Vineland (Ont.) United Mennonite Church plans to continue meeting virtually for worship through September, using YouTube video. According to pastor Louise Wideman, the church is... Read More
News & Stories
Niagara (Ont.) United Mennonite Church began in-person worship on Sept. 13, 2020. (Photo credit: Rachael Peters)
October 7, 2020 | News | Maria H. Klassen
Leonard Doell speaks with Young Chippewayan Chief Sylvia Weenie during the Treaty Six 140th anniversary celebration at Stoney Knoll in 2016. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
When Leonard Doell was hired as Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan’s Native Concerns program coordinator in 1996, he was told his job was “to drink tea with elders.”... Read More
October 7, 2020 | People | Donna Schulz
Miles Kirkaldy reading Canadian Mennonite (Photo by Jennifer Kirkaldy)
Miles Kirkaldy, who is six years old and just started grade one, enjoys reading Canadian Mennonite . When a new copy comes in the mail, he reads bits and pieces and asks questions... Read More
October 7, 2020 | People | Jennifer Kirkaldy
Sarah Johnson, the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award, facing the camera, is pictured speaking to a music class at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., last year. (Conrad Grebel University College photo)
Sarah Johnson Theology scholar Sarah Kathleen Johnson has always been interested in religion and Christian worship. In her pursuit of education, her many different involvements at... Read More
October 7, 2020 | Focus On Education |
Danika Warkentin, one of this year’s recipients of the Mennonite Church Alberta student bursary, is a first-year student at Canadian Mennonite University. (Photo credit: Jeannie Willms)
“Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to attend a Mennonite post-secondary institution,” says Danika Warkentin, one of seven recipients of this year’s Mennonite Church... Read More
October 7, 2020 | Focus On Education | Joanne De Jong
Staff member Tina Richardson, left, checks in with CBC President Bryan Born prior to attending chapel service. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Life at Columbia Bible College (CBC) looks quite different than it did back in mid-March, when classes suddenly ended and students were sent home due to COVID-19. After six months... Read More
October 7, 2020 | Focus On Education | Amy Rinner Waddell
César García, MWC’s general secretary (left) and David Boshart, AMBS's incoming president (right)
Mennonites around the globe yearn for Anabaptist theological education, identity formation and leadership development, but attending an Anabaptist-related college, university or... Read More
October 7, 2020 | Focus On Education |
(Photo by Nycholas Benaia/Unsplash)
The annual Menno Simons Sermon Prize is seeking submissions from pastors and lay preachers from around the world in German, English, Dutch, French and Spanish before Dec. 1, 2020... Read More
October 6, 2020 | Web First |
Participants in the 2019 !Explore program during the Group Experience in Elkhart. (AMBS photo)
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) leaders of !Explore: A Theological Program for High School Youth are planning for a... Read More
October 5, 2020 | Web First |
Myeengun Henry, indigenous elder, speaks during the first in a seven-month storytelling series called “Treaty as Sacred Covenant: Stories of Indigenous-Mennonite Relations.” (Screenshot by Janet Bauman)
Myeengun Henry, Indigenous elder, says treaty relationships should be tended. “We need to shine those up every year so we don’t forget how important they are.” Henry was the first... Read More
October 5, 2020 | Web First | Janet Bauman
Valerie Alipova never imagined that one of the Bethel Mennonite Church offices would be hers when she first came to Canada with Mennonite Voluntary Service in 2015. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
Valerie Alipova arrived in Canada for the first time five years ago, on a one-year Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) assignment. In September, she became an associate pastor of... Read More
September 23, 2020 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
One of the first photographs that Natalie Stevanus took more than 15 years ago. The early-season snow storm inspired her eye for beauty. She has been taking award-winning photographs ever since.` (Photo by Natalie Stevanus)
Natalie Stevanus, 36, of Bloomingdale, Ont., likes how her photographs bring joy to people, which inspires her to take even more. (Photo by Jane van Pelt) Natalie Stevanus has an... Read More
September 23, 2020 | People | Janet Bauman
Fanosie Legesse, right, is pictured in Ethiopia with Norm Dyck, MC Eastern Canada mission minister, left, and Desalegn Abebe, president of Meserete Kristos Church. Their traditional Oromo clothing was a gift from the Waajjira Waldaa Meserete Kristos Regional Church. (Photo courtesy of Norm Dyck)
Part educator, part listener, part mentor and part bridge-builder. The mandate for Fanosie Legesse, appointed as Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s intercultural mission minister... Read More
September 23, 2020 | People | Janet Bauman
