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A column about plague columns
If you’ve travelled in central or eastern Europe, you may have come across a plague column holding a prominent place in a town square. Plague columns were constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries as a display of public faith in the church and in God. At the time, the Catholic church was experiencing pressures…
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Sunday morning on Zoom
Church is about to start and the Zoom link doesn’t work! For some reason it keeps sending me to a YouTube video of “Seek Ye First,” and I can’t find my church! I quickly text my pastor husband, who not only leads the service and preaches every Sunday morning, but is also the lone manager…
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Too much news?
These are days of information overload. There is so much news to follow! Local, regional, national, international, from this part of the country and from that part of the world. It is hard to cope with how much news there is, and with how overwhelming it feels. News stories with an emotional catch lead me…
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The ‘sewists’ of Waterloo Region
When Bev Suderman-Gladwell was asked by a physician friend to “leverage her Mennonite connections,” to respond to a time-sensitive need, she had no way of knowing an “extraordinary project” would grow out of that request. Just over a month later, “sewists” (sewing+artists) from across Waterloo Region, Ont., have sewn more than 1,200 homemade gowns, 1,500…
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To death’s door and back
Vic Winter was admitted to hospital in Leamington on March 20. In short order his wife Marilyn was sent home while he was sent to the intensive-care unit at the Windsor Regional Hospital, where he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and placed unconscious on a ventilator to help him breathe as he fought for his life.…
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Moving with the times
Three times a week, Arnie Nickel leads a 45-minute exercise session for seniors on Zoom, a virtual-meeting app. Participants are enthusiastic and their numbers are growing. It all began eight or nine years ago, when a small group of seniors at Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon started an exercise group under the Saskatoon-based Forever…
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‘You and me and our neighbours, together’
Garry Janzen and his wife Diane, who live in a condominium in Ladner, B.C., have found a new way to relate to those around them during the current pandemic: the Nextdoor.ca app. Janzen, executive minister of Mennonite Church British Columbia, heard about the app from Adam Back, pastor of Peace Church on 52nd in Vancouver,…
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Offline life during COVID-19
When the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, life went online. From school classes to fitness workouts to worship services, everything started streaming on the web. But what happens if you don’t have internet access? How are those Mennonites staying connected with their churches? “It is a little different without being able to go [to church]. We…
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The climate context of a global virus
At first, I was irritated that travel plans were interrupted. Then I was frustrated that the markets leaked stored wealth. And finally, I was angered that separation from family and friends was mandated. Eventually I was weighted with the depressing context of self isolation. Quite a journey within a few short weeks. This sudden change…
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My CERB story
Does the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) mean the federal government is paying people to not work during the COVID-19 pandemic? Does this prove that a universal basic income would cause a mass exodus from workplaces and weaken our economy? Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister seems to think so. I’m sure many agree with him. Gross…
