Irma Fast Dueck reflects on lectionaries, honesty and worship
As some churches within MC Canada and MC USA embrace the Narrative Lectionary, Canadian Mennonite caught up with Irma Fast Dueck to ask about the use of lectionaries in Mennonite worship. Fast Dueck is associate professor of practical theology at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) where she has taught for over 30 years. She attends Bethel…
Sacred disruption
I don’t like the dark. If I can’t avoid walking into a dark room, I will use my phone’s glowing screen to break up the night until I reach the light switch. What is it about darkness that I find so disconcerting? Perhaps it’s the uncertainty, the unknowability of what lies unseen. My brain tells…
Waiting in the uterverse
On every one of my previous visits to the fertility clinic, the waiting room was full. Women of different ages, ethnicities and income brackets would take their seats in fertility limbo. Some would sit on their own, while others sat with partners who held their hands and brought them water or coffee until they were…
The song of Mary
Mary, whose heart is full of things to ponder, goes to see her older relative Elizabeth in the hill country. Both are pregnant. Both are in on the secret of the Messiah. They are brimming with possibility and responsibility. They have both surrendered in a visceral, physical way to the flow of divine will. Mary…
Tuning out of Advent
Sometimes I wish the perennial efforts to wring some fresh meaning from amidst the hecticness of Advent would abate. It feels like open season for religious cliches and uninteresting comments about busyness, when all I want is silence. But I’m not here to complain. I have found a simple approach to make Advent a…
Advent 2021 a time of sharing in MC B.C.
Congregations in Mennonite Church B.C. have been observing Advent in various ways through December. Yarrow United Mennonite celebrated First Advent, the Sunday of joy, with a bulletin display set up in the church foyer. Church members could write what brings them joy on the display to share with others. At Cedar Valley Church in Mission,…
Hope for a weary world
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:14) Our world is weary. Throughout the past year many people have lost hope because of unprecedented crises and the ongoing pandemic, waiting and hoping for better times. Anne Herridge. Centuries ago, an equally weary world waited and hoped. Men…
Watch: Advent greetings from MC Canada
The executive minister for Mennonite Church Canada extends Advent greetings to the nationwide church in a video posted on YouTube earlier this week. “We are making it through the COVID-19 pandemic,” Doug Klassen says in the video. “Pastors and church boards are bearing much of the stress and strain that comes with carrying a faith…
The transformative power of Advent
One of my earliest memories is singeing my eyelashes while blowing out an Advent candle. I distinctly remember standing at the crate that served as our coffee table, leaning in to blow out the first candle and jumping back as my parents gasped. Undaunted, I leaned back in and blew out the second. I wasn’t…
Advent and idolatry
The first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year, so it would be appropriate to greet each other with the recognition that a new year has begun. Advent is the most Jewish of Christian seasons. Yet we are accustomed to approaching Advent in a way that strips it of its Jewish character,…
