Telling your stories
As we launch into 2022, it’s helpful to reflect on the year that has passed. It’s also a time to consider what’s ahead. With a presence both in print and online, Canadian Mennonite reaches readers within the Mennonite Church Canada family and readers who observe us from outside. I spent time looking at the 2021…
Let’s talk about power
Did you know, there are over 650 occurrences of the word “power” in the Bible? Dunamis, a Greek word for power, occurs 120 times in the New Testament and means “strength” or “ability.” It is used to describe, for example, the power of God (Matthew 22:29), the power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), and the power…
Readers write: January 10, 2022 issue
Thanks offered for ‘defunding police’ feature Re: “Defund the police?” feature, Sept. 27, 2021, page 4. Grateful to Aaron Epp and Canadian Mennonite for taking up this conversation, for featuring Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land’s critical framing alongside reflections on how abolition overlaps with Anabaptism from David Driedger, Michael Pahl and Daniel Friesen, among others. —Jonathan Dyck (Twitter…
Perpetual epiphany
It was a lifelong dream coming true. In a crowded stairwell I inched toward what we had all come to see. Down in the basement, below street level, the room smelled of the smoke from oil lamps dangling precariously overhead, the very place, according to tradition, where Jesus Christ was born. I was in the…
Dancing problems
Problems with dancing have been discussed at numerous times in many church settings. On July 3, 1951, the Northwest Mennonite Conference delegates discussed the Alberta education system that offered lessons in various types of dancing. Delegates approved a resolution that read: “Such teaching encourages the sensuality of our age. Teaching of these courses will establish…
Dismay or hope?
As we move into 2022, many of us look back at our experience of church last year with dismay and we look forward with hope. Or do you look back with longing, and forward with dismay? Might we look both back and forward with hope? The last two years brought us COVID-19 restrictions, a shift…
She’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes
I’ve never seen mist move in so quickly. A multitude of mysterious wisps just appeared out of nowhere, advancing swiftly across the rolling hills before me like an army of ghosts. It was stunning, haunting, beautiful. I put my jacket and boots on, then stepped outside to wander through it, to feel it rushing by.…
A survivor of sexual abuse speaks out
Yet again, I read last month about another pastor, an Anabaptist leader at that, being accused of sexual misconduct. It was Bruxy Cavey, pastor of The Meeting House, a Be in Christ megachurch. I thought to myself: “yet again.” Our denomination, has also had, has, and will have, pastors among our congregations who will be…
MDS responds to flooding in Princeton, B.C.
“The Mennonites are coming!” That was the buzz around the town of Princeton, B.C., in early December 2021, when the first 16 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers arrived to help residents hard hit by flooding in mid-November. People in the town are “so exhausted,” said Spencer Coyne, Princeton’s mayor. But knowing help was arriving put…
