Sunset from the train west of Kamloops. (Photo by John Longhurst)
I like telling stories. And I like trains. So when organizers of the “Memories of Migration: Russlaender 100 Tour” asked if I would join the cross-country train tour as a reporter, it wasn’t a hard decision to make. Yes!
Ingrid Reisen Moehlmann of Winnipeg (left) and Jennifer Bergen of Abbotsford take time to swing behind an Old Order Mennonite school house in southern Ontario. (Photos by John Longhurst)
Tour participants debrief and say farewell to those leaving the tour in Kitchener on July 11. (Photo by John Longhurst)
And that’s it: The first leg of “Memories of Migration: Russlaender Tour 100” is over.
(Photo courtesy of Tourmagination.com)
One hundred years ago, the first of 21,000 Mennonites who left the Soviet Union boarded a train in Quebec City for new lives across the country.
On July 6 some of their descendants and others will replicate that journey when they board a train for a trip that will go all the way from Quebec to B.C. as part of “Memories of Migration: Russlaender Tour 100.”
CMU students helped organize the Manitoba premiere of ‘Custodians.’ From left to right: Danika Warkentin, Lindsay Scott, Daisy Belec, Abimbola Onijamah, Micah Peters Unrau and Arnaud Munezero. (Photo by Danika Warkentin)
A new documentary exploring questions of land and reconciliation in rural Saskatchewan will have its Manitoba premiere in Winnipeg this weekend.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place Jan. 18-23. (Photo by Rosie Sun/Unsplash)
During the pandemic, Christian churches across various faith traditions have disagreed with public health orders restricting in-person gatherings. Some church leaders challenged public health orders in law courts, their stories covered in news headlines across the country. Among Christians, there has been lament about the division and the message it sends.
Joyce Ngumbao feeds the chickens on the family farm in Kwa Kavisi, Kenya. (MCC photo by Matthew Lester)
For Joyce Ngumbao, a mother of five living in Kenya, a brood of chickens has made all the difference.
One of the soccer matches during the annual Mundialito por la Paz (Little World Cup for Peace) soccer tournament organized by MCC's partner Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together).
Each summer for the last four years, a community on the outskirts of Soacha, Colombia, has gathered to watch its children play in a soccer tournament for peace, their own local version of the World Cup.
A new denominational survey provides important insights into Mennonite Church U.S.A., says executive director Glen Guyton, pictured here in 2019. (MC U.S.A. photo)
Mennonite Church U.S.A. has released the completed report from its denominational survey, “The Mennonite Experience: MC USA Membership Study 2021-22.”
Melanie Kampen speaks about making Christian theology trauma-informed and justice-making at the first event of Winnipeg First Mennonite Church’s queer theology series that ran from the end of October to late November. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
Affirming LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church has been discussed for years in many Christian circles, yet congregations and regional churches tend to not move beyond the initial question to discover the rich scope queer theology offers.
An image from the new documentary, ‘A Creative God.’ (YouTube screen shot)
A new group of resources on visual arts in worship is available from Together in Worship, an online collection of worship resources from Anabaptist sources.
Three of MCC’s 2022-2023 U.S. canning crew are pictured from left to right: Sylvan Stoltzfus of Narvon, Pa., Kyle Keeler of Corry, Pa., and Han Erb of Dundee, Ohio. (MCC photo)
As Mennonite Central Committee begins its 2022-2023 meat canning season, the need for food in Ukraine and other countries around the world is growing.
In Ukraine, millions of people have been displaced, and many are without access to food, water and healthcare since the Russian military invaded in February.
Conrad Grebel University College president Marcus Shantz, pictured in 2020, provided an overview of Grebel’s new strategic plan during the school’s annual general meeting last month. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
Marcus Shantz, Conrad Grebel University College’s president, provided an overview of Grebel’s new strategic plan during the school’s annual general meeting on Oct 4.
Derek Suderman, pictured in this Conrad Grebel University College file photo, taught courses in Cuba and Thailand this past summer. (Photo courtesy of Conrad Grebel)
Derek Suderman, a professor at Conrad Grebel University College, is passionate about connecting with global Anabaptist churches and contributing to cross-cultural teaching. This summer, he taught courses in Cuba and Thailand to resource the global Mennonite church.
