Part I: Family ties
Why cut what can be untied? This wise, old saying can apply to family conflicts. Some of our family ties are threadbare and frail; there is strain, and there is underlying conflict that we are aware of but too timid and, dare I say, too peace-loving to address. During my years as a pastor and…
Part II: Telling and re-telling who we are
How does your faith community answer these questions: Who are we? Who are we becoming? Who does God say we are? These questions can serve to guide a process to uncover and/or challenge a congregation’s primary identity. This is vital work as we journey through uncharted territory. As I conducted research among Mennonite Church Eastern…
Palestinian voices
Yousef Alkhouri Yousef Alkhouri is a Palestinian Christian from Gaza. He is a lecturer at Bethlehem Bible College, though is currently studying in Europe. He visited Canada last year, along with Jack Sara, at the invitation of Mennonite Church Canada. The following is part of a note he sent to Canadian Mennonite on October 14.…
Mennonites in Ecuador reach out as their country struggles
In August, Iglesia Cristiana Anabautista Menonita de Ecuador (ICAME) published a statement calling for prayers amid escalating violence in the country. Alexandra Meneses, who coordinates the Women’s Group and the Discipleship and Liturgy Group at ICAME, explained that the call for prayers and peace followed the assassination of Ecuador’s former leading presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio,…
Rod Suderman, Emmanuel pastor, dies at 63
Rod Suderman, lead pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., died on Sept. 2 following a cancer diagnosis earlier this year. He had also served as a pastor in Saskatchewan and worked in China, both with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Suderman was born Sept. 29, 1959, in Winkler,…
Making peace with policing
Mennonite teachings tend to promote complete nonviolence, stating or implying that all else is wrong. Officially, we live by nonviolence alone, but in reality, we live about the same as others. The more dangerous or violent circumstances become, the more pragmatic we become. Most of us think practical steps should be taken to protect people…
White Christian nationalism
During three decades of travel to the U.S. for work, I’ve enjoyed many conversations about faith and politics. These discussions have become more polarized in recent years, with my conversation partners often repeating odd, sometimes contradictory views. In 2015, I was seated at the bar at an upscale restaurant in West Bend, Wisconsin, chatting with…
Green growth repeats a bad story
Green growth, or green capitalism, is hailed as a novel, inventive solution to the climate crisis. But green growth assumes business as usual—a continuation of our current system based on continuous economic growth—except replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. We fear that green growth will also mean business as usual and continued enclosure, exploitation, imperialism…
Theatre group tackles abuse
Interactive theatre requires audience participation, explained Cedric Martin as he introduced “I Love You and It Hurts,” a Theatre of the Beat performance held at the Kitchener Public Library on September 30. “Don’t panic,” he added quickly, promising that no one would be coerced or shamed into participating. “But, if you are uncomfortable, hold on…
Children find belonging, friendship in Winnipeg choir
It’s a Wednesday evening and the two dozen children gathered in a room at the back of Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church in Winnipeg are singing about candy-coated chocolate. “Mommy made me mash my M&M’s” isn’t a sentence one expects to hear in church, but the members of the Sargent Junior Choir are singing the phrase…
