Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has initiated research into how national socialism (Nazism) shaped the contexts in Europe and Paraguay where MCC operated in the 1930s and ’40s,... Read More
News & Stories
High-profile Nazi officials toured the Mennonite colonies in occupied Ukraine. During his 1942 visit to Molotschna, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and an architect of the Holocaust, exchanged greetings with Mennonite surgeon Johann Klassen. (Mennonite Heritage Centre photo [Alber Photo Collection])
January 15, 2021 | Web First |
Trisha Robinson, left, executive director of the Wilmot Family Resource Centre, New Hamburg, Ont., stands next to Santa and Mrs. Claus outside Steinmann Mennonite Church in Baden, where 137 free curbside Christmas dinners were distributed. At least 10 community churches joined in the effort to bring some Christmas cheer to people in the community who were alone for Christmas. (The Wilmot Post photo by Nigel Gordijk)
On Christmas Day, 137 free turkey dinners were served up for people who needed some Christmas cheer in the Wilmot and Wellesley townships of Waterloo Region. The curbside... Read More
January 13, 2021 | News | Janet Bauman
In online meetings in mid-November 2020, the Executive Committee approved expansion of MWC’s structure to include new specialized networks. (Mennonite World Conference screenshot)
In online Mennonite World Conference (MWC) meetings in mid-November 2020, the Executive Committee approved expansion of MWC’s structure to include new specialized networks... Read More
January 13, 2021 | News |
This house, at 24 Mill Street in Kitchener, Ont., was acquired by MennoHomes from Waterloo Region in a lottery and will be renovated by Mennonite Disaster Service in a unique partnership to create more affordable housing for families. (Photo courtesy of MennoHomes)
The need is great. Six thousand people wait for affordable housing in Waterloo Region. Local government is committed to creating 25,000 new housing units in the next five years,... Read More
January 13, 2021 | News | Janet Bauman
Participants gather outside Yarrow United Mennonite Church in rural B.C. to re-enact the Christmas story on Christmas morning. (Screenshot by Ross W. Muir)
In the early morning of Dec. 25, 2020, still dark and with snow on the ground, a small group of people gathered in front of Yarrow United Mennonite Church to re-enact the first... Read More
January 13, 2021 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Jake Buhler’s mother, Maria, top left, is pictured with her family before tragedy struck in 1918. (Photo courtesy of Jake Buhler)
COVID-19 has given Jake Buhler pause to reflect on his family history and how it has been shaped by pandemics. In 1918, when both the Spanish flu and tuberculosis were wreaking... Read More
January 13, 2021 | People | Donna Schulz
The Three Wise Men check their map in Menno Simons Christian School’s 2020 virtual Christmas production of The Little Drummer Dude. The performers are not identified as per school policy. (Photo: Ann Pan / Menno Simons Christian School)
Christina Carpenter Are traditional school productions a thing of the past? Or can the authentic experience still be delivered virtually? One of the traditions at Menno Simons... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education | Ann Pan
Suomi MacCarthy, seated, during a chapel service. (Photo by Rebekah DeJong)
On Wednesdays at Conrad Grebel University College, a group of students, faculty, and staff choose to gather in the chapel for a worship service. In light of the pandemic, services... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education | Abby Rudy-Froese
Grade 10 Imagine students participate in a Zoom call with the Florence Centre in Ukraine. (RJC High School screenshot)
RJC High School runs three grade-based programs that focus on interdisciplinary, cross-curricular thinking: The Imagine program is a peacebuilding program that encourages Grade 10... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education |
Chris Huebner, associate professor of theology and philosophy, pictured, and his colleagues found ways to enhance online classroom participation at Canadian Mennonite University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Huebner discovered that teaching from the classroom, where he could employ large displays and multiple cameras, allowed both him and his students to read each other’s faces and body language better than when he taught from behind a laptop. (Canadian Mennonite University photo)
People who arrived on the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) campus last fall were greeted by singing, soaring not through the windows of the music wing, but from outside. In... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education |
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate student council members celebrate in the school parking lot after staging a pie-in-the-face incentive that helped to raise $25,000 for the school’s annual Christmas Food Drive, one way this small school makes a huge impact, according to the student council’s motivational video shown in the food drive kick-off chapel. (Photo by Jo Scott)
The annual Christmas Food Drive at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate is a big deal. It starts in November with a kick-off chapel and fun incentives. Normally, students collect non-... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education | Janet Bauman
