In the headlines
Mennonites are in the news. Since late September, various articles in the secular press have brought attention to Mennonites living in Canada. An Ontario production company is producing virtual tours of a rural community, including a horse-and-buggy ride through “Mennonite country.” An exhibit in Kitchener, Ont., features photos of Muslim head coverings and Mennonite bonnets.…
Tending the cairn
A public apology is one of many ways that a church may address past wrongs and those persons who have been harmed. Right now, for example, even following the apology by the Canadian Catholic bishops, there remains a strong call for an apology by Pope Francis for residential schools in Canada and abuses that happened…
Readers write: October 25, 2021 issue
No religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines: MC Canada Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers released a statement at the end of September responding to inquiries from constituents regarding exemption from COVID-19 vaccines. It states: “For a religious exemption to be granted, rationale for exemption must be clearly indicated within our sacred texts or confessional statements. “We…
Plymouth Victory
Look way off in the distance behind the North American Mennonite and Brethren farm boys (looking rather dazed at their surroundings) and you will notice the ruins of ancient Athens. These young men volunteered to tend horses and other livestock on ships sent to Europe to replenish herds following the Second World War. This particular…
Is that not us?
I am pondering yet again the “Mennonite” label, and what it means for us today in Canada. There are three things that recently provoked these questions. First, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) funded historical research on its historical relationship with Nazism. MCC is bravely facing new understandings of its own history. However, MCC’s connections to Nazism…
Into the woods
Tomorrow I’m driving to a log cabin in remote northern Quebec to spend a month in the woods by myself. That said, I’m not exactly roughing it. The cabin has electricity, a kitchen, a bathroom and what looks like a comfortable bed. The purpose of this adventure isn’t to prove I can survive in the…
‘Community for all’ at Parkwood
A fundraising campaign at Parkwood Seniors Community is underway, which will see 28 affordable units created in a six-storey, 90-unit building on its Waterloo campus, to be completed by late 2023. According to Elaine Shantz, CEO of Parkwood and partner organization Fairview Seniors Community in Cambridge, Ont., making 30 percent of the units in the…
Seeking made-in-Leamington solutions to homelessness
It was the spring of 2018, Pastor Ruth Boehm of Faith Mennonite Church in Leamington recalls, when the father of one of the kids attending the after-school program at the church approached her, asking if he could park his truck in the church parking lot overnight. He could not stay in his home. “I knew…
