Young Children and Worship

Last fall, there was such an emptiness.  The joyful weekly connection of young children and loving adults, talking, touching, singing, laughing, praying and exploring Bible stories together was gone.  Our Sunday morning experience had disappeared.  How would we stay connected?  A new idea started percolating and I began recording Bible stories and sharing them with the whole congregation through our weekly community connection email.

Planting a seed of transformation

“The first step is to recognize that (becoming an intercultural church) is a long process,” says Fanosie Legesse, who is a member of Zion Mennonite Church in Elmira, Ont., and intercultural mission minister for Mennonite Church Eastern Canada.

My 3 Ps

“To pray, does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent and being silent and waiting until God is heard” – Soren Kierkegaard.

Denominations: Who needs them?

Another successful Faith Studies event!

Call to prayer for church in Colombia

This week our siblings in faith in Colombia are asking us for prayers regarding the wave of protests and violence that has broken out across the country. Protesters took to the streets and called for a national strike today, May 5, in protest of a new tax law that is being proposed that will further repress small business and those living in economic insecurity who are already the hardest hit due to the pandemic. There are also new healthcare and pension reforms that also affect low-income families. 

Witness workers embrace Indigenous names and identities

Dann and Joji Pantoja, Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in the Philippines, are embracing their Indigenous names and identities.

In a statement published on their website waves.ca in March , the Pantoja’s explain the colonial history their birth names represent and why their Indigenous names are significant to them.

EVENT: Denominations -- Who Needs Them?

Join with others from across MCA for a free online Faith Studies event sponsored by the Congregational Leadership Committee.

This study and conversation will examine the role of broader denominations and local congregation in being the church in today’s world. Does the broader church play a critical role, or is it a distraction from the mission of the local congregation?

I know not why... #338

But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day. 

Peace Africa network develops to nurture peace between Christians and Muslims in Africa

Mennonite Church Alberta representatives were early participants in Peace Africa, including Donna Entz, facilitator of MCA’s North Edmonton Ministry, which builds bridges between different faith communities and invites dialogue between Muslims and Christians. 

My Story

I thank the people in the church, the Canadian government and its people for allowing us to be in Canada, but my heart is still with my people in South Sudan and I think of them all the time.

Let’s talk about our generosity: an interview with Lori Guenther Reesor

In our latest interview Lori Guenther Reesor introduces her new book, shares about why churches struggle to talk about money and why stewardship is not about a budget.

EVENT: Join NEM and PCCI

Peacemakers Confessing Christ International (PCCI)is a network of Mennonites who engage Muslims somewhere in the world.  NEM is now networking with PCCI.   

Please join us for a stimulating discussion about engaging Muslims.  We will meet weekly for 8 weeks in April and May on zoom for one hour starting April 10, every Saturday morning at 9:30 am.   Please spread the word.  Check out some sample videos.  

to sign up contact Donna Entz at lorenanddonna@gmail.com 

Susan Reynar joins Mennonite Church Canada staff

Susan Reynar is the newest addition to the Mennonite Church Canada office. She will serve as executive assistant beginning May 1, 2021.

Mennonite Church Canada responds to Colombia Mennonite Church’s statement against violence; sends letter to Colombian government

Mennonite Church Canada has issued a statement in response to La Iglesia Menonita de Colombia’s (IMCOL) own statement against ongoing violence in its country, and has written a letter to the Colombian government in support of IMCOL and its non-violent witness.

Canada-Colombia relations revived

Mennonites in Colombia and Canada are reinvigorating a 76-year-old relationship. It started last fall when Iglesias Cristianas Menonitas de Colombia (IMCOL)—the Colombian conference of 25 congregations—shared a statement(link is external) about violence, suffering and peacebuilding with Mennonite Church Canada and others.

God of the Impossible

The Bible, it makes no sense. Walking around a city seven times for the walls to come down?  Using trumpets and clay pots for weapons?  People walking through water?  Being fed by ravens? Feeding 5000 from a small lunch? A virgin birth? 

