Doyle Wiebe stands next to the Treaty Land Sharing Network sign on his property, located near Langham, Sask. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Many Canadians are familiar with the saying, “We are all treaty people.”
It is a slogan created to remind all people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, that treaties offer them rights and call them to responsibilities. A new grassroots organization in Saskatchewan is trying to help landowners live up to their responsibilities.
Panellist Ian Funk holds up a Canadian Mennonite cover showing the massive flooding in British Columbia last fall. (CM screenshot)
On May 25, Canadian Mennonite hosted its first-ever discussion event. But the magazine didn’t shy away from immediately diving into a tough topic: the climate crisis and the church.
(Photo compilation by Betty Avery)
The Canadian Christian Communications Association awards were handed out online on May 11 to Canadian magazines, newspapers and communications organizations that entered material published or posted online in 2021. Canadian Mennonite won six awards for writing, two for layout and design, and one each for online content and for general excellence for a magazine.
The 2022 graduates of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., celebrate together by tossing their caps in the air in the seminary’s library following the commencement service on April 30. (Photo by Jason Bryant / AMBS)
César García, general secretary of Mennonite World Conference, gives the address at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary’s 2022 commencement service on April 30. (Photo by Jason Bryant)
For wisdom and insight to face today’s leadership challenges, César García invited participants at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) commencement service on April 30 to look to the story of Moses and his call to serve in Exodus 4:1-17.
(Photo by PiggyBank/Unsplash/piggybank.ca)
Individuals increased direct giving to their regional church in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth is contrary to the experience of secular charities. According to the CanadaHelps fifth annual Giving Report, charitable giving fell an estimated 12 percent between 2019 and 2021.
Pastor Yoel Trakoon Masyawong and a group from the Lao Mennonite Fellowship Canada led the gathering in music. (MCEC photo by Luke Fillion)
Friends connect at MC Eastern Canada’s annual gathering. From left to right: Brandon Hewitson, Brittany Anonthysene, Khan Thirakul and Katie Anonthysene. (Photo by Virginia A. Hostetler)
Goshen Mennonite Church, Ottawa, was welcomed as a provisional member of MC Eastern Canada. Congregational representatives, left to right: Dany Mugisha, Moses Mugisha, Naomie Machichi, Thereze Machichi and Gloria Mihanitse (MCEC photo by Luke Fillion)
Moderator Arli Klassen greets participants of the MC Eastern Canada’s hybrid annual gathering. She and dozens of others attended via Zoom. (MCEC photo by Luke Fillion)
“Yes, we all lost sound at the Great Commission.” That humorous comment by Cathrin van Sintern-Dick appeared in the Zoom chat of the first hybrid annual church gathering of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, held April 29 and 30.
Freda Lombard of Zealous Art shows the B.C. Women’s Day participants the picture that they will be painting. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Christine Wiebe of Crossroads Community Church in Chilliwack, tries her hand at guided artwork during the B.C. Women’s Day on May 7. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Women of Mennonite Church B.C. once again gathered in person for the spring Women’s Day on May 7, following a two-year pandemic-related hiatus. The event, held at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford with 32 participants, was limited to the morning hours only this year.
Aziza* shops for meat using monthly food vouchers given to her by MCC’s partner, Popular Aid for Relief and Development (PARD). The vouchers supplement her husband’s income, which is primarily spent on treating their six-month-old son’s lung disease. She uses the food to provide good nutrition to her five children under eight years of age. (*Aziza’s full name is not used for her security.) (Photo courtesy of PARD-2022)
Aziza, left, receives a monthly food voucher from a staff member working for Popular Aid for Relief and Development, an MCC partner. (Photo courtesy of PARD-2022)
Basam* receives his monthly food voucher from a staff member working for Popular Aid for Relief and Development (PARD), an MCC partner in January 2022. The additional funds keep food in the fridge to feed him, his wife and their three children. (*A pseudonym is used for security reasons.) (Photo courtesy of PARD-2022)
Aziza, a 29-year-old mother living in Beirut, Lebanon, spends almost all of her husband’s income on hospital visits, oxygen and medication to treat her six-month-old son’s lung disease. (Her full name is not used for her security.)