Students thank the Mennonite Collegiate Institute’s community members for their generosity. (Photo by Paul Peters)
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Back in March 2020, when we first shut down for the pandemic, our student body spent some... Read More
January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education | Paul Peters
‘I Am Not Your Enemy’ is the Common Read book for winter 2021. (Photo courtesy of MichaelMcRay.com)
Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church USA and Herald Press began partnering in September to encourage Mennonites to engage in a “common read,” a shared reading experience... Read More
January 8, 2021 | Web First |
The United States Capitol, pictured prior to Wednesday’s attack. (Photo by Joshua Sukoff/Unsplash)
Mennonite Church Canada has released a statement and prayer in response to Wednesday’s violence on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: “As leaders of Mennonite Church Canada and its... Read More
January 8, 2021 | Web First |
Riverton Fellowship Circle began meeting in 1985, when a group of Indigenous people in Riverton expressed desire for a church. (Mennonite Heritage Archives photo)
When the soft cloud of an expired dandelion explodes, the flower is gone, but the seeds that have spread far and wide soon erupt into new life. So it is with the recently closed... Read More
December 30, 2020 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
The roof of the Mennonite Church Canada headquarters in Winnipeg before a $220,000 upgrade to the building’s energy efficiency. (Photo by Doug Klassen)
Mennonite Church Canada is backing up the establishment of a new Sustainability Leadership Group (SLG) with a $220,000 upgrade to its head office in Winnipeg. The goals of the new... Read More
December 30, 2020 | News | Will Braun
Carol Penner presents "#Mennonites Too: Sexual Violence and Mennonite Peace Theology," at the Benjamin Eby Lecture. Her presentation also served as the C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture, which features research by Mennonite faculty in peace traditions. (Screenshot by Janet Bauman
In her recent research Carol Penner surveyed how the church periodicals, Gospel Herald, The Mennonite , and Canadian Mennonite reported on sexual violence from 1970 to the present... Read More
December 30, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Chaplain Mark von Kampen meets with students in the Menno Office on March 13, 2020, the day before the office was damaged by a fire in the University Centre. (Photo by Bruce Hildebrand)
Stress, anxiety and loneliness are among the many challenges that university students face during this era of remote learning and physical distancing. In past years, Inter-... Read More
December 30, 2020 | News | Gladys Terichow
Josh Wallace (left) and Sharon Schultz (right)
When a new year begins, many people resolve to lose weight or begin exercising. But the dawning of a new year is also a good time to consider improving one’s spiritual fitness... Read More
December 30, 2020 | People | Donna Schulz
Chris Mullet Koop’s son Timothy works on the family farm, packing 30 eggs to a tray, that get stacked on skids. Six skids of eggs are picked up once a week. (Photo: Chris Mullet Koop)
When the pandemic hit in March, Chris and Laura Mullet Koop, who own and operate Elmwood Farms Inc., were profoundly impacted. Their farm, located in Jordan, Ont., in the... Read More
December 30, 2020 | People | Maria H. Klassen
Frank Berto
With a message of “Love your neighbour as yourself,” a Mennonite Church B.C. pastor reached a wide audience on the radio with a message about in-person church gatherings. On a... Read More
December 30, 2020 | People | Amy Rinner Waddell
'O What a Christmas It’s Gonna Be' by the WhizBang Shufflers is part of Canadian Mennonite's 2020 Christmas Playlist.
If you’re missing the songs you are used to singing and hearing in church at this time of year, Canadian Mennonite has just the thing for you. We have created a playlist of videos... Read More
December 21, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Erika Pappas of Edmonton Mennonite Church is amazed at what can be done with a few dollars at the Dollar Store. (Photo by Erika Pappas)
Like most of the country, Alberta is experiencing, its second wave of novel coronavirus. As of early December, as many as 1,800 Albertans were contracting COVID-19 every day. With... Read More
December 16, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
New Leaf Network
“People talk about church decline,” says Ryan Siemens. “I prefer to talk about church transition.” Lately, he’s been thinking a lot about church transition, and wondering, “What... Read More
December 16, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
The former Mohawk Institute Residential School is being preserved as an interpreted historical site and monument to indigenous resilience, documenting the history of the residential school system in Canada. (Woodland Cultural Centre website photo)
Janet Bauman recently participated in a 45-minute virtual tour of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., with other people from St. Jacobs Mennonite... Read More
December 16, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman