Warmth was evident all around at the annual B.C. Women’s Ministry retreat. Held from Oct. 16 to 18, 2015, at Camp Squeah, there was warmth in the fire and fireplace decorations that adorned the lodge and warmth in the fellowship among participants.
Board member Caleb Redekop, centre, cuts the PiE pie with Chris Brnjas and Jessica Reesor Rempel at Pastors in Exile’s kick-off on Sept. 27, 2015, at the Queen St. Commons Café in Kitchener, Ont. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Both Jessica Reesor Rempel and Chris Brnjas are fond of puns, as perhaps only geeks are.
Self-professed “church geeks,” they kicked off their new ministry, Pastors in Exile (PiE) at the Queen Street Commons café in downtown Kitchener on Sept. 27, 2015, with many pies being consumed by the 85 people who attended.
Bringing a long-standing and dearly loved institution to an end is not an easy thing to do. The members of Saskatchewan Women in Mission (SWM) have at least shown that it can be done with grace, thanksgiving and, yes, even joy.
Nyantut Pal, left, Christina Chany and Balat Pal are ready for three-and-a-half-hour drive from Edmonton to Camp Valaqua in Water Valley, Alta., with their driver, Barry Andres. (Photo by Donita Wiebe-Neufeld)
What does it look like when two churches and Camp Valaqua partner toward a common goal? It looks like 18 enthusiastic campers!
This past summer, the Service and Outreach branch of Edmonton’s First Mennonite Church learned that a number of young people from the city’s South Sudanese Mennonite Church were interested in going to Camp Valaqua in Water Valley, Alta., for the first time.
Song leaders from a number of MC Saskatchewan churches participated in ‘Singing with the Spirit,’ a weekend music and worship event hosted by Nutana Park Mennonite from Oct. 2 to 4, 2015. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Marilyn Houser Hamm led workshops in song leading and accompaniment in addition to plenary sessions on congregational worship at the ‘Singing with the Spirit’ event held recently at Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Marilyn Houser Hamm led workshops in song leading and accompaniment in addition to plenary sessions on congregational worship at the ‘Singing with the Spirit’ event held recently at Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Practising their conducting techniques at the ‘Singing with the Spirit’ music and worship event held recently at Nutana Park Mennonite Church are, from left to right: Gwen Ens, Russ Regier, Val Regier, Shelley Bueckert and Monica Dalke. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Practising their conducting techniques at the ‘Singing with the Spirit’ music and worship event held recently at Nutana Park Mennonite Church are, from left to right: Gwen Ens, Russ Regier, Val Regier, Shelley Bueckert and Monica Dalke. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Participants in Darrell Bueckert’s percussion workshop at the ‘Singing in the Spirit’ music and worship event held recently at Nutana Park Mennonite Church include, from left to right: Bob Neufeldt, John Elias and Lynn Driedger. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
Percussionist Darrell Bueckert, demonstrates the use of a shaker at the ‘Singing with the Spirit’ event. (Photo by Donna Schulz)
“I will sing with the Spirit, but I will sing with understanding.” These words, from I Corinthians 14:15, formed the basis of Marilyn Houser Hamm’s recent music workshop at Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon.
Why would a church of predominantly greying members build a playground for children?
“Dairy farming is not just a job,” said Lloyd Sawatzky, “It is a way of life.”
For members of Osler Mennonite Church, dairy farming is a way of life that has come to an end. In August, Harry and Eva Martens sold their 150-cow herd to join the ranks of the retired. They were the last remaining dairy farmers in a congregation that once boasted up to 30 of them.
Two hundred people spent a sunny Saturday at Morden Mennonite Church in southern Manitoba to look squarely at how the church can deal with its same-sex crisis.
Colin and Judith McCartney
After more than 30 years of working with young people on the margins of society in Toronto, Judith and Colin McCartney are now ministering under the auspices of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.
Kuen Yee
Kuen Yee was ordained at a worship celebration of God’s leading, diversity and giftedness at Edmonton Vietnamese Mennonite Church on Sept. 6. Area church minister Dan Graber led the ordination ceremony and welcomed Yee into the company of Mennonite Church Alberta pastors. Yee is Chinese and has an Alliance Church background.
In July, the General Board of Mennonite Church Canada received and approved two reports received from the Being a Faithful Church (BFC) Task Force.
BFC 6.1 is the follow-up to the following questions posed in BFC 6:
Michelle Koop served as a summer chaplaincy intern at Tabor Manor, St. Catharines, Ont., for the summer of 2015. She worked under the supervision of Waldo Pauls. (Photo by Dave Rogalsky)
Michelle Koop grew up going to Vineland (Ont.) United Mennonite Church, next to the Vineland Mennonite Home. She worked at the Home and helped care for the father of Ed Janzen, chaplain at Conrad Grebel University College (CGUC). In part, it was her stories of that care that convinced Janzen of Koop’s “heart for the aged and seniors—living out the love of God.”
Sang-Min Lee enjoys some of his favourite fast food after being released from prison, where he served 15 months for refusing to participate in mandatory military service. (Mennonite World Conference photo)
Conscientious objector (CO) Sang-Min Lee, a member of Grace and Peace Mennonite Church in Seoul, South Korea, is free. He was released from prison on July 30, after serving 15 months of an 18-month sentence for refusing military service. The time he spent as a barber in the prison system was credited as additional time served.
