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Feature Film Documents Migration
Toronto filmmaker Dale Hildebrand has lots on the go. In late November, he was preparing for a hospital series, had just shot a TV pilot for an Indigenous cop show and was looking ahead to work on a Western and a horror–sci-fi–thriller “type of thing.” “I’m all over, but I just love the idea of…
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An intense editorial in three parts
Part I. Divine embraceOn pages 22-23, Melody Steinman writes about her relationships with people with developmental disabilities. With tenderness and vulnerability, she shares about a warm, though awkward, human embrace and a profound, transformative divine embrace. Melody’s stories of friendship, vocation and holy belonging touch the heart of Christianity. This is a gift. The article…
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Sorting good from bad without being defensive
I was interested to attend the annual Bechtel Lecture about Anabaptist beginnings at Conrad Grebel University College delivered by Karl Koop, professor of theology and history at Canadian Mennonite University last Friday. He discussed the widespread social upheaval of 1524-25 which surrounded and informed our forebears, noting that the Schleitheim confession that Anabaptists adopted in…
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A sobering, optimistic challenge
Stuart Murray’s Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World is a bold project. Murray is a church planter, founding director of the Centre for Anabaptist Studies in Great Britain and author of The Naked Anabaptist. In this book, he takes on the brave task of naming the time the Western church is in,…
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Bearing witness: Martyr Story of Anna Jansz
Anna Jansz was born in 1510 to a well-to-do family living in the town of Briel on the island of Putten near the North Sea coastline of South Holland. Following her marriage to Arent Jansz, she and her husband accepted baptism in 1534 from Maynaart von Emden, a Münsterite Anabaptist leader who had been sent…
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Adventures in reading the Bible together
With the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism this year, I am looking forward to receiving my copy of the Anabaptist Community Bible. During the winter of 2022–23, I was part of two Bible study groups which were formed in response to a call from MennoMedia as part of this Bible project. The idea was to have…
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Anabaptist Bible project gets feedback
Local contributors to an Anabaptist Bible that is set for publication in 2025 met with the Bible’s advisory group last month. The advisory group for the Anabaptist Community Bible met in Waterloo, Ontario, in early August to do its first round of editing. Managing editor Mollee Moua invited contributors to join the group for dessert…
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Planning a people’s Bible
Anabaptism began in 1525 in Switzerland, when bold young Christians challenged authorities with the radical idea that Scripture spoke clearly to ordinary people who studied the Bible together. Nearly five centuries later, plans are taking shape for a special Bible to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Anabaptism and breathe new life into grassroots Bible study.…
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Anabaptism at 500 announces advisory group members
Harrisonburg, Va.—In February, MennoMedia put out a call for members to join the advisory group for the new venture, Anabaptism at 500. Nearly 50 qualified people applied, and eight were chosen to serve for the next three years. The advisory group will offer expertise and perspectives in various meetings and subcommittees and ensure that Anabaptism at…
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The birth of Anabaptism in fire and water
Sometimes, a single act can have enormous consequences. In the religious ferment of 16th century Europe, a small group of Christians in the Swiss canton of Zurich gathered in a home on a wintry January day in 1525. One of them, George Blaurock, asked another, Conrad Grebel, to baptize him. Around the circle they went,…