Company of 1000 fund seeks to equip pastors through forgivable loans and tuition grants

Mennonite Church Canada is renewing its call for applicants to the Company of 1000 Study Reserve fund and also for people to become regular donors to the fund.

A Revisiting of Vision and Purpose

At times the process of reviewing of MCA’s Constitution and Bylaws may have felt more like sifting through grains of sand than thinking through important aspects of what it means to be the church. And yet documents like these name important aspects of who we are and what we aspire to be.

Raise hard truths and turn toward healing

In their new book Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization, authors and life partners Elaine Enns and Ched Myers confront hard truths about settler complicity in historic injustices perpetrated against Indigenous peoples and offer a way toward healing.

Through the lens of Enns’ own Mennonite family narrative, they examine the complex reality of how one traumatized people (Mennonites fleeing Ukraine in the early 20th century) unknowingly displaced other traumatized peoples (Indigenous peoples on the Saskatchewan Plains). Equal parts memoir, social-historical-theological analysis and practical workbook, Enns and Myers invite settler Christians (and other people of faith) into a discipleship of decolonization and restorative solidarity.

Building a Vision of Hope

Many of us tend to internalize the idea that building a vision of hope for the future can only be uncovered by looking forward, willing ourselves not only to learn more, but to learn faster, convinced that we must find ourselves on the forefront of some field or industry where we will then, finally, have the capacity to “make a difference.”

Thank you for another successful ADS!

Thank you all for the inspiring and encouraging  Annual Delegate Sessions and all-MCA Worship!  We had a wonderful two days together!     

Highlights from both are now on the ADS page.

You will find both of Werner's messages, the Children's Feature from Sunday morning, the Year in Review plus videos from Doug from MC Canada and our students at CMU. 

If you missed it and heard it was great -- sit down with a cup of tea and catch up! 

Also there are new E3:Year Two resources available.  Find those HERE

Mennonite Church Canada issues call to prayer for Bethlehem Bible College

In the midst of the worst-yet coronavirus outbreak in Palestine, Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) invites us to pray with them for students, staff, faculty, families and all Palestinians.

Indigenous-Settler Relations launches online book club in April

Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations program is running a five-week online book club beginning this April.

The chosen text is Beloved Amazonia, a courageous collection of documents from the Pan-Amazon Synod, including an “apostolic exhortation” to the Church from Pope Francis.

“Carrying the wisdom cultivated from consultations with more than 80,000 people in the Amazon, the result is an urgent and life-giving call for the church to fight for the rights of Indigenous peoples and Mother Earth,” says Steve Heinrichs, director of Indigenous-Settler Relations.

Meet Mennonite Church Canada’s Sustainability Leadership Group

“Leadership and commitment are some of the most critical pieces in helping an organization become more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable in all that it does,” says Tim Wiebe Neufeld, executive minister for Mennonite Church Alberta and chair of Mennonite Church Canada’s Sustainability Leadership Group (SLG).

The SLG focusses on the environmental and social impacts of Mennonite Church activities. It identifies ways the regional churches and Mennonite Church Canada can improve in these areas while remaining economically sustainable.

The Spice in Spicy

As I look back, my memory is filled with faces, names and occasions. Above all else, I see smiles. Contagious smiles.

A life-altering gospel and simple faith

Today, Meserete Kristos Church has over 647,000 members, 1135 local churches and 1,112 church-planting centres, which are growing congregations supported by a mother church. Twenty-seven thousand people were baptized in 2019 alone.

For believers in Canada, this growth is staggering. But for those a part of MKC, the church growth is intimately tied to the church’s history of persecution and the methods it took to survive. Out of these practices developed a robust process for nurturing leaders, who were encouraged to plant churches in their own neighbourhoods and whose gifts were discerned by communities of believers.

Help us spread the word - we're hiring!

Mennonite Church Canada invites applications for the position of executive assistant. The position is full-time and located in Winnipeg, Man. Applicants from across Canada are invited to apply. The start date is May 1, 2021.

The Yeast. The Bread.

May we see Christ in everyone we feed and in all those who join us at the table.

