Valerie Alipova arrived in Canada for the first time five years ago, on a one-year Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS) assignment. In September, she became an associate pastor of... Read More
News & Stories
Valerie Alipova never imagined that one of the Bethel Mennonite Church offices would be hers when she first came to Canada with Mennonite Voluntary Service in 2015. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
September 23, 2020 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
One of the first photographs that Natalie Stevanus took more than 15 years ago. The early-season snow storm inspired her eye for beauty. She has been taking award-winning photographs ever since.` (Photo by Natalie Stevanus)
Natalie Stevanus, 36, of Bloomingdale, Ont., likes how her photographs bring joy to people, which inspires her to take even more. (Photo by Jane van Pelt) Natalie Stevanus has an... Read More
September 23, 2020 | People | Janet Bauman
Fanosie Legesse, right, is pictured in Ethiopia with Norm Dyck, MC Eastern Canada mission minister, left, and Desalegn Abebe, president of Meserete Kristos Church. Their traditional Oromo clothing was a gift from the Waajjira Waldaa Meserete Kristos Regional Church. (Photo courtesy of Norm Dyck)
Part educator, part listener, part mentor and part bridge-builder. The mandate for Fanosie Legesse, appointed as Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s intercultural mission minister... Read More
September 23, 2020 | People | Janet Bauman
(Photo: flickr.com/Riccardo Cuppini)
Across the nationwide church, there are likely as many approaches to reopening as there are congregations. Mennonite Church Saskatchewan recently hosted an online conversation... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Members of Chinatown Peace Church, one of the MC British Columbia congregations receiving a grant from the regional church’s Mountainview Fund, gather for a summer worship service in a Vancouver park. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kuepfer)
Although Mountainview Mennonite Church in Vancouver closed its doors in 1996, its legacy lives on through several Mennonite Church British Columbia congregations. When... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Marie Moyer and Dave Neufeldt in front of their net-zero energy home in Lethbridge, Alta. (Photo by Beth Moyer)
Tim and Donita Wiebe-Neufeld of Edmonton First Mennonite Church own an electric Nissan Leaf car. Tim’s cousin, Arlyn Friesen Epp, owns a Leaf. Another cousin, Kendall Jongejan... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
Louie Vivra, left, Melise Michaline and Karin Florvil plant a breadfruit tree in a demonstration garden in Wopisa, Haiti, in 2016. The children participated in a kids club supported by MCC and Canadian Foodgrains Bank that focused on environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture. (MCC photo by Paul Shetler Fast)
One hundred years ago, in 1920, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) began in response to drought, hunger and violence. Canadians were quick to answer the pleas of their global... Read More
September 23, 2020 | News | Rick Cober Bauman
The Mennonite church in Venezuela celebrates Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (Mennonite World Conference photo)
“I have seen entire families in the garbage dumps looking to quench their hunger. I have also watched with sadness as they return the elderly from the hospitals because there are... Read More
September 22, 2020 | Web First |
Bethlehem Bible College, which serves Arab speakers in Palestine-Israel and beyond, was founded in 1979. Its first president, Bishara Awad, worked with Mennonite Central Committee in Bethlehem and spent a year at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in the 1980s.
