Studying the Bible through a feminist lens
Around 10 women and female-identifying people sit in a circle at Erb Street Mennonite Church in Waterloo, every week, drinking tea and discussing biblical texts through a feminist lens. Jessica Reesor Rempel, 29, a member of Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church in Kitchener, started Feminist Bible Study to create a space for women to discuss issues…
Passover
This image of a Passover meal appears next to Exodus 12 in a Bible published in Zurich in 1531. The idea of owning a family Bible, especially in one’s own language, was very new at the time for families of modest means. This particular Bible travelled from Switzerland to Pennsylvania to Ontario with the Reesor…
‘The tensions of taking Scripture seriously’
Scripture is a massive, ancient, messy archive of God’s relationship with humanity that many claim to interpret correctly. But with such diverse understandings of the Bible, how can Christians approach it with humility while granting God’s words authority over their lives? How can young people take Scripture seriously in an increasingly secularized world? These questions…
Singer-songwriter leads ‘Reading the Bible with Jesus’ workshops
Bryan Moyer Suderman believes that paying attention to Jesus as interpreter of Scripture can transform how we, too, engage Scripture and each other. The singer-songwriter and Bible teacher from Kitchener, Ont., experiences this firsthand as he leads interactive “Reading the Bible with Jesus” workshops for congregations across the U.S. and Canada since 2016, as a…
The quiet labours of a Low German translator
Ed Zacharias started with Exodus, translating word by word into Low German (Plautdietsch). For a decade he worked at it, sometimes with institutional backing, sometimes as a volunteer hunkered in his home office, relying on help from interested Wycliffe personnel and a loose network of Low German promoters. He was motivated by a love of…
Nerdy fun
For about 30 years, youth from several Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregations in Ontario have looked forward to their annual Bible quizzing event. It’s centred around friendly competition, memorization of minute biblical details and application of biblical principles to everyday life. Competing in pairs until a winner is chosen, Bible quizzing teams are asked 23…
Supplementary reading
Did you know that there’s an illustrated Bible that retells the stories in Scripture using Lego? The Brick Testament is a series by a man in California named Brendan Powell Smith, who has spent thousands of dollars using those small, colourful bricks recreating biblical stories and then photographing them. “While there is really no substitute…
‘Sounding the Scriptures’
Managing editor Ross W. Muir was introduced to biblical storytelling when John Epp, a member of the Network of Biblical Storytellers Canada and Toronto United Mennonite Church, visited First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., last spring. Following that encounter, the two chatted in person and online over the summer and into the fall. Ross W. Muir:…
The professionalization factor
I addressed the “priority problem” of Bible reading in the lives of many Christians in my last article. Here, I want to address the “professionalization factor,” which is what happens when Canadian Christians, and there are many of them, look to experts—pastors, priests, scholars—to read, study and unpack the Bible for them. This is not…
The priority problem
Fewer Christians are reading their Bibles today. Not exactly a news flash. The real question is, why are so many of us no longer reading our Bibles? I think there are three primary reasons:
