Sumas Lake, known as Semá:th Lake to the local Stó:lō people, prior to it being drained by government in the 1920s. (City of Vancouver Archives)
“The draining of [Sumas Lake] and our settlement on your ancestral lands was devastating and demoralizing and disrespectful.”
That was part of an apology offered to Semá:th First Nation Chief Dalton Silver and his people by Richard Thiessen, president of the Mennonite Historical Society of B.C.
Carol Ann Weaver (left) and Nataliia Kurhan at Hawkesville Mennonite Church in May, 2022. (Photo by Ingrid Bauman)
Road barricades in Dnipro, Ukraine. August 2022. (Photo by Nataliia Kurhan)
February 23, 2022, was a relatively ordinary day on our planet. Until 10:30 p.m. Ontario time—early morning of February 24 where Nataliia Kurhan lives—when I heard a reporter announce breathlessly, “Missiles are being fired; the invasion has begun.”
I saw streaks descending behind the reporter on the screen and heard the sound of rockets.
The pipe organ at Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church. (Photo courtesy of John Enns)
Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church. (WKUM Church Photo)
(Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church Photo)
John Enns remembers a time when 200 children filled the Sunday school classrooms at Waterloo Kitchener United Mennonite Church (WKUM).
Currently, the congregation has 225 registered members, but less than half attend. The majority are in their 70s. Enns, who chairs the vision team at the church, says most newly retired members prefer to spend their Sunday mornings elsewhere.
Cree elder, Harry Lafond, offers the opening prayer at the Spruce River Folk Fest as Ray Funk (centre) and members of the bluegrass band O’Kraut look on. (Photo by Emily Summach)
The Spruce River flows past a teepee where the opening pipe ceremony was held. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Music is a universal language. In Saskatchewan, music is also the language of reconciliation. On August 15, the Spruce River Folk Fest was held to encourage friendship and understanding between Mennonites and Indigenous neighbours.
A group of Indigenous people and Mennonites gather under the arbor at Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. (Photo by Randy Klassen)
About 75 people gathered at Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, located an hour’s drive north of Saskatoon, on August 6 for the Singing in the Arbor event. The event, which included music, food and relationship-building, was sponsored by the Cree Nation and Mennonite Church Saskatchewan’s Walking the Path initiative.
“Gate to the Past” by Renate Dau Klaassen. (Photo courtesy of Renate Dau Klaassen)
Marjorie Wall Hofer admires Leah Klassen’s painting “In the Garden.” (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
“Memory of Home” by Martin Klaassen. (Photo courtesy of Renate Dau Klaassen)
An art gallery lines the hallway between the sanctuary and the auditorium of the Niagara United Mennonite Church near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. The art hanging there reminds viewers of God’s guidance through difficult times, including separation, loss and escape.
Abbey Bergen, summer intern at Emmanuel Mennonite Church. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
Every Tuesday morning this summer, children from Emmanuel Mennonite Church have been searching for a sheep while finding fun through nature-themed stories, water games, art projects, and hands-on creation care activities.
Hans Juergen Wiens and his jars of jam. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
In 2004, at the age of 70, Hans Juergen Wiens sold his business, including several farms, a feed business, and his last pig, all in one year. He was unemployed and restless. But then, one night, he remembered his mother’s resourcefulness.
Jakob Rempel and his family a few years before he was arrested and sent to the Solovky prison camp in 1929. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Heritage Archives)
While Jakob Rempel was being transferred by train from one Gulag camp to another, he jumped from the train in a snowstorm. Ultimately, he ended up in Uzbekistan, near the town of Ak Metchet, made famous in Sofia Samatar’s celebrated 2022 book, The White Mosque.
Melody Steinman with her mother. (Supplied photo)
I find myself in the middle of living and I am faced with death. Although it was expected, I was still surprised when a friend of mine died earlier this year.
Eva Booker (left) painting the pollinator garden's picnic table with student volunteers Anna Miller-Buza and Claire Treacy. (Photo by Margaret Gissing)
Black-eyed Susans growing in Grebel's pollinator garden. (Photo by Tim Saari)
On a bright morning in April, Eva Booker and a team of student volunteers rolled out a 25-foot-wide tarp across Grebel’s front lawn in preparation for the College’s recent green initiative: a pollinator garden.
A view from the train window during the “Memories of Migration” tour. (Photo by Shelisa Klassen)
The premise of the “Memories of Migration” Russlaender centenary train tour is a complicated one.
An eastern bluebird prepares to feed its chicks. (Photo by Merri-Lee Metzger)
Birders flock to the bus windows during an excursion as part of the 2023 Camps with Meaning birding retreat. (Photo by Christina Janzen)
A Nashville warbler. (Photo by John Pries)
When Gordon Janzen was searching for a way to unwind, he found it by looking up.
