God at work in the Church

Wideman Mennonite celebrates 200th anniversary

Hannah Taylor, left, Linda Ramer and Milissa Fortier stand beside an 'open door' welcoming guests to a barbecue and hymn sing that were part of Wideman Mennonite Church's 200th-anniversary celebrations over the weekend of July 23-24. (Photo by Joanna Reesor-McDowell)

Bob Wideman, chair of Wideman Mennonite Church’s council, and his young friends wait expectantly for the homemade ice cream to finish churning at the barbecue celebrating the Markham, Ont., church's 200th anniversary. (Photo by Joanna Reesor-McDowell)

Martha Reesor Schatti, left, and Lois Hoover enjoy pictures and stories on the timeline depicting the 200-year history of Wideman Mennonite Church in Markham, Ont. (Photo by Joanna Reesor-McDowell)

Hundreds of friends from near and far attended Wideman Mennonite Church‘s 200th-anniversary celebrations over the July 23-24, 2018, weekend. It was a culmination of special activities over the past few months that helped members mark this significant milestone.

MFC hopes to expand ministry with name change

Mennonite Foundation of Canada (MFC) will change its name to Abundance Canada in October.

The future of neo-Anabaptism

“We are not living in the 16th century, and whatever is called Anabaptism today inevitably looks and sounds quite different,” said Paul Martens during a recent talk entitled “Neo-Anabaptism is dead: Long live neo-Anabaptism” at the Menno Simons Centre in Vancouver. Hence “neo-Anabaptism” is a way of naming the connections between the past and present: a new way of understanding the past.

‘Imagine’ a bright beginning

“This is our first kick at the cat,” quips Rosthern Junior College (RJC) principal Jim Epp.

Returning to their roots

The history of Youth Farm Bible Camp is, in no small sense, the history of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan. In the early 1940s, the Mennonite Youth Society began holding retreats at the Dominion Experimental Farm, just south of Rosthern. Several individuals saw the neglected farm as an ideal site for the ministries of Saskatchewan Mennonites. Henry W. Friesen, Isaac Epp and J. C.

Hope Mennonite Fellowship withdraws from MC Saskatchewan

Hope Mennonite Fellowship of North Battleford, Sask., left the area church recently over theological and same-sex issues. (Photo courtesy of Gerhard Luitjens)

Hope Mennonite Fellowship withdrew its membership from Mennonite Church Saskatchewan effective April 30, 2016.

A hedge of protection

Forty Mennonite Church Manitoba clergy attended the area church’s biennial “Healthy boundaries” seminar, held this year at Carman Mennonite Church. Led this spring by clinical psychologist Lois Edmund, the conference is mandatory once every four years for all credentialled MC Manitoba pastors.

In a 21st-century storm of change

A seminar for pastors may have begun with marine imagery, but it was the cascade of effects that happened in Yellowstone National Park in the United States that caught the imagination of 30 pastors gathered at Conrad Grebel University College on May 11, 2016.

Saskatchewan pastors wrestle with Scripture

“People assume that reading the Bible should be easy,” said Derek Suderman, adding, though, “That’s not the way the Bible works.” If they are to truly understand Scripture, they must be prepared to wrestle with it.

‘Learning how to listen is a journey’

Mennonite Women Manitoba organized and hosted Winnipeg’s first-ever Sister Care seminar at Bethel Mennonite Chuch in mid-May, drawing women of all ages from multiple congregations.

Sister Care was developed and is now presented worldwide by Carolyn Heggen, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma recovery, and Rhoda Keener, Sister Care’s director.

Vancouver pastor ordained

Lydia Cruttwell

Lydia Cruttwell, pastor of First United Mennonite Church in Vancouver, was ordained to the ministry on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016, in a joint worship service with First United Spanish Mennonite Church. Mennonite Church B.C. executive minister Garry Janzen conducted the ordination. Also present were former First United Mennonite pastors Helmut Isaak and Ingrid Schultz, and retired MC B.C.

