Is the ban back?
In our feature article, Carol Ann Weaver tells of two Mennonite evangelists who imposed a ban on musical instruments decades ago. It’s tempting to marvel at how utterly unenlightened such a response to perceived wrong now seems. Banning feels so backward. But the ban is back. Emma Siemens discusses the pros and cons of cancel…
The piano ban
October 22 was a normal Sunday. I had just arrived at Rockway Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., when Conrad Brunk approached me. He is a fellow Rockway member, a former colleague at Conrad Grebel University College and a former next-door neighbour in Harrisonburg, Va. when we were very young. He wanted to talk about “the…
Readers write: March 13, 2023 issue
Convenient pacifism In response to “Conscientious” (Jan. 30): Wherever religious Mennonites locate in the world, security is usually provided mostly by others. Others suffer and die in their place, while Mennonites denounce their work, reap the benefits and are secretly grateful. If Mennonites acknowledged everyone’s dependence on compromise solutions and participated in those solutions, their…
Driving Miss Darcie
A few weeks ago I sent a text to a friend who I hadn’t seen for quite some time. Although we’d been in touch several times throughout the pandemic, we were long overdue for a face-to-face visit. I had no idea that the timing of this text would set my schedule askew for the next…
La Crete river landing
“How did the North become the North?” asks historian Gerald Friesen. By the Second World War northern Canada was experiencing an influx of “new technology, money and people.” River landings like this one near La Crete, Alta., were vital links to supplies and markets of the south. Although the first Mennonites who settled here came…
Belonging comes first
I remember a difficult church meeting at my fiancé’s congregation when I was an active participant in the young adult group. I don’t recall the topic, but I do recall that I did not speak up during the meeting, but just listened. After the meeting, in a circle of conversation, I asked some questions and…
Practising for tragedy
It’s no secret that there are gaps in our congregational song. In particular, gaps in the kinds of words we have available for moments of crisis, despair and loss. Voices Together sought to speak into this opening, and features many resources that offer new words for these moments. Examples include a prayer for mental health,…
The pendulum, Hegel and Christ
Some have described history as a series of pendulum swings, oscillating from one extreme to the other, between tyranny and freedom, conservatism and liberalism, progress and tradition. It has also been said, the pendulum always swings too far, meaning when we find ourselves in one extreme, there tends to be an overcorrection that takes us…
Goodbye ‘model minority’
“I refuse to be your model minority,” Simu Liu tweeted. Liu played Jung Kim on the award-winning Canadian sitcom, Kim’s Convenience. This drama portrays a Korean immigrant family’s life in Canada. Liu’s character is the estranged eldest son of the Kim family. Born in China and having immigrated to Ontario at the age of five,…