YAMENers experience Indonesia. Clockwise from bottom left: Assembly 2022 staffer Lorenzo Fellycyando, Rut Arsari, YAMENer Ananda Mohan Murmu, YAMENer Sunil Kad Kadmaset, YAMENer Natacha Kyendrebeogo, YAMENer Loyce Twongirwe, and Assembly 2022 staffer Lydia Suyanti. (Photo by Lorenzo Fellycyando)
The multinational assembly staff team in Indonesia. Pictured from left to right, back row: Lorenzo Fellycyando, Indonesia; Sunil Kadmaset, India; Lydia Suyanti, Indonesia; and Ebenezer Mondez, Philippines; middle row: Simon Setiawan, Indonesia; Rut Arsari, Indonesia; Loyce Twongirwe, Uganda; Liesa Unger, Germany; and Ananda Mohan Murmu, India; and front row: Agus Setianto, Indonesia; Preshit Rao, India; Tigist Gelagle, Ethiopia; Sarah Yetty, Indonesia; and Natacha Kyendrebeogo, Burkina Faso. (Photo by Liesa Unger)
YAMEN assembly staffers, pictured from left to right, Natacha Kyendrebeogo, Loyce Twongirwe, Ananda Mohan Murmu and Sunil Kadmaset, arrive in Indonesia. (Photo by Ebenezer Mondez)
“I can see one family with a lot of members, worshipping the same Father,” says Natacha Kyendrebeogo of Burkina Faso.
She is one of four young people serving through the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network (YAMEN) on the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) Assembly 2022 team in Indonesia.
Louisa Adria, a Foothills Mennonite Church youth worker, carries a log at Camp Valaqua’s annual spring work day on April 30. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Camp Valaqua welcomed approximately 30 enthusiastic volunteers at its spring work day on April 30. Volunteers and staff focused on cleaning up brush and splitting wood.
“Our woodshed went from a few sad sticks to full in just a day!” says Jon Olfert, Valaqua’s camp director.
Volunteers also repaired the siding on one of the buildings and cleaned the eavestroughs.
The site of a camp that housed an estimated 64,000 Ethiopians displaced by violence in Afar state last year. As the violence shifted, these people returned home. (Photo by Rebecca Mosely)
A refugee camp in Debark, Ethiopia, set up to house people displaced by civil conflict. (Photo by Paul Mosely)
Rebecca Mosely of Mennonite Central Committee travels to meet a family who had returned home after being displaced from their home in the Afar region of Ethiopia for four months due to violence. (Photo by Rebecca Mosely)
Pastor Desalegn Abebe’s message to North American Mennonites is simple. Abebe is the head of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC), the Anabaptist denomination in Ethiopia, where 17 months of civil violence has led to 12 MKC churches being burned, 44 displaced and 163 full-time ministers and their families displaced and without income.
Earthkeepers Kids Club, a collaboration of Jubilee Mennonite Church and A Rocha Manitoba, aims to connect children with creation. (Photos courtesy of A Rocha Manitoba)
‘You can’t love nature if you don’t experience nature . . . children need to learn how to love it and then learn how to take care of it,’ says Anna Marie Geddert, community ministry pastor of Jubilee Mennonite Church.
At Earthkeepers, children learn outdoor skills like growing food, building fires and dressing for the weather, in addition to growing their relationships with creation.
Many children today live in a nature deficit. As screens constantly command their attention, parents tighten their protective grip as dangers outside seem to increase, and a multi-year pandemic continues to spread. Children are spending increasing amounts of time inside at home.
At one station at the Good Friday walk, participants were invited to take a living branch and weave it through a rope trellis, thinking about contributions they could make to God’s kingdom. (Photo courtesy of Amy Klassen)
(Photo courtesy of Amy Klassen)
(Photo courtesy of Amy Klassen)
Walking, biking or driving through twelve Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, April 15, residents of Yarrow, B.C., experienced the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection together through interactive and creative artwork.
Of the remaining 11 Erb cousins, seven were still able to attend the final reunion 90 years after it started. (Photo by Melody Steinman)
Children of John L. Erb and Barbara Oesch at a 1947 Erb family reunion. (Photo courtesy of Reta Bender)
The 1947 Erb reunion. (Photo courtesy of Reta Bender)
John L. Erb and Barbara Oesch were Amish Mennonites who farmed in Wellesley Township in southwestern Ontario in the late 1800s. They attended Maple View Mennonite Church. Together they raised eight children and had 29 grandchildren.
Cliff Gusztak with his mom Ashley hand over baked goods at his bake sale at Foothills Mennonite Church on March 27. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Cliff Gusztak is a little boy with a big heart. An idea for a small cupcake stand evolved into a fundraising campaign that raised a total of $7,150 for Mennonite Central Committee’s Ukraine emergency response.
