Mennonite organizations providing aid in Ukraine
A humanitarian aid organization in Molochansk, Ukraine, founded by Canadian Mennonites continues to help the community amidst Russia’s ongoing invasion. Staff at the Mennonite Centre have spent the last three weeks serving food and occasionally providing shelter to embattled Ukrainians in Molochansk, which is occupied by Russian forces. The staff is also helping to fill…
Mennonites in angst over Ukraine invasion
It’s 10:30 a.m. in Winnipeg, but for Valerie Alipova, it might as well be after supper. Alipova, associate pastor of Bethel Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, has been living eight hours out of sync with the rest of Manitoba ever since Russia invaded Ukraine towards the end of February. Alipova was born and raised…
Prayer for the war in Ukraine
God of hope, we pray to you when hope is scarce as our world convulses with the horror of war. You alone know the extent of the crimes committed in Ukraine: the people murdered, the homes and infrastructure destroyed, the way violence comes as a calamity, cutting a swath through the world. Why is power…
MCC pulls staff from Ukraine
Russia has begun military operations against Ukraine, but North American Mennonite Central Committee staff who were working in the latter country are safe. That includes Winnipegger Andrea Shalay, the charity’s peace engagement co-ordinator for Europe. Shalay and three other staff, all Americans, were evacuated from Ukraine more than a week ago. “I had just 36…
MC Canada calls for prayer for Ethiopia and Eritrea
Meserete Kristos Church (MKC) held a nationwide fasting and prayer for peace on Nov. 16. “Believers are still praying for peace, individually and collectively,” they announced. “At present, our hope is in God alone. We kindly request the Mennonite families in North America and around the world to pray for our country. We need peace…
A cry for ‘no revenge’
Stephanie Martin had often led practises with the Pax Christi Chorale at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Toronto. But during one practice in 2015 she was drawn to a plaque on the north wall of the sanctuary honouring nurse Mary Agnes ‘Nan’ MacKenzie, “who after three years of service lost her life by the torpedoing of…
Be a CO at tax time
Religious wars raged in 16th-century Europe between Catholics and Protestants. In northern Holland, Jan Smit was captured by the Catholics and was being pressed into service as an oarsman. His captors commanded him to join a crew of prisoners and row across the lake for a battle against Haarlem. But Smit declared, “I have no…
Chemical Weapons and Just Peace
Most of us had never heard of the tiny island off the coast near Hiroshima called Okonoshima. In fact, we discovered, it was also erased from many maps on purpose. Yet in this tiny space of just 4km across, things happened which still affect lives around the world today. This island played a significant role…
Legacies of Hiroshima
It’s hard to hear the stories. The images are sickening. My imagination cannot grasp the kind of suffering the people of Hiroshima endured and even survived. My faith in humanity shakes when thinking of what humans did to each other and to creation. I heard these stories first 10 years ago with a visit to…
