Thanks to you
Thanks to you, this magazine has entered its 25th year of publishing under the name Canadian Mennonite. We picked up the mantle in September 1997 from The Mennonite Reporter, a bi-weekly newspaper for the 26 years before that. Former staff turned the newspaper into a magazine, and the leaders at what was then the Conference…
Simple wonder, peculiar generosity
Annie Janzen earned no degrees and was never elected chair of a church council. She did not start a church, write a best-seller or perform for large audiences. She did cook at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg for 27 years, travel the globe and make an unlikely diversity of friends. She lived a good,…
Readers write: January 24, 2022 issue
Talking will hopefully lead to learning Re: “ ‘We might learn something’ ” letter, Dec. 6, 2021, page 8. I definitely agree with Henry Bergen’s comments concerning our need to talk about vaccinations. I am also “fully vaccinated” and have friends and family members who are not. I do not see blaming and shunning the unvaccinated as…
‘What is it that endures?’
In this beginning time of 2022, while we are coming out of the dark of winter, and hopefully out of the dark of this pandemic, what is it that endures? Also, what is it that gives us hope? Jesus has said that the church will endure (Matthew 16:18), and, while we are often seeing that…
Key 73
The banner at the Conference of Mennonites in Canada gathering in Vancouver in August 1971 read, “That the world may believe,” based on John 17:21. Palmer Becker, executive secretary of the Commission on Home Ministries of the General Conference, reported on plans for two new initiatives: “Probe ’72,” a Mennonite consultation on evangelism in Minneapolis,…
The ‘chicken whisperer’
Genesis 1 describes God’s creation activity as, among other things, blessing the male/female that God had created, and commanding them to rule over every living creature that moves on the ground. Meanwhile, Indigenous spirituality offers stories of hunters extending thanks to the fallen creature that gave up its life so the hunter’s community might have…
On evangelization
I am in favour of talking about faith in Jesus. I especially like to do so with those who do not hold to that faith. Some call that “evangelism” and use it as a dirty word. We all know great abuses have occurred doing evangelism. Still, I am in favour of it. I even want…
Prayer and lasting
For a few years now, I have felt good about my slow but steady pace of reading reflectively through Scripture. It is a spiritual discipline I’ve moulded in a way that works for me. Prayer, however, is one that, although certainly not absent from my life, could use some work. I am not uncomfortable praying…
MCC sends food and relief to Cubans in crisis
The situation in Cuba was incredibly dire when a shipment of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) relief kits and canned food arrived. “People have told me they haven’t had an egg or any kind of meat for six months,” says Bonnie Klassen, MCC area director for South America and Mexico. “They’re out of toothpaste, so they’re…
