Young asylum seekers showcase art
“I’m always amazed at how quickly people dismiss the arts,” says Steve Norton, a pastor and film critic at Connect City Ministries, which is part of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. He joined young artists from families seeking asylum for the Resonate Art Exhibition at The Don on Danforth in Toronto on June 23. A group of…
MCC Alberta encourages refugee sponsorship
“I have learned that there is an overwhelming amount of need and suffering in this world. It is not up to us to solve every problem out there, but we can start by helping one person,” says Jackie Karau, the migration and settlement program associate for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta. She has experience in…
Sponsors sought for Afghan Christian refugee families
Mennonite church leaders in Canada are appealing to their congregations to help bring 100 Afghan Christian refugee families to this country. The appeal comes from the Canadian Council of Anabaptist Leaders, which is made up of leaders from the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, Mennonite Church Canada, the Evangelical Mennonite…
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…
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…
Consider it (re)settled
More than 12,500 refugees have been resettled in Canada by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) since it negotiated an agreement with the government on March 5, 1979. This historic agreement established the framework for private agencies to sponsor more than 327,000 refugees for resettlement in Canada in the last 40 years. A 1986 Lee family photo.…
‘Everything is possible’
For Reem Younes and Brian Darweesh, everything seems possible now that they’re citizens of Canada. Originally from Syria, Younes and Darweesh moved to Winnipeg in 2015 as privately sponsored refugees, welcomed by a Mennonite community there. Douglas Mennonite Church and Jubilee Mennonite Church in Winnipeg came together to sponsor the couple through Mennonite Central Committee…
Reaching out together
It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Many people will remember seeing the picture in September 2015 of the three-year-old Syrian refugee, Alan Kurdi, whose body was washed up on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. And for a minute, or maybe two, many wondered what they could do. Three…
Helping the stranger and connecting with the neighbour
When Sterling Mennonite Fellowship received an invitation from St. Vital Evangelical Mennonite Church (EMC) to partner in sponsoring a refugee family, it felt like an answer to prayer. Members of the Winnipeg Mennonite congregation had felt called to support refugees for a long time, because of their history as refugees and the clear need for…
Sponsors provide a welcome into their community
There are 23 million refugees around the world, with 1.2 million in need of resettlement outside of their home country or region. In 2017, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) helped groups resettle 442 people through the Blended Visa Officer Referred (BVOR) program. That was about one-third of all people who arrived in Canada in that category.…