They who Wait upon the Lord

Biblical prophet Isaiah promises that they who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; God is just, and longs to be gracious and show compassion to His creation - Blessed are those who wait for Him! King David waited for God, who with unfailing love redeemed him from sin, set his feet upon a rock, and put a new song of praise in his mouth.

Conrad Grebel offers virtual youth events for congregations across Mennonite Church Canada

Grebel’s Virtual Youth Event: Purpose, Calling and Connection serves two purposes: it provides pastors and youth leaders a well-deserved break from planning a virtual event for their youth and it offers youth a chance to learn about Grebel from current students.

Mennonite Church Canada and Christian Peacemaker Teams create internship opportunity in 2021

Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations (ISR) program has partnered with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) to create a six-month internship for a young leader within the nationwide church to participate in nationwide peacemaking and solidarity work.

Allegra Friesen Epp is from Winnipeg, Man., and graduated in 2020 from Canadian Mennonite University with a degree in Biblical and theological studies and peace and conflict transformation. She is a member of Home Street Mennonite Church.

Congregations launch new websites through MC Canada congregational website hub

Fifteen congregations have launched new websites through the Mennonite Church Canada congregational website hub.

In February 2020 the five regional churches and Mennonite Church Canada launched their new websites, which are part of a website hub created by Barefoot Creative, in Breslau, Ont. Shortly after, twenty-one pilot congregations were invited to join the hub to create new websites.

The platform offers several tools congregations have found useful during the pandemic.

Sometimes a Selfie is a Must

...my camera clicked automatically to my voice-activated call to “Smile”.

“Did I get a good picture? Let’s see.” 

Who are My People?

Who are my people? Who are your people?  Perhaps a healthy starting point for respectful relationships!

Mennonite Church Canada issues call to prayer for Myanmar

Mennonite Church Canada calls on our nationwide community of faith to pray for the people of Myanmar. Pray also for our Myanmar siblings here in Canada. They are deeply concerned for their loved ones and the effect that recent actions will have on peace within Myanmar.

“The intersection of peacemaking and storytelling is where I feel alive”: Common Read author discusses peacemaking during online webinar

When McRay was 11 he went on his first trip to Israel and Palestine. He has made 13 trips since then and undertaken graduates studies in conflict resolution at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Telling stories of conflict resolution has become his life’s work.

“The intersection of peacemaking and storytelling (is) where I (feel) alive,” he said.

I Am Not Your Enemy’s ten chapters tell stories based on McRay’s interviews with activists, peacebuilders and former combatants in conflict areas.

Walking Together -- with so much to Learn

Mennonite Church Canada congregations match $50,000 donation for MWC COVID-19 fund in 2020

Mennonite Church Canada's Joint Council approved a $50,000 donation to the fund in May 2020 and asked congregations to match the amount in their giving for the rest of the year. Congregations across the five regional churches gave $50,946 in 2020, which means Mennonite Church Canada's total contributions to the fund were over $100,000.

Pain and Potential

“All that kills abundant living, let it from the earth be banned: pride of status, race or schooling, dogmas that obscure Your plan. In our common quest for justice may we hallow life’s brief span.”  from the hymn, For the Healing of the Nations

The Challenges of Congregational Leadership

This has obviously been a year of challenge for our congregation. At the same time, we have experimented often and discovered much. 

CommonWord, Herald Press and MC USA partner for Common Read winter title

Common Read encourages Mennonites to engage in a "common read," every few months, promoting specific books written to nurture Christian faith in our current cultural moment.

“Congregations are often looking for recommended titles for small group study,” says Arlyn Friesen Epp, director of CommonWord. “A Common Read book gives our nationwide church an opportunity to engage a topic collectively.”

Prayer and response to violence on Capitol Hill

As leaders of Mennonite Church Canada and its regions, we pray for our siblings in Mennonite Church USA and, together with them, lament the escalation of violence that led to Wednesday’s events on Capitol Hill. We condemn white supremacy and Christian nationalism that are revealing themselves in American and Canadian society.  

Christ is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility. We are called as church communities to be people of God’s Shalom in all that we do.

A prayer for the New Year

God who makes all things new,

help us to embrace the new.

Open our eyes to a future that will look different than the past.

