CPT's award depicts two hands, the smaller hand cradled by the larger, and both cradling a globe. (Supplied photo)
Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) was awarded the International Peace Award by the Community of Christ Church and the Shaw Family Foundation on April 22 during the church’s international conference.
Linda Redekop, left, and Maria Rigby have been part of Ottawa Mennonite Church's refugee resettlement work since its start. (Photo by Carla Klassen)
For more than 20 years, a refugee support group at Ottawa Mennonite Church has used an unusual fundraising method that has allowed it to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent subsidy to newcomers. The rising cost of living has made this support all the more important.
Graduating students make their way across campus to the ceremony at CMU in 2019. (Photo courtesy of CMU)
Hundreds of students are preparing to graduate this month from post-secondary institutions supported by Mennonite Church Canada and its regional churches.
Amanda Dodge, centre, and Leanne Schellenberg, right pose with EPP lead guide Laura Hooper. (Photo by Laura Hooper)
‘The Enneagram is a widely used, comprehensive, broad based personality theory that has been utilized and studied in contemporary psychology and psychiatry,’ according to EPP Canada’s website. (enneagramprisonproject.ca diagram)
These days, if someone asks, “What number are you?” they are likely not asking your age. The Enneagram, a personality typing system based on nine types, has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years. Now Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan is helping to bring the Enneagram into correctional facilities.
Wendy Dunn (left) with Ann Albrecht, a resident of Knollcrest Lodge. (Supplied photo)
Although Wendy Dunn had long felt a nudge to pursue theological studies, she never did so until COVID lockdowns at the care home where she worked as a nurse practitioner led her to provide spiritual care in ways she had never expected.
Land burned by colony Mennonites in Colombia. (Photo courtesy of Sebastian Vargas)
For many Latin American colony Mennonites, a life of isolation, farming and family is the fulfilment of God’s will, but for others, it is the destruction of sacred lands.
Anna-Marie Janzen is the founder and operator of Reclaim Mending. (Photo by Anna-Marie Janzen)
Elise Epp is the country coordinator for Fashion Revolution Canada. (Supplied photo)
Jennifer DeGroot and her family run Big Oak Farm near Morden, Man. (Supplied photo)
Anna-Marie Janzen is the founder and operator of Reclaim Mending. (Photo by Anna-Marie Janzen
“An estimated 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually from the fashion industry,” Fashion Revolution reported in 2020, citing Global Fashion Agenda. “Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned globally.”
On March 19, members of Toronto United Mennonite Church wrote letters of support to MB churches that have been disciplined for LGBTQ+ inclusion. (Photo by Madalene Arias)
March 19 was “PIE Day” at Toronto United Mennonite Church. Just before noon, attendants gradually moved out of the worship hall into the lobby for coffee and tea.
Two long tables soon filled with tarts and custards. Some people gawked at a mud pie with gummy worms and crumbled chocolate.
(Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
(Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
(Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
The most overheard phrase at the 2023 Mennonite Church Alberta annual delegate sessions in Pincher Creek was, “It’s so good to be together again!”
Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, from The Peace Table. (Art by LaTonya R. Jackson / Reprinted with permission)
A Latin American depiction of a woman touching the edge of Jesus’ robe, from The Peace Table. (Art by Clarissa Martinez / Reprinted with permission)
MennoMedia has released The Peace Table, the most ambitious children’s Bible project in its history. Within the book’s 384 pages, readers will find 140 Bible stories and an abundance of full-colour artwork by 30 different illustrators.
José Arrais of Portugal shares about European Mennonites’ response to the war in Ukraine. (MWC photo)
B.C. Mennonites enjoyed a global experience on March 25 while gathering for Renewal 2023, a Mennonite World Conference (MWC) event with the theme of “Jesus Christ, our hope.”
The event, held at South Abbotsford Church, was part of Renewal 2028, a decade-long series of local events organized by MWC to commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement.
The SafePoint consumption and treatment site in downtown Windsor, Ont., is set to open in the building on the corner. (Google maps photo)
Rielly McLaren has seen first hand the effects of the opioid crisis in his community and his congregation.
The pastor of Windsor Mennonite Fellowship, a small urban church near the heart of Windsor, Ont., says, “Families in my congregation have lost loved ones to this crisis. All economic segments of society are affected.”
Madalene Arias.
Like a garden maze with various starting points, the story of how I became connected to the Mennonite community is the sum of several individual stories that all led to the same place. My family’s journey to the Mennonites began with a Mennonite woman extending her compassion to us, and this has become a recurring theme.
