Millie, my lions and me
In early June, a sermon was delivered by a mother-daughter team in Tiefengrund Rosenort Mennonite Church in Saskatchewan. The daughter, Abby, is 12. From time to time, the growing whiteness of my hair and whiskers seems to dictate that I offer opinions about how we do church. About how we obsess over smoothness and perfect…
‘Fear not’
In the past few weeks, a theme has emerged in my Advent singing and Scripture reading: fear. Fear is all around us. A recent book about a fearmongering president is on the bestseller list. Politicians and pundits stoke a public paranoia, using it to boost their own power. Credible scientific reports alert us to the…
Caught in the tension between belief and fear
Time is a significantly gracious yet controlling dynamic. It’s a dimension from which we cannot escape, but our experience of it varies depending on our context. We move from day to day, month to month, year to year, growing older and hopefully wiser, sometimes caught off guard by the realization that time doesn’t wait for…
Pulling the curtain of hope over fear
Mennonite churches are afraid. In fact, Christian denominations all over Canada are afraid. We have felt this, seen it and experienced it. Sometimes this fear leads denominations to do reckless things. Sometimes it reaches the point of despair. Why so much fear? The cause, we are told, is the youth and young adults; apparently they’re…
