How do you stay home when you don’t have a home? How do you physically isolate when you already seem invisible? How do you wash your hands frequently when public facilities are... Read More
News & Stories
House of Friendship’s Sunnydale Community Centre, usually a hub for a diverse range of community programs, is quiet, its programs cancelled or modified due to pandemic protocols outlined in the notices on the door. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
April 22, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Prison visits through Person to Person aren’t happening in person right now. Volunteers are encouraged to write letters to inmates instead. (Photographed simulation featuring restorative justice staff and volunteers.) (Photo by Amy Smith)
COVID-19 has altered the lives of most Canadians, but for those in prison and those reintegrating into society after prison terms, the pandemic’s impact is enormous. Parkland... Read More
April 22, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Sewing machines have become a friendly weapon in the fight against COVID-19. Tim and Sandra Kuepfer display the homemade masks they now use as they serve their Vancouver neighbourhood. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kuepfer)
Tim and Sandra Kuepfer of Vancouver are among those doing their part to keep themselves and those in their neighbourhood safe during the current pandemic. Sandra works at Swiss... Read More
April 22, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
School at the Barkman home in Prawda, Man. (Photo courtesy of Elisa Barkman)
Many families are spending more time together at home these days, requiring greater parental involvement in schooling. While some parents can calmly slip in a Zoom meeting from an... Read More
April 22, 2020 | News | Will Braun
Heather Driedger, shown here with her own paska, held a virtual paska bake-off via Instagram this Easter. (Photo courtesy of Heather Driedger)
She couldn’t gather family and friends around her table to eat paska this Easter, so Heather Driedger decided to hold a virtual paska bake-off instead. Paska is a rich yeast bread... Read More
April 22, 2020 | People | Donna Schulz
Susan Clemmer Steiner
Sue Steiner left behind a huge legacy when she passed away on Aug. 26, 2019. As beloved wife to Sam Steiner for 50 years, treasured aunt to a number of nieces and nephews, and a... Read More
April 22, 2020 | People | Ardith Frey
Kayel Truong, centre in white shirt, and crew cut hair for free every Saturday for homeless people living in downtown Calgary.
“We need more Peters! He’s only one man,” exclaims ex-offender Kayel Truong, when asked about the Bridges Ministries program run by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta to... Read More
April 22, 2020 | People | Joanne De Jong
While volunteering with Christian Peacemaker Teams, Steve Heinrichs documented the presence of the RCMP and Coastal GasLinks in Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.
While people across Canada and around the world self-isolate from COVID-19, work continues on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline in northern British Columbia, without the full... Read More
April 22, 2020 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Dave Treadway was outspoken about his faith. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/littleairdave)
Professional skier Dave Treadway was just 34 years old when he died in a tragic skiing accident near Pemberton, B.C. on April 15, 2019. Treadway is remembered not only as a... Read More
April 17, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Coffee for Peace is a social enterprise managed by Joji Pantoja, a Mennonite Church Canada International Witness worker in the Philippines. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/coffeeforpeace)
The shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting employees of Coffee for Peace, a social enterprise managed by Joji Pantoja, a Mennonite Church Canada International... Read More
April 16, 2020 | Web First |
More than 25 Mennonites from across North America participated. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
In the past few weeks, it’s likely you’ve seen a video of people singing together virtually. When the members of Winnipeg’s Prairie Voices choir had to cancel their 20th... Read More
April 11, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Singing into an iPad propped on top of a stack of books, Bryan Moyer Suderman leads an online singalong from his home, to help people connect and find encouragement and hope during days of physical distancing. (Photo by Julie Moyer Suderman)
“A little bit of yeast makes the whole dough rise . . . you do your part; I’ll do mine,” sings Bryan Moyer Suderman, using his body as a percussion instrument. But instead of... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
David Driedger, the petition author, is associate minister at First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. (Photo courtesy of David Driedger)
While people and governments alike are sprinting to mitigate the current crisis of COVID-19, David Driedger is starting to run the marathon of addressing its long-term... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Erik and Cara Epp are shown with their daughter. (Photo courtesy of Cara Epp)
While many people are staying home to reduce the spread of COVID-19, some, like Erik and Cara Epp, continue to work because their jobs are considered essential. The Epps, who live... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
A screen shot of participants at this year’s MC Alberta annual general meeting, held online using the Zoom platform. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
With COVID-19 limiting the ability to connect in person, virtual meetings now seem to be the wave of the future. Mennonite Church Alberta had already been using the Zoom platform... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
Realizing the interconnectedness of mental health and wellness may be key in coping with stress during the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
The spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced Canadians to learn to cope with forced isolation, loss of work and social events, and an uncertain future. For a church... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
At Grebel, students are craving community connection during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured, apartment dwellers visit with Grebel’s director of operations, Paul Penner, outside their window, and with the director of student services, Mary Brubaker-Zehr, via video chat. (Photo by Anna Kuepfer)
Most people’s lives have shifted dramatically in the past few weeks, as they grapple with social isolation, educational upheaval, job changes, pandemic preparations and health-... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | Elizabeth Robertson
Curtis and Heather Funk of Winkler, Man., work on a house in Marianna, Fla., one of the Mennonite Disaster Service projects now shut down due to COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Hunt)
For Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), COVID-19 has had a significant impact on operations. It started on March 13, when the organization closed all current projects in locations... Read More
April 8, 2020 | News | John Longhurst
Leah Reesor-Keller
Leah Reesor-Keller has been appointed as Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s next executive minister. She will begin her new role in late summer, replacing David Martin, who will... Read More
April 8, 2020 | People |
Susanna Compton holds the recently published novel she wrote based on stories she heard during her gap year experience of living and volunteering in Botswana. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
After high school, Susanna Compton took a gap year before heading off to university. She turned that experience into her first published book. Her former pastors from Wilmot... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | Janet Bauman
Mennonites in Canada, Volumes 1-3, by FRank H. Epp and T.D. Regehr
The last time a history of Mennonites in Canada was published, it covered the period from 1920 to 1970—the year Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, Canada was converting to the... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | John Longhurst
"[T]he figure of the absent Christ is not invoked pessimistically with images of abandonment, but instead it is interpreted in continuity with the peaceful, non-possessive and uncoercive character of Jesus."
The Absent Christ is a clearly written and compelling exploration of Anabaptist-Mennonite theology that engages with both historical Anabaptist sources and contemporary political... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | Maxwell Kennel
All That Belongs (Cover art by Agatha Fast)
Unsettled with her status as a newly retired person, an archivist uses her skills to look into the difficult parts of her own family history. Along the way, she uncovers a... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | Tobi Thiessen
Classics of the Radical Reformation: The Legacy of Michael Settler
Over the past 50 years, the Institute for Mennonite Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., has published a series of books making primary works of the... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | Barb Draper
(Background Photo: flickr.com/romanboed)
Theology, Spirituality The Absent Christ: An Anabaptist Theology of the Empty Tomb . Justin Heinzekehr. Vol. 12 of the C. Henry Smith Series, Cascadia Publishing House, 2019, 160... Read More
April 8, 2020 | Focus On Books & Resources | Barb Draper