MCEC reduces salary costs by 17 percent
Due to ongoing budgetary pressure, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada is making a 17-percent reduction in salary costs for the 2025–26 budget year. The leadership have made the difficult decision to lay off four staff. A November 20 open letter to MCEC churches from Ann L. Schultz, intentional interim executive team leader, and moderator Ben Cassels,…
Hawkesville closes with gratitude
A year ago, Hawkesville Mennonite Church made the difficult decision to close as a congregation as of June 2024. Their numbers had dwindled and there were no children. Facing the future with courage, the congregation decided to express gratitude for 74 years of ministry and disperse. Hawkesville is a village near Waterloo, Ontario and there…
Eastern Canada churches discuss youth engagement
On Thursday, March 21, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada hosted an online forum to discuss youth engagement in church. Leading up to the forum, two MC Eastern Canada pastors shared about youth work. Ruth Boehm is pastor at Faith Mennonite Church, the smallest among three Mennonite congregations in Leamington, Ontario. Sometimes, she says, it feels like…
Moses Mugisha’s gift of song to God
Born in the African country of Rwanda, Moses Mugisha and his family moved to Tanzania, because of poverty and other circumstances. They lived there as refugees for almost six years. “I always loved to sing. I would find myself walking long distances just to get to church to practise, and then again the next day…
John Reimer appointed MC Eastern Canada operations director
John Reimer has been appointed the operations director of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada, as of Oct. 18. As a member of the executive staff team, he will give leadership to operational systems and processes to strengthen the regional church’s ministry supporting pastors and congregations to thrive. He will lead the development and implementation of the…
MC Eastern Canada looks to where God is calling the church
How is the church like kimchi? At Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s spring gathering, held virtually on April 23 and 24, many of the more than 250 in attendance tried making the traditional Korean dish while following Pablo Kim Sun’s demonstration from his kitchen in Toronto. Kim Sun, pastor of Toronto Mennonite New Life Church, described…
Deborah Tewelde sets her faith in action
Deborah Tewelde, a member of Meheret Evangelical Church in Kitchener, Ont., a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation, received the 2019 Lincoln M. Alexander award given by the Province of Ontario to youth who have shown strong leadership in eliminating racial discrimination. “Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute [in Kitchener] is one of the most diverse schools in…
Celebrating the life of John Cornies (1940-2020)
“Leadership can be rewarding as well as lonely,” wrote the late John Cornies in his memoir. “I have, however, felt God’s leading and calling in these endeavours. While I felt that God called and equipped me when placed in positions of leadership, my human failings got me into difficulties at times. And yet, I have…
Credentials terminated for theologian-academic-pastor
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada recently terminated the ministerial credentials of John D. Rempel of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., following an investigation into complaints of ministerial sexual misconduct. The complaints were brought to the regional church by Marcus Shantz, president of Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., after former students brought allegations of sexual misconduct by Rempel to…
Dishonoured treaties are ‘the ghost of our history’
Myeengun Henry, Indigenous elder, says treaty relationships should be tended. “We need to shine those up every year so we don’t forget how important they are.” Henry was the first speaker in a seven-month, online storytelling series called “Treaty as Sacred Covenant: Stories of Indigenous-Mennonite Relations,” that centres on covenants made, broken and renewed. A…
