Responding, faithfully
What is a faithful response to the news in the world around us? Canadian Mennonite posed this question in our annual spring fundraising appeal. Each year CM needs to raise $150,000 on top of advertising and subscription revenue to ensure that people across the church, and newcomers online, have access to the important church stories…
What is a Christlike response to military might?
As Christians rooted in the Anabaptist tradition, we care deeply about every human being on Earth. We no doubt have felt solidarity with Ukrainians as they struggle against violence and injustice from military invasion. Engaging in constant prayer and giving abundant contributions of spiritual and material aid to victims are very important. Still, we long…
Readers write: June 13, 2022 issue
Point: When words don’t make sense, conversation is at risk Re: “God didn’t create you wrong” feature, Feb. 21, page 4. The only challenge I have with the gender-identity conversation is the use of pronouns that, for most people, are plural, but are intended as singular by others. They/them/their, for me, doesn’t make sense in…
At work with God on climate change
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). It all begins here. We have four grandchildren at various stages of life. The eldest is in university and thinks about non-renewable fossil fuels and their impact on the Earth. The next is in…
Bergthal church
The Ontario Mennonite businessman Jacob Y. Shantz established rough housing for newcomers and promoted immigration to a place he called Didsbury, N.W.T., in 1893. In the following two years, Mennonites from Ontario and Manitoba arrived to what became known as Didsbury, Alta. The Bergthal Church was established there in 1903 and became part of the…
‘The George and Helens’
A busy weekend at the end of May resulted in some reflections on family. In this case, the family referenced is “the George and Helens” (the Olferts that include my siblings and me, and all those attached). The weekend began with a family wedding, where a nephew was the groom. After the ceremony, we gathered on…
Faithfulness in the face of facts
Even if Gandhi is reputed to have said, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” it is clear he did not mean to stop at personal change! Read most histories of this quote, and personal change is the interpretive emphasis. But we all know that Gandhi aimed to change the social and…
Solomon’s splendour
History really is unfair to the common people. In a previous column (“Becoming the enemy you hate,” April 18, page 13), I noted that Solomon essentially enslaved 153,600 men in order to build God’s temple, emulating the oppressor Israel had once longed to be liberated from. One chapter later, in II Chronicles 3, the text…
Unsettling stories of darkness, healing and hope
I didn’t realize what I was signing up for when I agreed to write about Indigenous-Mennonite Encounters in Time and Place, a conference held at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., from May 12 to 15. It was an intense weekend of learning, emotion, sharing, dancing and stories. The conference started with a mix…
