“I can talk about mental health and, specifically, suicide risk, because nearly every day I ask someone if they have thoughts of wishing to die.” Ruth Bergen Braun is a recently... Read More
News & Stories
‘If someone speaks to us of wishing to die, we need to ask, “Where’s the pain?” ’ (Photo and quote by Ruth Bergen Braun)
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Jessica Evans
Paint hands. (Photo by Amauri Mejia on Unsplash)
Sometimes people go through experiences that are too difficult to talk about or too confusing to articulate. Art therapy helps many people process and heal when at first the words... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Cindy Wallace Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Cindy Wallace was feeling out of sorts. Each new day seemed to bring more bad news, more uncertainty from leaders around the world... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Emily Summach
Adrianne Roberts, right, and Patrick Raymond are peer support workers with Communitas. They are excited about the launch of their new peer-support website.
Communitas Supportive Care Society has launched a new peer-support website, a comprehensive site that puts mental-health resources as close as the click of a mouse. The... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Angelika Dawson
Sarah Gadon and Alison Pill in a scene from All My Puny Sorrows. (Image courtesy of AMPS Productions Inc.)
Toward the end of All My Puny Sorrows , Lottie (Mare Winningham) sits in her Toronto apartment comforting her sobbing daughter, Yoli (Alison Pill), noting, “The pain of letting go... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Mandy Elliott
“You can’t pour from an empty cup.” The words came from a place of kindness and empathy, from someone who knew the feeling. It hit me to my core, because I was empty. It was 2015... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Rebekah Sears
The family buried Richard’s ashes on Easter weekend. Richard had purchased his headstone years earlier, his quirky sense of humour coming through with ‘Hello world’ preceding his birthdate inscription and ‘Goodbye world’ ready for the addition of his date of death. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Note: This reflection deals with the subject of suicide. On Nov. 27, a Saturday, I received a long text message from my cousin Richard (I’m using only his middle name here, for... Read More
May 11, 2022 | Focus on Mental Health | Amy Rinner Waddell
CMU student Anna Schwartz, left, stands with visual artist and piano instructor Shirley Elias in front of one of the artworks that make up ‘Spectrum – The Colour of Music; Precision and Impression.’ (CMU photo)
Imagine if you could see sound. When Anna Schwartz listens to music, she not only hears the different instruments, keys and dynamics—she sees them. That’s because she has... Read More
May 10, 2022 | Web First |
The site of a camp that housed an estimated 64,000 Ethiopians displaced by violence in Afar state last year. As the violence shifted, these people returned home. (Photo by Rebecca Mosely)
Pastor Desalegn Abebe’s message to North American Mennonites is simple. Abebe is the head of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC), the Anabaptist denomination in Ethiopia, where 17... Read More
April 27, 2022 | News | Will Braun
Earthkeepers Kids Club, a collaboration of Jubilee Mennonite Church and A Rocha Manitoba, aims to connect children with creation. (Photos courtesy of A Rocha Manitoba)
Many children today live in a nature deficit. As screens constantly command their attention, parents tighten their protective grip as dangers outside seem to increase, and a multi... Read More
April 27, 2022 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
At one station at the Good Friday walk, participants were invited to take a living branch and weave it through a rope trellis, thinking about contributions they could make to God’s kingdom. (Photo courtesy of Amy Klassen)
Walking, biking or driving through twelve Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, April 15, residents of Yarrow, B.C., experienced the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection... Read More
April 27, 2022 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Of the remaining 11 Erb cousins, seven were still able to attend the final reunion 90 years after it started. (Photo by Melody Steinman)
John L. Erb and Barbara Oesch were Amish Mennonites who farmed in Wellesley Township in southwestern Ontario in the late 1800s. They attended Maple View Mennonite Church. Together... Read More
April 27, 2022 | News | Reta Bender and Melody Steinman
For Ben Borne, his work is not only professional, it’s also deeply personal, as he is both Saulteaux from Yellow Quill First Nation and Mennonite. (Photo courtesy of Ben Borne)