Kirsten Hamm-Epp, regional church minister, and Josh Wallace, church engagement minister, lead morning worship. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Jeanette Hanson and David Neufeld chat between sessions. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Sharon Schultz, pastor of Eyebrow Mennonite Church, and Andrea Enns-Gooding, pastor of Rosthern Mennonite Church, engage in conversation. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Audrey Mierau Bechtel plays piano for morning worship with Josh Wallace on guitar. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Delegates and guests raise their voices in song. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Participants hang ‘seeds’ of the various MC Saskatchewan and MC Canada ministries on the ‘roots’ displayed at the front of the meeting hall. (Photo by Emily Summach)
David Boshart, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, delivers the afternoon keynote session. (Photo by Emily Summach)
David Boshart, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., encouraged Mennonite Church Saskatchewan participants at this year’s annual delegate sessions (ADS) to hold on to a hopeful perspective, even as the challenges of church life after the pandemic grew.
Garry Janzen (left), Yha Robin, Nhien Pham, Hung Doan Dinh and Kosor Tuih in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, on Feb. 14. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Barkowsky)
With 100,000 members, the Mennonite church in Vietnam is going strong, reports Nhien Pham. The retired pastor, who came to Canada from Vietnam in 1976, returned to his home country for a month with a group from Mennonite Church Canada earlier this year. Pham is president of the North American Evangelical Vietnamese Fellowship and advisor for Evangelical Church Vietnam.
Sol Janzen (left), Heidi Dirks, Marcus Rempel and Teresa Enns Zehr represented the two congregations joining MC Manitoba at this year’s annual gathering: Aberdeen Evangelical Mennonite Church and Saint Julian’s Table. (Photo by Karen Schellenberg)
The buzz of conversation and singing was a welcome sound as people filled Douglas Mennonite Church in Winnipeg for Mennonite Church Manitoba’s first in-person gathering in three years.
This year’s event hosted more than 150 people, including 111 delegates, on March 3 and 4. The theme was “Re-imagining church together.”
Caleb Ratzlaff mingles with supporters at his campaign launch. (Photo by Jenessa Jessome Photography)
Caleb Ratzlaff has always had an interest in theology and politics. After spending time in seminary, he ultimately decided to complete a master’s degree in political philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. Last November, he was elected to the St. Catherines city council, at which time he left his position as pastor of Westview Christian Fellowship.
Colin McCartney
When Colin McCartney of Connect City, a church-planting ministry in Toronto, came to Leamington last month, members of five local congregations in Essex County were taken on a journey from Christendom—where the church used to thrive—to post-Christendom—where it is now struggling.
Composer and CMU student Anna Schwartz. (Photo courtesy of CMU)
With choral singing back in full swing, its community-building capacity is even more obvious to composer and Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) student Anna Schwartz. After writing the song “Answers” at the height of the pandemic, she is set to direct the CMU Chamber Choir’s spring performance of the song on April 28.
Shel Boese, front row, center, was affirmed as the new MC B.C. executive minister on Feb. 25.
The affirmation of a new executive minister highlighted the annual meeting of Mennonite Church B.C. at Peace Mennonite Church in Richmond on Feb. 25.
Doug Klassen shows no fear despite Mark Bigland-Pritchard’s mallet swinging. Bigland-Pritchard shared an object lesson to talk about the ‘theological pillars’ of the Climate Emergency Response Team’s mission. (Photo by Emily Summach)
In an effort to strengthen communication and relationships between the nationwide and regional churches, Doug Klassen, Mennonite Church Canada’s executive minister, paid a visit to Saskatchewan last month.
Roland Sawatzky at The Manitoba Museum, where he works. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
Roland Sawatzky by the Prairies Gallery section on Mennonite settlement. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
As Roland Sawatzky gives a tour through The Manitoba Museum, his eyes light up and his hands animatedly point out the highlights and features of each gallery. It’s clear he’s passionate about his work.
While parenting can be a struggle, parenting through foster care or adoption has extra challenges, says Jenn Hook in Thriving Families. Her experience as a counsellor with a foster-care agency, and as the founder of a non-profit organization that supports foster and adoptive families gives her a solid understanding of these challenges.
(Photo by Vlad Shapochnikov/Unsplash)
In a meeting on Jan. 30, 2022, Mennonite Church Canada’s governing body, Joint Council, affirmed climate action as a nationwide ministry emphasis.
Kauffman family members (left to right): Roger and Rachel, Neil and Simon, Ryan and Valerie (parents of Neil and Simon).
Two Ohio families with 300 years of history in the U.S. began to consider leaving America when the two brothers and their wives faced workplace transitions in 2021.
