Volume 14, Number 24
Art exhibit explores the unjust food systems of society
The Just Food exhibit included a display of typical food consumed in a poor community in a developing country, left, a middle-class community in a developing country, centre, and many households in North America, right. The sign reads, ‘Where do you fit in?’
A visitor views Annelies Soomers’ piece, ‘Daily Bread: From Plague to Blessing,’ at the Just Food exhibit opening on at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery on Nov. 20.
The right to food is a non-issue for many Canadians. In fact, many people in the western world take food for granted.
From a faith perspective, many feel that, although they may not be hungry themselves, food systems are unjust when there is abundant food available to some while others go without.
Wenger Shenk inaugurated as seminary president
Sara Wenger Shenk, new president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, invites the gathered congregation to declare with her, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,” during her inaugural address on Oct. 24, at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church, near Goshen, Ind
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb,” the congregation called out, led by Sara Wenger Shenk in her inaugural address as the new president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS), on Oct. 24, at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church near Goshen, Ind.
Remembering peace
Ying Ying Wang of China and Santiago Gomez of Colombia sport both poppies and MCC peace buttons at the Remembrance Day service in Warman.
Wearing both the traditional red poppy and the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) alternative peace button, Ying Ying Wang from China and Santiago Gomez from Colombia—participants in MCC’s International Volunteer Exchange Program—stood before a crowd of 600 people gathered in Warman for a Remembrance Day service, and talked about peace.
‘Reaching the unreached . . . should be the focus of the church’
Yemiru Tilahun, mission and evangelism director of Ethiopia’s Meserete Kristos Church, right, with two leaders of the Emmanuel United Church of Ethiopia. Emmanuel vice-president Samson Mariam, left, and president Bezalem Fisseha, centre, were mentored by Meserete Kristos leaders.
At least 30 mission and church leaders represented Anabaptist-related communities at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in South Africa this fall. The gathering, which attracted 4,000 mission leaders, pastors and academics from 198 countries, grew out of the Lausanne Movement that followed the first congress in Switzerland in1974.
From edge to centre
Somewhere along our journey with youth ministry I believe many of us took a wrong turn. We headed in a direction that had us increasingly isolating our youths from the life of the congregation. Our youth groups and youth events rarely served to strengthen our relationships with other age groups and with the church’s ongoing work and mission.
For discussion
1. The Christmas season is a time of giving. How does your congregation and/or community get involved in giving during this season? What are we saying when we give gifts? Do you agree with Aiden Enns’s comment in the “Alternatives” article that, “when we give, we acknowledge our dependence on others”?
What a difference a year makes
Christmas will be different this year for Winnipeg’s Kathy Okolita.
She stands in her newly renovated home surrounded by 18 people who have come to offer a house blessing. She can’t seem to say “thank you” enough as she offers fried chicken and potato salad to her guests.
Alternatives to a ‘Consumer Christmas’
Gabrielle, Katrina and Natasha Plenert decorate their Christmas tree with ornaments they have received over the years from overseas or from Ten Thousand Villages.
Many people spend their evenings and weekends leading up to Christmas scouring the local mall for the perfect gifts for their loved ones, planning their Christmas feast or decorating their house.
A portable Christmas tradition
Gabrielle Plenert of Winnipeg, Man., and her family spend their Christmas season rather differently.
Israeli development thwarts peace on earth
That our planet is troubled and in need of the ‘light of the world’ to dawn on Christmas morning is evidenced by the first of our three seasonal feature articles, ‘Israeli development thwarts peace on earth . . . at least in Bethhehem.’
Military vehicles are a common site in the West Bank and Gaza strip.
Embedded in the Christmas story is God’s desire for peace on our planet. Luke announced that “peace on earth” was the theme that the angelic choirs sang over the skies of Bethlehem on the night that the Saviour was born. We can conclude from their celestial anthem that God yearns for peace on earth.
Advent: Waiting for the surprises
Two Advent themes should bring us to our feet this season: surprise and waiting. In our hurried, harassed lives, we are probably prepared for neither.
