A collaboration between two long-time friends and the woodwork of a man with a long history with Mennonite Church Canada are the basis for two exhibitions now showing at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery (MHCG).
Theda Good
On Sunday (Feb. 2), a Denver congregation of Mennonites licensed the first lesbian in a committed same-sex relationship, the first step toward ordination.
Theda Good’s licensure was celebrated by some Mennonite Church USA clergy and greeted with dismay by others.
When the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is observed around the world this year from Jan. 18 to 25, there will be a special focus on Canada.
In Damascus, a woman accepts a box of food supplied by MCC through its partner, the Syrian Orthodox Church. People in the photo are not identified for security reasons. (Photo courtesy of the Syrian Orthodox Church)
As international efforts are under way to convince warring parties in Syria to gather for peace talks in Geneva on Jan. 22, 2014, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is releasing an additional $200,000 to help Syrian families get through the winter.
The Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery invites artists to submit artworks for consideration for a national exhibition to take place during the Mennonite Church Canada assembly to be held in Winnipeg from July 3 to 6, 2014.
Ex-offender Ryan Grills, who chairs the Forward Step support group, left, chats with Dave Feick, coordinator of the Micah Mission.
Sporting a bright orange T-shirt and a shaved head, Ryan Grills is an imposing presence, but his handshake is warm and his voice enthusiastic as he speaks about Forward Step, a support group for ex-offenders that he chairs. Forward Step is a program of the Micah Mission, an inter-church agency committed to restorative justice in Saskatoon.
Ashley Goff, minister for spiritual formation at Church of the Pilgrims, compares her time in her church’s backyard to making lasagna -- spreading vegetable scraps in one layer, straw in the next. (RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks)
The wheelbarrow outside the sanctuary was overflowing with vegetable scraps; decomposing matter filled the baptismal font; and a pile of rich brown soil replaced the Communion table.
If there is indeed a "War on Christmas," those on the anti-Christmas side of the war have lost — big time.
The television pundits, conservative politicians and talk-radio loudmouths who believe there is a "War on Christmas" should look around, withdraw their troops and quit screaming. Because if there is a war on Christmas, Christmas has won.
Traditionally Mennonite worship did not acknowledge the nuances of the church year. Today more congregations and individuals are seeing the seasons of the church calendar as a time to reflect and cultivate spiritual disciplines. A few samples:
Karen and Andrew Suderman and their children
South Africa lost the “Father of the nation” and the world lost an icon when Nelson Mandela passed away Dec. 5, 2013.
The world seemed very different when I awoke last Friday morning and heard the news: “Mandela is dead.” I first heard about it in an e-mail from a friend in Canada who, so he told me, saw the headline while reading an article I had written in 1994 at the time Mandela was inaugurated as president of the new South Africa.
Lorraine Roth
Lorraine Roth, a well-known Mennonite genealogist, passed away early on Wed. Dec. 11, 2013, at the age of 83. She grew up near Shakespeare, Ont., and spent her last years in Tavistock, Ont.
Presenter David Neufeld chats with Leonard Doell, a member of the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan, at the ‘Peace Saturday’ event at Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon on Nov. 9. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
“Peace Saturday,” a time of storytelling at Mount Royal Mennonite Church in Saskatoon on Nov. 9, 2013, featured four presenters with diverse points of view on the theme.
A Leamington man has been killed in an attempted car-jacking on a highway in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Brazilian media reports say Dean Tiessen was travelling with a friend, Paul Carver, when he was fatally shot on Saturday, but the circumstances around the incident remain unclear.
Bergen
Mandela in prison
As the world remembers Nelson Mandela today, Walter Bergen, an organic farmer from Chilliwack, BC, recalls a moment in July, 1986, when the Conference of Mennonites in Canada stepped forward to “officially encourage the Canadian government to release Mandela and to send a letter of support to Bishop Desmond Tutu for his work against apartheid,” according to a report by Brenda Suderman in the Me
American evangelicals help plant and harvest grapes for Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Dolev on the morning of Oct. 27, 2013. Photo by Debbie Hill, courtesy of USA Today
Sitting in the shadow of a row of leafy grapevines, 26-year-old Zac Waller grabbed his guitar and started playing a hymn.
