Kyle Penner’s December wasn’t filled with just Christmas preparations, but with a multitude of book launches. The associate pastor of Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach, Man.,... Read More
News & Stories
The adventurous canoe trip of Kyle Penner and Patti Enns is one of the 17 stories in the book. (Photo by Ashley Penner)
December 18, 2019 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
People in Montreal experiencing homelessness have access to 30 mattresses at Care Montreal, an outreach program of Hochma Mennonite Church. (YouTube photo)
In October, Care Montreal opened seven nights a week as a licensed shelter after completing extensive renovations. Now volunteers at the shelter, housed at Hochma, a Mennonite... Read More
December 18, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman
A group known as the "Mom Squad" is volunteering its time typing resources that have been selected for the new worship and song collection. (Image by Bartek Zakrzewski/Pixabay)
When some of the individuals working on the forthcoming Voices Together hymnal needed help with a big task, they called their moms. The task was daunting. The text committee, the... Read More
December 18, 2019 | People |
Baked goods sell quickly at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church’s annual Mennonite Food and Craft Bazaar. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
In 1989, a group of women from St. Catharines United Mennonite Church decided to sell their crafts and baking to raise money for missions. This “making and baking” was something... Read More
December 18, 2019 | News | Maria H. Klassen
Volunteer Jim Wiebe, left, visited with Eugene from 1996 to 2011. Eugene continues to see Jim since his release. He says, ‘It was good to be in P2P. It helped open my eyes to my surroundings and who I was. By watching and learning from my visitor, I realized life is more fun if you can control your urges.’ (Photo courtesy of Heather Driedger)
“This is how I am a Christian,” says Heather Driedger of her work with Parkland Restorative Justice. As executive director of the non-profit organization, Driedger provides... Read More
December 18, 2019 | News | Donna Schulz
Board chair Garry Janzen, right, gives thanks for 10 years of ministry at Place of Refuge in Vancouver. A building project earlier this year enabled the construction of the Place of Refuge Resource Centre on the property, for office space and counselling. (Place of Refuge photo by Jeff Borden)
Twenty years ago, two men attending Vancouver’s Sherbrooke Mennonite Church desperately needed a safe place to live so they could find their way out of the world of addiction... Read More
December 18, 2019 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
'Growing up in Kansas, there was one particular cookie that was a staple at every holiday event: peppernuts.' (Photo by Kristin Hoffman/BakerBettie.com)
If you’re interested in making peppernuts this holiday season and the recipe on our website won’t cut it , you’re in luck: Kristin “Baker Bettie” Hoffman has just the thing for... Read More
December 13, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Students in the Worship Apprentice Program at Conrad Grebel University College, including Rowan Martin (left) and Eunice Femi-Gege (right), tested their skills by leading worship at St. Agatha (Ont.) Mennonite Church on Nov. 17. (Photo by Fred W. Martin)
Every Tuesday, a diverse team of University of Waterloo students gathers for prayer, small group discussion, song teaching and worship-service planning. These students are part of... Read More
December 11, 2019 | Web First | Conrad Grebel University College
'When the teachers are having fun, the students pick up on it.' (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
“You Need to Calm Down” may be a song in which pop superstar Taylor Swift addresses her detractors, but in the hands of the coaching staff at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, it’s a... Read More
December 6, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Micah Enns-Dyck is the founder and editor-in-chief of Macrina Magazine. (Photo by Lynette Giesbrecht)
At only 21 years old, Micah Enns-Dyck is the founder and editor-in-chief of a new online Christian philosophical journal. Macrina Magazine , which he launched on Oct. 26, features... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Members of the Holyrood Mennonite Girls Club stop to get their photo taken on their way to a sand sculpture competition this summer. Pictured from left to right: Helena Chokpelleh, Venissa Tumbay and Tarnisha Snogba. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
In 2001, Holyrood Mennonite Church sponsored four men who were living in a refugee camp in Ghana with their families due to a 14-year civil war in Liberia. Over time, the number... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | Joanne De Jong
Edwin Sittler, an Old Order Mennonite, watches as a machine he designed turns a windrow of compost. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
“A lot of people are talking about it. Not a lot of people are taking action,” according to Noa Baergen. So when it comes to the climate crisis, this 16-year-old is determined to... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman
This image, from the War Relics Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, shows the devastating effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese countryside. (Photos courtesy of Garth and Claire Ewert Fisher)
Decades after American military forces used Agent Orange to further their efforts in the Vietnam War, this deadly chemical continues to impact the lives of Vietnamese people... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | Donna Schulz