Around 10 years ago, the Winnipegger realized he was working a lot and didn’t have many hobbies. Looking to develop his interests outside of work, Janzen got a pair of binoculars and started birding.
Springridge Mennonite Church attendees sing together on Christmas morning last year. (Supplied Photo)
Tany Warkentin (Supplied Photo)
This past spring, Mennonite Church Alberta held its first in-person annual delegate sessions in four years. Representatives from across the province were in attendance. Who hosted this grand gathering? One of the smallest churches in the province: Springridge Mennonite.
John D. Roth, project director of Anabaptism at 500. (Jace Longenecker photo for MennoMedia)
Anabaptists around the world are gearing up to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement in 2025. To mark this historic occasion, MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 project has announced the creation of a commemorative story book that will capture the diverse and inspiring stories of Anabaptist witness from around the globe.
Adelia Neufeld Wiens is a deacon at Bethel Mennonite Church, where 35 households were defrauded of more than $1 million. (Photo by Aaron Epp)
Members of a Winnipeg church are feeling shocked and bewildered after the revelation that multiple households in the congregation were defrauded of a total of more than $1 million.
Sonny McHalsie (in red) tells stories of Kawkawa Lake, or Q’owqewem Lake, to Mennonites on an Indigenous tour in B.C. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
A nine-hour bus tour gave 30 participants a taste of the history of places that Indigenous people had inhabited for 10,000 years prior to the arrival of Mennonites in B.C. in the 1930s. The July 14 tour was guided by Sonny McHalsie, a cultural advisor and historian at the Stó:lō Nation’s Research and Resource Management Centre located in Chilliwack, B.C.
Westgate students on the roof of the Ecce Homo Convent in Jerusalem. (Photo by James Friesen)
On the last night of Westgate’s 2023 Middle East trip, students and staff met on the rooftop of the Ecce Homo Convent in the Old City of Jerusalem to reflect on their experiences. Fittingly, their gathering was interrupted by the call to prayer echoing across the city. No one seemed to mind.
(Supplied Photo)
Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) has added a new master of arts degree to its Graduate School of Theology and Ministry (GSTM) programming. As of fall 2023, students will be able to earn a Master of Arts in Spiritual Care, in addition to the three pre-existing master’s options: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Theological Studies and Master of Arts in Christian Ministry.
Nichelle Bauman (left) and George Makinto work on a new song. (Photo by Anneli Loepp Thiessen)
Nichelle Bauman (right) along with Emily Ralph Servant (left) and Nathan Grieser, at an Anabaptist songwriters’ retreat. (Photo by Anneli Loepp Thiessen)
Nichelle Bauman felt pressure going into a weekend retreat of Mennonite songwriters. What would she come up with? What could she contribute? She also had a strong desire to learn.
Women prepare food for a Canadian Foodgrains Bank fundraiser in Leamington. (Photo by Denis Wiens)
The 10-acre corn field owned by Tiessen Acres near Leamington, Ontario, has a purpose. The proceeds of the field will be donated to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB), as part of the Sun Parlor Growing Project.
Asa Suderman-Gladwell (left), chaplain Jessica Reesor Rempel, Savannah Edwards and Tim Khoo at a Grebel chapel service. (Photo by Jen Konkle)
Conrad Grebel University College student Tim Khoo. (Photo by Margaret Gissing)
When Timothy Khoo was choosing a university, he looked for something that stood out. “I kept hearing about this Mennonite residence from my family and church community, and it piqued my interest,” he said. Khoo is now a second-year Honours Physics student at the University of Waterloo and a returning upper-year student at Conrad Grebel University College.
Seasonal farm workers at The Farmworkers Hub in Virgil, Ontario. (Supplied photo)
The May 4 issue of Canadian Mennonite stated that “Niagara United Mennonite Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, will use a grant of $5,000 to build a laundry facility for seasonal workers who come to the area each year from Jamaica and Mexico to work on local farms.”
The choir singing at the last German service at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church. (Photo by Mary Klassen)
On June 4, St. Catharines United Mennonite Church held its last German language service, marking the end of 78 years of providing support for the spiritual life of German speakers in the language of their heart.
Recent baptisms at a Meserete Kristos Church congregation planted by two ex-prisoners. (Supplied photo)
Eighteen people were recently baptized at a church that grew out of prison ministry by Ethiopian Mennonites. (Supplied photo)
The following is an excerpt from the June 2023 issue of MKC News, the newsletter of Meserete Kristos Church (MKC), the Anabaptist denominational body in Ethiopia. Reprinted with permission.