(Photo: flickr.com/Riccardo Cuppini)
Across the nationwide church, there are likely as many approaches to reopening as there are congregations. Mennonite Church Saskatchewan recently hosted an online conversation... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Members of Chinatown Peace Church, one of the MC British Columbia congregations receiving a grant from the regional church’s Mountainview Fund, gather for a summer worship service in a Vancouver park. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kuepfer)
Although Mountainview Mennonite Church in Vancouver closed its doors in 1996, its legacy lives on through several Mennonite Church British Columbia congregations. When... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Marie Moyer and Dave Neufeldt in front of their net-zero energy home in Lethbridge, Alta. (Photo by Beth Moyer)
Tim and Donita Wiebe-Neufeld of Edmonton First Mennonite Church own an electric Nissan Leaf car. Tim’s cousin, Arlyn Friesen Epp, owns a Leaf. Another cousin, Kendall Jongejan... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
Louie Vivra, left, Melise Michaline and Karin Florvil plant a breadfruit tree in a demonstration garden in Wopisa, Haiti, in 2016. The children participated in a kids club supported by MCC and Canadian Foodgrains Bank that focused on environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture. (MCC photo by Paul Shetler Fast)
One hundred years ago, in 1920, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) began in response to drought, hunger and violence. Canadians were quick to answer the pleas of their global... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Rick Cober Bauman
The Mennonite church in Venezuela celebrates Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (Mennonite World Conference photo)
“I have seen entire families in the garbage dumps looking to quench their hunger. I have also watched with sadness as they return the elderly from the hospitals because there are... Read More
September 22, 2020 | Web First |
Bethlehem Bible College, which serves Arab speakers in Palestine-Israel and beyond, was founded in 1979. Its first president, Bishara Awad, worked with Mennonite Central Committee in Bethlehem and spent a year at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in the 1980s.
Like other educational institutions around the world, the West Bank’s Bethlehem Bible College has been broadsided by the COVID-19 pandemic. Campus lockdowns, infections among... Read More
September 18, 2020 | Web First | Byron Rempel-Burkholder
Brian Dyck and Lynell Bergen, pictured during their time in Ethiopia earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Lynell Bergen)
This past March, we published a story about Lynell Bergen’s sabbatical at Meserete Kristos College in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Bergen, who is the lead pastor at Hope Mennonite Church... Read More
September 11, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Selling fair trade items, Kasandy/Locally Global in Vancouver continues in the spirit of Ten Thousand Villages stores. (Photo courtesy of Jackee Kasandy)
The Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) store in Vancouver has closed, but the idea of fair-trade products continues to inspire a new generation to shop both ethically and globally... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Ernie Hildebrand, standing at the microphone, speaks at the FEARO hearings regarding a proposed uranium refinery in the Warman, Sask., area, in 1980. (Photo courtesy of Jake Buhler)
It’s been 40 years since David battled Goliath on the plains of Saskatchewan. David, in this case, was a group of ordinary citizens, many of whom were Mennonite, and Goliath was... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Nadine Ens and her daughter Jenice tie knots in a comforter at the Great Winter Warm-up in Saskatoon on Jan. 18, to kick off MCC’s centennial. MCC is using a webinar series and new podcasts to share stories about its work in Canada and around the world. (MCC photo by Myriam Ullah)
“One bar of soap isn’t just a drop in the ocean of need. The ripples keep moving out in ways we may not even be able to count.” Sophia Bezoplenko, who coordinates material... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Carol McNaughton hikes the Wasootch Ridge as a participant in the 2020 Camp Valaqua hike-a-thon fundraiser. (Photo by Hossein Talebi)
Camp Valaqua received great news recently. As of Aug. 26, its annual hike-a-thon raised a record amount of $34,456, nearly double the previous record of $18,000. Ron Janzen, who... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
What do church finances look like when congregations close their doors and stop passing offering baskets through the aisles on Sunday mornings? It turns out that in many Mennonite congregations across Manitoba, they look just fine. (ruxipen.com photo @ unsplash.com)
Among the multitude of concerns COVID-19 has caused, the novel coronavirus’s effect on congregational giving has been one of them. What do church finances look like when... Read More
September 9, 2020 | Focus on Money | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe