Amplifier of youth voices moves on
The end of summer 2024 also marks the end of over a decade of commitment to youth ministry for Kirsten Hamm-Epp, regional church minister for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan. The Manitoba native, now 34, took over the reins of the Saskatchewan Youth Ministry Organization (SMYO) in the summer of 2013 after graduating with an English degree…
Let’s agree to disagree
In my Zimbabwean African culture, elders are so revered that they are never seen as doing anything wrong. It is considered very rude to argue with one’s elders, even when we are certain that they are incorrect. Young people must bow their heads and make peace by being acquiescent. I vividly remember a time when…
Can’t we all just get along?
Are you losing hope in the possibility of everyone getting along? Division in the church is nothing new for me. I grew up in a harsh, conservative fundamentalist church that judged everybody. Especially liberal Christians. In my early 20s, I became agnostic and relentlessly judgmental toward conservative Christians. I returned to Christian faith and church…
Big tent, small centre
Here in British Columbia—the West of the West, where West and true East meet in North America—we sometimes tend to look more toward the traditionalist faith of the church in Asia than to the progressive, whiter, older Mennonite lands of eastern Canada. We also continue to be influenced by the neo-reformed fundamentalism of our dear, and…
Not your typical youth mission trip
“That was a test. True servants are always listening.” Jacques was our new friend. He was always barefoot and wouldn’t say how he had ended up living in his van, but he spoke six languages, and he enjoyed chatting with us about faith and making the world a better place. For a few days, he…
Finding a home in the MB conference
Brent Kipfer’s Mennonite Church Canada pedigree is solid: he grew up at Poole Mennonite Church in Poole, Ontario, attended Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, graduated from Canadian Mennonite Bible College and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and became pastor of a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation. Now, he pastors a Mennonite Brethren church and sits on the board…
Readers Write: September 2024
Questions about MCC ethos I appreciate Canadian Mennonite’s reporting on the open letter from terminated Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers (“Involuntary,” July 2024). Well done. When I first read the open letter, I was distraught, but I shouldn’t have been; the appeal for accountability should be heard by leadership in all of our organizations. I’ve witnessed abrupt…
Switchers and exiters
Why do people switch or exit a church or denomination? And why do some churches leave a denomination altogether? Chances are you could offer possible reasons from your own experiences or those around you. Anecdotes are helpful to a point, but larger data sets based on extensive surveys or interviews across different populations can offer richer…
Leaving a church that left
Harv Wiebe—not his real name—did not agree with his congregation’s decision to leave the regional church, but still, he hoped things would work out for the congregation he had once pastored. Questions about the conference had been discussed in the small-town congregation for many years, Wiebe says. (Canadian Mennonite is not identifying Wiebe due to…