The soulful sounds tripped down the hillside adjacent to the Jewish settlement of Dolev, west of Jerusalem, bringing a smile to the volunteers harvesting grapes in the warm October sun.
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley celebrates Sunday Mass with other American cardinals at the Pontifical North American College March 3, 2013. Photo by Gregory L. Tracy/The Pilot
Pope Francis is creating a special commission to deal with the clergy sexual abuse crisis on a global scale, a step that comes amid growing criticism that Francis had not given sufficient attention to the scandal.
During Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's visit to the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September, a U.S. diplomat presented this griffin-shaped chalice to an Iranian counterpart. (Photo credit: Mehdi Moazen, Islamic Republic News Agency)
Many paths led to the international agreement to temporarily curb Iran's nuclear program: secret meetings in Oman, formal negotiations in Geneva, and a quiet encounter in New York involving two diplomats and an exquisite silver chalice in the shape of a mythical winged creature.
Paul Crouch, the religious broadcaster who co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network and was known for his prosperity gospel messages and lavish lifestyle, died Saturday (Nov. 30). He was 79. Photo courtesy Trinity Broadcasting Network
Paul Crouch, the religious broadcaster who co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network and was known for his prosperity gospel messages and lavish lifestyle, died Saturday (Nov. 30). He was 79.
His death was announced on the network’s website.
“We are grateful for the life of this amazing servant of God,” it said. “Please pray for the Crouch family during this time.”
Women in Ghana will benefit from the new water project.
Mennonite Economic Development Associates announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MEDA will pursue an innovative global health and development research project in Ghana, Water Catchment, Storage and Irrigation for Women.
As the United States marks the 50th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy on Friday (Nov. 22), many Christians will also pause to recall the death of C.S. Lewis, who died the same day, just one week short of his 65th birthday.
There are some verses in the Bible that we studiously avoid thinking about, let alone discussing publicly. They are like repressed memories or family secrets that threaten, if evoked, to cast us back into shame and confusion, to undo the semblance of peace, fellowship and orderliness that we have so diligently cultivated for ourselves.
Anthony Coralade stands in front of what is left of his concrete house in Carmen, Hernani, in Eastern Samar. His house was completed last month after painstakingly building it for seven years. Before the landfall of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, he hired men to find the cash he had buried under the floor. (Photo by ACT Alliance/Christian Aid)
As the devastation from Typhoon Haiyan continues to unfold in the Philippines, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is increasing its response to meet crucial needs for people on the eastern side of Leyte Island and working with partners to assess next steps for relief and recovery.
Little Pine First Nation Chief Wayne Semagani (left) stands with Ovide Mercredi, former grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, outside Buckingham Palace. Mercredi explained: “The trip that we made here was to show Canadians that we still have this connection with Britain and that the treaties were made by our ancestors…” (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
Drumming after the pipe ceremony in Green Park, near Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
The delegation of Saskatchewan and Manitoba veterans, elders and chiefs assemble at the Guards Chapel, London, as part of their visit to celebrate the Royal Proclamation of 1763. (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
Gabrielle Hughes, from Mik'maq Nation, plays the drum in the Honour Song at the Canada High Commission. Hughes is the first Rhodes Scholar to come from the First Nations. (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (centre) examines the Royal Proclamation with other members of the delegation. (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
A copy of the 1763 Royal Proclamation, housed at the National Archives in London, England. (Photo by Brad Langendoen)
To mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Oct. 7), a delegation of indigenous leaders travelled to London, England, in October 2013.
“We refuse to accept that running away from storms, evacuating our families, suffering the devastation and misery, counting our dead, becomes a way of life. We simply refuse to.”
So spoke the Philippines’ lead climate negotiator Naderev Yeb Saño at the opening of this year’s United Nations climate change conference in Warsaw, Poland.