It’s hard to imagine when Ben Borne finds time to sleep. “I have four jobs,” he says with an easy laugh. “It’s busy, but I love what I do.” Borne works for Mennonite Central... Read More
April 27, 2022 | People | Emily Summach
Members of the ‘40 Minutes’ group include Pastor Anna-Lisa Salo, top left, Danika Peters, Cassidy Brown, Taylor Derksen and Dayna Goerzen. (Screenshot by Anna-Lisa Salo)
Anna-Lisa Salo, pastor of Bergthal Mennonite Church in Didsbury, has taken advantage of Zoom’s free 40 minute limit. Two years ago, she reached out to four young women from her... Read More
April 27, 2022 | People | Jessica Evans
(Photos by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
During Holy Week, bright pops of colour appeared in a downtown alley amid the brown slush and litter of a Winnipeg spring. A group of artists from the congregation of Home Street... Read More
April 27, 2022 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Cliff Gusztak with his mom Ashley hand over baked goods at his bake sale at Foothills Mennonite Church on March 27. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Cliff Gusztak is a little boy with a big heart. An idea for a small cupcake stand evolved into a fundraising campaign that raised a total of $7,150 for Mennonite Central Committee... Read More
April 13, 2022 | News | Jessica Evans
Anne Shirley, centre, played by Kira Andres, pleads with Marilla Cuthbert, left, played by Rebecca Janzen-Martin, to be allowed to stay at Green Gables, as Matthew Cuthbert, played by Marcus Dion looks on. (Photos by Tracey Matthews)
After a two-year hiatus, students at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, in Kitchener, were thrilled to perform Anne of Green Gables . The two-hour play was mounted by a cast and crew... Read More
April 13, 2022 | News | Kara Cornies
Mother and daughter Marion and Irene Griese work together at a comforter at Niagara United Mennonite Church on March 26. (Photos by Emily Fieguth)
Niagara United Mennonite Church called its congregants and neighbourhood community together to tie comforters in the church basement on March 26. Advertisements in the local... Read More
April 13, 2022 | News | Maria H. Klassen
Gerald Dyck, left, led a group from Emmanuel Mennonite Church in restoring a house damaged by last November’s floods. Also pictured, from left to right: Rachel Navarro, Emmanuel’s family pastor; Olivia Jesse; Naomi Cheny; and Isaac Boynton. (Photos courtesy of Rachel Navarro)
Several young people from Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., volunteered with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) during spring break to help victims of last year’s... Read More
April 13, 2022 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Disarmed: The Radical Life and Legacy of Michael ‘MJ’ Sharp
MJ Sharp, a young Mennonite peacemaker from the United States, was killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo five years ago. This book by Marshall King explains not only how... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources | Barb Draper
Self-portrait of Jonathan Dyck.
Four panels on page 108 of Jonathan Dyck’s graphic novel Shelterbelts are stuck in my mind. I’ve studied these black-and-white images so closely that they appear something like a... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources | Nathan Dueck
Jaymie Friesen (left) and David Driedger (right).
Five years ago, a congregant of First Mennonite Church in Winnipeg asked David Driedger about church policy addressing sexual abuse and harassment between members of a... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
‘Upside-Down Apocalypse: Grounding Revelation in the Gospel of Peace’ will be available from Herald Press in July 2022.
Menno Media: Jeremy, your book Upside-Down Apocalypse is being referred to as a peacemaker’s guide to the Book of Revelation. What prompted you to write about Revelation? Jeremy... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources |
Manitoba humorist/author Andrew Unger introduced and signed books at an April 2 event at Abbotsford, B.C.’s, Mennonite Heritage Museum. (Photo by Wendie Nickel)
After several years of pandemic-induced Zoom book launches in B.C., satirist Andrew Unger winged his way to Abbotsford to face a living, breathing audience at the Mennonite... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources | Robert Martens
Marion Roes’s book tells the history of funeral businesses in Ontario’s Waterloo Region. (Photo by Barb Draper)
When Marion Roes began researching her family history, she came across some surprises connected to her family’s business. Intrigued, she tried to find out more about local... Read More
April 13, 2022 | Focus On Books & Resources | Barb Draper