May we grow through and be changed by these strange times.

Mennonite Church Canada International Witness invites Canadian Mennonite congregations to participate in Witness Support Networks

Mennonite Church Canada’s International Witness program invites congregations across its nationwide community of faith to join networks of support for Mennonite Church Canada’s International Witness ministries.

“Being part of the network for the Philippines reminds us that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We see the work that is being done in the name of God’s kingdom,” said Marlene Friesen from Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

Restoration

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and release to the prisoners;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. --Isaiah 61: 1-2a

Celebrations

I believe that while they may look different, our Advent and Christmas celebrations will be filled with meaning and we prepare to welcome the Christ child, who comes bearing hope, peace, joy, and love.

More Questions than Answers

Advent is all about waiting for the revelation of God’s mystery. It’s hard to wait for the Messiah; for Jesus to be born. As children it was difficult to wait until Christmas to find out what gifts we might get under the tree. But now life is difficult as we wait for other things.

Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission appoints new executive coordinators

John Fumana and Bruce Yoder have been appointed to work as the new team of executive coordinators for Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM).

‘For God all things are possible’: Mennonite Church Colombia continues its witness despite great risk

In late October, Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia issued a public statement declaring that there have been 60 massacres (killings of five people or more) so far in Colombia in 2020. Victims include young people and small farmers, as well as 200 civic leaders. The violence stems from a decades-long, multi-layered conflict between guerilla, paramilitary and drug cartel groups who fight for control of the country’s land for their own interests.

Together in Worship launches in collaboration with CommonWord

While Mennonites across Canada and the U.S. eagerly await the arrival of the new hymnal Voices Together, hundreds of online worship resources are already accessible to them through a brand new website that launched this November.

Together in Worship, at www.togetherinworship.net, is an online, curated collection of free and downloadable Anabaptist worship resources. It’s also a place where contributors can submit their own resources to be shared by the wider Anabaptist and ecumenical community.

A Food Truck Story

A couple of years ago, our Church Council did some brainstorming around how to begin reaching out to our neighbours.

(And so the story begins.)

Mennonite Church Canada calls for prayer for Ethiopia and Eritrea

As a nationwide community of faith, Mennonite Church Canada calls on congregations to pray for peace and healing in Ethiopia. We ask for prayer for the congregations here in Canada who carry deep concerns for their loved ones in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Pray also for the pastors, leaders and the people of Meserete Kristos Church as they seek to bring God’s peace to the people of their country.

An Urgent Reality

Armed with the story of our God, we can make it through this bleak Advent time and have full faith that, as our premier said, “the end of this terrible time is in sight.”

Caring Connections

The church, though structured, is made up of relationships, ours with God and with each other. To keep the church healthy and thriving, our attention to interpersonal relationships is vital. Without good connections to each other, we do not have church.

International Witness Sunday strengthens relationships across nationwide community of faith

Congregations across Mennonite Church Canada celebrated International Witness Sunday this past October. Mennonite Church Canada declared October 18, 2020, to be the official day, but welcomed congregations to celebrate on whatever Sunday worked for them. The theme of the day was “Sharing gifts. Building relationships.”

Mennonite Church Canada International Witness supports new Anabaptist resourcing network through Mennonite Partners in China

Mennonite Partners in China, a joint program of Mennonite Church Canada International Witness and Mennonite Mission Network (Mennonite Church USA), is creating an Anabaptist resourcing network to assist Chinese church leaders who want to know more about Anabaptism.

"The most important peacemaking agenda that we have now": Indigenous justice

In our latest interview, co-editors Esther Epp-Tiessen and Steve Heinrichs, along with graphic designer Matt Veith, share their encounters with 90-plus documents detailing Anabaptist commitments to Indigenous justice, the challenge to the live up to some of them and what a book like Be it Resolved means for the church now.

The Gift of Covid -- Do not fear...

Although Covid is a nasty bug and has devastated us in so many ways – it has also brought us gifts that we would otherwise not have.

Meet our Table Talk host and moderator: Kim Penner

Kim Penner is an adjunct professor of Christian Ethics at Conrad Grebel University College and professor of ethics at University of Toronto. She lives in Kitchener, Ont. She will be the conference host and moderator for Table Talk 2020: Does the church still have legs?. 

Mennonite Church Canada, MC USA and MWC respond to MCEC’s decision to terminate ministerial credentials of John D. Rempel

Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite World Conference have received news from Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) of the termination of the ministerial credentials of John D. Rempel of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., due to ministerial sexual misconduct and ministerial misconduct.

As church bodies with which Rempel has worked closely over his career as pastor, professor and theologian, we grieve for the victim-survivors harmed by Rempel’s actions and honour their courage in coming forward. We recognize the injustice faced by those within our own faith communities that this news brings to light. We grieve also for our larger church Body, in which Rempel has found support and belonging.

“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”

Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” He stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother.”

- Matthew 12: 48-50 CEB

Discomfort and courage on Orange Shirt Day

Orange Shirt Day, Sept. 30, is recognized as a day to honour survivors of Canada’s residential school system. This past month thousands of students across Canada participated in an online event hosted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) for children and youth in grades 5 through 12.

Paul Peters is director of student life at Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna, Man. He runs extracurricular programs for MCI’s 83 students, which include daily chapels, discussions and activities around faith exploration and discipleship. Peters organized MCI’s participation in NCTR’s Orange Shirt Day this year.

A Communications Update

Most of my work thus far, seems like disseminating information one direction — from MCA and MC Canada to you. Sending out information to those who subscribe to the MCA Communiqué and those who read their church’s bulletins — whether in paper or email form.  I gather information from various people and pass it on. That said, understanding communication as passing on information isn’t the intention of MCA Communications.

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Jeremy Bergen

Jeremy Bergen is associate professor of Religious Studies and Theological Studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont. He is one of our guest speakers for Table Talk 2020: Does the church still have legs? and will share thoughts on worship.

Ride for Refuge 2020

7 Riders for Refuge raise over $3000 for the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers!

Introducing Our Stories

What are our stories as congregations and as individuals within congregations?

Who tells our stories? How are they told? How do our stories inspire and shape us?  What is the purpose of stories? How can we learn from each other’s stories?

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Sheila Klassen-Wiebe

Sheila Klassen-Wiebe will lead a Bible study during Table Talk 2020, Mennonite Church Canada's study conference on Oct. 24. Klassen-Wiebe is associate professor of New Testament at Canadian Mennonite University.

God's License

The story of Bavak, his driver's license and "just a bit more freedom in this new country which he claims is a wonderful place, given the troubled South Sudan where he has come from."

New anthology documents six decades of Anabaptist response to Indigenous calls for justice

A new anthology published by Mennonite Central Committee Canada (MCC) and Mennonite Church Canada hits the press this fall. Be it Resolved: Anabaptists & Partner Coalitions Advocate for Indigenous Justice is a collection of over 90 documents detailing commitments Anabaptists have made to Indigenous justice and decolonization since the 1960s.

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Bryan Born

Bryan Born is a guest speaker at Table Talk 2020, Mennonite Church Canada's virtual study conference on Oct. 24. President of Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., Bryan will talk about missiology in today's current context.

Camp Valaqua: A Place to Belong

The jubilant return of children and youth to Valaqua is something worth celebrating and, when that time comes again, we will! 

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Jesse Nickel

Jesse Nickel, professor of Biblical Studies at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., is a guest speaker at Mennonite Church Canada's study conference Table Talk 2020: "Does the Church still have legs?" on October 24. He will present on worship in the New Testament.

An October 31st Invitation to Dialogue with Muslims

Commonalities and connections are often experienced  at informal and formal Interfaith Dialogues. 

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Irma Fast Dueck

Irma Fast Dueck, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Canadian Mennonite University, lives in Winnipeg and will be a guest speaker at Mennonite Church Canada's study conference Table Talk 2020: "Does the Church still have legs?" on October 24. She will present on worship in the life of the church.

Postures of trust and openness to transformation

In our latest interview, Tany Warkentin, Liaison to Ministry in Africa for Mennonite Church Canada, shares about the relationships between our Canadian congregations and the Burkina Faso Church and ways congregations can learn more and become involved in International Witness ministry in Africa. 

