With stay-at-home orders being lifted across much of the U.S. and Canada, churches are thinking about what it will look like to open their doors again. Yet because the COVID-19... Read More
News & Stories
(Image by Pexels/Pixabay)
One of the most potent ways we cope with hardship is by singing and praying together. Amid the loss of in-person gathering, congregations have shown a tremendous amount of... Read More
June 1, 2020 | Web First |
"Everyone has their own needs, their own ways of engaging with film..." (Image by Jan Vašek/Pixabay)
Looking for a movie to watch? Sue Sorensen has some suggestions for you. Sorensen, an English professor at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, is featured in a series of... Read More
May 29, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Tha Thi Ke stands in her family’s first cornfield in Vietnam’s Phu Tho Province. In 2001, MCC encouraged farmers to grow winter corn crops and find other ways to supplement income from their rice yields, helping them remain on their land rather than being forced to migrate. (MCC photo by Jack Leonard)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has scaled up its work to respond to the global crisis, increasing projects related to water, hygiene and... Read More
May 27, 2020 | Web First | Laura Kalmar
An aerial view of Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, an Indigenous ministry training centre near Beausejour, Man. The centre receives money from the Jubilee Fund. (Photo courtesy of sandysaulteaux.ca)
In 1990, as the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival on this side of the Atlantic loomed, Mennonites felt compelled to do something tangible. The Conference of Mennonites in... Read More
May 25, 2020 | Web First | Will Braun
Lydia Ann (Horst) Bauman is pictured with her granddaughter’s dog at a celebration for her 104th birthday in the summer of 2019. CM wonders if she is our oldest reader. (Photo by Lucy Goshow)
Lydia Ann (nee Horst) Bauman may be Canadian Mennonite ’s oldest reader. At 104 years of age she still reads the magazine in her assisted-living suite at Fairview Seniors... Read More
May 20, 2020 | People | Janet Bauman
Bev Suderman-Gladwell, right, and her son Nathan model some of the gowns sewed for frontline workers by a group of volunteers in Waterloo Region. The group has also added scrub caps and masks to the lists of supplies its members are sewing. (Photo by Andrea Deering Nagy)
When Bev Suderman-Gladwell was asked by a physician friend to “leverage her Mennonite connections,” to respond to a time-sensitive need, she had no way of knowing an “... Read More
May 20, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Vic Winter is back at home with a new outlook and a new beard. He says he is keeping it. (Photo by Marilyn Winter)
Vic Winter was admitted to hospital in Leamington on March 20. In short order his wife Marilyn was sent home while he was sent to the intensive-care unit at the Windsor Regional... Read More
May 20, 2020 | People | Zach Charbonneau
Sami and Amina (real names withheld for security purposes) were displaced from their home in Aleppo, Syria. This photo was taken in February 2018 in the home where the family of seven lives in Breike, in the Qalamoun valley. They receive monthly food packages from MCC through local partners. (MCC photo by Emily Loewen)
A century ago, bread was the beginning of the work of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Relief kitchens in Ukraine (then southern Russia) fed families who had been displaced and... Read More
May 20, 2020 | News | Vurayayi Pugeni
Arnie Nickel leads a 45-minute exercise session for seniors on Zoom. (Screenshot by Howard Giles)
Three times a week, Arnie Nickel leads a 45-minute exercise session for seniors on Zoom, a virtual-meeting app. Participants are enthusiastic and their numbers are growing. It all... Read More
May 20, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
Johann E. Funk took the cover photo for Mennonite Village Photography: Views from Manitoba 1890–1940 in 1903.
