No soup and pie fundraiser in Rosemary. No Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta relief sale in Sherwood Park. No golf fundraisers with barbecued lunches. In other words, no... Read More
News & Stories
Sierra Janzen, two-year-old granddaughter of Abe Janzen, former executive director of Mennonite Central Committee Alberta, is swinging for 100 minutes to raise money for this year’s Go!100 challenge (Photo by Abe Janzen)
June 30, 2020 | News | Joanne De Jong
Members of the Anglican-Mennonite Dialogue met online this year because of COVID-19. The effects of the pandemic on congregations in the two denominations were front and centre in the discussions. (Anglican-Mennonite Dialogue screenshot)
The Anglican-Mennonite Dialogue scrapped plans for a meeting at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., this spring, due to pandemic restrictions but met... Read More
June 30, 2020 | News | Melissa Miller
Claire Ewert Fisher, interim pastor of Rosthern Mennonite Church, speaks during MC Saskatchewan’s virtual town-hall meeting, “Dreaming church beyond pandemic.” (Screenshot by Donna Schulz)
“We have to embrace the disequilibrium we feel right now and let it teach us what it needs to teach us,” said Claire Ewert Fisher, interim pastor of Rosthern Mennonite Church,... Read More
June 30, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Rosthern (Sask.) Mennonite Church members meet in Brian and Delilah Roth’s farm shop to sort and crush bottles donated through their bottle drive. Pictured from left are Brenda Isaak, Brooklyn Isaak, Denise Epp, Jeanette Hanson, Todd Hanson, Lloyd Schmidt and Cheryl Schmidt. (Photo by Delilah Roth)
Every Saturday in May, Rosthern Mennonite Church members drove the streets of Rosthern, picking up bottles and other refundable beverage containers. The church’s Christian... Read More
June 30, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Miriam and Pilgram Wallace enjoy attending Sunday school and connecting with their friends online. (Photo by Josh Wallace)
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan is offering Sunday school for children via Zoom. Josh and Cindy Wallace started hosting the half-hour sessions at the end of May. So far, about eight... Read More
June 30, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
RJC High School students in Rosthern, Sask., walk together in front of the school building. (Photo courtesy of RJC High School)
Mennonite schools are facing the challenge of operating during a pandemic, both now and into the fall, while staying true to their mission to deliver a faith-based, holistic... Read More
June 17, 2020 | News | Various Contributors
(Conrad Grebel University College photo)
Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont. The COVID-19 pandemic has created many changes and challenges for Grebel. While construction on the kitchen and dining room... Read More
June 17, 2020 | News | Ross W. Muir
Migrant workers in quarantine on the Thwaites farm (Photo by Jane Andres)
When international travel was banned in March of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Niagara fruit farmers were in shock. John and Jocelyn Thwaites and their sons, who... Read More
June 17, 2020 | News | Maria H. Klassen
Regular attenders celebrate Superb Mennonite’s 70th anniversary in 2015. (Photo by Marg Olfert)
“I think they’re going to grieve for a while,” says Lois Siemens of Superb Mennonite Church, which held its final worship service on May 31. The church building, located 212... Read More
June 17, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Mike Wiebe is the musical mastermind behind Winter Hour. (Photo from Winter Hour’s Facebook account)
Manitoba musician Mike Wiebe released his debut album, You Made a Shadow , on May 31 under the name Winter Hour. He wrote the album’s 10 songs over a period of five years,... Read More
June 17, 2020 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Pickup truck bookends by John Wiebe. (Photo by Laura Wiebe)
If you are Mennonite and live in Alberta, you may not know John Wiebe, but you’ll recognize his work. Kate Janzen calls him the “poet of ironwork.” Every year since 1973, Wiebe... Read More
June 17, 2020 | People | Joanne De Jong
A Mennonite quartet sings for polio patient Ted Braun, in an iron lung at the King George Hospital in Winnipeg in the mid-1950s. Ted watches the singers in the mirror positioned above his head. (Photo courtesy of Henry John Epp)
Dave Penner recalls playing in the ditch with his brother in the summer of 1952. He was 5, his brother Henry was three years older. The freshly dug ditch on the expanded Highway 3... Read More
June 17, 2020 | People | Will Braun
The 2018-19 Manitoba-Germany Exchange students from Manitoba head off to Germany for three months of living in their exchange partners’ homes. (Photos courtesy of Westgate Mennonite Collegiate)
For the first time in the Manitoba-Germany Exchange’s 40 years of existence, Canadian students will not be able to reunite with their exchange partners in Germany this spring, due... Read More
