Eight Mennonite Church Manitoba congregations will receive a total of $30,000 for missional engagement in their local communities. “Finding intentional ways to love our neighbours... Read More
News & Stories
Jamie Arpin-Ricci of Little Flowers Community, left, surveys the Winnipeg neighbourhood with Melanie Neufeld, MC Manitoba’s mission engagement director. (MC Manitoba photo)
August 31, 2022 | News |
(Book cover compilation by Betty Avery)
Are you browsing the library shelves aimlessly, uncertain as to which book to take home? Did you spend the entire summer gardening or at the lake, unable to find time to read? Or... Read More
August 31, 2022 | People | Emily Summach
Paul and Vila Phomsouvanh are pictured at their home in late August. (Photo by Will Loewen)
I was caught off guard when I got the call that my friend Paul Phomsouvanh was in the hospital with COVID-19 last fall. At that time, the new more contagious Delta variant had... Read More
August 31, 2022 | People | Will Loewen
Chris Steingart’s graphic design journey began through creating a website for a church where he served as youth pastor. He is pictured working outside, enjoying the benefits of having a home office. (Photo courtesy of Chris Steingart)
Chris Steingart’s journey to owning a professional web-design business was unanticipated. In 2005, he was working as a youth pastor at Waterloo-Kitchener Mennonite Church in... Read More
August 31, 2022 | People | Mike Strathdee
Arlyn Friesen Epp portrays a cigarette-smoking Simon Peter in “About those Fish…,” a short film he created for Gathering 2022.
Arlyn Friesen Epp just made scripture a little fishier. One year ago, Mennonite Church Canada executive minister Doug Klassen asked Friesen Epp to produce a short film for... Read More
August 25, 2022 | Web First | Daisy Belec
A damaged home in Emmalena, Ky. (Photo courtesy of MDS)
Flood survivors in hard-hit eastern Kentucky need volunteers—and Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is trying to help. “The need is overwhelming,” said Larry Stoner, MDS regional... Read More
August 23, 2022 | Web First |
Glen Guyton, MC U.S.A.’s executive minister, was the guest speaker for the afternoon session. His session focused on key concepts from his book Reawaken: Activate Your Congregation to Spark Lasting Change. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Pastors and other leaders from across the five regional churches joined together at First Mennonite Church in Edmonton for Spiritual Leaders Day, part of the Mennonite Church... Read More
August 17, 2022 | News | Emily Summach
Riley Koop and Rebecca Janzen take part in the panel discussion around young leaders in the church. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Who has ever been a young adult? Who has ever interacted with a young adult at church? Who has witnessed a young adult leaving church? Who has witnessed a young adult stepping... Read More
August 17, 2022 | News | Jessica Evans
Attendees at the Gathering 2022 worship gathering on July 31 were encouraged to come forward to tie a coloured ribbon, representing their own self-expression, onto a tree branch. (Photo by Emily Summach)
“In This Together [ITT] is one way to feel those prophetic nudgings of the Spirit,” said Alissa Bender, pastor of Hamilton (Ont.) Mennonite Church, and a member of the ITT... Read More
August 17, 2022 | News | Emily Summach
More than 80 years of ministry in B.C. as Bethel Mennonite Church came to a close this summer when the building was given to the MB conference to be replanted as a campus of North Langley Community Church. (Internet photo)
Bethel Mennonite Church of Langley, one of the oldest congregations in Mennonite Church British Columbia, held its last service on June 26. However, its doors are not closed; the... Read More
August 17, 2022 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Norman Meade, the former director of MCC Manitoba’s Aboriginal Neighbours program, took his granddaughter Everlee to hear the Pope speak in Alberta last month. (Photo by John Longhurst)
Although the focus was on the Roman Catholic Church when the Pope visited Canada in late July, Mennonites also have a role to play in promoting reconciliation with Indigenous... Read More
August 17, 2022 | People | John Longhurst
Jeremy Penner, left, Tim Osmond, Jess Reimer, T.J. Blair and Jeremy Hamm make up the Stanley County Cut-ups, a bluegrass band from Manitoba. (Photo courtesy of the Stanley County Cut-ups)
After more than two years of putting a pause on performing, Manitoba bluegrass quintet the Stanley County Cut-ups is finally playing again. “I would say that the cogs are back in... Read More
August 16, 2022 | Web First | Daisy Belec
At the assembly’s opening ceremony on July 5, Paulus Widjaja (right), chair of Mennonite World Conference’s national advisory committee in Indonesia, presented a gift to J. Nelson Kraybill (left), who was president of MWC at the time. (Meetinghouse photo by Kresna Kurniawan)
Last month, people from around the world gathered in Indonesia for the Mennonite World Conference’s 17th assembly . In an outdoor venue at a Mennonite seminary on a mountaintop in... Read More
August 5, 2022 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Amos Chin, left, and two Mennonite colleagues baptize young people in rural Myanmar. (Photo courtesy Amos Chin)
Roughly half the members of the Bible Missionary Church (BMC), a Mennonite denomination in Myanmar, are now displaced. An estimated 415 families, or 2,000 people, have fled to the... Read More
August 3, 2022 | News | Will Braun
Controversy over a new book commissioned by the Mennonite Brethren (MB) Historical Commission has resulted in attention drawn to the very thing church leaders were probably hoping... Read More
August 3, 2022 | News | Barb Draper
Danforth Mennonite Church congregants from the 1990s to the present are pictured at the church’s 115th-anniversary celebration in late June.