The Meeting Place meets at 541 Eatery and Exchange in Hamilton. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/541Barton)
Helga Bergen sews in a panel on an article of clothing. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
Working in a long-term-care home in Vineland, Ont., Helga Bergen saw a need among the elderly residents. She came up with an idea to alter clothing for the bed-ridden residents, so they would be comfortable wearing their own clothes. She took an item of clothing, cut open the back, sewed a panel onto each side, finished off the seams, added fasteners, and it was ready to slip on.
When Hyejung Jessie Yum first encountered Mennonites, she found value and inspiration in the writings of the 16th-century Anabaptists and adopted them as her faith ancestors. At the same time, she sensed some unspoken rules that seemed to make some groups of Anabaptists “more authentic” than others.
(Image courtesy of Government of Canada)
Today marks Canada’s second-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a federal statutory holiday that recognizes the impact of residential schools on the country’s Indigenous people.
Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers have made a statement encouraging people to make Sept. 30 a day for listening, learning and seeking reconciliation.
Volunteers from Bethel Mennonite Church in Waterville, N.S., drove three-and-a-half hours to Antigonish, to cut down fallen trees in the coastal town of 4,300 in the northeast part of the province. (Photo by Shannon Long)
Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada began cleanup work in Antigonish, N.S., on Sept. 30 in response to Hurricane Fiona.
That’s when volunteers from the Bethel Mennonite Church in Waterville, N.S., about a three-and-a-half hour drive from Antigonish, arrived to start cutting down fallen trees in the coastal town of 4,300 in the northeast part of the province.
An unexploded rocket still lies in the garden of Nadiya O.’s destroyed home near Uman, Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of Uman Help Centre)
Before the fighting escalated in Ukraine this year, Nadiya O.* and her husband lived near the city of Uman, Ukraine. Together, they grew a vegetable garden and kept bees, selling their honey to make some extra cash. But shortly after the conflict worsened, her husband died from a heart attack.
As the Muslim call to prayer wafted on the air through open doors, the General Council worshipped, prayed, and considered the global fellowship of churches in Mennonite World Conference. (MWC photo)
As the Muslim call to prayer wafted on the air through open doors, the General Council worshipped, prayed and considered the global fellowship of churches in Mennonite World Conference (MWC). The in-person triennial meetings of leaders of MWC national member churches in Indonesia in early July were cut short as COVID-19 positives put leaders into isolation.
Jeremy Giesbrecht (far right) and Darren Kehler (kneeling) of the Quonset Brothers have been surprised by the popularity of the video for their song, “Mennonites Put the Oba in Manitoba,” which has garnered more than 156,000 views on YouTube. (Photo courtesy of the Quonset Brothers)
While there are Mennonites aulawäajen (everywhere) in Manitoba, Jeremy Giesbrecht and Darren Kehler of the Quonset Brothers have found that such is true internationally now that thousands of people have watched the video for their song, “Mennonites Put the Oba in Manitoba.”
Arlyn Friesen Epp portrays a cigarette-smoking Simon Peter in “About those Fish…,” a short film he created for Gathering 2022.
Arlyn Friesen Epp just made scripture a little fishier.
A damaged home in Emmalena, Ky. (Photo courtesy of MDS)
Flood survivors in hard-hit eastern Kentucky need volunteers—and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is trying to help.
“The need is overwhelming,” said Larry Stoner, MDS regional operations coordinator, describing the aftermath of the historic deluge in late July that killed 38 people in a rural corner of the state.
Jeremy Penner, left, Tim Osmond, Jess Reimer, T.J. Blair and Jeremy Hamm make up the Stanley County Cut-ups, a bluegrass band from Manitoba. (Photo courtesy of the Stanley County Cut-ups)
After more than two years of putting a pause on performing, Manitoba bluegrass quintet the Stanley County Cut-ups is finally playing again.
“I would say that the cogs are back in motion for musicians,” says Jess Reimer, the band’s bassist.
At the assembly’s opening ceremony on July 5, Paulus Widjaja (right), chair of Mennonite World Conference’s national advisory committee in Indonesia, presented a gift to J. Nelson Kraybill (left), who was president of MWC at the time. (Meetinghouse photo by Kresna Kurniawan)
Last month, people from around the world gathered in Indonesia for the Mennonite World Conference’s 17th assembly.