June 17, 2020 | Web First |
The team planning the 2020 Mennonite Church Canada study conference is, clockwise from top left: Gerald Gerbrandt; Kim Penner (right, pictured with her partner); Doug Klassen; Ryan Siemens; and Marilyn Rudy-Froese. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada)
“Table talk: Does the church still have legs,” the 2020 Mennonite Church Canada study conference, is a virtual event happening on Oct. 24. Plenary speakers from MC Canada-... Read More
June 16, 2020 | Web First | Katie Doke Sawatzky
The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing pre-existing systemic inequalities that benefit some and disadvantage others. How can the Anabaptist family respond? (MWC photo by Henk Stenvers)
Mennonite Church Canada is donating $50,000 to the Global Sharing Fund operated by Mennonite World (MWC) to help MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 global... Read More
June 15, 2020 | Web First |
This building in Markham, Ont., will provide 32 much-needed affordable housing units thanks to the efforts of volunteers with MICAH, who persevered with the construction through the pandemic. MICAH is supported by 13 area churches, including three Mennonite congregations. (Photo by Mike Clare)
Affordable housing “changes lives.” It is a “human right that enables individuals and families to flourish.” These convictions motivated Anne Nicholson and other members of the... Read More
June 15, 2020 | Web First | Janet Bauman
(Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter/Pixabay)
As rallies and protests continue across the United States and Canada in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the five regional... Read More
June 4, 2020 | Web First | Canadian Mennonite staff
Wendell Manuzon, a Grade 10 student at RJC High School, picks up trash in his neighbourhood as part of his ALSO experience. (Photo courtesy of Rosthern Junior College)
For many students at Rosthern Junior College (RJC High School), ALSO Week is one of the most memorable and meaningful experiences of their school year. ALSO stands for Alternative... Read More
June 3, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Despite the rain, customers line up patiently to enter the Mennonite Central Committee Centre thrift shop in Abbotsford on re-opening day, May 25. Thrift shops in B.C. had been closed since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
After more than two months of being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the 10 Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) British Columbia thrift shops were reopening with limited... Read More
June 3, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Camps across the country are cancelling their summer programs. (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/CampSqueah)
Camp Squeah of Hope, B.C. has cancelled its 2020 camping season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a May 15 statement, camp director Rob Tiessen wrote, “In order to best ensure the... Read More
June 3, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell and Ross W. Muir
The original diaries of Johannes D. Dyck (1826-1898) tell, among other things, the stories of his adventures in America, including an escape from an ambush during the California Gold Rush. (Photo by Conrad Stoesz)
A Mennonite man escapes an ambush during the California Gold Rush because he had a fast horse. We know his story because he left behind a set of diaries. Another Mennonite stuffs... Read More
June 3, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
(Photo by Aaron Epp)
The coronavirus pandemic has shut down concert venues and sports stadiums. Even movie theatres have locked their doors. Over the past several months, many people have found... Read More
June 3, 2020 | People | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Variety show host Jungle June, aka June Miller, entertains the women at the 2014 MC Alberta women’s retreat. (Photo by Helena Ball)
Mennonite Church Alberta is sad to say goodbye this summer to June Miller. Not only has she served the regional church as its first communications coordinator, she has also used... Read More
June 3, 2020 | People | Joanne De Jong
Helen Martens, the first music professor at Conrad Grebel University College, plays the piano and leads a Grebel choir in 1969. (Photo by David L. Hunsberger / Mennonite Archives of Ontario)
Helen Martens, Conrad Grebel University College’s first music faculty member, passed away on April 9 at the age of 92, surrounded by family in Winnipeg. She last visited Grebel in... Read More
June 3, 2020 | Web First |
Michel Monette, catalyzer minister for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, back row centre, is pictured with the Centre Bethésda Mennonite de Quebec, a French-speaking church plant. (Photo by Charles Tebena)
Serge Gravel describes meeting with other French Anabaptists online like getting a dose of Vitamin C fortified with Vitamin D and zinc, in order to gain spiritual victory and... Read More
June 2, 2020 | Web First | Janet Bauman