The duty of tension
I did not plan to write about polarization—I’ve filled my quota on that topic—until Maxime Bernier held a rally near my home. Bernier leads the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) and may be the most prominent populist politician in the country. I couldn’t resist the chance to cross the political divide. I attended the June…
Broken to serve
In my mid-30s, two decades after the last time my father beat me, and two years after he died, I broke glass twice in one week. Once, for the first time in my life, in anger. On a September Saturday, atop a stepladder, I was scraping the peeling wood around our garage window, preparing it…
Readers write: June 16, 2023 issue
Springfield Heights process flawed I want to thank Canadian Mennonite for the report on Carman Mennonite Church and Springfield Heights Mennonite Church leaving Mennonite Church Manitoba (“Two congregations withdraw from MC Manitoba,” May 5). As a member of Springfield Heights, I would like to point out and add that I was extremely saddened and disappointed…
Are pick-and-shovel prayers still tearing through God’s rooftop?
In Mark 2:1, Jesus teaches the word to crowds gathered at his home. (Most readers don’t realize this was likely Jesus’s house). Jesus didn’t want the crowds. In the previous verses he healed a leper and told him not to tell anyone. However, the healed leper couldn’t keep his mouth shut, which resulted in large…
Walnut Receiving Home
In 1976, Jake and Trudy Unrau bought a home at 171 Walnut Street in Winnipeg and opened it up for Indigenous people visiting Winnipeg for medical appointments. In 1977, the Conference of Mennonites in Canada bought the home, and the Walnut Receiving Home became part of its ministry. From 1979 to 1983 Elijah and Jeannette…
The gift of urgency
An impassioned rant by a grandchild included these words: “Opa, why are you not dead yet?” Why indeed. The comment regarding my deserved death connects to the story of a recent event in my life. I had been asked to do some welding on a large metal frame at the local ball diamond. When fully…
Not talking politics in the Holy Land
Tourism is often promoted for the sake of economic development and toward the goal of breaking down stereotypes and barriers. A companion and I just returned from the Holy Land. My thoughts are filled with how our travel promotes or hides our values concerning peace and the good we wish to see in the world.…
Deciding where to drink
Would you rather drink from the fountain of youth or the fountain of life? Why is our culture so obsessed with the many iterations of the mythical fountain of youth? Is it a desperate desire for more time, or a chance to do over what’s past? Or maybe it’s a way to avoid a fear…
A safe-ish consumption site
This spring it dawned on me that our front yard occasionally functions as a safe-ish consumption site. Almost 10 years ago we bought a small church in Winnipeg’s West End and renovated it to be our home. The exterior looks basically the same, so from the beginning a trickle of people have assumed it is…