Photo provided by the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies.
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.
Among the activities the Canadian youth were engaged in during the MWC assembly was finding and chatting with someone they didn’t know. (Photo courtesy of Dave Bergen)
Thanks to a great deal of planning, the 310 Canadian young people and their sponsors had the “global experience of a lifetime,” according to Kirsten Hamm-Epp, area church minister in youth and administrative planning for Mennonite Church Saskatchewan, who was the prime mover behind the efforts to get the youth to Mennonite World Conference (MWC) assembly held in Harrisburg, Pa., last month.
Prabidhi Pandey worked on the Mennonite Disaster Service project while at MWC assembly. She is a 14-year-old from Danforth Mennonite Church, Toronto. (Photo courtesy of Prabidhi Pandey)
Prabidhi Pandey
All the youth name tags at Mennonite World Conference assembly in Harrisburg, Pa., had “#J178” on them. Nobody gave much thought to it until 600 youth from around the world were gathered in a 24-acre space under the arena in the morning while the adults listened to the sermon in one of two daily worship services.
Ben Goossen shows the photo, “Heinrich Himmler in Molotschna, 1942,” during his workshop, “From Aryanism to Multiculturalism: Mennonite Ethnicity and German Nationalism, 1871 to Today.” (Photo by Dale D. Gehman for Meetinghouse)
A chapter of 20th-century German Mennonite history that has been predominantly glossed over, received attention in back-to-back workshops by historians on July 22 at the Mennonite World Conference assembly.
First Mennonite Church doesn’t have a church sign with moveable letters, so they got creative in voicing their support for Freedom Road. (Photo by David Driedger)
Erwin Redsky, chief of Shoal Lake 40, left, tells the story of his community to Steve Bell and Joy Smith. (Photo by Amy Knight)
A campaign of church signs supported by Juno-award-winning musician Steve Bell is calling on the federal government to address the longstanding injustice of Winnipeg’s water system.
In August 2015 Bell joined the chorus of voices asking the federal government to do its part in building a road that would connect the isolated community of Shoal Lake 40 with the Trans-Canada Highway.
Photo: Mennonite Heritage Centre/Mennonite Archival Image Database
Lenore Mendes of Guatemala addresses Mennonite World Conference 12 in Winnipeg in 1990. She thought she would be speaking to a few hundred people, but was surprised to see thousands. The Winnipeg gathering was the biggest to date with 13,000 registrants. Her sermon in Winnipeg was an important stepping stone to her election to the Executive Committee of MWC.
Through July and August, The Commons, a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation in Hamilton, Ont., has been meeting in Beasley Park on Sundays at 6 p.m.
The Commons is starting to slow down. No, we are not retiring as a church, we just think it is time for a little different pace. The plan is to switch things up in the fall for our Sunday worship gatherings. We plan to use our gathering time to dig a little deeper into liturgy, spiritual practices, hospitality, old traditions and new creative expressions.
Photo: Mennonite Heritage Centre/Mennonite Archival Image Database
A group of 18 young men and women travel in the back of a truck on their way a Sängerfest or song festival in the Didsbury, Alberta, area in 1934. No seatbelts used here! Song festivals were popular in Mennonite circles as a way of gathering to see old friends, enjoy singing four-part harmony music, and a way for young men and women to meet in controlled environments.
Mike Martin (second from right) and his siblings (from left), Steve, Ron, Willard, Gloria and Terry Martin sang at the 25th anniversary celebration for Community Mennonite Fellowship in Drayton, Ont., on May 23, 2015. Mike, who is the chair of church council, wrote a special song for the event. (Photo courtesy of Community Mennonite Fellowship, Drayton)
Part of the anniversary event was a large quilt display at Community Mennonite Fellowship in Drayton, Ont., on the weekend of May 22-24, 2015. (Photo courtesy of Community Mennonite Fellowship, Drayton)
The roots ran deep in both the Berea and Moorefield Mennonite Churches, north of Kitchener-Waterloo. Berea, first known as the Parker Mission, was founded in 1941 and joined the Ontario Mennonite Conference in 1947. That same year a congregation was founded less than 10 miles away at Moorefield, using a disused Anglican church building.
Prayer team member John C. Murray of Hesston, Kan., prays during a Pink Menno hymn sing outside the delegate hall July 4. (Photo by Paul Schrag, Mennonite World Review)
Pick a category of people at the Mennonite Church USA convention, and you could identify their pain.
It might have been the pain of exclusion due to sexual orientation. Or of feeling the church has agreed to tolerate sin. It might have been the pain of sexual abuse. Or of concern for the future of a church sharply divided on how to relate to sexual minorities.
In 1962, Canada hosted the Mennonite World Conference for the first time. Twelve thousand delegates attended; 6,000 of these were billeted in local homes. Historian T.D.
This painting by Victor Kleinsasser depicts John J. Friesen talking to Hutterite students after class. It was commissioned by the Hutterian Brethren Education Committee and presented to Friesen as a gift.
A new artwork honouring a professor from Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) and commissioned by the Hutterian Brethren Education Committee was unveiled in CMU’s new library on June 3. It honoured John J. Friesen, professor emeritus of history and theology, for his contribution to the Hutterite community.
