Overcome evil with good
Overcome Evil with Good by Ryan on April 28, 2013 One last post about my experience at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Quebec National Event this past week. As I’ve reflected on the flight home yesterday and throughout today, few questions/topics of a bit more philosophical nature keep recurring. I don’t necessarily claim…
Readers write: September 25, 2017 issue
Watson’s wisdom is ‘a pernicious fable’ Re: “Wisdom, where art thou?” (Pt. 10), July 24, page 13. After reading Troy Watson’s column, I’m inclined to wonder if we’ve gone backward to a time when emotions were lodged in the heart, anger in the spleen and reason in the brain. It’s my understanding that the human…
Because we don’t know
The eight-hour world-wide One World: Together at Home concert ended the other day with this line from an African proverb: “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” I was leaving Ascension Parish yesterday afternoon after sitting in their quiet sanctuary for a little while, along with about three or four other…
Looking back, looking forward
Celebrating 75 years together as a church in British Columbia, Mennonite Church B.C. came together to celebrate God’s presence with the theme, “Yesterday, today, forever,” on March 3 at its annual general meeting. This year’s business sessions, held at Emmanuel Mennonite Church, Abbotsford, were reduced to one afternoon, rather than the usual whole day, due…
Mid-point reflections from Gaza
This is midpoint in my five-week ministry here in Gaza and Bethlehem. Things are going well. While my students in Gaza are doing research, book reports and various kinds of homework, I have had the opportunity to teach classes at the college, lead workshops in the community, help to establish the peace studies center, and…
Fad or future?
“Look outside,” Dan blurted through the phone before my mother could even say hello. She walked over to the front window and was astonished to see Dan sitting in his car parked in our driveway. He was beaming with pride as he spoke to her via his new state-of-the-art mobile phone. Our entire family raced…
Revelations of Stones: Reflections of Palm Sunday Scriptures
Passage: Luke 19: 28-44 Verse 40: “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (NIV) I wish all of you a happy celebration of this holy week, and most recently, happy Palm Sunday! Since yesterday I've thinking quite intently about the Luke 19: 28-44 passage that was presented at church. It…
A plea for descriptive and inquisitive intervention
In my last post I was pushing towards more care in how we articulate possible notions of faithfulness tied up in practices intimately linked with having a social awareness and engagement. So how then does one articulate and engage the world when it is of course possible to undermine any given expression? I think part…
Old Order community waits for children to return
UPDATE: The required process of home visits and sleepovers has begun for two families in the Old Order Mennonite community. Yesterday the children of one family were returned home for good, and another family has been told their children will be returned on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Child and Family Services changed the wording of the…
The twilight of Mennonite radio
Manitoba’s airwaves are full of Mennonite radio. I began to notice this last year when I started hosting a radio program for Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), where I also work. Except for Manitoba, none of the regional churches within Mennonite Church Canada currently produce radio programming, according to their executive ministers. In fact, as best…