The Leatherman Church

We are a “multi” church that, like a Leatherman, has more individual facets and creative uses than you might ever discover.

Leah Reesor-Keller Begins as Executive Minister

What is now possible that wasn’t before? This is a question I want to explore with you as we seek to follow God’s leading for us as the people of Mennonite Church Eastern Canada. We’re on a journey together that requires courageous imagination to open us to seeing where the Spirit is at work among us and in the world. In the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of social upheaval, in the midst of people and creation in crisis, God is busy doing new things, and making a way where there was no way.

Leah Reesor-Keller begins her ministry this week as MCEC Executive Minister. Watch for the video greeting coming to your congregation soon. She anticipates meeting many congregations online over the next months, and in-person as guidelines allow.

Meet our Table Talk guest speakers: Gerald Gerbrandt

President Emeritus of Canadian Mennonite University Gerald Gerbrandt lives in Winnipeg and will be a guest speaker at Mennonite Church Canada's study conference Table Talk 2020: "Does the Church still have legs?" on October 24. He will present on worship in the Old Testament. 

‘Deconstructing race’: understanding the breadth of our diversity

When we lived in Nanchong, China, our three-year-old daughter Claire came home from Kindergarten quite indignant that some of her classmates had said her hair was blond. “My hair is black!” she declared. I looked at the golden curls on her head and had to break it to her, “No, your hair is not black.” Years later a neighbour in that same city looked at me closely and declared, “When you first came here you looked like a foreigner and now you look really Chinese, your nose has even gotten smaller.”

If there is one thing I love about summer vacation it is the way it opens up space.

What would happen if my congregation was the natural world?

An interview with pastor Wendy Janzen from Burning Bush Forest Church on worshipping with nature and how outdoor church challenges our need for control

Wendy Janzen is the pastor of Burning Bush Forest Church in Kitchener, Ont., a wild church that meets monthly in the outdoors in urban parks and forests.

Reflections from our Canadian Mennonite Rep

Words, stories, and ideas. 

Moving towards relationships with our Indigenous neighbours

An interview with Bruce Clemenger and Aileen Van Ginkel from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada on urging churches toward right relationships with Indigenous Peoples

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is committing to help its affiliate congregations, denominations (including Mennonite Church Canada), organizations and institutions move forward on the path of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

The Practice of Writing

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to write—certainly long before I would have considered it anything like a “spiritual discipline.”

Seeing God at Work in MCA, in our Congregations, in Ourselves

A reflection -- albeit within a conversation.

Holy Ground

Take, take off your shoes.  You’re standing on my holy ground.

E3 Celebration and Commitment Service

More information to follow

"Broken as the world is broken": setting our sights on God’s Shalom vision

Sara Wenger Shenk will be the plenary speaker at “Table Talk: Does the Church Have Legs?”, Mennonite Church Canada’s virtual study conference on October 24, 2020.

Wenger Shenk shares about her reaction to the question “Why the Church?” and how crises like COVID-19 and justice movements like the Black Lives Matter help inform her answer to such a question.

This is Me

By Ruth Bergen Braun

A new MCA Communications Coordinator!

 

 

Guiding healing for those harmed

An interview with MCC’s Jaymie Friesen on the importance of third-party support for victim-survivors of abuse

In spring of 2020, Mennonite Central Committee’s Abuse Response and Prevention program launched its updated website, abuseresponseandprevention.ca, which offers resources for victim-survivors of abuse, those supporting victim-survivors and churches looking to address abuse in their congregation.

Jaymie Friesen is program coordinator for MCC’s Abuse Response and Prevention program. She spoke with Mennonite Church Canada writer Katie Doke Sawatzky about the challenges of her work, the importance of seeking third-party support for victim-survivors of abuse, and the response to the website so far.