Hundred-year-old images on fragile glass negatives, discovered in a dusty barn in the heritage village of Neubergthal, Man., open a window to Mennonite life in Manitoba in the... Read More
May 20, 2020 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Columbia Bible College student Claire Dueck, right, and new best friend Sarah Trentalance. (Photo courtesy of Claire Dueck)
Every year Mennonite Church Alberta offers education bursaries to students who attend a regional-church congregation who have successfully enrolled in a Mennonite or Anabaptist... Read More
May 20, 2020 | People | Joanne De Jong
Garry Janzen, executive minister of MC B.C., keeps in touch with members of his condo complex through the Nextdoor.ca app. (Photo courtesy of Garry Janzen)
Garry Janzen and his wife Diane, who live in a condominium in Ladner, B.C., have found a new way to relate to those around them during the current pandemic: the Nextdoor.ca app... Read More
May 20, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Many offline Mennonites are staying connected by phone. (Image by Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay)
When the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, life went online. From school classes to fitness workouts to worship services, everything started streaming on the web. But what happens... Read More
May 19, 2020 | Web First | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Mike Wiebe filmed the video for 'Letters' at his church. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
Singer-songwriter Mike Wiebe has given the public a taste of his new project. The Winnipeg musician released a video for his song “Letters” last Friday. It’s the first single from... Read More
May 15, 2020 | Web First | Aaron Epp
Kingsfield-Zurich Mennonite Church, pictured last month. (Photo courtesy of Instagram.com/kingsfieldzmc)
Earlier this spring, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada released the following statement: “We announce with great sadness Kingsfield-Clinton and Kingsfield-Zurich Mennonite Church,... Read More
May 12, 2020 | Web First | Janet Bauman
‘Our separation as churches at this time is difficult, but it also presents an opportunity to take a step back and think critically about what it means to be the church,’ says Kim Penner, who sits on the planning committee for Mennonite Church Canada's upcoming study conference. (Photo courtesy of YouTube)
Mennonite Church Canada is moving ahead with its first study conference in October 2020. Titled “Table Talk: Does the Church Still Have Legs?”, the conference will examine what it... Read More
May 11, 2020 | Web First |
Ken Esau, professor of Old Testament at Columbia Bible College, blows a ram’s horn as he addresses the graduating class on what it means to seek first God’s kingdom. (Screen grab of Columbia Bible College 2020 commencement ceremony (YouTube))
Graduation for Columbia Bible College’s class of 2020 looked a little different this year. Rather than proudly walking across the stage in cap and gown to receive their diplomas,... Read More
May 6, 2020 | News | Amy Rinner Waddell
Leah Reesor-Keller, the incoming MC Eastern Canada executive minister, is pictured at her computer while participating in the regional church’s annual gathering, this year via Zoom. (Photo by Luke Reesor-Keller)
“We are one body in Christ . . . even when scattered. We are members of one another. We can still encourage and pray for and learn from each other.” With these affirming words,... Read More
May 6, 2020 | News | Janet Bauman
Terry Stefaniuk, Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s moderator, welcomes delegates and guests to the regional church’s 2020 annual delegate sessions. (Screenshot by Donna Schulz)
After a year spent exploring the theme, “Deepening our walk with each other,” Mennonite Church Saskatchewan continued, inadvertently, to ponder what this means during its annual... Read More
May 6, 2020 | News | Donna Schulz
The home windows of Moses Falco, pastor of Sterling Mennonite Fellowship in Winnipeg, who started the #whiteoutMB movement with Karen Schellenberg. (Photo by Moses Falco)
Over the past two years, thousands of Manitobans have gathered in the streets of Winnipeg to cheer on the Winnipeg Jets in the hockey playoffs. Many were hoping to don their all-... Read More
May 6, 2020 | News | Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe
Matoli and Zavi Braun deGroot enjoy the rhythms of farm life during the pandemic. (Photo by Will Braun)
COVID-19 has permeated the collective psyche. And although kids may not be watching The National or spending their coveted screen time on the Health Canada webpage, COVID-19 is on... Read More
May 6, 2020 | News | Will Braun
After 46 years, Margie Steingart still works at the Christian Benefit Thrift Shop in St. Catharines, Ont. (MCC 100 stories for 100 years photo)
Many people have given their time to volunteering, but few have a record of volunteering for the same organization for 46 years. Margie Steingart has that distinction. She has... Read More
May 6, 2020 | People | Maria H. Klassen
Lule Begashaw is a psychotherapist and team lead at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers. (Photo by: Nafkot Begashaw)
According to Lule Begashaw, psychotherapist and team lead at the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, the mental-health team is seeing a big increase in requests for help... Read More
May 6, 2020 | Focus on Mental Health | Joanne De Jong
Andrew Ardell brings a global perspective to his work at Communitas Supportive Care Society. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Ardell)
Andrew Ardell is a friendly person who smiles readily and is thoughtful in his conversation. He cares deeply about the people he serves and is aware of how much he gains from the... Read More
May 6, 2020 | Focus on Mental Health | Angelika Dawson