Danforth Mennonite Church is a small, urban congregation on the Danforth in Toronto. In late June, we met in person and virtually to celebrate 115 years as a congregation. It was... Read More
August 3, 2022 | News | Ruth Dueck Mbeba
Volunteers at the TAFMC clear out overgrown shrubbery from the church property on a recent workday. (Photo courtesy of Gerald Neufeld)
Gerald and Rie Neufeld, who left Canada for Japan last year, are taking an active part in the life of Japanese churches while still relating to their Surrey, B.C., congregation,... Read More
August 3, 2022 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Jackie Karau (third from the left, front row) recently presented an information session on refugee sponsorship to a group from Foothills Mennonite Church, in Calgary. (Photo by Orlando Vasquez)
“I have learned that there is an overwhelming amount of need and suffering in this world. It is not up to us to solve every problem out there, but we can start by helping one... Read More
August 3, 2022 | News | Jessica Evans
Heidi Epp leads a workshop in the Democratic Republic of the Congo about peace and conflict transformation.
A chance connection on social media led Heidi Epp, a music teacher from B.C., to travel to Africa this summer to teach music and peace and conflict transformation. Kendri Mastaki... Read More
August 3, 2022 | People | Amy Rinner Waddell
Cyclists (left to right) Ernie Engbrecht, Edgar Dueck, Dave Neufeldt, Doug Wiebe, Ken Esau, Zachary Wirzba and Ron Esau raised $10,000 for MCC on July 15. (Photo by Annie Dyck)
This summer, Alberta supporters of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Camp Valaqua got physical to raise funds. MCC Alberta The group that calls itself Wheels of Waterton grew... Read More
August 3, 2022 | People | Jessica Evans
Susan and Rod Reynar founded Emmaus House, an intentional community for university students in Winnipeg. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
Rod and Susan Reynar made a huge life change in 2014 when they moved from Alberta to Manitoba and started Emmaus House, an intentional community for university students in... Read More
August 3, 2022 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Three couples from Osler Mennonite Church, Garry and Jean Harms (left), Dick and Kathy Braun and Diana and Ben Buhler were married by the same person 50 years ago. (Photo by Adeline Cox)
Special celebrations were held at two congregations in Saskatchewan this summer. Osler Mennonite Church If a 50th wedding anniversary is golden, what would 150 years be? Three... Read More
August 3, 2022 | People | Emily Summach
Frieda and Delbert Erb retired in Argentina more than 20 years ago. (Mennonite Board of Missions file photo)
Delbert Erb, who served God in Argentina for more than seven decades, died June 14, in Buenos Aires. “He decided that his heart and ashes would remain in Choele Choel, [Argentina... Read More
August 3, 2022 | People | Lynda Hollinger-Janzen
A music ensemble with members from nine countries led conference goers in songs from the MWC International Songbook, praising God in a variety of languages. (Meetinghouse photo by Kresna Kurniawan)
Mennonite World Conference held its 17th global assembly on July 5 to 10, in various locations in Indonesia. Before this conference, Mennonite-Anabaptist youth and young adults... Read More
July 20, 2022 | Web First |
Young adults from Mennonite Church Canada pose for a photo after the Global Youth Summit ended. Pictured from left to right, back row: Nora Pederberg, Natasha Neustaedter Barg, Emily Enns, Claudia Dueck, Ashley Rempel, Jim Cheng, Valerie Alipova and Rebecca Janzen; and front row: Amelia Warkentin, Christen Kong and Andrew Klassen Brown. (Photo courtesy of Christen Kong)
Singing, prayer, deep discussions and dancing characterized the fourth-ever Mennonite World Conference Global Youth Summit (GYS), held in Salatiga, Indonesia, in early July. More... Read More
July 20, 2022 | Focus On Assembly | Aaron Epp