My life is about to change in what I hope is a drastic way.
I am about to move into a house with five other people. This in and of itself is not a new thing in my life, as I have lived with large groups of people a number of times. What is new is the way in which we are to live together.
The six of us, two married couples, and two single men (myself included) are forming an intentional community.
What is an intentional community?
What would you say if I told you that beauty is a peace issue? It seems bizarre, I know, but I’ll try to explain how I got to this point. If one reflects on the extremes to which the present-day cosmetic industry has gone to make most of us feel insecure about our bodies for their financial benefit, it doesn’t take long to recognize the cruelty of it. This is something that affects women especially, but there are increasing pressures these days for men to also look flawless, to aspire to impossible ideals of male beauty.
Many people can identify with being hungry, but cannot understand what it is like to be among tens of thousands who are on the verge of death because of hunger, with little hope of survival.
From The New York Times to the Mennonite Brethren Herald, emerging adulthood has become a topic worthy of many printed pages and even more blog posts.
Like rings on a tree, or carbon layers in ice, Elise Epp hopes that when people look back on her music it will mark the events of her generation. “Saying it’s representative of the generation, that’s sounds so arrogant,” she says with a laugh, but she also sees the anxiety of people her age reflected in the dark themes she sings about.
It has been a few weeks since twenty of our church’s youth and young adults headed three hours north to a place called Matheson Island, but the memories are still fresh in my mind. Our purpose there was to run an overnight camp for approximately thirty kids from the island and nearby reserve.
In her 1975 book, New Woman/New Earth, theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote, “The ecological factor will be built into consumer products in some trivial way and then sold with much advertising […] as a luxury item tacked onto present consumer products to placate the conscience.” I can’t help but think that this prediction has come true. These days, we’re sick of hearing about “being green” because it’s become ultra-trendy, and yet, as Ruether predicted thirty-six years ago, that trendiness has watered it down quite a bit.
What’s Behind the Label?
Food. It’s what sustains us, nurtures us, and gives us life. It gives us strength, energy, and for some, the will to live another day. But where does this food come from? We see it in the supermarket displayed with such grandeur under lights, in boxes, jars, and cans with colorful labels.
*Note: The majority of this is an excerpt from a sermon I preached at Hillside Community Church in Morden, MB on the Sunday of July 31, 2011, though the end is different.
Restorative Justice was never in my plans, though what I have been learning is that what I plan for my life has almost no effect on what I end up doing anyway.
From my perch in the cement gazebo in Nazinga, the early morning sun shines on
my face. I crunch my granola and sip my Lipton tea happily, waiting patiently for the
arrival of the elephants. There are traces of these giant creatures throughout the
campground, footprints in the mud, dung and broken tree limbs. Other campers gather
around with their cameras, ready to snap a shot, chatting in languages foreign to me.
After some time, a local man shouts “elephant”! I scan the treed skyline, and spot a small
I have been thinking about this for a long time, and the recent terrorist attack in Norway and militia banning the WFP in Somalia has finally pushed me over the edge. It’s time to say something.
We are a broken people, and have broken relationships with each other, creation, and God. Within this brokenness that it seems that all over the world people believe that they have the right to decide what others deserve.
While this is nothing new, it is something that has been brought to my attention so often lately by two different court trials.
Daniel Epp has been going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival (WFF), or “Folk Fest” as it’s more commonly called, for the past five years and has volunteered there for two years. Though, as a volunteer he gets in free of charge, there are other reasons why he gives up a week of work to collect recyclables.
If it wasn’t for Sarah Harmer, Serena Smith and Amanda Schmidt probably wouldn’t have gone to Assembly. The two young adults from Jubilee Mennonite Church in Winnipeg had never thought about attending the annual meetings until they saw an announcement in the bulletin advertising the free concert for young adults.
These paper planes may not fly themselves to Ottawa, but even so they will deliver a message to Stephen Harper—spend less money on war. Throughout Assembly youth folded paper planes, covering them with words or pictures of peace, and then sent them off to the capital with youth pastor Sarah Johnson.
If you thought the weather in Waterloo was hot during assembly, it was definitely warmer where Willard Metzger was sitting during Tuesday afternoon’s “On the Hot Seat” seminar. The meeting gave youth a chance to ask questions of MC Canada leadership, though they didn’t get the clear answers they hoped for.
There were two days last May when the same baby made the cover of my local newspaper, The Toronto Star (May 21st and 25th, 2011). The story was a provocative one which has since made international news. It was about Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, a Toronto couple who have decided to raise their baby without disclosing whether it’s a girl or a boy, at least for now.
I am fairly certain we were not supposed to see it, and I am even less sure I'm supposed to talk about it. But I feel it is a story that needs to be shared, so share it I will. In the interest of confidentiality I will be changing the names of the people involved and a few of the details, but the essence is the same.
“What we need is a sign, people don’t even know we exist.”
That was a sentiment stressed by several of our church members at a recent visioning meeting. Our church is going through the life giving yet tedious process of developing a mission and vision statement as well as a firm short term direction for our congregation.
As we all know, technology has become increasingly common in our everyday lives: many of us spend many hours a day in front of a computer, or carry a phone or other device everywhere we go. We connect with each other over email, facebook, twitter, etc. Technology has even made its way into our churches, where visual projectors, blogs, or websites are part of the life of the community.
Canada is a diverse multi-religious society. People of different faiths will often encounter one another during the regular events of any given day.
Among the recent Mennonite Church Canada staff reductions, the youth ministry facilitator role was downgraded to a contract position to plan the youth assembly every two years. Anna Rehan had filled the position previously, and she will continue her work as area church youth minister in Saskatchewan.
It’s already clear that knitting is back. Boutique yarn stores spring up in abandoned storefronts and a search for “knitting” on chapters.indigo.com turns up 152 pages of results. According to Stitch ’n Bitch author Debbie Stoller, the hobby has woven its way in and out of popularity for the last hundred years. But why has it come back this time?
I spend much of my time in the company of a beautiful man. Dark flawless skin, friendly eyes, gentle composure. Not only do I think he is beautiful, but on several occasions he will shout to myself or his reflection in the mirror, “is this not a good looking man!” I will admit, at first I was a little surprised by this seemingly conceited behavior, for I come from a heritage that values humility and that those who glance in the mirror a little too long will go straight to hell.
As a youth pastor (and young adult), I am constantly trying to keep up with today’s ever changing pop culture, as the youth in our youth group are totally immersed in it. Knowing what they’re watching and listening to helps Terrell and I relate to them, and educates us to help them think critically about a lot of what they see in the media every day. Something that’s been happening over the last three years in today’s pop culture that has continuously intrigued me is the phenomenon that is Justin Bieber.
Allison Neufeld went to school to study international development, she had plans of travel and adventure — which is why people are confused that she ended up back home in Waterloo working at House of Friendship, a local service agency.
