‘For the joy of ear and eye’
As I write, the horrific attacks on the people of Ukraine continue, but recently I witnessed a sign of beauty amidst the chaos. Standing in a grey bomb shelter, with pipes overhead, a Ukrainian musician brings forth a haunting tune from his violin. The video screen pulls back to reveal other quadrants in which other…
Worship through visual art
One of the striking things about Voices Together, the new Mennonite song collection, is that it includes 12 pieces of visual art. Images reach into our lives in a different way than written text or even music. I remember sitting in church services as a little kid, paging through my Bible and looking for pictures.…
Readers write: March 21, 2022 issue
A pastoral letter regarding Ukraine Beloved sisters and brothers in Ukraine: Today, war has come to your homeland. We grieve the danger, death and destruction that this plague brings. We stand in solidarity with you as persons of shared faith and hope. In our prayers we lift you to the sovereign God, who says, “Do…
Life can be real
“Life can be real / on a snowmobile,” croons Canadian music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors in one of his many songs about Canadian life and culture. As someone who occasionally dabbles in songwriting myself, I have often had a chuckle when I hear that line with a bit of forced rhyme. What does “life can…
Kitchener MWC Assembly
Mennonite Publishing House occupies a corner in the Kitchener (Ont.) Auditorium with its bookstand at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in 1962. Three women in the foreground gravitate towards the parenting books and the bestselling Mennonite Community Cookbook, while two men browse titles related to missions. For more historical photos in the Mennonite Archival Image…
‘Make your tents large’
In my federal voting life, I have voted only for the Liberal party. When I suggested that as the opening sentence for my next Canadian Mennonite column, my two eldest granddaughters, 17 and 20, immediately began guessing at the percentage of readership that would immediately condemn me to the lake of fire. As I look…
A culture of peace
The very day that Russia sent tanks across the Ukrainian border, a book on nonviolence arrived at my door. Sometimes I wonder if God does that sort of thing intentionally. As an advocate of nonviolence, I have been queried frequently about what can be done about this war. The challenge is whether one can say…
A blip in the family tree
As I read through long lists of descendants in the first chapters of First Chronicles, some names are familiar, like the sons of Jacob and other names I’ve encountered in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. Achar (also Achin in Joshua 7) gets a sentence of description, reminding us that he was the one “who brought trouble…
How I learned to stop worrying and love the comet
What would you do if you heard that all life on earth was about to end? This is the premise behind Don’t Look Up, an Academy Awards best-picture nominee, released on Netflix in December and already one of the most popular Netflix films ever made. Don’t Look Up begins with doctoral student Kate Dibiasky (played…
