Transcending borders
Congregations across Mennonite Church Canada have matched a $50,000 donation made by the nationwide church to a COVID-19 relief fund operated by Mennonite World Conference (MWC). The fund, which is part of MWC’s Global Church Sharing Fund, helps MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This giving demonstrates to churches in other parts of…
Hope in a bleak midwinter
Canadians are struggling with the heaviness of this winter. The prospect of several more months with physical gathering restrictions is as depressing as the grey skies of southern Ontario in February. As a society, we have started to squabble, point fingers and shift blame. The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in December buoyed our spirits as…
Learning together, apart
Whether you call it Sunday school, faith formation or Christian education, one aspect of a congregation’s life together is how we nurture faith in people of all ages. Last spring, with the coming of the COVID-19 restrictions, many churches saw drastic changes in their faith education programs. I chatted recently with folks who have responsibilities…
Churches work together to serve curbside Christmas dinner
On Christmas Day, 137 free turkey dinners were served up for people who needed some Christmas cheer in the Wilmot and Wellesley townships of Waterloo Region. The curbside Christmas dinner was organized by the Wilmot Family Resource Centre based in New Hamburg, and supported by more than 10 local churches. It was aimed at anyone…
Year of wonders
I read with great interest the many articles about how different churches are responding to the pandemic and government restrictions. There are many! Because there are many ways for churches to respond both to the pandemic and to the restrictions. I have divided the various Canadian responses into two broad strands in my mind, although…
CommonWord’s top hits of 2020
The year of the coronavirus pandemic saw everyone spending more time at home, and many paying increased attention to their bookshelves. We asked CommonWord, the bookstore and resource centre of Mennonite Church Canada and Canadian Mennonite University, what people read in 2020. In-store and curbside pickup sales and loans across Canada have declined, says Arlyn…
Pastor addresses radio audience about church gatherings
With a message of “Love your neighbour as yourself,” a Mennonite Church B.C. pastor reached a wide audience on the radio with a message about in-person church gatherings. On a recent call-in talk show on radio station CKNW, broadcast from Vancouver across the Fraser Valley, senior pastor Frank Berto, of Living Hope Christian Fellowship in…
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…
Pandemic denies us shared rituals of grief
By everything that is right and good, Helen Penner’s life should have been celebrated with singing. Singing was a passion for her and her late husband John, and they ensured their eight children found their melodic voices at an early age. The kids grew up singing in church, blending their voices in the four-part harmony…
Meditations while sheltering in place
Evan Kreider was scheduled to speak at Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Fellowship in Vancouver in the spring of 2020. But the pandemic put an end to that, as life as we knew it changed. Group meetings were discouraged. The timing coincided with the church’s plan to depart the chapel of the Menno Simons Centre, a student…
