Ruining dinner
While Christmas is a time to contemplate peace on Earth, holiday gatherings can be stressful for some. One comment or opinion can ruin dinner. Wendy Suddaby of Hope Mennonite Church in Winnipeg recalls a frustrating conversation over Thanksgiving dinner in 2018. It spurred her to action. Suddaby, 72, who sits on her church’s adult education…
MennoMedia evolves to meet challenges
Joan Daggett, project director of MennoMedia’s Shine: Living in God’s Light curriculum, tracks trends inChristian education as part of her work. We asked her about the challenges and opportunities for faith formation of children in 2024. Over the past number of years, church attendance patterns across North America began shifting away from the model of…
Whatever became of Sunday school
They had forgotten about the kids. It was the 1980s; two major Mennonite denominations had merged, spending five years and a large sum of money to figure out how to bring the various mission boards into the integrated denomination, when suddenly people realized that no attention had been given to where Sunday school would fit…
Learning together, apart
Whether you call it Sunday school, faith formation or Christian education, one aspect of a congregation’s life together is how we nurture faith in people of all ages. Last spring, with the coming of the COVID-19 restrictions, many churches saw drastic changes in their faith education programs. I chatted recently with folks who have responsibilities…
MC Saskatchewan launches online Sunday school for children
Mennonite Church Saskatchewan is offering Sunday school for children via Zoom. Josh and Cindy Wallace started hosting the half-hour sessions at the end of May. So far, about eight families, with children ranging from 3 to 10 years of age, have participated. They represent four or five congregations. Midweek, families receive a thematically appropriate craft…
Sunday School in 1980
A group of children from Orchard Park Bible Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., carry signs celebrating the 200th birthday of Sunday school as Kathy and Alfred Guenther present keepsakes to the children. In 1780, Robert Raikes started Sunday school in Gloucester, England, as a way to teach lower-class children morals and religion. Although Sunday school is…
