MCC celebrates, serves where its work began
Under shade trees in a city park on June 16, about 40 Anabaptists shared a picnic of corn grits, rye bread and warm cocoa. The unusual menu held symbolic meaning. It was a “relief-kitchen dinner” like those that saved the lives of thousands of Mennonites and other Ukrainians on the brink of starvation in…
‘We became Mennonites’
Welcoming visitors from North America, Ivan Kapelushniy, pastor of Nikolaipolye Mennonite Church, led his congregation of about 15 people in singing “For God So Loved Us” in Russian. “There are no born Mennonites among us,” Kapelushniy said on June 16 as mission worker Mary Raber translated. “We became Mennonites.” Kapelushniy counts himself among the converts.…
MCC partner serves people ‘society doesn’t want’
Natalia Mezentseva oversees a household of “women in difficult circumstances.” With an affirming and instructive place to live, thanks to a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner, their circumstances are better already. A group of visitors on an MCC learning tour heard their stories, cuddled a baby, applauded a child’s poetry recital and prayed with them…
Quilts on display at Abbotsford museum
An exhibit of Mennonite Central Committee B.C. (MCC B.C.) quilts is on display at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, B.C., until the end of August, when they will go to the Tradex to be sold at the MCC B.C. Festival for World Relief on Sept. 13 and 14. All proceeds from the quilt sales support…
MCC boards approve five-year strategic plan
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has a loyal constituency, but its leaders don’t take the support for granted. “We can no longer assume Mennonite churches are familiar with MCC,” said board member Robert Enns of Calgary. “There are a lot of churches where MCC is just another organization out there.” To stand above the…
Four decades of welcome
Toronto United Mennonite Church was the first church in Canada to receive privately sponsored “boat people” who were fleeing Vietnam and Laos during the chaos of the Vietnam War. Early in March 1979, an adult social-issues group meeting during the Sunday school period took the first step. The story of Southeast Asian refugees fleeing by…
MCC Saskatchewan hosts successful relief sale and auction
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan hosted its 49th annual relief sale and auction at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park on June 7 and 8. An estimated 750 people took in a supper and concert with Saskatoon bluegrass band, Corner Grass on June 7, while about 2,500 people attended the sale the following day. New to this year’s…
The first signs of promise
Two broken chalkboards thrown by the 190-kilometre-per-hour winds of Cyclone Idai bake in the sun on what remains of the crumpled tin roof of one neighbourhood’s only preschool. In mid-March, Cyclone Idai slammed into central Mozambique near the coastal city of Beira, tearing off roofs, destroying homes and businesses, downing trees, displacing tens of thousands…
How do we respond to the stranger at our gate?
What is a Christian response to migration? While on a day to day basis, I tend to deal with the nuts and bolts issues of refugee resettlement and Canadian and international policy related to it, I regularly ask myself that question. Migration issues call for these sorts of reflections because there is a moral aspect…
MCC wants Canadians to #ChooseWelcome
In light of the highest level of refugees on record, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada is calling on individuals, communities, neighbours and faith groups to change lives through Canada’s Blended Visa Office Referred (BVOR) program. The program matches the most vulnerable refugees identified for resettlement by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with private sponsors…
