The weirdness of Christmas 2020
“To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.” Isaiah 61:3 (NLT) A movie seemingly made for Christmas 2020 appeared almost 30 years ago—a creepy little stop-motion musical, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Was it a Christmas movie, a…
Watch and Listen: A 2020 Christmas Playlist
If you’re missing the songs you are used to singing and hearing in church at this time of year, Canadian Mennonite has just the thing for you. We have created a playlist of videos that have been uploaded to YouTube in recent weeks that feature Mennonites from across Canada singing traditional hymns. You can check…
‘Why don’t we have a food-truck night?’
Let me tell you a story. A couple of years ago, our church council did some brainstorming around how to begin reaching out to our neighbours. Because our church is located in a rural community, the possibilities are limited and come with significant hurdles. During the discussion, one person piped up, “Why don’t we have…
COVID creativity: Cards, buns and wreaths
Like most of the country, Alberta is experiencing, its second wave of novel coronavirus. As of early December, as many as 1,800 Albertans were contracting COVID-19 every day. With the Christmas season approaching, every church had to look at past traditions and ask whether to try to alter them in some way or to cancel…
Pandemic fund targets inequalities in global church
“What a joy it is for the brothers and sisters [of the Bateke Plateau] to feel themselves a part of the larger Mennonite family,” says Reverend Seraphin Kutumbana of Communauté Mennonite au Congo, a Mennonite World Conference (MWC) member church. Comite National Inter Mennonite (CONIM) brought together MWC national member churches Communauté Mennonite au Congo,…
COVID-19 cases rise among Mennonites in Waterloo Region
On Nov. 30, public health officials in the Waterloo Region of Ontario issued an order to close all Old Order, Markham, Old Colony (Low German speaking) and David Martin Mennonite churches and schools due to significant community spread of COVID-19 in the northern portions of Wellesley and Woolwich townships. More than 200 new cases of…
Making sense of the bleakness
“An urgent reality … a state of public health emergency.” This is how our premier, Jason Kenney, described our situation in Alberta last week because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is probably not news to anyone that the number of new cases in Alberta has continued to rise dramatically over the last couple weeks. Hospitals…
Candles of care for health-care workers
A single flame flickered into existence in the window of a home in Steinbach, and now throughout the city—and across the country—candles send warmth to a hurting community. Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach began lighting candles on Nov. 13, putting them in windows and posting photos to social media daily, in prayer and solidarity with health-care workers,…
MC Canada calls for prayer for Ethiopia and Eritrea
Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) held a nationwide fasting and prayer for peace on Nov. 16. “Believers are still praying for peace, individually and collectively,” they announced. “At present, our hope is in God alone. We kindly request the Mennonite families in North America and around the world to pray for our country. We need peace…
Grief and a snowman
A few weeks ago, I received a package in the mail from the Boston Athletic Association for finishers of the Boston Marathon. It was exciting to receive the package and yet it was also quite sad. ‘It was exciting to receive the package and yet it was also quite sad.’ This was not how I…
