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AMBS celebrates the Class of 2019

The 2019 graduating class of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary: (front, left to right) Renee Epp Reimer of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Dustin Finch of Jonesboro, Arkansas; Margaret De Jong of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Tesfaye D. Robelle of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia; Benjamin Isaak-Krauss of Bammental, Germany; (middle, left to right) Yukino Ohyama of Sapporo, Hokkaido, and Tokyo, Japan; Suzanne Engle Ford of Fort Collins, Colorado; Peter Digitale Anderson, originally from Bremen, Indiana; Naún Lucoer Cerrato of Goshen, Indiana; Nel Warkentin of Elkhart; (back, left to right) Grant S. Miller of Danvers, Illinois; Brian Miller O’Leary of Goshen; Pratik Bagh of Kutela-Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India; James Longley of Sydney, Australia; Scott Micheal Litwiller of Delavan, Illinois. (Not pictured: Jeremiah Buhler of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada; Barbara Krehbiel Gehring of Manhattan, Kansas; Sungbin Kim of Seoul, Kyunggi, South Korea; Anne Perkins Munley of Mundelein, Illinois; and Joel Ray Schroeder of Newton, Kansas.) (AMBS photo by Steve Echols)

GOSHEN, Indiana — Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) celebrated the achievements of 20 graduates earlier this month at its 73rd commencement service.

Watch: Foothills bids Doug Klassen farewell

Rose and Doug Klassen at Foothills Mennonite Church on May 12. The couple is headed to Winnipeg.

Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary, Alta. recently said goodbye to pastor Doug Klassen and his wife, Rose.

After 20 years of ministry at the church, the Klassens are headed to Winnipeg. Doug will begin his new role as executive minister of Mennonite Church Canada on June 1.

Watch a short video from May 12, the Klassens’ final Sunday in formal ministry at Foothills:

MCC assisting after Cyclone Idai

Issa Ebombolo, MCC’s peacebuilding coordinator for Zambia and Malawi, unloads cooking oil in the village of Tomali as part of MCC’s Cyclone Idai flood relief project in Malawi. (MCC photo by Amanda Talstra)

Issa Ebombolo was not expecting the level of malnutrition he encountered among people displaced by flooding in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. But upon arriving in southern Malawi, where he helped distribute food and relief supplies, Ebombolo was taken aback by the dire need for food assistance.

Conscientious (tax) objectors

Charlotte and Ernie Wiens divert 10 percent of what they owe the government each year to Conscience Canada’s Peace Tax Trust Fund. (Photo by Lori Enns)

Like other Canadians, every year Ernie and Charlotte Wiens file their taxes.

Unlike others in Canada, the La Salle, Man. farming couple doesn't send the federal government everything it says they owe—the part that violates their conscience.

For Ernie, 72, and Charlotte, 69, that’s the estimated 10 percent of Canada’s budget spent on the military.  

Rudy Wiebe on Omar Khadr, Miriam Toews, MB Herald and more

Rudy Wiebe, pictured with Conrad Grebel University College professor Hildi Froese Tiessen after a reading at Conrad Grebel in January 2012. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)

During a recent interview focusing on his debut novel and recent CMU Pax Award, acclaimed Mennonite writer Rudy Wiebe spoke on a variety of topics, including Omar Khadr, Miriam Toews, the western Canadian Indigenous story and the MB Herald. 

Here's what he had to say.

Women without limits

Maria Elena Algarañaz de Masabi works at the booth she runs with Mujeres sin Limites, an artisan collective in Montero, Bolivia. (Photo by Matthew Sawatzky)

It’s a hot, humid morning, and Maria Elena Algarañaz de Masabi is working at a booth displaying brightly coloured handicrafts for sale. She carefully lays out cloth purses and drawstring bags and hangs up knit children’s clothes.

Women’s literacy grows churches, communities

Literacy trainer Zephirin Koutchengu listens as Claudine Lutondo of Kinshasa reads the Bible in Lingala. (Photo courtesy of Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission)

ELKHART, Indiana – In the past two years, more than 260 literacy teachers have been trained in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now, they are helping 2,560 others learn to read and write in more than 100 locations. Most of the new readers are women and girls.

