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MC Canada offers pandemic preparedness web resources for congregations
As of March 11, the World Health Organization is now describing the global outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19 as a pandemic. This move is not to incite fear but to motivate governments to ramp up their preparation efforts before the virus spreads more quickly in their own countries.
Mennonite World Conference cancels event, meetings in B.C.
With the World Health Organization using the word “pandemic” to describe global infection from the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), Mennonite World Conference leadership has cancelled the March Renewal 2027 public event and April executive committee meetings that were scheduled to take place in Abbotsford, B.C.
Words that bear repeating
Thanks to a shift in approach, Tuesday all-campus worship gatherings at Canadian Mennonite University are attracting a better, more consistent turnout from the student body.
Water from stone
With a series of quick, practiced strokes, Aïchatou Hamidou clears the area around a newly built latrine with a long broom made from dry grass.
Watch: Eco-anxiety spurs creativity
How do you reckon with the feeling that everything is changing? That sense that crises are converging? With the notion that we have some big choices to make individually and collectively?
Those questions get at some of the ideas at play in “Caring at the End of the World,” a new video from Eco-Anxious Stories that you can watch below.
Grebel celebrates HeForShe IMPACT
Students, staff, and faculty at Conrad Grebel University College took time during their weekly Community Supper one evening in January to reflect on what HeForShe has meant for them at the University of Waterloo and in their personal lives.
Watch: How did we become so polarized?
Coronavirus: Prayer encourages Chinese church leaders
With the coronavirus continuing to impact people around the world, Mennonite World Conference (MWC) has called for Anabaptist and Mennonite congregations everywhere to unite in prayer and to exercise precautionary measures in the church.
Nigerian pastor executed
On Jan. 20, Lawan Andimi, a pastoral leader in the Nigerian Church of the Brethren, was executed by Boko Haram, an extremist Jihadi group. He had been reported missing on Jan. 3, the day after a Boko Haram attack in his area.
Watch: A one-minute history of Valentine’s Day
Whether you scoff at the billion-dollar industry that Feb. 14 has become or use the day to show your affection for the people you love—or something in between—there’s no denying that Valentine’s Day has a fascinating backstory.
This video, from the One Minute History channel on YouTube, gives a 60-second overview of the day’s origins.
MWC adds members to its global team
A composer, health manager and auto mechanic—all church leaders—have joined the Mennonite World Conference team.
Great Winter Warm-up produces 9,400 comforters
On Jan. 18, the forecast in more than 100 locations across three continents was identical: flurries of comforters.
Music leaders sing hymnal preview
In the 1980s, Ken Nafziger drew inspiration from publisher and camp association president Levi Miller, and began leading a music retreat at Laurelville.
Coronavirus: MC Canada requests prayer
Mennonite Church Canada is inviting prayers for its ministry partners during the coronavirus outbreak, and for all of those in China and across the world who have been affected by the virus.
Watch: Dispatches from a SALTer in Colombia
Our recent Focus on Education issue featured a reflection by Hannah Larson, a young woman serving in northeastern India with Mennonite Central Committee’s Serving and Learning Together program.
MWC delegation visits churches in Hong Kong
A joint delegation from the Peace and Deacons commissions of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) visited three Mennonite churches in Hong Kong, other denominations and some educational institutions, to offer solidarity and to respond to the request for further perspectives on Anabaptist peacemaking.
Watch: Katie Sowers is making Super Bowl history
Katie Sowers will make history next weekend as the first woman and first openly gay person to coach during the Super Bowl.
Ten Thousand Villages Canada shuts down corporate operations
Mennonite Central Committee Canada has announced the closure of the corporate operations of Ten Thousand Villages Canada, its fair-trade social enterprise.
Watch: Mennonite World Conference's year in review
A new video highlights what happened in the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) in 2019.
Released in advance of Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday, which takes place this weekend (Jan. 19, 2020), the five-minute video explores MWC’s pursuit of “justice across barriers," as well as the work of its four commissions.
Engaging Anabaptist theology in community—at a distance
Randall Koehler wants to explore how Anabaptist theology might shape the mission of the church in a rural context.
Rockway to feature 'Voices Together' committee member at special event
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in Kitchener, Ont. marks 75 years of mission in 2020.
Sarah Johnson, a 2003 alumna, will be the guest speaker at a special Founders’ Day chapel at the school on Feb. 9, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. She will explore the question, “What does it mean to be a Mennonite school in a diverse and evolving global environment?”
MWC committee begins planning 2021 assembly

Assembly program committee members Estifanos Gedlu of Ethiopia, Ben Bergey of the United States, Jessica Mondal Lakra of India, Jardeley Martinez of Colombia, Natalie Frisk of Canada, MWC chief events coordinator Liesa Unger, assembly national co-coordinator Agus Setianto and volunteer coordinator Tigist Gelagle are pictured at the Holy Stadium in Semarang, Indonesia, where next year’s global assembly will be held. (MWC photo by Karla Braun)
A six-person program committee met last November to develop the activities and schedule of the 2021 Mennonite World Conference (MWC) global assembly in Indonesia next July. The six come from five different continents and span the decades from their 20s to their 60s.
The servant heart
Over the past few years Menno Simons Christian School in Calgary, Alta.
Watch: The journey of a comforter
Volunteers across Canada are preparing to participate in Mennonite Central Committee’s Great Winter Warm-up.
MCC is hoping that these volunteers will produce 6,500 comforters during the event, which takes place on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020.
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