MWC joins ecumenical week of prayer one year into COVID-19 pandemic
A year after the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a pandemic, Mennonite World Conference is joining the World Council of Churches and other Christians in a week of prayer March 22-27. The week will invite a time of prayer and reflection on both the lament and the hope expressed and experienced across…
MWC continues pastoral response to COVID-19
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, stories poured in from Mennonite World Conference (MWC) member churches about job losses and hunger in their congregations and communities due to shutdowns. MWC began collecting funds to respond to pandemic-related needs within and through the household of faith. A year into the pandemic, MWC…
Church members enjoy ‘snail mail’ during pandemic
In this time of isolation, some members of Abbotsford’s Emmanuel Mennonite Church are discovering the delights of a relationship based on the old-fashioned medium of handwritten letters. At the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown last March, Angelika Dawson began thinking of ways she could encourage people. As a writer, she recalled that, even as a…
Transcending borders
Congregations across Mennonite Church Canada have matched a $50,000 donation made by the nationwide church to a COVID-19 relief fund operated by Mennonite World Conference (MWC). The fund, which is part of MWC’s Global Church Sharing Fund, helps MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This giving demonstrates to churches in other parts of…
Hope in a bleak midwinter
Canadians are struggling with the heaviness of this winter. The prospect of several more months with physical gathering restrictions is as depressing as the grey skies of southern Ontario in February. As a society, we have started to squabble, point fingers and shift blame. The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in December buoyed our spirits as…
Churches work together to serve curbside Christmas dinner
On Christmas Day, 137 free turkey dinners were served up for people who needed some Christmas cheer in the Wilmot and Wellesley townships of Waterloo Region. The curbside Christmas dinner was organized by the Wilmot Family Resource Centre based in New Hamburg, and supported by more than 10 local churches. It was aimed at anyone…
‘What will happen to us now?’
COVID-19 has given Jake Buhler pause to reflect on his family history and how it has been shaped by pandemics. In 1918, when both the Spanish flu and tuberculosis were wreaking havoc in South Russia, Buhler’s mother Maria was an 11-year-old girl growing up in the Mennonite village of Grigoriewka. She was the second of…
Year of wonders
I read with great interest the many articles about how different churches are responding to the pandemic and government restrictions. There are many! Because there are many ways for churches to respond both to the pandemic and to the restrictions. I have divided the various Canadian responses into two broad strands in my mind, although…
Pastor addresses radio audience about church gatherings
With a message of “Love your neighbour as yourself,” a Mennonite Church B.C. pastor reached a wide audience on the radio with a message about in-person church gatherings. On a recent call-in talk show on radio station CKNW, broadcast from Vancouver across the Fraser Valley, senior pastor Frank Berto, of Living Hope Christian Fellowship in…
Watch and Listen: A 2020 Christmas Playlist
If you’re missing the songs you are used to singing and hearing in church at this time of year, Canadian Mennonite has just the thing for you. We have created a playlist of videos that have been uploaded to YouTube in recent weeks that feature Mennonites from across Canada singing traditional hymns. You can check…