Ten years after ‘Points of View’

The Other Brothers (Chris Neufeld, left, and Donovan Giesbrecht) in March 2009. (Photo by Mark Reimer)

On April 3, 2009, southern Manitoba-based folk group the Other Brothers released Points of View. Recorded in the studio at Mennonite Church Manitoba, the album earned critical acclaim—CBC dubbed them “the Simon and Garfunkel of the Prairies”—and a small but loyal following.

‘Vice’ director Adam McKay talks about Mennonites on popular podcast

Adam McKay is the writer-director of the acclaimed 2018 film 'Vice,' which explores the life of Dick Cheney. (Photo courtesy of Instagram.com/ghostpanther2018)

Filmmaker Adam McKay recently revealed that when he was growing up, he attended a Mennonite church for a time.

During his appearance on the March 20 episode of the podcast You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes, the writer-director shared that after his mother became a Christian, they attended a number of different churches.

Mennonite World Conference general secretary relocates

Mennonite World Conference general secretary César García, pictured in Harrisburg, Pa. in 2015. García relocated to Kitchener, Ont. last month. (Photo by Dale Gehman)

General secretary César García and executive assistant Sandra Báez Rojas of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) have relocated to Canada as of last month to work out of the Kitchener, Ont., office.

‘She was ahead of her time’

Winnipegger Peggy Unruh Regehr died on September 27, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Keith Regehr)

Before #MeToo and #ChurchToo—before there even was the Internet—there was Winnipegger Peggy Unruh Regehr.

Unruh Regehr, a member of River East Church (a Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba congregation) died September 27 last year at the age of 89. She was a pioneer in championing the cause of women in leadership in Mennonite denominations in Canada.

Church growth stretches Ethiopian resources

Students from Meserete Kristos College’s Entertainment Art group lead worship music at a November 2018 outreach event. Over two days, they shared the gospel with 1,080 people, 117 of whom received Christ. (Henok Tamirat)

Challenges accompany the joys of growth as tens of thousands of people new to Ethiopia’s Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) swell the denomination.

Now with more than 600,000 participants, the world’s largest Anabaptist conference struggles to train enough pastors, find adequate meeting spaces, and keep vehicles maintained for its teachers, who travel to distant outposts on rough roads.

AMBS trains Sudanese-Canadian to make a difference

Rebecca Riek (second row, second from left) and Rebecca Yoder Neufeld (next to her) stand among fellow participants at the September 2018 Journey Weekend Learning Event at Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan. (Jason Bryant)

Thousands of miles from their homeland, a group of about 30 South Sudanese women gathers on Tuesdays in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. Meeting in each other’s homes, they pray for their war-torn country and its people, share about their lives and study the Bible together. Rebecca Riek, who came to Canada from South Sudan 16 years ago, helped start the group in 2007 and continues to lead it.

CPT closes Indigenous solidarity team

Members of CPT's Indigenous Peoples Solidarity team participate in a rally in support of Bill C-262 in front of a local parliament member's office in Winnipeg in 2017. (Photo courtesy of CPT)

In order to address a $265,000 deficit, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) will close its Winnipeg-based Indigenous Peoples Solidarity team at the end of March. While CPT hopes to maintain relationships with its Indigenous partners, three full-time and one half-time positions devoted to the work will end.

Voices Together visual art chosen

‘Alive,’ a pen and ink drawing by Anne H. Berry, chosen for the theme of ‘the death and resurrection of Jesus.’ (Courtesy of MennoMedia)

‘Nine patch No. 8,’ a monotype by Brenton Good, chosen for the theme of ‘praying.’ (Courtesy of MennoMedia)

Visual art for the Voices Together hymnal has been chosen by the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. The 12 visual art pieces selected will appear in the forthcoming hymnal—including the pew, worship leader, digital app and projection editions.

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