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Tending congregation-pastor relations
For many years, the model of ministry within Mennonite Church Canada congregations featured a solo pastor working full-time for a congregation of 100 to 150 members. MC Canada accordingly designed tools and support systems to facilitate such a relationship between pastor and congregation. Three notable examples include our pension plan, benefit plan and annual pastoral…
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Leading with care
In the 15 years he was the executive director of Community Justice Initiatives (CJI) in Kitchener, Ontario, Chris Cowie felt it was important to lead the organization with the same relational and restorative justice principles CJI uses with clients. Doug Klassen, executive minister of Mennonite Church Canada, describes a similar model of operating. “We have…
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Pain, apologies and repair following 2017 MC Canada restructuring
Jeanette Hanson, director of International Witness for Mennonite Church Canada, began a Zoom call last spring with an apology to members of the Anabaptist Network in South Africa. “I told them I was sorry for the way MC Canada broke relationship with them,” she said. “Two people on the call cried, talking about the hurt…
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Feature Film Documents Migration
Toronto filmmaker Dale Hildebrand has lots on the go. In late November, he was preparing for a hospital series, had just shot a TV pilot for an Indigenous cop show and was looking ahead to work on a Western and a horror–sci-fi–thriller “type of thing.” “I’m all over, but I just love the idea of…
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De Jongs complete term in Ethiopia, move to Kenya
When asked what they’ve learned from their time working at Meserete Kristos Seminary in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, Joanne and Werner De Jong say it’s more about their own transformation. The couple began their term as Mennonite Church Canada International Witness workers in Ethiopia in January 2022. Werner, a former pastor of Holyrood Mennonite Church in Edmonton,…
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Awakening to the Church’s true vocation
“God has been at work from the beginning to form a covenanted people of God to help bring about God’s plan for reconciling the world to its intended purposes.”– From The Baby and the Bathwater, by Robert (Jack) Suderman When I heard that Jack and Irene Suderman were visiting Winnipeg this fall, I reached out…
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The future of Mennonite Men
Mennonite Men says its ministry may soon meet its end. Don Neufeld, Canadian coordinator of this bi-national organization which saw its beginnings in the 1950s when men fundraised for projects like new church builds, wrote a letter to MC Canada’s leadership and area churches of MC Canada questioning the viability of their organization: “Our donation…
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Praying with their feet
On the afternoon of Saturday, October 5, approximately 60 people gathered in the shade of Holy Trinity Church in Toronto to support the Palestinian Youth Movement one year into the Gaza war. Organizations represented at the gathering included Christians for a Free Palestine, Christians for Just Peace, Bathurst United Church and Mennonite Action. “A number…
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Resourcing the Anabaptist church
Over 500 years, the Anabaptist community has grown to be a diverse and global expression of faith. The resources of Anabaptism reflect this diversity. Mennonite World Conference (MWC) represents most Christian churches rooted in the Anabaptist movement. In addition to the ongoing resourcing work of its commissions and networks, MWC has several significant resource titles:…
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Rubble and land in Ethiopia
Note: The following is an excerpt from a prayer letter/newsletter distributed by Joanne De Jong , a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker in Ethiopia, on August 8, 2024. I’ve been so sad. While we had our coffee this morning, under a make-shift tent on the street, we watched five young men help tear down their friend’s…
