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Preserving the voices of the past
“This is our collective memory,” says Conrad Stoesz, gesturing to a long hallway filled with row upon row of shelves, packed with files and boxes. Stoesz is the archivist at the Mennonite Heritage Archives (MHA), located on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg. The “collective memory” stored in this archive is made…
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Witness workers to be funded for the next three years
Transition plans, storytelling and navigating change were all part of the Jan. 27-28, 2018, weekend when the Mennonite Church Canada Joint Council convened at Peace Mennonite Church in Richmond. This was the second time that the Joint Council has met since the October 2017 special assembly in Winnipeg. In business meetings, the Council approved a…
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‘Tapestry of uprooted cultures’
Authors Joy Kogawa and Rudy Wiebe speak of their ethnic histories at the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta’s Fall 2017 meeting in Lethbridge. (Photo by Dave Toews) What would bring 200 people out on a windy, grey afternoon last November to the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association Centre for the fall conference of the Mennonite Historical…
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Purposeful and meaningful
The numerous staff changes at Mennonite Church Eastern Canada in the last year have been coming for a long time. Top (from left to right): David Martin, Henry Paetkau, Al Rempel, Robertson Mbayamvula and Catherin van Sintern Dick Bottom (from left to right): Kevin Derksen, Norm Dyck, Brian Bauman, Marilyn Rudy-Froese and Mollee Moua David…
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Saskatchewan youth explore what it means to answer their call
Saskatchewan Mennonite Youth Organization retreats are an annual highlight, and the senior-high retreat held at Shekinah Retreat Centre has been an opportunity for youth to reunite with each other for a long time. The weekend event has seen some changes over the years, but always includes worship times featuring a speaker and band, outside winter…
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The in-between years
Emerging adult: it’s a relatively new category to describe the life stage between adolescence and the adult they will become. They are no longer teens but are not yet fully independent adults. The term “emerging adults” usually describes young adults who don’t have children, who don’t have their own home, probably have not determined their…
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The skill and soul of listening
Listening to God in worship, contemplatively in a labyrinth, or in the Bible. Listening to each other across cultures, when your hearing is impaired or when with the elderly. Mennonite Church Eastern Canada pastors, chaplains and congregational leaders gathered for a daylong seminar on listening on Jan. 20, 2018, at Redeemer College. The morning panel…
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Wildwood Mennonite unplugged
In this age of hectic schedules, electronic device dependency and human isolation, how can a church provide meaning, purpose and belonging? Saskatoon’s Wildwood Mennonite Church may have found an answer to this perplexing question. Wildwood Unplugged offered congregants three weekends of activities similar to a church retreat, but without the necessity or expense of leaving…
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Family celebrates permanent residency
The Warkentins are ringing in 2018 as official Canadians, but the journey to reach permanent-resident status was anything but easy. Jon and Karissa Warkentin and their five children, who attend Nordheim Mennonite Church in Winnipegosis, Man., received the announcement they could stay in Canada on Dec. 5, 2017. It came after a long struggle with…
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Creating a mission partnership web
What does mission look like in a country where the church is well established? From Jeanette Hanson’s point of view it’s a web of interconnected relationships. Hanson is a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker and the associate director for Mennonite Partners in China (MPC). For 10 years, Hanson and her husband Todd taught English under…