Finding God in my neighbourhood

Brian Quan (left) pastor of the Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church, and MCEC assistant moderator, and Missions Minister Brian Bauman give a plant to Jonathan Abraham, pastor of the Shalom Worship and Healing Centre, to welcome the congregation as an emerging congregation in MCEC. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)

Jordan Thoms, church planter from Toronto, is introduced by Colin McCartney who works with supporting and training church planters in under resourced neighbourhoods in Toronto. Thoms also released a CD of his Christian infused rap music which was produced with help from the MCEC Legacy Initiatives Fund. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)

Fred Driedger, Janet Woelk and Debbie Janzen welcome MCEC delegates to Leamington at the beginning of the birding season at Point Pelee National Park. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)

Church planters Lyne Renaud and Michel Monnette, a married couple from near Montreal, share their vision of a church in the highly secularized environment of Quebec at the MCEC annual church gathering. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)

Stuart Murray, author of The Naked Anabaptist, encouraged Mennonite Church Eastern Canada delegates to become mobile temples, moving out of their buildings and into the neighbourhood to speak out the good news of God’s redeeming presence.

Wisdom in legacy

Surrounded by personal mementos representing women of several generations, Ingrid Schultz speaks on the theme of legacy of faith at the MC B.C. women’s inspirational day April 30, 2018. (Photo by Amy Dueckman)

Recalling the legacies passed down through generations, women gathered on April 30, 2016, for the 77th annual Mennonite Church B.C. women’s Inspirational Day at Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church.

From the pews

For an hour each week we sit together. Most of us are mostly silent. Sometimes we listen, sometimes we sing, sometimes we wander off in thought. Sometimes I wonder what other people wonder about. What do they wish church would be? What do they really believe? What pains would they share? What recollections warm their souls? So I asked.

Holding out hope for the post-Christendom church

The Naked Anabaptist, by British author Stuart Murray, summarizes the foundational tenets of Anabaptism, but “I have a feeling it wouldn’t have sold quite as well with a different title,” he quipped.

B.C. pastor heads new Canadian Mennonite board

Henry Krause, pastor of Langley (B.C.) Mennonite Fellowship, was elected chair of the Canadian Mennonite Publishing Service (CMPS) board at its 45th annual meeting, held at Rosthern Mennonite Church from April 21 to 23. He succeeds Tobi Thiessen of Toronto, who is going off the board after serving for six years as a CMPS board appointee.

B.C. paddle-a-thon: a successful tradition

The number of people in the vessels may have been smaller this year, but it didn’t seem to matter in the end for the total earned at the 2016 Camp Squeah paddle-a-thon

Staying alive amid new financial realities

It was the re-entry of the commercial banks into the agricultural lending sector that tipped the balance at Mennonite Savings and Credit Union (MSCU), prompting its leaders to believe that they had to do something sooner, rather than later, for the future success and survival of this 52-year-old southern Ontario institution.

Pizza lessons

John Biakte, left, Tha Kim and Nan Tin enjoy their first experience of making pizza dough on Feb. 13, 2016, with instruction from Karin Krahn, right.

Remembering Jesus’ Good Friday journey

It’s a Holy Week tradition by now in Abbotsford. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, a local bookstore/coffee shop is packed with an audience enthusiastic to hear blues music telling of Jesus’ journey to the cross. And it’s all for a good cause.

MC Alberta defers approval of Future Directions report

“Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.” Chuck Neufeld’s confident voice set the tone for the 2016 Mennonite Church Alberta delegate assembly as he sang the theme words from Mark 4:50.

When the church listens

A new half-hour documentary gives voice to lesbian/gay/ bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) people in Mennonite Church Canada congregations.

Readers want CM to remain a print publication

Canadian Mennonite thanks everyone who took the time to fill out the reader survey distributed late in 2015. The responses were positive overall and showed that the magazine is generally well liked. Readers clearly prefer to read print, rather than online, and there is great resistance to the idea of making the magazine digital-only.

Bound to disagree, freed to love

Conflict within, uncertainties without. Perhaps it was because of these that planners of Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s annual delegate sessions chose “Bound together, freed to serve” as their theme for the March 11 and 12, 2016, event.

Chains encircling a Bible provided a visual reminder of that theme as three speakers shared thoughts on Ephesians 4.

Alberta youth enjoy snow camps

Despite a warm winter, there was enough of the white stuff for youth from Mennonite churches across Alberta to call their annual winter retreats “snow camps.”

God at work in the Church

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