Dehydrated fruit packages sit on the shelves of the South Porcupine (Ont.) Food Bank. (Photo by Peter Davis)
The Niagara Network Hub of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) recently toured the Niagara Christian Gleaners facility in Smithville. The new non-profit organization... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | By Maria H. Klassen
Ministries in Vietnam benefited from the November goods and services auction at Langley (B.C.) Mennonite Fellowship. One of those ministries includes a new church plant in the neighbourhood of a music store owner in Saigon, second from left, who is returning to the Mennonite church after the lifting of persecution. The lifting of the persecution is mostly due to Nhien Pham, second from right, who built connections with the local authorities and helped them to change their attitude towards the Mennonite church. At left is MC. B.C. executive minister Garry Janzen, and at right is Pastor Hong, president of Evangelical Mennonite Church Vietnam. (Photo courtesy of Garry Janzen)
Raising funds for missionary or international purposes has been a tradition among local congregations for decades. That tradition has carried on at Langley Mennonite Fellowship, a... Read More
December 4, 2019 | News | Walter Paetkau
(Photo by Barb Draper)
This French Canadian meat pie has become a Christmas Eve tradition in Leona Dueck Penner's family . Tourtiere – regular Ingredients: 5 lbs. (approx. 2 kg) lean minced pork 3 large... Read More
December 4, 2019 | People | Leona Dueck Penner
Rob Penner and Rielle Goulet eagerly await the Penner family Christmas Eve tradition of tourtière in 2011. (Photo courtesy of Leona Dueck Penner)
Celebration is necessary for survival. It renews the spirit and recreates hope. It nourishes and strengthens both giver and receiver, and it helps to lighten the crosses in our... Read More
December 4, 2019 | People | Leona Dueck Penner
Soba Bika Sunchiuri shows some of the vegetables she is growing in a plastic house provided by MCC, which helps her to grow plants in spite of irregular rainfall and deluges caused by climate change. (MCC photo by Luke Reesor-Keller)
The weather patterns in Nepal used to be regular about 15 to 20 years ago, says Durga Sunchiuri, who grew up helping his parents farm their land in the mountainous terraces of... Read More
December 3, 2019 | Web First | Emily Jones
David Widdicombe, an Anglican priest, left, and Gordon Zerbe, professor of New Testament at CMU, answer questions. (Photos by Beth Downey-Sawatzky)
Students, scholars and community members alike filled Marpeck Commons at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) on Nov. 13, hoping to lay a firmer hold on one essential subject:... Read More
December 2, 2019 | Web First | Beth Downey-Sawatzky
People in Montreal experiencing homelessness have access to 30 mattresses at Care Montreal, an outreach program of Hochma church. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
Montreal has been hit with unseasonably cold weather this month, and a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) congregation is doing what it can to help members of the city’s... Read More
November 29, 2019 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Wally and Millie Kroeker of River East (MB) Church talk to presenter Aileen Friesen, right, at ‘ Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust,’ a public presentation at the Asper Jewish Community Centre in Winnipeg on Nov. 5. (Photo by John Longhurst)
About 80 years ago, Jews and Mennonites lived peacefully together in the Ukrainian city of Khortitsa. Then the Nazis came, and everything changed. In 1941, before the invasion,... Read More
November 20, 2019 | News | John Longhurst
Cristina Vanin, second from left, responds to feedback at the ‘One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life’ event during a panel discussion. Also pictured, from left to right: John Rempel, Mary (Joy) Philip, Anthony Siegrist and facilitator Jeremy Bergen. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
After five years of meetings by an international commission of Mennonites, Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the topic of baptism, John Rempel, the commission’s Mennonite... Read More
November 20, 2019 | News | Janet Bauman
Betty Rudachyk, right, holds hands with a Tibetan woman. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
“Everything about China was not what we thought.” Delilah Roth’s words seem to capture the feelings of many in her group. Delilah and husband Brian Roth were part of a group of 25... Read More
November 20, 2019 | News | Donna Schulz
Stephanie Martin, composer and conductor emeritus of Pax Christi Chorale, had her oratorio The Sun, the Wind and the Man with the Cloak premiered in Toronto on Nov. 2. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Martin)
In May 2017, when Stephanie Martin stepped down as conductor of Toronto’s Pax Christi Chorale, the award-winning Toronto-based amateur choir with Mennonite roots, the choir gave... Read More
November 20, 2019 | News | Joelle Kidd
An exciting part of Vision 20/20 was the unveiling of the vision statement on a huge banner that will be available to be hung in every MC Alberta congregation. Holding up the banner are June Miller, MC Alberta’s communications coordinator, left, and Heather Klassen of Foothills Mennonite Church. Facilitator Betty Pries is in the background. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
Like all Mennonite Church Canada regional churches, MC Alberta continues to pray and discern God’s call, moving forward after the nationwide restructuring a couple years ago... Read More
November 20, 2019 | News | Joanne De Jong