The relationship between culture and faith is intimate and difficult to describe. But understanding that relationship is the first step towards building bridges between culture... Read More
News & Stories
After an unsettling year of cuts to ministry and staff, financial news from Mennonite Church Canada’s spring leadership assembly is cautiously hopeful. “Individuals and corporate... Read More
April 11, 2012 | God at work in the Church | Deborah Froese
Taking a hard look at how to prioritize activities in the face of change proved central to council discussions at Mennonite Church Canada’s spring leadership assembly at First... Read More
April 11, 2012 | God at work in the Church | Deborah Froese
Doug Dyck operates an 850-hectare mixed-grain farm near Plum Coulee with his brother-in-law and nephew, where he faces two realities: that of the wonderful, intergenerational,... Read More
April 11, 2012 | God at work in the World | Evelyn Rempel Petkau
F-35 alone
It doesn’t help a bit, but we all take satisfaction from time to time in saying, “We told you so.” The Canadian F-35 Joint Strike Fighter story has already provided many such... Read More
April 4, 2012 | Web First | Kenneth Epps, senior program officer
The Dalai Lama, already a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is the recipient of the 2012 Templeton Prize, often called the most prestigious award in religion. The announcement, made on... Read More
March 29, 2012 | Web First | By Chris Herlinger
“Find us empty and wandering, we the lost and the least. Find us in the wilderness and fill us with your feast.” (From “Fill us with your Feast” by Phil Campbell-Enns.) When Satan... Read More
March 28, 2012 | Young Voices | Rachel Bergen
One Sunday morning I was sitting in the pew trying to pay attention and think critically about the sermon I was listening to, and my mind started to wander. As the sermon moved to... Read More
March 28, 2012 | Young Voices | Kirsten Hamm
The first time Ugandan Stephen Owoni saw Invisible Children’s online video, Kony 2012, he figured it was just another western advocacy video about Africa. He is used to seeing his... Read More
March 28, 2012 | Young Voices | Amanda Thorsteinsson
My four favourite films of 2011 all had Christian themes, something that has certainly never happened before. Two of them—Of Gods and Men and The Way—were reviewed in Canadian... Read More
March 28, 2012 | Artbeat | Reviewed by Vic Thiessen
Paul Tiessen , English and film studies prof at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Although sailing troubled waters over the past 50 years, Mennonite novelists have taught Mennonite readers how to approach their texts with boldness and humility as “we learn more... Read More
March 28, 2012 | Artbeat | By Dick Benner
Christine Penner Polle used to turn off the radio when global warming was discussed. Now the former nurse, writer and self-described “climate-change avoider” volunteers full-time... Read More
March 28, 2012 | God at work in Us | By Will Braun
Toyia Sekento, six, holds a goat that her family is raising. Her family received the goat because her father is part of a self-help group in Kenya that is supported by Mennonite Central Committee. The goats are an incentive for the formation of 60 self-help groups among the Maasai people that each work together to do community projects.
A goat project among Kenya’s Maasai people is giving birth to more than baby goats. It is powering to life a cooperative group ethic that is helping 2,000 Maasai families cope... Read More
March 28, 2012 | God at work in the World | Story and Photo by Matthew Kistler
Two Ethiopian men work on a river-diversion project that uses a gravity-fed system to irrigate their crops and that permits more than one growing season per year.
The invitation arrived last September: “Would you like to accompany the Canadian Foodgrains Bank on a media study tour of Ethiopia?” It sounded like an eye-opening opportunity to... Read More
March 28, 2012 | God at work in the World | By Al Friesen
By participating in the award-winning program run by the Migibare Senay Children and Family Support Organization, a Mennonite Central Committee partner in Ethiopia, Tiruneh Mitiku has doubled the income he can make off his farm in the country’s Amhara region.
At a February ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Migibare Senay Children and Family Support Organization received a first place “green award” from President Girma Wolde-... Read More
March 28, 2012 | God at work in the World | By Will Braun
Violence in domestic relationships has long-reaching and painful consequences for the entire family, as those who attended a seminar on the topic at Langley Mennonite Fellowship... Read More
March 28, 2012 | God at work in the Church | Story and Photo by Amy Dueckman
'Kony 2012' has gone viral on the web.
Although the Internet video " Kony 2012" is bringing world attention to an infamous Ugandan warlord, calling for his arrest this year, it doesn't mention much about the church... Read More
March 27, 2012 | Web First | By Fredrick Nzwili
The United Nations has initiated a program to begin paying developing countries to stop cutting down their forests. --Photo from REDD
A major US newspaper reporter has pointed the finger, once again, at Mennonites in the Paraguayan Chaco for massive deforestation, clearing the land for grazing large herds of... Read More
March 26, 2012 | Web First | Dick Benner, editor and publisher
Bashara Awad right and Munther Isaac at opening ceremonies.
A major breakthrough in the evangelical world took place in Bethlehem through a gathering of over 600 international and local Christians, including renowned evangelical leadersRead More
March 22, 2012 | Web First | Submitted by Palmer Becker
Since 1982 there has been only one official statement of the World Council of Churches ( WCC ) on mission and evangelism. Now in 2012 the WCC's Commission on World Mission and... Read More
March 22, 2012 | Web First | Staff reports
For the last decade, some Germans have tapped into their nation's feelings for its ancient forests and chosen a final resting place in a woodland gravesite. Churches used to frown... Read More
March 21, 2012 | Web First | By Ruby Russell
The formation of an interfaith youth council is one of the results of a day-long conference that brought together young people from a variety of faiths to talk about their shared... Read More
March 14, 2012 | Young Voices | Aaron Epp
“I hate religion, but love Jesus.” These words come from Jefferson Bethke, a YouTube video speaker and not-for-profit worker living in Tacoma, Wash. His “Why I hate religion, but... Read More
March 14, 2012 | Young Voices | Rachel Bergen
Just before 6 p.m. at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Thrift and Gift in Elmira, an hour of chaos ensues. Outside, teens line up, ready for the moment the doors open for the... Read More
March 14, 2012 | Young Voices | Brandi J. Thorpe
‘6.5 Weeks’ by Cliff Derksen (clay with patina finish). The artist tried to sculpt his murdered daughter’s bound hands, but couldn’t bear to. Instead, he sculpted his own because he wishes they would have been his hands bound, instead of hers.
It is indescribable, the feeling of losing a loved one, especially when that person is lost as the result of a murder. Cliff, Wilma and Odia Derksen have experienced this... Read More
March 14, 2012 | Artbeat | Story and Photos by Rachel Bergen