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Grebel grandma

Mark Leistra, Leola Roth and Owen Roth enjoy an intergenerational supper together. (Supplied photo)

While cousins Adam and Owen Roth had grown to “love the Grebel community,” as first-year students at Conrad Grebel University College, one crucial thing was missing from their new lifestyle: supper at Grandma’s.

MC Alberta hosts first ever Taste of MCA event

Reuben Tut, left, Manas Ngongjock, Shim Beack, Joon Park, Tim Wiebe-Neufeld, Tracy Brown Ewert and Zander Ewert share smiles and stories around the table. (Photo by Jan Wilhelm)

A Taste of MCA event drew people from ages 1 to 100, including young Sarah Sin and her mom, Lal Pui. (Photo by Jan Wilhelm)

A large crowd packs out the Bergthaler Mennonite Church near Didsbury. (Photo by Tim Wiebe-Neufeld)

A chin choir performs at the event. (Photo by Tim Wiebe-Neufeld)

There was no shortage of delicious cuisine served up at A Taste of MCA. (Photo by Tim Wiebe-Neufeld)

Italians Lahna, Walter, and Emily Giugovaz sit beside South Sudanese Reuben Tut and Manas Ngongjock. (Photo by Jan Wilhelm)

When most people think of Mennonite cuisine, they think of perogies and farmer sausage, or perhaps fresh rollkuchen dipped in Rogers Golden Syrup.

Yet at A Taste of MCA, a Mennonite Church Alberta event at Bergthaler Mennonite Church near Didsbury, on April 12, the menu featured dishes like chicken biryani, chicken kabobs and roti, injera and spicy lamb, corn soup and sticky rice.

Kelowna church sells property and moves

Kelowna First Mennonite Church, built in 1989, sold its property to an MB church, and now worships next door in the theatre room at the Northwood Retirement Resort. (Northwood Retirement Resort photo)

Members of Kelowna First Mennonite Church are selling their church building, but that doesn’t mean they are closing their doors. As of May, the small congregation is meeting in a nearby seniors residence.

U2’s Mennonite string section

The Joshua Tree made U2 superstars. The band—Larry Mullen, Jr., Adam Clayton, Bono and The Edge—is pictured here in 2017. (Photo by Olaf Heine)

The Armin String Quartet, pictured circa 1960. From left to right: Adele, Paul, Otto and Richard. (The Canadian Mennonite photo collection / Mennonite Archives of Ontario)

U2 performs at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill., in June 2017 as part of a tour commemorating The Joshua Tree’s 30th anniversary. (Photo by Aaron Epp)

There was nothing unusual about it when Richard, Paul and Adele Armin walked into the recording studio on New Year’s Eve in 1986. It was just another job, really.

Ottawa group uses unique fundraising method

Linda Redekop, left, and Maria Rigby have been part of Ottawa Mennonite Church's refugee resettlement work since its start. (Photo by Carla Klassen)

For more than 20 years, a refugee support group at Ottawa Mennonite Church has used an unusual fundraising method that has allowed it to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent subsidy to newcomers. The rising cost of living has made this support all the more important.

School’s out

Graduating students make their way across campus to the ceremony at CMU in 2019. (Photo courtesy of CMU)

Hundreds of students are preparing to graduate this month from post-secondary institutions supported by Mennonite Church Canada and its regional churches.

First Enneagram Prison Project launches in Saskatchewan

Amanda Dodge, centre, and Leanne Schellenberg, right pose with EPP lead guide Laura Hooper. (Photo by Laura Hooper)

‘The Enneagram is a widely used, comprehensive, broad based personality theory that has been utilized and studied in contemporary psychology and psychiatry,’ according to EPP Canada’s website. (enneagramprisonproject.ca diagram)

These days, if someone asks, “What number are you?” they are likely not asking your age. The Enneagram, a personality typing system based on nine types, has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years. Now Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Saskatchewan is helping to bring the Enneagram into correctional facilities.

Passion for environment, humans, creativity motivates fashion revolution

Anna-Marie Janzen is the founder and operator of Reclaim Mending. (Photo by Anna-Marie Janzen)

Elise Epp is the country coordinator for Fashion Revolution Canada. (Supplied photo)

Jennifer DeGroot and her family run Big Oak Farm near Morden, Man. (Supplied photo)

Anna-Marie Janzen is the founder and operator of Reclaim Mending. (Photo by Anna-Marie Janzen

“An estimated 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually from the fashion industry,” Fashion Revolution reported in 2020, citing Global Fashion Agenda. “Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned globally.”

