Viewpoints

I am, and always have been, a “doer,” and my late husband was the same. If people needed help, we found a way to help them. If something was broken, we found a way to fix it. I guess God decided we should meet a large team of fixers and helpers known as the Mennonites.

When I was called to serve on the Mennonite Church Canada General Board in 2006, church participation and financial giving were in slow decline. The looming threat of cutbacks further drained life from the overall system. In addition, signs of theological challenge were surfacing around matters of sexuality.

On a sunny lunch break while attending high school, I went for my customary walk into town. A classmate drove up in his shiny two-door coupe and offered a ride. Because he had already offered rides to other students, I soon found myself in the back seat beneath a pile of humanity. I panicked. I was overcome with a massive case of claustrophobia.

One of my atheist friends told me about a unique encounter with a “holy” man that ignited her spiritual awakening. She met a Buddhist monk visiting the city she lived in, and her friend offered to tour him around for the day. They were amazed at the monk’s sense of wonder and childlike excitement, he never seemed to stop smiling.

I have been caught by the need for justice in our world of late. I am on the e-mail list of Rabbis for Human Rights who are actively standing up for justice for all people who are getting a bad deal in Israel and Palestine.

My family and I often walk through the old-growth forests that surround the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus and then down to the waters of English Bay. There is lots to look for along the way: pileated woodpeckers and black-capped chickadees in the trees, slugs on the trails, and, when we get to the water, crabs under the rocks at low tide.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Bible’s answers were ‘cut and dried’?

While I haven’t got any answers, I have been reading with interest the articles and letters about sexuality issues in Canadian Mennonite. All seem to be written with a biblical base by Spirit-led Christians but with widely differing and sometimes polar oppo-site points of view.

On a lovely summer day while walking down the street, a young woman approached me and politely asked if she could show me a magic trick. Given a host of cues, I assumed she would lead into a conversation on Christian faith.

One of the many fascinating events to occur in the Book of Exodus is God “leaving” the mountain of God (Mount Sinai) to travel with the Hebrews to the Promised Land in a portable sanctuary called the tabernacle.

I was on my Monday morning transit commute sitting near a group of people who loudly reminisced about their weekend exploits. Without embarrassment they relived what could be remembered of a wild party’s excitement, exploits and emissions—despite the presence of strangers and a few grandmas. The visualizations were a challenge to forget.

A little girl stood on the snowy steps of Alberta’s Legislature in Edmonton, holding a sign that declares, “ISIS is not Islam,” during a rally by members of the local Muslim community on March 22, to exclaim that they do not support Islamic State (IS).

These Easter morning words from Mary (John 20:13b) are prophetic for the church today, a time when we may have lost our bearings in our discipleship-oriented denomination.