How to disagree with the beloved of God
Ian Funk remembers the last time he arrived on campus at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS)—how he walked into the guest house late at night and was welcomed by a fellow student sitting at the dining room table. People heard them exchanging greetings and popped out of their rooms. Within minutes, a group of students…
Threads of unity – Diversity in faith and tradition
The tilet is a quintessential feature of Ethiopian traditional attire, deeply rooted in our religious, ethnic and identity symbolism. Crafting the tilet involves intricate weaving techniques, utilizing continuous extra weft threads of varying colours to achieve specific desired designs. This intricate process requires a diverse range of colours, thread types and patterns, demanding significant time and effort to create…
Theology students learn to value varied perspectives
Faculty and students in the master of theological studies (MTS) program at Conrad Grebel University College have found that conversations between those with different approaches to Christianity are a valuable learning experience. Class discussions about the Bible, Christian theology, ministry and church history are all enriched due to diverse approaches to Christianity from both students…
A gift to faith
Advent is the season of waiting for the gift to come. Advent moves into the season of Christmas, which ends at Epiphany, when the Magi—possibly Zoroastrians—famously gave gifts to the infant Jesus. In these monthly columns I have tried to emphasize the mind as a gift essential to faith. Another emphasis is that our objective…
Discussing the future of an inclusive church
Twenty-three people gathered in the basement of Hamilton (Ont.) Mennonite Church, together with remote groups in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary, to discuss the future of In This Together (ITT): LGBTQ+ Anabaptist Network of Canada. The idea for ITT came about after an event put on by Pastors in Exile last April called “Beyond binaries:…
‘Queer and quirky and profoundly worthy of wonder’
The gathering hymn, “God Welcomes All,” called some 120 people to worship at the opening of the “Beyond binaries: Creating an affirming church” event hosted by Waterloo North Mennonite Church on April 6. The vision for this event came from 17-year-old Thea Andres, who identified the treatment of queer people—a term being reclaimed by many…
Creating space to work towards inclusion
Churches wanting to take the next step in becoming affirming of LGBTQ+ people might wonder “What’s next?” A workshop led by Thea Andres together with Pastors in Exile (PiE) at Waterloo North Mennonite Church on April 6 aimed to answer those questions and help churches take the plunge. The seminar drew approximately 120 people, including…
Searching for a ‘generous space’
A handful of Christians were looking for community and a place to meet with others with similar experiences. They found it at Queerly Christian. The participants identify under the LGBTQ+* umbrella and take the time to sing queer hymns, pray, take communion, reflect on Scripture and take part in a community meal. They gather twice a…
Identity, boundaries and new ways of thinking
Mennonites in Canada today are a diverse group, and the old stereotype of Mennonites as German-speaking agrarian people fits only a small part of the picture. The history conference, “A people of diversity: Mennonites in Canada since 1970,” held at the University of Winnipeg from Nov. 15 to 17, 2018, provided an opportunity to…
Extending the table
English is still the dominant language in Mennonite Church Canada as a whole, but worship also happens every Sunday in Cantonese, Lao, Tigrinya, Oromo and 14 other languages. Unfortunately, links between Euro-Canadian Mennonites and Mennonites of other backgrounds remain limited. Of the 225 MC Canada congregations, 29 are not Euro-Canadian, a number that has doubled…