Three churches follow distinct paths as sexuality tensions shift the landscape

On March 19, members of Toronto United Mennonite Church wrote letters of support to MB churches that have been disciplined for LGBTQ+ inclusion. (Photo by Madalene Arias)

March 19 was “PIE Day” at Toronto United Mennonite Church. Just before noon, attendants gradually moved out of the worship hall into the lobby for coffee and tea.

Two long tables soon filled with tarts and custards. Some people gawked at a mud pie with gummy worms and crumbled chocolate.

Bright and bold storybook Bible released

Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, from The Peace Table. (Art by LaTonya R. Jackson / Reprinted with permission)

A Latin American depiction of a woman touching the edge of Jesus’ robe, from The Peace Table. (Art by Clarissa Martinez / Reprinted with permission)

MennoMedia has released The Peace Table, the most ambitious children’s Bible project in its history. Within the book’s 384 pages, readers will find 140 Bible stories and an abundance of full-colour artwork by 30 different illustrators.

Mennonites celebrate their global church

José Arrais of Portugal shares about European Mennonites’ response to the war in Ukraine. (MWC photo)

B.C. Mennonites enjoyed a global experience on March 25 while gathering for Renewal 2023, a Mennonite World Conference (MWC) event with the theme of “Jesus Christ, our hope.”

The event, held at South Abbotsford Church, was part of Renewal 2028, a decade-long series of local events organized by MWC to commemorate the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement.

Windsor churches support downtown drug clinic

The SafePoint consumption and treatment site in downtown Windsor, Ont., is set to open in the building on the corner. (Google maps photo)

Rielly McLaren has seen first hand the effects of the opioid crisis in his community and his congregation.

The pastor of Windsor Mennonite Fellowship, a small urban church near the heart of Windsor, Ont., says, “Families in my congregation have lost loved ones to this crisis. All economic segments of society are affected.”

Transitions abound at MC Saskatchewan’s annual delegate sessions

Kirsten Hamm-Epp, regional church minister, and Josh Wallace, church engagement minister, lead morning worship. (Photo by Emily Summach)

Jeanette Hanson and David Neufeld chat between sessions. (Photo by Emily Summach)

Sharon Schultz, pastor of Eyebrow Mennonite Church, and Andrea Enns-Gooding, pastor of Rosthern Mennonite Church, engage in conversation. (Photo by Emily Summach)

Audrey Mierau Bechtel plays piano for morning worship with Josh Wallace on guitar. (Photo by Emily Summach)

Delegates and guests raise their voices in song. (Photo by Emily Summach)

Participants hang ‘seeds’ of the various MC Saskatchewan and MC Canada ministries on the ‘roots’ displayed at the front of the meeting hall. (Photo by Emily Summach)

David Boshart, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, delivers the afternoon keynote session. (Photo by Emily Summach)

David Boshart, president of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., encouraged Mennonite Church Saskatchewan participants at this year’s annual delegate sessions (ADS) to hold on to a hopeful perspective, even as the challenges of church life after the pandemic grew.

Vietnam church strong, dynamic

Garry Janzen (left), Yha Robin, Nhien Pham, Hung Doan Dinh and Kosor Tuih in Qui Nhon, Vietnam, on Feb. 14. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Barkowsky)

With 100,000 members, the Mennonite church in Vietnam is going strong, reports Nhien Pham. The retired pastor, who came to Canada from Vietnam in 1976, returned to his home country for a month with a group from Mennonite Church Canada earlier this year. Pham is president of the North American Evangelical Vietnamese Fellowship and advisor for Evangelical Church Vietnam.

MC Manitoba re-imagines church together at annual gathering

Sol Janzen (left), Heidi Dirks, Marcus Rempel and Teresa Enns Zehr represented the two congregations joining MC Manitoba at this year’s annual gathering: Aberdeen Evangelical Mennonite Church and Saint Julian’s Table. (Photo by Karen Schellenberg)

The buzz of conversation and singing was a welcome sound as people filled Douglas Mennonite Church in Winnipeg for Mennonite Church Manitoba’s first in-person gathering in three years.

This year’s event hosted more than 150 people, including 111 delegates, on March 3 and 4. The theme was “Re-imagining church together.”

Journey from pastor to politician

Caleb Ratzlaff mingles with supporters at his campaign launch. (Photo by Jenessa Jessome Photography)

Caleb Ratzlaff has always had an interest in theology and politics. After spending time in seminary, he ultimately decided to complete a master’s degree in political philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. Last November, he was elected to the St. Catherines city council, at which time he left his position as pastor of Westview Christian Fellowship.

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