Harjo Suyitno designed the ‘Cosmic Christ’ cross artwork at Jepara GITJ church in Indonesian gunungan style. (Photo by Karla Braun)
“This wood carving expresses the mission and vision of the church,” (Photo by Karla Braun)
Gunungan is a figure from traditional Indonesian theatre that represents the world. The leaf-shaped art is used frequently around the country, including at the Mennonite church in seaside Jepara.
The Friday Night drop-in for kids has been popular with community kids in Black Creek. (Photo by Gerry Binnema)
The United Mennonite Church building in Black Creek is used for a community food bank. (Photo by Gerry Binnema)
Gerry Binnema was invited to share news about United Mennonite Church, the congregation he pastors in Black Creek, B.C. Here is his creative and tongue-in-cheek response.
Irma Fast Dueck presented on baptism to more than 40 pastors and lay leaders at Mennonite Church Manitoba’s Leadership Day in November. (Photo by Darryl Neustaedter Barg)
We are witnessing the first time in history when many young people in Mennonite Church Canada congregations are actively participating in the church but are choosing not to be baptized. Why is that? Irma Fast Dueck, associate professor of practical theology at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), is researching exactly that question.
The Menno Simons Christian School Junior-high band, conducted by Christina Carpenter, performs at a seniors lunch at Foothills Mennonite Church in Calgary on Nov. 28. (Photo by Mackenzie Miller)
In keeping with the season, Canadian Mennonite has wrapped up four Christmas events—from Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia—into one package for your festive reading.
Dylan Ricci Adams is pictured with a load of carrots on their way to the washing machine. (Photo by Zach Charbonneau)
Todd Stahl shovels diced carrots into the auger that will deliver them to the Gleaners’ gigantic dehydrator. (Photo by Zach Charbonneau)
Todd Stahl is pictured in the Gleaners’ warehouse. Each skid has 42,000 meals on it, and the whole room currently holds 800,000 servings. (Photo by Zach Charbonneau)
The work of farmers is difficult. They have to work with the land to bring about a decent crop in order to make a living. And even though they may successfully bring hundreds of hectares to fruition, there’s no guarantee that all of that crop can go to market.
Three generations of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church share a readers theatre called ‘175 Years by Faith’ during a worship service celebrating its 175th anniversary. Pictured from left to right: Jonah Willms, Doris Kramer and Micah Jarvis sit on a bench from the 1851 meetinghouse at the church’s original location in the unmarked hamlet of Three Bridges. (Photo by Marcia Shantz)
A display celebrating 175 years of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church shows a key to the first meetinghouse, the first English songbook, and a baptism pitcher. (Photo courtesy of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church)
In 1844, just under a half-hectare of land near the east bank of the Conestoga River was purchased from John Brubacher for the sum of five shillings.
People in Montreal experiencing homelessness have access to 30 mattresses at Care Montreal, an outreach program of Hochma Mennonite Church. (YouTube photo)
In October, Care Montreal opened seven nights a week as a licensed shelter after completing extensive renovations. Now volunteers at the shelter, housed at Hochma, a Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation, provide supper in the basement at 6 p.m.
Baked goods sell quickly at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church’s annual Mennonite Food and Craft Bazaar. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
In 1989, a group of women from St. Catharines United Mennonite Church decided to sell their crafts and baking to raise money for missions. This “making and baking” was something the women did well, and their efforts became known as the Mennonite Food and Craft Bazaar.
Volunteer Jim Wiebe, left, visited with Eugene from 1996 to 2011. Eugene continues to see Jim since his release. He says, ‘It was good to be in P2P. It helped open my eyes to my surroundings and who I was. By watching and learning from my visitor, I realized life is more fun if you can control your urges.’ (Photo courtesy of Heather Driedger)
Dale von Bieker is a P2P volunteer from Nipawin, Sask., where he is a member of the United Church. He wrote this poem a few years ago for an inmate he was visiting. (Photo courtesy of Heather Driedger)
“This is how I am a Christian,” says Heather Driedger of her work with Parkland Restorative Justice. As executive director of the non-profit organization, Driedger provides programs for inmates at the Prince Albert penitentiary.
Board chair Garry Janzen, right, gives thanks for 10 years of ministry at Place of Refuge in Vancouver. A building project earlier this year enabled the construction of the Place of Refuge Resource Centre on the property, for office space and counselling. (Place of Refuge photo by Jeff Borden)
Twenty years ago, two men attending Vancouver’s Sherbrooke Mennonite Church desperately needed a safe place to live so they could find their way out of the world of addiction.
Micah Enns-Dyck is the founder and editor-in-chief of Macrina Magazine. (Photo by Lynette Giesbrecht)
At only 21 years old, Micah Enns-Dyck is the founder and editor-in-chief of a new online Christian philosophical journal.
