Race explored in 2021 Bechtel Lecture
This year’s virtual Bechtel Lecture, “Blackness, whiteness and the Anabaptist ‘imagined community’ in print and mission,” featured two speakers: Diana Braithwaite, an accomplished blues, gospel and jazz performer, and founder and director of the Rella Braithwaite Black History Foundation, where she researches, preserves and shares the story of Blacks in Canada. Timothy D. Epp, an…
Deborah Tewelde sets her faith in action
Deborah Tewelde, a member of Meheret Evangelical Church in Kitchener, Ont., a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation, received the 2019 Lincoln M. Alexander award given by the Province of Ontario to youth who have shown strong leadership in eliminating racial discrimination. “Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute [in Kitchener] is one of the most diverse schools in…
Herald Press releases ‘Lamenting Racism’
Racial injustice is a blight on our society, yet many Christians have been hesitant to speak up about racism. In Lamenting Racism (Herald Press, January 2021), a multiracial team of leading pastors and theologians invite believers into the practice of biblical lament as a powerful way to confront racism. Through their conversations in six thought-provoking…
What can a white church do?
When the death of George Floyd sparked race-related demonstrations across North America earlier this year, one of our deacons asked, “What can we do in response to this?” My church, Eigenheim Mennonite in Rosthern, Sask., is racially homogeneous. The community beyond our church includes Indigenous, Filipino, Karen and Pakistani people, but they don’t worship with…
‘You must be a Mennonite!’
As a young adult I entered a Mennonite college knowing little about Mennonites. I grew up (mostly) Baptist. I was astonished to hear people say over and over again, “You must be a Mennonite!” I sputtered that just because my last name is Klassen does not make me Mennonite, and that, in fact, I was…
Minority Mennonites organize a support group
When Gabby Martin mentions that she’s a Mennonite, she’s often met with, “Okay, but where are you from?” Her father is Black and her mother is Syrian; she was adopted by Mennonites. Martin grew up in Langham, Sask., and has been Mennonite her whole life, yet, because of her appearance, it feels like she’s expected…
Expanding the reconciliation tent
Although I’m a pacifist who has never voted Conservative, I support the Conservative-led campaign to put a war hero’s face on the $5 bill. All the more so after speaking about it with Don Plett, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, who upset many in our denomination last year by blocking Bill C-262: An…
White Mennonite static
The Mennonite church has the opportunity to become a dependable partner in the work of dismantling racism. The church as a whole has a record of racism—both overt and covert—that has been attested to by generations of Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) community members both within and outside the church. The question is…
Canadian voices on racism
What follows is a companion piece to “White Mennonite static” by American scholar Tobin Miller Shearer. To read Mennonite Church Canada offers several resources, through its office of Indigenous-Settler Relations, including the “TRC Trilogy”: Wrongs to Right; Yours, Mine and Ours; and The Quest for Respect. Borrow or purchase from commonword.ca. The Skin We’re In.…
‘Be on our side’
Acknowledging that “the church has been awakened and reawakened to racial injustice in our midst after the death of George Floyd,” MennoMedia, an agency of Mennonite Church Canada and MC U.S.A., dedicated one of its ‘adaptive church webinars’ to addressing racism in churches. The July 9 webinar, entitled “Expanding our witness: Equipping ministry for anti-racist…
