It’s the morning of May 10 at about 11 a.m., and in the large meeting room of the St. Clair O’Connor Community in Toronto there are about 10 residents examining a myriad of... Read More
News & Stories
Bill and Ena Van Dam take a walk on the Menno Place campus. (Menno Place photo by Karen Baillie)
When Bill and Ena married, it was the obvious next step for two best friends. Working together as teachers, they saw their love blossom. After retirement, Bill and Ena headed to... Read More
June 5, 2019 | Focus on Seniors | Sharon Simpson
Nithview housekeepers Donna, Judy, Debbie and Wendy have fun as they make every day matter for Nithview residents. (Nithview Community photo)
Santa Claus came to Nithview Community one Christmas Day. This may not seem like a big deal since Santa goes to lots of places at Christmas. But this Santa did not fit the usual... Read More
June 5, 2019 | Focus on Seniors |
Lacey MacKenzie works as the activities coordinator at Bethany Manor’s personal-care home in Saskatoon. (Photo courtesy of Lacey MacKenzie)
For Lacey MacKenzie, working with seniors is a faith calling. The 33-year-old attends Osler Mennonite Church in Saskatchewan and has worked as the activities coordinator for... Read More
June 5, 2019 | Focus on Seniors | Rachel Bergen
Walter Paetkau cuts the cake celebrating the release of his book 'It Takes Raindrops to Fill a Lake' at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford. (The Abbotsford News photo by Dale Klippenstein)
More than 50 years ago, Walter Paetkau founded Abbotsford Community Services (ACS), an umbrella organization bringing various local service organizations under one roof. From... Read More
June 4, 2019 | Web First | Amy Rinner Waddell
Refuge de Paix, an Hispanic congregation in Quebec, provides a safe place for all. (Refuge de Paix photo)
Lucy Roca bundled herself up warmly and made her way through the blustery streets of Sherbrooke, Que., on the way to Refuge de Paix early one Sunday morning. It was the kind of... Read More
June 4, 2019 | Web First | Lisa Williams
Cellist and composer Cris Derksen grew up in northern Alberta. (Photo courtesy of CrisDerksen.Virb.com)
The bio on Cris Derksen’s website says it well: The “Juno-nominated and classically trained cellist and composer braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical... Read More
May 31, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Six young adults stand in front of the Mennonite Voluntary Service unit in Washington, D.C. last year. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/MennoniteMission.MVS)
Kansas was not an exotic place to hold annual orientations for Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS). Yet when MVS was a shared U.S.-Canada program, Brad Reimer and Miles Reimer, two... Read More
May 30, 2019 | Web First | Laurie Oswald Robinson
The 2019 graduating class of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary: (front, left to right) Renee Epp Reimer of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Dustin Finch of Jonesboro, Arkansas; Margaret De Jong of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; Tesfaye D. Robelle of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia; Benjamin Isaak-Krauss of Bammental, Germany; (middle, left to right) Yukino Ohyama of Sapporo, Hokkaido, and Tokyo, Japan; Suzanne Engle Ford of Fort Collins, Colorado; Peter Digitale Anderson, originally from Bremen, Indiana; Naún Lucoer Cerrato of Goshen, Indiana; Nel Warkentin of Elkhart; (back, left to right) Grant S. Miller of Danvers, Illinois; Brian Miller O’Leary of Goshen; Pratik Bagh of Kutela-Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India; James Longley of Sydney, Australia; Scott Micheal Litwiller of Delavan, Illinois. (Not pictured: Jeremiah Buhler of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada; Barbara Krehbiel Gehring of Manhattan, Kansas; Sungbin Kim of Seoul, Kyunggi, South Korea; Anne Perkins Munley of Mundelein, Illinois; and Joel Ray Schroeder of Newton, Kansas.) (AMBS photo by Steve Echols)
GOSHEN, Indiana — Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) celebrated the achievements of 20 graduates earlier this month at its 73rd commencement service. The graduating... Read More
May 27, 2019 | Web First | Marlys Weaver-Stoesz and Annette Brill Bergstresser
Rose and Doug Klassen at Foothills Mennonite Church on May 12. The couple is headed to Winnipeg.
Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary, Alta. recently said goodbye to pastor Doug Klassen and his wife, Rose. After 20 years of ministry at the church, the Klassens are headed to... Read More
May 24, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Guerres Lucien, outside her home in Lahoye, Haiti, is a participant in an MCC-supported community mental-health project with partner Zanmi Lasante, the Haitian branch of Partners in Health. (Photo by Paul Shetler Fast)
“Close your eyes and imagine you are walking to your garden,” says Saint-Hilaire Olissaint, a community mental-health worker. His calm, soothing voice carries over the din of the... Read More
May 22, 2019 | News | Paul Shetler Fast
Mennonite politician Jane Philpott (centre) stepped into the middle of the SNC Lavalin scandal. (File photo courtesy of Jane Philpott)
As the partisan jostling over SNC Lavalin wanes, we can more clearly examine the ethical questions at the core of a scandal that Mennonite cabinet minister Jane Philpott stepped... Read More
May 22, 2019 | News | Will Braun
The group Hymn performs at the Bright Lights Festival at Theatre 1308 in Calgary on Feb. 24. (Theatre 1308 photo)
“Light up the church.” That’s what members of Calgary Inter-Mennonite decided they wanted to do when asked about ways to engage with their local community. What that meant for the... Read More
May 22, 2019 | News | John Longhurst
Tuesday’s Book Club at Faith Mennonite Church includes, from left to right: Sonja Kuli, Joan Enns, Anne Reimer, Nancy Hogendyk and Rita Unrau.
Like at many Mennonite churches, the back of any given pew at Faith Mennonite in Leamington includes a blue hymnal, an offering envelope, and, for the lucky few, a small,... Read More
May 22, 2019 | News | Zach Charbonneau
Canadian Mennonite executive editor Virginia A. Hostetler returned from Winnipeg following the 2019 Canadian Church Press (CCP) convention and awards banquet earlier this month... Read More
May 22, 2019 | News |
Nathan Bartel is the newest member of Rosthern Fire and Rescue. He hopes to make a career of firefighting. (Photo by Jason Hogan)
Like many of his peers, Nathan Bartel is fielding questions about what he plans to do after graduation. But, unlike some of them, he has a ready answer. He wants to be a... Read More
May 22, 2019 | People | Donna Schulz
Jacqueline Loewen teaches a fight sequence to an actor on the set of Vietgone. (Photo by Jennifer Villaverde)
Jacqueline Loewen just spent the weekend riding a motorcycle as a stunt double for a science-fiction TV show and will be rolling on the ground with strangers tomorrow,... Read More
May 22, 2019 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Brianna Wiebe of Austin, Man., helped paint doors in Bloomington, Texas. (Photos by John Longhurst)
What do you get when you put Mennonites from all over Canada, and from all sorts of different Mennonite conferences and churches—along with Christians from other denominations—in... Read More
May 22, 2019 | People | John Longhurst
Bethany Amstutz-Schrag, Joanna Loepp Thiessen and Krystal Porter jump for joy as they trek through the mountains of Nepal on an MCC learning tour. (Photo courtesy of Joanna Loepp Thiessen)
From dealing with disaster to mental health recovery, partners of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Nepal and their beneficiaries demonstrate resilience. That was the theme of... Read More
May 22, 2019 | People | Rachel Bergen
Issa Ebombolo, MCC’s peacebuilding coordinator for Zambia and Malawi, unloads cooking oil in the village of Tomali as part of MCC’s Cyclone Idai flood relief project in Malawi. (MCC photo by Amanda Talstra)
Issa Ebombolo was not expecting the level of malnutrition he encountered among people displaced by flooding in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. But upon arriving in southern Malawi... Read More
May 21, 2019 | Web First | Jerrad Peters
Author Rachel Held Evans impacted thousands of people. (Photo courtesy of RachelHeldEvans.com)
When Rachel Held Evans died on May 4 at the age of 37, it shocked the thousands of people who follow her work. Through her four books, blog, social media presence, speaking events... Read More
May 17, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Paul Plett is filming a documentary exploring his Mennonite roots. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
Winnipeg filmmaker Paul Plett has announced his next project: a documentary exploring his Mennonite roots. “I’m going to retrace the steps of my ancestors and find out where I... Read More
May 16, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Tom and Christine Poovong, with their children Phimchanok and Joseph, are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in Khon Kaen, Thailand. (Photo courtesy of MC Canada)
Mennonite Church Canada has released a video that provides an update on its International Witness ministry. The video was shown at regional church gatherings over the past few... Read More
May 10, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Daniel Epp, left, and his partner Anna-Marie Janzen. Janzen wore a dress she made herself from thrifted fabric, while Epp is wearing a thrifted suit at the Fashion Revolution Week gala in Winnipeg. (Photo by Matthew Sawatzky)
Who made my clothes? That’s what the organizers of the globally observed Fashion Revolution Week want people to ask themselves the next time they put on an outfit or choose what... Read More
May 8, 2019 | People | Rachel Bergen
Refuge de Paix, Sherbrooke, Que., a Spanish-speaking congregation ministering to Hispanic refugees are welcomed into full membership in MC Eastern Canada by MC Eastern Canada moderator Arli Klassen, left, and Henry Paetkau, right, MC Canada interim executive minister. (D. Michael Hostetler)
Representatives of 107 congregations from Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick gathered at Steinmann Mennonite Church for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s annual church gathering on... Read More
May 8, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman