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Love in the time of COVID-19
Thursday, as I sat down to a board meeting for the Micah Mission, a restorative justice organization in Saskatoon, I got the news that the Juno Awards show was being cancelled in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. For months I’d been hearing the Junos hyped on CBC Radio 2 and seeing advertisements…
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Beautiful and terrible connections
“Know we are connected in ways that are terrible and beautiful.” Last week I lingered over this line in a poem by Lynn Ungar on Facebook as I pondered the COVID-19 crisis. I am living into this crisis in Germany, where the pandemic has struck ahead of North America, and have struggled between hunkering down…
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Being the church in risky times
As relatively privileged people living in Canada, there aren’t too many times that we think about whether this action or that action might result in our death. Living in these pandemic times, though, reminds me of our years living in southern Africa near the end of official apartheid. We thought often then of whether doing…
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Fear not
I watched in disbelief as people feverishly filled their carts with toilet paper and bolted before someone could steal their treasure. In less than a minute, the toilet paper was gone and the mob dispersed. Except for one lady standing in front of a stack of six packages of toilet paper, protecting it from the…
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‘Greater love has no one . . .’
“Greater love has no one than to lay their life down for their friends,” said Jesus. That’s an amazing thing for anyone to do. But what about a whole village laying down its life for people it doesn’t even know? That would be extraordinary. Yet that’s what happened more than 350 years ago when a…
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In a time of uncertainty
With the spread of the COVID-19 virus prompting provincial health authorities to recommend social distancing, including public gatherings not to exceed 250 people, Fraser Valley Mennonite churches scrambled to react appropriately for the third Sunday of Lent on March 15. Mennonite Church British Columbia’s chair, Gerry Grunau, sent a letter on March 13 to all…
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Heading home early
When Pastor Siaka Traoré packed his bags for his trip to Canada and the United States in early March, it never crossed his mind that almost every event and visit he had planned would be cancelled. He had prepared to go Winnipeg; Edmonton; Seattle, Wash.; and Abbotsford, B.C., but only made it as far west…
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MCC invites community to participate in day of prayer
Kitchener, Ont.—In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mennonite Central Committee is inviting supporters to join the organization in a day of prayer on Wednesday, March 25. “Times of uncertainty call us to reach out to the most vulnerable in our community: those locally and globally who will be most affected by this crisis,” MCC Ontario…
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Watch: Worship led by MC Canada leadership
Doug Klassen, executive minister for Mennonite Church Canada, has recorded a sermon for churches to use during this time of social distancing. It is expected that many congregations will not meet on Sunday, March 22, and for several Sundays afterward, to limit the spread of COVID-19. MC Canada created the video in recognition that leadership…
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Mennonite organizations cancelling events, making adjustments in response to COVID-19
Mennonite churches and organizations across Canada are cancelling or postponing services and other events in response to COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. Here is a list (last updated at 12:45 p.m. EST on March 19), broken down by region. BRITISH COLUMBIA Mennonite Church British Columbia – In a letter sent to MCBC churches on…