“Listen to the stories of the oppressed”: stories from centres of conflict around the globe

When Lukasz Firla and his fellow team members finally arrived at the house of the family, they were searching for it was around lunchtime. They hadn’t planned on inviting themselves for a meal, but the family welcomed them. Afterwards, the family invited the team to accompany them to the gravesite to observe a period of mourning for the loss of their son, Himdat Osman Darwish, a young man who had been killed by a Turkish bomb exactly one year ago, while driving his car in Iraqi Kurdistan.

E3: A Vision Led Life

New MCA Communications Coordinator Named

MCA is pleased to welcome Ruth Bergen Braun from Foothills Mennonite Church as its next Communication Coordinator.

Personnel Committee

by Doug Wiebe

The closer we live to the heart and will of God, the clearer this unrepeatable grace becomes. Isn’t this the work of the church – of MCA?

Foothills Mennonite Guesthouse reopening July 1

Beginning July 1, 2020 the Foothills Mennonite Guest House will begin accepting guests who are visiting/supporting family members or loved ones in Hospital.

Building bridges in Burkina Faso

A Menno Minute

by Donna Entz

God brought Siaka Traore of Burkina Faso into our lives in 1979.  In spite of opposition from every direction possible, he has always been consistent in responding as Jesus would. 

Open to God's Whisper

Nationwide Call to Prayer Against Racism

Nationwide call to prayer for Sunday, June 7, 2020

Mennonite Church Alberta with other regions of Mennonite Church Canada is asking all MCA congregations to set aside a specific time of prayer on Sunday, June 7, to join Mennonite Church USA as they lament the injustice and violence suffered by people of colour in the U.S.

Mennonite Church Canada donates $50,000 to Mennonite World Conference for COVID-19 relief fund; asks constituents to match or exceed donation

Mennonite Church Canada is donating $50,000 to the Global Sharing Fund operated by Mennonite World Conference / Congreso Mundial Menonita / Conférence Mennonite Mondiale (MWC) to help MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Embodying God's mission with authenticity

At the 2020 Mennonite Church Canada study conference, plenary speakers from Mennonite Church Canada-affiliated schools will share on themes of ecclesiology, worship and mission.

For the five-person team planning the conference, these themes are essential for our time. The global pandemic has scattered our worshipping bodies and introduced new ways of being church together. The team sees the present moment as an opportunity to discern, discuss and explore what we really mean what we say when we are church.

Engaging the cultural "other"

Next week, May 31 at 2 pm, the group will be unpacking international experiences. New participants are encouraged. The last session is on June 28.

Open to us a door by Doug Klassen

Yet I feel the need to reflect on this moment. I think it is significant. While this scramble to offer digital worship services is understandable, I believe COVID-19 has revealed how “worship-focused” western churches are at the expense of being missional communities. I knew this, but I had not seen it as starkly as I do now.

Let's get JAZZED!

A Menno Minute

by Brenda Tiessen-Wiens

Giving to “where needed,” on the other hand, is not as exciting. So to give it a boost, let’s jazz it up!

After Wet’suwet’en: Re-membering the Church’s “Future Directions”

I was in Wet’suwet’en territory when COVID-19 social-distancing protocols were implemented across Canada. For two weeks I served as a legal observer with Christian Peacemaker Teams. I took vacation time to leave my family in Winnipeg in order to join Gidimt’en clan members and land defenders out on their Yintah (ancestral homeland). I wanted to support their nonviolent struggle for the recognition of their jurisdiction in the face of a government determined to build a fracked-gas pipeline on their territory, at the cost of Indigenous peoples’ full consent and Earth Mother’s well-being.

Camp Valaqua Committee

Camp Valaqua is dedicated to proclaiming the Good News that God is the Creator, we are God’s people, and the earth is placed in our hands as a gift and a trust. 

Like so many other organisations, camp is in a place of uncomfortable limbo right now.  I’ve been asked a lot lately “How can we help?”

Mennonite Church Canada study conference goes virtual

“Table Talk: Does the Church Still Have Legs?” will examine what it means to be the church and the role of worship. The conference will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, through Zoom, a virtual-meeting platform.

“Our separation as churches at this time is difficult, but it also presents an opportunity to take a step back and think critically about what it means to be the church,” says Kim Penner, who sits on the conference planning committee.