Victim or Perpetrator: What am I?
In the aftermath of an investigation by two Mennonite institutions, that found my late father guilty of sexual misconduct (June 7, 2021, page 24), I am trying to decide whether I am a victim or a perpetrator. My father, Frank H. Epp, died 35 years ago. I have lived longer without him than with him…
The feast of grace
Recently, I found myself hungering for grace. With the world still entrenched in this pandemic, we witness the complexities around public safety, the angry words, the strained relationships, the exhaustion, and the challenges to everyone’s mental well-being. Is there any good news? I decided to revisit a movie from the 1980s, a parable called Babette’s…
Mary’s story: Our inheritance
Mary’s story comes to us this year, maybe in a new way, at a time when we welcome some really good news. We could use an encouraging, empowering and heart-warming story right now. Year after year in pageant, poetry and hymnody we rehearse Mary’s good news story and the angel’s message: “Fear not!” I confess…
Readers write: November 22, 2021 issue
‘We are in a climate emergency’: MC Canada Mennonite Church Canada leaders released the following statement on Nov. 4 during the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland: Climate scientists have been sounding the call for decades, and the urgency of this call is being emphasized again at the COP26 Climate Summit happening in Glasgow, Scotland.…
Keeping a kettle out of the landfill
The last time my in-laws came north to visit, they brought us a broken electric kettle. We had gifted it to them at a long-ago Christmas. Now, years later, it stopped working. It was under warranty, but that only applied in Canada. With repair, it could function and stay out of the landfill. That is…
Oakella Prison Farm
Herb Wiebe, facing camera, visits with an inmate at the Oakalla Prison Farm in Burnaby, B.C., in 1970. A growing number of British Columbia Mennonite men volunteered to befriend inmates through the M-2 (Man to Man) program, a prison visitation program then in its early days in Canada. Later known as M2/W2 (Man to Man/Woman…
Every tribe and language
I expect everyone has forgotten what I had to say when I spoke at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s chapel a few years ago. But I know some remember that I asked students to read Scripture in their own languages. For a few international students it was the first time they heard the Bible read in their…
What do I miss about church?
After a month in the woods by myself, my sabbatical plan is to spend three months listening to people who aren’t a part of church culture, to see how they view church and understand why they don’t go to church. My initial sabbatical plan was to do a bunch of typical sabbatical stuff, but COVID-19…
MC B.C. posts land acknowledgment
In the spirit of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples of British Columbia, a statement of land acknowledgment has been adopted by Mennonite Church British Columbia. It states: “We respectfully and gratefully acknowledge that we gather on the unceded, traditional and ancestral lands of Indigenous First Nations.” Earlier this year, the MC B.C. Indigenous Relations Task Group…
