Alberta event explores wild hope for creation
Don’t get “stuck in rage or paralyzed by fear,” said Joanne Moyer. “[Be] defiantly hopeful, despite the odds.” Moyer, associate professor at The King’s University in Edmonton, was presenting at a Mennonite Church Alberta event called “Wild Hope for God’s Garden.” The May 28-29 event was held at First Mennonite Church in Calgary. Approximately 25…
Actually, love your enemies
A couple of years ago my sister and I had hammock party at the park with our friends. The goal of a hammock party is to set up all your hammocks close enough together that you can still hear each other without yelling. On this occasion my sister and I, or rather my sister, packed up…
How to disagree with the beloved of God
Ian Funk remembers the last time he arrived on campus at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS)—how he walked into the guest house late at night and was welcomed by a fellow student sitting at the dining room table. People heard them exchanging greetings and popped out of their rooms. Within minutes, a group of students…
Ninety-two-year-old artist publishes children’s book
When Rita Dahl was a child, the bottom third of the family’s kitchen door was her canvas. The top sections were for her older sisters to draw on. “We were products of the Depression and we couldn’t buy a lot of paper, so our mother let us draw on the kitchen door,” she said. “We…
The urgency of untidy joy
I’ve been thinking again about joy. I know this theme is counterintuitive. The scope of violence and injustice in the world is crushing right now, both far away and close to home, and it’s proving chronic in ways that undermine efforts to be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). We need urgent action…
Open to the Spirit
Just over a year ago, I invited readers of Canadian Mennonite to share their Holy Spirit experiences with me (April 6, 2023). I was pleasantly surprised by the response. I was moved and encouraged by the messages I received. Thank you to all who responded. These messages were shared in confidence, and confidentiality is sacred. Although I…
Seeking God in a ‘thin place’
I grew up attending a relatively small Mennonite church—Foothills Mennonite in Calgary—with my family. My family was fairly involved in my church, and I grew up with a typical Mennonite faith. However, as I got older my church experience began to shift. Our pastoral team underwent many changes, and because our congregation was fairly small,…
Involuntary: Terminated MCC workers call for accountability and change
“I still use it,” Anicka Fast says of the brownish knitted potholder she received at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) orientation in Akron, Pennsylvania, in 2009. Fast and her husband John Clarke were en route to their first MCC assignment at the time. Fast is grateful to the women who, for many years, offered those hand-crafted…
Seeing beauty and injustice
Since her death in 1943, Simone Weil’s philosophy has impacted dozens of writers, thinkers and theologians. T.S. Eliot named her a saint. Simone de Beauvoir envied her spirit. Now, in The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion, Cindy Wallace examines how nine writers, including Adrienne Rich, Annie Dillard and the Mennonite…
Community found in the kitchen
In 1989, my grandmother, Lorraine Braun, began creating a cookbook for my mother, Maurya. For three decades, she handwrote recipes of foods that were significant in our family or the Mennonite community. This recipe book is a central memory from my childhood. The book’s pages are covered with the ketchup we used to make rib sauce…