Members of the Holyrood Mennonite Girls Club stop to get their photo taken on their way to a sand sculpture competition this summer. Pictured from left to right: Helena Chokpelleh, Venissa Tumbay and Tarnisha Snogba. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
The Holyrood Mennonite Church Girls Club learns to make traditional food (spätzle) from Mennonite Voluntary Service members. Pictured from left to right: Venissa Tumbay, Marie Bickensdoerfer, Malin Huber, Nina Schulze and Tarnisha Snogba. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
Sue Taniguchi, left, helps members of the Holyrood Mennonite Church Girls Club make origami birds and an airplane. Pictured from Tanigughi’s left: Helena Chokpelleh, Venissa Tumbay, and Marie Bickensdoerfer, an MVS-Edmonton member. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
Tarnisha Snogba proudly holds up her talking crow she made at Girls Club. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
The Holyrood Mennonite Girls Club goes to a farm and corn maze in October. Pictured from left to right: Venissa Tumbay, Tarnisha Snogba and Helena Chokpelleh. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
The Holyrood Mennonite Girl’s Club goes to the home of Carol Lint, a member of Holyrood Mennonite Church, to make pizzas together and Valentine’s gift bags in February. Pictured from left to right: Tarnisha Snogba, Denise Tumbay and Venissa Tumbay. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
In 2001, Holyrood Mennonite Church sponsored four men who were living in a refugee camp in Ghana with their families due to a 14-year civil war in Liberia. Over time, the number of Liberian families in the church has grown.
At present, almost all the children in the church are West African, including four teenage girls, all from Liberia.
Edwin Sittler, an Old Order Mennonite, watches as a machine he designed turns a windrow of compost. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
Noa Baergen, right, and Julie Moyer Suderman, a youth-mentor pair at First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ont., have decided to take action by starting a congregational Climate Action Working Group. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
Edwin Sittler, right, shows Glenn Brubacher, a member of First Mennonite Church’s Climate Action Working Group, a handful of quality compost. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
“A lot of people are talking about it. Not a lot of people are taking action,” according to Noa Baergen. So when it comes to the climate crisis, this 16-year-old is determined to act.
This image, from the War Relics Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, shows the devastating effects of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese countryside. (Photos courtesy of Garth and Claire Ewert Fisher)
Garth and Claire Ewert Fisher travelled with MCC British Columbia executive director Wayne Bremner to Vietnam, where they were met with MCC Vietnam staff and volunteers. Pictured, from left to right: Nikolai Mazharenko, MCC Vietnam co-director; Beth Kvernen, MCC volunteer; Eva Mazharenko, MCC Vietnam co-director; Ba Vinh, Vietnamese reference group; Co Mai, MCC Vietnam staff; Wayne Bremner; Ba Bai, Vietnamese reference group; Claire Ewert Fisher; Josh Kvernen, MCC volunteer; and Garth Ewert Fisher.
Garth Ewert Fisher sits with a Vietnamese man during a home visit.
Children who are impacted by Agent Orange receive physical and occupational therapy at a rehabilitation centre supported by MCC.
Decades after American military forces used Agent Orange to further their efforts in the Vietnam War, this deadly chemical continues to impact the lives of Vietnamese people.
Dehydrated fruit packages sit on the shelves of the South Porcupine (Ont.) Food Bank. (Photo by Peter Davis)
Fruit comes out of the Niagara Christian Gleaners’ food chopper. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
Chopped fruit sits on trays ready for the dehydrator. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
Boxes in the warehouse are ready for shipping. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
The Niagara Network Hub of Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) recently toured the Niagara Christian Gleaners facility in Smithville. The new non-profit organization aims to divert nearly 3,200 kilograms of produce each day from the local landfill by chopping, dehydrating, packaging and shipping fruits and vegetables to areas where the food is needed.
Ministries in Vietnam benefited from the November goods and services auction at Langley (B.C.) Mennonite Fellowship. One of those ministries includes a new church plant in the neighbourhood of a music store owner in Saigon, second from left, who is returning to the Mennonite church after the lifting of persecution. The lifting of the persecution is mostly due to Nhien Pham, second from right, who built connections with the local authorities and helped them to change their attitude towards the Mennonite church. At left is MC. B.C. executive minister Garry Janzen, and at right is Pastor Hong, president of Evangelical Mennonite Church Vietnam. (Photo courtesy of Garry Janzen)
Raising funds for missionary or international purposes has been a tradition among local congregations for decades. That tradition has carried on at Langley Mennonite Fellowship, a congregation of some 100 participants, most recently on Nov. 16.
