Expanded belonging
I’m not naturally a morning person; it usually takes a lot to get me started at the beginning of my day. But this last Wednesday, I set my alarm a little earlier and bounced up from bed like a child on Christmas morning. I wish I could tell you that the reason for my excitement…
Winds of change
In a couple weeks, my family and I will move to my hometown, Regina, where I’ll start school next fall. Maybe it’s because I’m in a time of transition in my personal life—books packed up, clothes and toys in boxes, cleaning buckets everywhere—but I’m sensitive to winds of change around me. It started with our…
Readers write: February 12, 2018 issue
Anabaptist Essentials ‘a quintessential travesty’ The following letter was abridged from one originally sent to Herald Press, the publisher of Palmer Becker’s Anabaptist Essentials. I’m writing to express amazement that you would have published Anabaptist Essentials, when what it presents is highly simplistic and seriously uninformed. Consider that there is no mention of the…
To set a soul aflame
One of my abiding critiques of the progressive church circles I inhabit is that they often lack what I call existential urgency. God is, we think, very interested in our positions on social issues and is very eager to affirm our journey through various constellations of identities, but God is not so much interested in…
Vigil for Nigerian Girls : How to Participate
This Saturday at 6pm, the #HopeForOurGirls All Night Vigil will take place in Assiniboine Park. Attendance by all is welcome, for the entirety of the night, or just an hour. We gather to offer solidarity and love to the families of the 200 plus girls who were stolen from their schools in Nigeria. …
EMU alumni win award for counselling service
Paula Weaver had to take a moment to let a substantial blessing sink in. The 1988 social work graduate of Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va., had just heard that her agency was the winner of the top award from a local organization called 100 Women Who Care. Weaver’s non-profit organization, Archway Counselling Association, received…
Forgiveness to what end?
The Lutherans have asked us to forgive them for their violent persecution of us in the 16th century, laying to rest, as the Mennonite World Conference reporter, Byron Rempel Burkholder puts it, “500 years of guilt.” We have asked forgiveness of native Americans for our complicity in the much-publicized abuse scandal of the residential schools…
Conversion: As Scales Falling from the Eyes
Introduction I have chosen two texts to illustrate my sermon, which are not part of today’s lectionary selections: the conversion of Paul described in Acts 9 (vs. 10-19), and the healing of the man born blind in John 9 (vs. 1-12). In the first, we read of Saul travelling to Damascus, being struck down blind…
Outside his comfort zone
Six months into his first pastoral job, Moses Falco feels very inadequate. “Am I really cut out for this?” and “Do I have the skills to be in this position?” are questions he has discussed with members of the church council and deacons. Although he feels inadequate, Falco—who is the sole pastor at Sterling Mennonite…
Unveiling secrets
One day my normally cheerful, no-nonsense coworker surprised, or I should say shocked, me. She suddenly and briefly opened the door to her past, a dangerous time of war and famine. “Those days were horrible,” she said fiercely in a low voice. “Things were so bad, they ate people. We never speak of them.” Just…
