Kazakhstan
There is a lot to take in on this photomontage of the Mennonite Brethren Church Choir from Badamsha, Kazakhstan—in Soviet parlance, a “closed city”—in 1971. Individual portraits of choir members, identified by first initial and last name, are grouped around an image of a modest building, presumably the “prayer house,” they had just received permission…
CMC Yearbooks
The Konferenz der Mennoniten in Canada—now Mennonite Church Canada—was formed in 1902. In 1928, the conference started publishing an official Jahrbuch (yearbook) which documented proceedings and decisions at the annual gatherings. Starting in 1946, an increasing an amount of Jahrbuch content appeared in English, rather than German. In 1965, the Jahrbuch become the Yearbook, though…
Goodbye Berlin
Gordon Eby captured the moment when families in Berlin, Ont., said goodbye to local troops at the start of the First World War in 1914. In 1916, concerned that its Germanic name was bad for business, the city would say ‘goodbye’ to Berlin and ‘hello’ to Kitchener. The Berlin Mennonite Church faced a dilemma. Should…
A-ha moments in the Holy Land
David Chow recalls sitting in Sunday school as a child and learning about what the nation of Israel meant for Christians in a traditional Christian Missionary Alliance congregation in Calgary, Alberta. Chow grew up believing that the current state of Israel is a continuation of the biblical people of Israel, and that building up the…
Torchbearers
On the heels of the Second World War, the General Conference Mennonite Church and the Mennonite Church were concerned about scouting programs that promoted patriotism to boys and girls. In 1957, the Wayfarers girls club was begun and in 1958, Mennonite Publishing House published a Torchbearers guide book and manual for boys. Individual congregations were…
Alternative service camps
Alternative service camps during the Second World War brought young men from various traditions and regions together. Pictured, Reverend David P. Reimer of Manitoba, centre, is posing with conscientious objectors in Seebe, Alta. Reimer was secretary of the elders committee that advocated for exemption from military service but, after alternative service was mandated, the committee…
Needlework from the Middle East
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker Alice Snyder (right) shows needlework done by rural and refugee women in Jordan and the West Bank to Esther Weber at the MCC Ontario offices in Kitchener in 1964. The Overseas Needlepoint and Crafts Project would become SelfHelp and later, Ten Thousand Villages. —With files from GAMEO.org For more historical…
Kids make friends at Gathering 2019
“Our God is a God who makes friends,” sang children from three provinces while playing a clapping game with a partner, laughing as the refrain and the clapping got faster. The words of this song by Bryan Moyer Suderman were ignited into action at Gathering 2019 as they participated in a weekend packed with relationship-building…
The last church I visited
My wife and I arrived in Vancouver in 1994 with our two sons, aged 9 and 12. I had been an air traffic controller, then law enforcement officer in Hong Kong. As a landed immigrant in Canada, I found some odd jobs before going back to school at the B.C. Institute of Technology and beginning…