Wally and Millie Kroeker of River East (MB) Church talk to presenter Aileen Friesen, right, at ‘ Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust,’ a public presentation at the Asper Jewish Community Centre in Winnipeg on Nov. 5. (Photo by John Longhurst)
About 80 years ago, Jews and Mennonites lived peacefully together in the Ukrainian city of Khortitsa. Then the Nazis came, and everything changed.
In 1941, before the invasion, Khortitsa had about 2,000 Mennonites and 402 Jews out of a population of about 14,000. A year or so later, the Jews were all gone, killed by the Nazis.
Cristina Vanin, second from left, responds to feedback at the ‘One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life’ event during a panel discussion. Also pictured, from left to right: John Rempel, Mary (Joy) Philip, Anthony Siegrist and facilitator Jeremy Bergen. (Photo by Janet Bauman)
After five years of meetings by an international commission of Mennonites, Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the topic of baptism, John Rempel, the commission’s Mennonite representative, presented a trilateral report from that dialogue at an event called “One Baptism? A Symposium on Baptism and the Christian Life,” at Waterloo North Mennonite Church on Nov. 8.
Betty Rudachyk, right, holds hands with a Tibetan woman. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
Rosthern Mennonite Church members who travelled to China with MPC had the opportunity to reconnect with Yixian Wang (Shelley), front centre, who volunteered in Rosthern through Mennonite Central Committee’s International Volunteer Exchange Program two years ago. Pictured from left to right with Shelley: Brian Roth, Delilah Roth, Jeanette Hanson, Ralph Epp, Bev Epp, Nancy Epp and Betty Rudachyk. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
Myrrl Byler and Jeanette Hanson ably led the 25 Canadian and American participants on MPC’s China learning tour. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
East meets west over the ubiquitous cell phone. Brian Roth, left, uses his phone to communicate with new friends. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
Saskatchewan participants on MPC’s China learning tour include, from left to right standing: Scott Collier, Pat Mar-Collier, Henry Funk, Brian Roth, Bev Epp, Ralph Epp, Betty Rudachyk, Delilah Roth, Erna Funk and Nancy Epp. Kneeling in front of the group is Jeanette Hanson, MPC’s associate director and tour leader. (Photo courtesy of China learning tour participants)
“Everything about China was not what we thought.”
Delilah Roth’s words seem to capture the feelings of many in her group.
Stephanie Martin, composer and conductor emeritus of Pax Christi Chorale, had her oratorio The Sun, the Wind and the Man with the Cloak premiered in Toronto on Nov. 2. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Martin)
In May 2017, when Stephanie Martin stepped down as conductor of Toronto’s Pax Christi Chorale, the award-winning Toronto-based amateur choir with Mennonite roots, the choir gave her a going-away present.
“Instead of getting me a crystal bowl, they gave me a commission to write a piece,” she says.
An exciting part of Vision 20/20 was the unveiling of the vision statement on a huge banner that will be available to be hung in every MC Alberta congregation. Holding up the banner are June Miller, MC Alberta’s communications coordinator, left, and Heather Klassen of Foothills Mennonite Church. Facilitator Betty Pries is in the background. (Photo by Joanne De Jong)
Like all Mennonite Church Canada regional churches, MC Alberta continues to pray and discern God’s call, moving forward after the nationwide restructuring a couple years ago.
Representatives from across the province met at First Mennonite Church in Calgary on Nov. 1 and 2 to hear the final results of the four-phase discernment process called Vision 20/20.
The PeaceBuilders Community Inc.’s field operations team accompanied a Philippine Relief And Development Services team to deliver a thousand relief packs to the earthquake-affected families in Ilomavis, who mostly belong to the Obo Manobo Indigenous People. (Peacebuilders Community Inc. photo)
A home destroyed by the late October earthquakes on the island of Mindanao. (Peacebuilders Community Inc. photo)
In the last half of October, the island of Mindanao in the Philippines experienced three earthquakes, one of which reached a magnitude of 6.6. According to a Nov. 11 report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, 24 people were dead, 535 were injured and two people were missing.
Scripture is read in five languages at Peace Church on 52nd on Nov. 10. (Photo by Sue Kim)
On Peace Sunday, Nov. 10, five metro Vancouver Mennonite Church British Columbia congregations gathered for a service of unity with a focus on peace. They met at Peace Church on 52nd, formerly known as First United Mennonite.
four years to make a mark.
(Photo by the Office of the
President of the United States)
Former MP Romeo Saganash, left, and Steve Heinrichs, MC Canada’s director of Indigenous-Settler Relations, and members of the CMU community met on Oct. 16 in an effort to ensure that all 46 articles of UNDRIP are implemented in Canadian law. (CMU photo)
Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) students, staff and faculty gathered on Oct. 16 to hear Roméo Saganash speak on how Indigenous political leaders are keeping up the fight to see the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) implemented into Canadian law.
