News & Stories

Mennonite teachings tend to promote complete nonviolence, stating or implying that all else is wrong. Officially, we live by nonviolence alone, but in reality, we live about the... Read More
October 19, 2023 | News | Howard Boldt

(Unsplash photo by Natilyn Photography)

During three decades of travel to the U.S. for work, I’ve enjoyed many conversations about faith and politics. These discussions have become more polarized in recent years, with... Read More
October 19, 2023 | News | James Barber

Book cover

Green growth, or green capitalism, is hailed as a novel, inventive solution to the climate crisis. But green growth assumes business as usual—a continuation of our current system... Read More
October 19, 2023 | News | Sarah Augustine and Sheri Hostetler

Last May, the Sargent Junior Choir performed ‘The Agape League,’ a musical about the fruit of the spirit. (Supplied photo)

It’s a Wednesday evening and the two dozen children gathered in a room at the back of Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church in Winnipeg are singing about candy-coated chocolate. “Mommy... Read More
October 19, 2023 | News | Aaron Epp

(Bethlehem Bible College photo)

Dear praying friends of Bethlehem Bible College from around the world, In the midst of these challenging times, I want to reach out to you with a heartfelt request. Our country is... Read More
October 11, 2023 | News |

Supporters of Grassy Narrows in Toronto on Sept. 27. (Photo courtesy of CPT)

Through the weight of ongoing struggles over logging, mercury poisoning and, most recently, mining, the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwestern Ontario continue to... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Madalene Arias

(Art by Nick Schuurman)

With great hesitation, I pulled my car into the church parking lot. The winter morning was clear and brisk. After a short stop at a local coffee shop, Aaron and I had arrived at... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | jason greig

Lydia Fawcett of Mennonite Central Committee B.C.’s End Abuse program. (Supplied photo)

How to disagree well with fellow Christians was the topic of a forum held at Columbia Bible College (CBC) in Abbotsford, B.C., last month. The Sept. 21 event, titled “Polarization... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell

Gerald Dyck (left) of MDS meets with residents of the burned-out town of Lytton, B.C. (Photo by Mark Rempel)

While Lytton, B.C., struggles to recover from a devastating fire that destroyed most of the small, remote village in June 2021, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) stands ready to... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell

(Unsplash photo by JK Sloan)

Editor’s note: In this six-part series for Canadian Mennonite , Kara Carter, lead pastor at Wellesley Mennonite Church in southern Ontario, will explore some of the things she... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Kara Carter

Little brown bats like this one took over cabin four at Camp Valaqua this summer. (Flickr photo by Ann Froschauer)

Things got a little batty at Mennonite Church Alberta’s Camp Valaqua this summer. During spring cleaning at the camp, located an hour northwest of Calgary, staff discovered a... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Emily Summach

Mark Olfert was raised to support those in need. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)

Mark Olfert has always been passionate about helping people. He wishes the systems in Canada would do more to support people, too. Olfert, 60, is an anti-poverty activist and a... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe

Indigenous chef Sydney Keedwell speaks at Preston Mennonite Church. (Supplied photo)

On Sunday, September 24, members and friends of Preston Mennonite Church in Cambridge, Ontario, held a Three Sisters potluck. The date was chosen to commemorate The National Day... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Fred Kinsie, Preston Mennonite Church

Sarah Ens. (Photo by Lynette Ens)

Manitoba writer Sarah Ens has won the national ReLit Award (poetry category) for her book Flyway . ReLit is hailed by the Globe and Mail as “the country’s pre-eminent literary... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | A.S. Compton
One way that Peace Church on 52nd in Vancouver serves its local community is by hosting community dinners that are free and open to all. Over the time it has been offering the... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | John Longhurst

Joanne Moyer. (Supplied photo)

Joanne Moyer is looking for stories. Moyer, who is the associate professor and director of Environmental Studies and Geography at The King’s University in Edmonton, is undertaking... Read More
October 5, 2023 | News | Emily Summach

Sixty years ago, Conrad Grebel College’s first president, J. Winfield Fretz, laid the College’s cornerstone, along with board members Milton R. Good and John Neufeld, envisioning a thriving Mennonite school integrated into the secular University of Waterloo campus. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Archives of Ontario)

In the fall of 1963, J. Winfield Fretz began his role as the first president of Conrad Grebel College in Waterloo, Ontario. In addition to hiring the first employees and... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Fred W. Martin, Director of Advancement

Grade 11 Rockway students working to prepare the pollinator garden as part of the new Land-Based Leadership course. (Photo by Rebecca Seiling)

“Reconciliation . . . needs to start with the earth. It’s the foundation of everything.” —Isaac Murdoch, Serpent River First Nation What would it look like to reconcile with the... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Rebecca Seiling, Faculty member
UMEI Christian High School is growing! In March 2022, the Board of Directors announced Project ReNew, an ambitious fundraising project to bring UMEI into the future. This project... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Sonya Bedal

The RJC class of 1944 in front of the German-English Academy. (Photo courtesy of RJC High School)

For her Grade 12 year, Elizabeth Armbruster (Zacharias, 1944), known as Beth among her family and friends, decided to leave her family farm near Meadow Lake, Sask., to attend RJC... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Alex Tiessen, RJC Director of Development

Eleven graduate students attended an on-campus orientation in August 2023. Front (l. to r.): Kandace Boos of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada; Teresa Martin of Norman, Oklahoma; DJ Polite of Columbia, South Carolina; Hasset (Joy) Shimeles of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Clare Krabill of Goshen, Indiana. Back (l. to r.): Kandace Helmuth of Akron, Pennsylvania; Brian Johnson of Missoula, Montana; Daniel Nugroho of Ungaran, Central Java, Indonesia; Kyle Schlabach of Goshen; Christian Nawai of Ndjamena, Chad; Andrew Zetts of Souderton, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Brittany Purlee)

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana, is celebrating its fourth consecutive year of growth in student numbers this fall, with a total enrolment of 189... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Annette Brill Bergstresser

Roxanne Friesen holds her grad photo in the academic wing of MCI. (Photo by Janna Wiebe)

For 134 years, Mennonite Collegiate Institute has offered young people an Anabaptist-centred education, a community to explore faith in, and a place to excel in music, academics... Read More
October 5, 2023 | Focus On Education | Janna Wiebe

(Photo by Mortimer Mackenzie)

For Di Brandt, being a poet is a natural extension of her upbringing in the Manitoba Mennonite village of Reinland. She says the hymns of her youth were poetic, and poetry was... Read More
September 21, 2023 | News | A.S. Compton

(Photo by Amanda Pot)

“It’s so hard to explain something that feels so sacred to you,” Amanda Pot said when asked to describe Single Moms’ Camp at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp in New Hamburg, Ontario... Read More
September 21, 2023 | News | A.S. Compton

Proclaiming the Good News: Mennonite Women’s Voices, 1972–2006 (book cover)

Esther Patkau In the 1950s, Mennonite churches in Canada had the practice of ordaining missionaries. What church leaders could not imagine at home seemed acceptable for women who... Read More
September 21, 2023 | News | John A. Esau, Nancy Kauffmann and Karen Martens Zimmerly

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