A deep love for the church
On Nov. 4, tears and well wishes were intermingled at Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary when Pastor Doug Klassen told his congregation that he had accepted Mennonite Church Canada’s call to the position of executive minister. “While I grieve the thought of leaving the congregation that I have loved deeply for 20 years, I look…
Mennonite Church Canada thanks Willard Metzger
A farewell celebration was on the agenda for the Mennonite Church Canada Joint Council and Executive Staff Group, that were both meeting over the weekend of Oct 21, 2018. Along with other friends and well-wishers, they gathered at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg to thank Willard Metzger for his years of service as executive minister of…
Calgary pastor appointed as MC Canada’s executive minister
Mennonite Church Canada is pleased to announce that Doug Klassen has accepted the call to the position of executive minister. “It is an exciting time in Mennonite Church Canada. I want to help inspire a vision for what it means to be a nationwide church. I firmly believe that congregations are the foundational unit of…
Cast your vote in nationwide communications survey
Mennonite Church Canada and the new regional churches want to communicate better with their constituencies, in order to keep church members and adherents up-to-date with what God is doing in Canada and beyond. To help them do this, members and adherents from all regions are invited to participate in a communications survey being run by…
Paetkau to serve as MC Canada interim executive minister
Henry Paetkau will serve as the interim executive minister of Mennonite Church Canada beginning on Oct. 16. He replaces Willard Metzger, the current executive minister whose term ends on Oct. 31, 2018. Paetkau brings with him a diversity of experience that Joint Council believes meets the current needs of MC Canada during this time of…
What did I get myself into?
Swirling around with ideas of strategy, focus, and “We used to do it this way,” change is messy. Grappling with the in-between is messy. Living in the liminal space between what was and what will be is messy, yet here we are, wondering, “What did I get myself into?” In acting, “being in the moment”…
MC Canada staffer sentenced to seven days in jail
Steve Heinrichs was found guilty of criminal and civil contempt of court in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver on Aug. 8, 2018, and was sentenced to seven days in provincial jail. He was immediately taken into custody and transferred to the North Fraser Institute in Coquitlam to serve his sentence. (Aug. 13,…
Regionalism is coming. No thanks!
I’m more and more dismayed by the regionalizing trajectory we seem to be on. From national and international politics to neighbourhoods and churches, it feels like we are contracting our boundaries rather than expanding. To be honest, it’s not so bad working in a silo. In fact, there are advantages. One can have real relationships…
A picture of gradual decline
Often our society relies too much on numbers. In gravitating to quantification we tend to short-circuit the truth, which is nuanced and multilayered. But when it comes to our denomination, I would like to see more numbers. Specifically, how has overall giving to area/regional churches and Mennonite Church Canada changed over time? The charts here…
MC Canada Joint Council update
Seven months after the creation of a new structure for Mennonite Church Canada, the Joint Council met for its third meeting on May 5 and 6, in Toronto. • Members approved “in principle” a budget of $2.08 million for the nationwide church’s fiscal year ending in January 2019. This exceeds the target of $1.92 million originally…