“I was maybe thinking that we could stop the war,” he said innocently but sincerely of his efforts.
Anne Shirley, centre, played by Kira Andres, pleads with Marilla Cuthbert, left, played by Rebecca Janzen-Martin, to be allowed to stay at Green Gables, as Matthew Cuthbert, played by Marcus Dion looks on. (Photos by Tracey Matthews)
In a fit of temper, Anne, right, played by Kira Andres, breaks a slate over the head of Gilbert, played by Leo Schellenberger.
After a two-year hiatus, students at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, in Kitchener, were thrilled to perform Anne of Green Gables. The two-hour play was mounted by a cast and crew spanning grades 7 to12, with people from every grade enthusiastically contributing. Six performances ran from March 30 to April 2.
Mother and daughter Marion and Irene Griese work together at a comforter at Niagara United Mennonite Church on March 26. (Photos by Emily Fieguth)
Women from the Westview Centre4Women work on the comforters.
A pile of comforters created at Niagara United Mennonite Church on March 26.
A basement room full of volunteers tie comforters at Niagara United Mennonite Church on March 26.
Bags of comforters ready for delivery to Mennonite Central Committee.
Niagara United Mennonite Church called its congregants and neighbourhood community together to tie comforters in the church basement on March 26. Advertisements in the local newspapers and in church bulletins invited anyone interested to gather for the morning.
Gerald Dyck, left, led a group from Emmanuel Mennonite Church in restoring a house damaged by last November’s floods. Also pictured, from left to right: Rachel Navarro, Emmanuel’s family pastor; Olivia Jesse; Naomi Cheny; and Isaac Boynton. (Photos courtesy of Rachel Navarro)
Naomi Cheny, left, and Olivia Jesse paint a house damaged by the B.C. flood as part of a church youth group work day in March.
Several young people from Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., volunteered with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) during spring break to help victims of last year’s massive flood.
Truck protests in Ottawa highlighted pandemic-related division in society. (Photo by lezumbalaberenjena on Flickr)
With the worst of the pandemic behind us—hopefully—how can the church help address the division left in its wake?
Those divisions were highlighted rather starkly by the truck convoys. And though the trucks have gone home, the fervour lives on. On both sides. Lines are drawn.
A gathering of pastors from Artemisa and Mayabeque provinces in Mexico who received medical supplies from Toronto Mennonite New Life Church. (Photo by Beatriz Mendez)
“We are out of the pews but in the community,” writes congregational member Olga Duran in the latest Toronto Mennonite New Life Church report, which summarizes 2021 as a year of immense giving and receiving of community support.
Sixty people gathered at Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) in Steinbach, Man. to pray for peace in Ukraine. (Photo by Judy Peters/Steinbach Online)
On the cold evening of March 13, about 60 people gathered outside at Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) in Steinbach, Man. to pray for peace in Ukraine. The museum, which commemorates the Mennonite people and their 500-year journey of migration, hosted the vigil to provide Manitobans an opportunity to grieve, pray and stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
On the day following the annual delegate sessions, members of MC Alberta took part in a joint worship service at First Mennonite Church, Calgary. Jenn Ratzlaff offers communion to Tim Wiebe-Neufeld, executive minister. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
“In spite of a global pandemic, we dared to dream,” said communications coordinator Ruth Bergen Braun in her review of the year at the Mennonite Church Alberta annual delegate sessions held March 19. “We dreamt of a future filled with healthy congregations with strong capable leadership, growing relationships, a renewed camp ministry and new ideas for interfaith work.”
Mary Boniferro, chair of mission and social concerns at Valleyview Mennonite Church accepts a community award from Elisabete Rodrigues, executive director of a local community organization in London, Ont. (Photo courtesy of Valleyview Mennonite Church)
Valleyview Mennonite Church has been recognized with an award for more than a decade of engagement and advocacy around food security issues in their community of northeast London, Ont.
LUSO Community Services, a neighbourhood resource centre, presented the church with its Community Service Award late last year.
Attendees of the annual delegate sessions enjoyed a pre-packaged lunch at socially distanced tables in the Youth Farm Bible Camp Quonset hut. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Gordon Peters (left) and Ernie Epp bring their “voices together” at morning worship. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan held its 2022 annual delegate session (ADS) as a hybrid event, allowing for both in-person and virtual attendance. Delegates met at the Youth Farm Bible Camp just south of Rosthern, Sask., on March 12.
A Mennonite farm in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico. (Pixabay photo by photo_spider)
There are about a hundred Mexican Mennonite families currently living in the Niagara Region.
