Carol Ann Weaver.
“Come to the water, living water. Come to the water, come all, singing.” These are the words of Voices Together No. 35, “Come to the Water.” For its composer, Carol Ann Weaver, the experience of finding living water has not only been metaphorical but also profoundly tangible.
(Photo by op23/Unsplash)
In an episode of the television show The Simpsons, Homer complimented his boss, Mr. Burns, on being the richest person he knew. Mr Burns replied, “Ah yes, but I’d trade it all away. . . for a little more.”
(Graphic by Betty Avery)
Two editorials lauded
Re: “Two things not up for debate” and “Acting ‘a little strange’ ” editorials, May 16 and June 27, respectively.
(Photo by Dayne Topkin/Unsplash)
This fall is unlike any fall in my memory. As a new Mennonite pastor, I am entering this fall listening to the hearts and minds of the congregation at Foothills Mennonite Church and helping discern how our church lives faithfully within our neighbourhood and beyond.
(Photo: The Mennonite Story / Mennonite Archives of Ontario)
For a few brief months in spring 1525, the first Anabaptist congregation flickered to life in this house in Zollikon, a village on the edge of Zurich, Switzerland.
(Photo by Ralph [Ravi] Kayden/Unsplash)
This summer, I attended two family reunions separated by one week. The Olferts, my paternal family, gathered at Pike Lake for several days, while the Warkentins, the maternal side, met a week later at Shekinah, a church camp near my home.
(Photo by Karsten Würth/Unsplash)
Faith and imagination go hand in hand. Addressing climate change decidedly requires both. Can Christians imagine a different world that takes better care of creation and all human brothers and sisters?
(Photo by Cullan Smith/Unsplash)
Sometimes I wish God would indisputably appear in some fantastically obvious way, eliminating my wrestling, struggling and doubt.
Drummers welcome walkers at the Kwantlen Nation Longhouse, Fort Langley, B.C., to begin the Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Ian Funk/CM Files)
The second event in a series of online discussions that Canadian Mennonite is hosting will take place on Zoom on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. ET.
Hosted by Aaron Epp, CM’s online media manager, the discussion will explore Indigenous-settler relations and some of the concrete steps Canadian Mennonites are taking to further reconciliation.
(Photo by Ante Gudelji/Unsplash)
On July 30, my brother was getting married in Williston, N.D., and I was the officiant. It was a lovely celebration, with little kids taking over the dance floor at the reception, and I’m delighted to have my brother’s partner join the family.
Sunday school children, 1989-90. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Sunday school children, 1980. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Christmas concert, 1995. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Angel choir, 2007. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Picnic pie-eating contest, 2008. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Sara Garnet with Christmas angels, undated. (Faith Mennonite archive photo)
Sara Garnet and I were cleaning out the Sunday school classrooms of Faith Mennonite Church in Leamington, Ont., with heavy hearts one Wednesday afternoon. We had put it off for a long time. It felt like we were cleaning out a home after a death had taken place.
(Graphic by Betty Avery)
Point: Teachers are fallible, but God can use them
Over the past decades, as a “dyed-in-the-wool” Anabaptist Mennonite, I have come to value the teaching/preaching of several “new Anabaptists.”
Ontario pastor Kara Carter speaks at Gathering 2022. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
“Called to proclaim good news to the poor . . . release to the captives . . . sight to the blind . . . freedom for the oppressed . . . and the time of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).
Practices of Jubilee are particularly relevant today when we consider this new season of being church.
(Photo: Heinrich M. Epp Fonds / Mennonite Heritage Archives)
“All beginnings are hard” said J.J. Thiessen. He began his public ministry in 1930 in Saskatoon, hired by the General Conference Mennonite Church to operate the Maedchenheim, helping young women find work and providing spiritual guidance, and to give leadership to the emerging congregation in Saskatoon.
A woman plays traditional Javanese music at the Mennonite World Conference assembly in Indonesia last month. (Meetinghouse photo by Kresna Kurniawan)
It’s a summer of church gatherings. It’s a summer of truth-telling about the devastating impact of colonization by the church. It’s a summer of reflection on what it means to be a post-colonial church.
Duang Champa, the name of the folk melody, is a translation of the name for the Lao national flower, the plumeria. (PixaHive photo by Prabhakiran (CC0 licence))
“Dear friends, we’re one in Jesus’ love, restored to hope, so trust him fully, he’s the Lord who calls us friends.” Voices Together’s No. 525, is a simple and lilting Laotian traditional melody, with lyrics that describe Jesus’ followers as friends.
(Photo by Ed Stone/Unsplash)
A couple weeks ago, I came across this verse in I Samuel 18: “David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him.”
(Photo by Julianna Arjes on Unsplash)
When I was a young adult volunteer in Jamaica, part of Mennonite Central Committee’s Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program, I brought a pie to a Mennonite church-sponsored baking competition and was disqualified because my mango pie did not fit the unstated criteria of being a sweet pot
The idea that Christ will return someday “riding on a horse, galloping through town and lopping off heads, is a blatant misreading of what is going on here,” writes Jeremy Duncan about the book of Revelation. He argues that this final book of the New Testament must be read through the lens of Jesus as portrayed in the gospels.
Participants worship on the opening night of Mennonite World Conference Assembly 17. Hundreds more took part via livestreaming. (Photo by Kresna Kurniawan for Meetinghouse)
In early July, I was in Indonesia—virtually. Like approximately 800 other Anabaptists around the world, I registered as an online participant of Indonesia 2022, the 17th assembly of Mennonite World Conference (MWC).
(Graphic by Betty Avery)
A ‘sad day’ for Indigenous-Settler Relations
Re: “Indigenous relations work revamped, reduced,” May 30, page 14.
“A boneheaded mistake. A mistake undoubtedly connected to my grey-beard status.” (Photo by Mimzy from Pixabay)
Bought tires for my pickup and determined to install them myself. I no longer have the specific equipment, so tire work involves scrabbling on a concrete floor with hammer and pry bars.
The Voices of Freedom Park in Niagara-on-the-Lake. (Photo by Randolph Haluza-Delay)
When I moved from Alberta last year, my explorations of Ontario began by bike. My cycling companions showed me things I had not heard of. Once, we biked past the towering statue of some military guy on the heights above the town of Queenston. Just a day earlier, we had cycled around another part of the Niagara Region and found a historical marker about a “negro burial ground.” Such wording!
“Do I believe that, by trusting enough and believing in God’s providence, I’ll be shown special favour as God’s child, a prosperity-promise kind of trust?” (Photo by bhossfeld from Pixabay)
The camping trip had a rough start. While packing to go we got a phone call with a heart-stopping estimate for our car repairs, the first of two vehicles needing work. We were definitely feeling the financial crunch.
Garry Janzen is MC B.C.’s outgoing executive minister. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)
Sometimes it is just best for the previous person to get out of here and let the new person start with a clean slate. Some say that pastors and denominational leaders should just give a month or two notice and then leave, and sometimes this may be what is best.
