
Holy space
When I was director of Person-to-Person, a prison visitation program started by Mennonite Church Saskatchewan in the early 1970s, the V&C Room (Visitors and Correspondence Room) was often a place of holy space. While the prison system has a strict policy of nothing in and nothing out, God seemed to have little interest in following…
Torchbearers
On the heels of the Second World War, the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church were concerned about scouting programs that promoted patriotism to boys and girls. In 1957, the Wayfarers girls club was begun and in 1958, Mennonite Publishing House published a Torchbearers guide book and manual for boys. Individual congregations were…
Weak ties matter
Long ago I studied both sociology and theology, and I remain intrigued by the relationships between culture and faith. We can’t have one without the other. Which influences the other more? One of the ideas that has intrigued me through this pandemic is the growth in understanding of the important role of acquaintances in our…