Like other educational institutions around the world, the West Bank’s Bethlehem Bible College has been broadsided by the COVID-19 pandemic. Campus lockdowns, infections among... Read More
September 18, 2020 | Web First | Byron Rempel-Burkholder
Brian Dyck and Lynell Bergen, pictured during their time in Ethiopia earlier this year. (Photo courtesy of Lynell Bergen)
This past March, we published a story about Lynell Bergen’s sabbatical at Meserete Kristos College in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Bergen, who is the lead pastor at Hope Mennonite Church... Read More
September 11, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Selling fair trade items, Kasandy/Locally Global in Vancouver continues in the spirit of Ten Thousand Villages stores. (Photo courtesy of Jackee Kasandy)
The Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) store in Vancouver has closed, but the idea of fair-trade products continues to inspire a new generation to shop both ethically and globally... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Ernie Hildebrand, standing at the microphone, speaks at the FEARO hearings regarding a proposed uranium refinery in the Warman, Sask., area, in 1980. (Photo courtesy of Jake Buhler)
It’s been 40 years since David battled Goliath on the plains of Saskatchewan. David, in this case, was a group of ordinary citizens, many of whom were Mennonite, and Goliath was... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Nadine Ens and her daughter Jenice tie knots in a comforter at the Great Winter Warm-up in Saskatoon on Jan. 18, to kick off MCC’s centennial. MCC is using a webinar series and new podcasts to share stories about its work in Canada and around the world. (MCC photo by Myriam Ullah)
“One bar of soap isn’t just a drop in the ocean of need. The ripples keep moving out in ways we may not even be able to count.” Sophia Bezoplenko, who coordinates material... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Carol McNaughton hikes the Wasootch Ridge as a participant in the 2020 Camp Valaqua hike-a-thon fundraiser. (Photo by Hossein Talebi)
Camp Valaqua received great news recently. As of Aug. 26, its annual hike-a-thon raised a record amount of $34,456, nearly double the previous record of $18,000. Ron Janzen, who... Read More
September 9, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
What do church finances look like when congregations close their doors and stop passing offering baskets through the aisles on Sunday mornings? It turns out that in many Mennonite congregations across Manitoba, they look just fine. (ruxipen.com photo @ unsplash.com)
Among the multitude of concerns COVID-19 has caused, the novel coronavirus’s effect on congregational giving has been one of them. What do church finances look like when... Read More
September 9, 2020 | Focus on Money | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
The Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada Spirit of MDS Fund is issuing a second call for applications from churches in Canada. The goal of the Spirit of MDS Fund is to provide... Read More
September 9, 2020 | Focus on Money |
Artist Curtis L. Wiebe, a.k.a. Francis Leonard, performs with the Amazing Thriftshop Band. (Screengrab courtesy of Vimeo)
How do you make a thrift shop come to life? That’s the question dogging Winnipeg artist Curtis L. Wiebe in a 30-minute documentary called The Imperfectionist . Released on TV in... Read More
September 4, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
The Government of Canada is matching donations to the Humanitarian Coalition and its members, including Canadian Foodgrains Bank, to support families in crisis in Lebanon. (World Vision Canada photo)
The Humanitarian Coalition salutes the commitment of the Canadian government to match the donations made to provide assistance to people in Lebanon after the disaster that... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News |
Members of Low German-speaking Mennonite communities in southwestern Ontario have experienced public discrimination recently because of a surge in COVID-19 cases in their... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Seeds Church in Altona, Man. has started a new podcast for hosts and guests to explore what it means to live lightly in relation to God’s creation. The church had intended to do... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Les Dysart of O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation in northern Manitoba. (Photo by Will Braun)
I started out by digging into the commitments recently made by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) in relation to Indigenous peoples , commitments that include renouncing “... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Will Braun
Ronald Kleinsasser prays during a Sunday morning worship service at Emmanuel Church, near Langham, Sask. Since resuming in-person worship, the church has been livestreaming services on its Facebook page. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
It is not unusual to hear of a small rural church closing its doors. It is, however, a rare thing to hear about a rural church reopening after being closed for more than 40 years... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
After 20 years as lead pastor of Level Ground Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C., Karen Heidebrecht Thiessen has begun as dean of students at Columbia Bible College. (Columbia Bible College photo)
A longtime B.C. pastor and church leader is making a transition to a different kind of ministry. After 30 years as a pastor, most recently of Level Ground Mennonite Church in... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Emily Unger’s mom, Tammy, is a Mennonite Nursing Home (MNH) resident. She escorted her daughter to MNH’s graduation celebration. (Photo by Darlene Klassen)
Graduation was disappointing, or non-existent, for many high-school students this year thanks to COVID-19. So Karen Chaskavich and the team at Mennonite Nursing Home (MNH) held a... Read More
August 26, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
