Features

Ross T. Bender

Ross T. Bender, dean emeritus of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, died late Thursday, April 21, in Goshen, Ind. In his 81 years of life, he devoted himself to service and... Read More
April 27, 2011 | Feature | Mary Klassen
1. How are conflicts in the faith community different from those in other organizations? Do you think such conflicts show a lack of a caring community? What is the most important... Read More
April 27, 2011 | Feature |

While the church may try to keep conflicts from becoming ‘messy and public,’ that doesn’t mean they aren’t messy and private.

Pastor Epp (a pseudonym), finding himself in conflict with his church board, became increasingly depressed. Sharing his emotional ill health with the board, they arrived at a... Read More
April 27, 2011 | Feature | By Rachel Bergen
1. What aid agencies do the people of your congregation support? Do Mennonites in Canada see Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as primary or just one of many agencies? How strong... Read More
April 13, 2011 | Feature |
I grew up with the admonition, “self-praise stinks,” a phrase best expressed in the Pennsylvania-German dialect. During my years as executive secretary of Mennonite Central... Read More
April 13, 2011 | Feature | By John A. Lapp
Canadian Mennonite has dedicated significant analysis to the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Wineskins process (Dick Benner’s Nov. 29, 2010 editorial, “ Congregations, too, want... Read More
April 13, 2011 | Feature | By Robert J. Suderman

Keynote speaker Sue Johnson: “We are designed to live in community and in close relationships.”

“We have cracked the code of love,” announced Sue Johnson, EdD, author of Hold Me Tight to 1,200 people attending “Conversations on Attachment – Integrating the Science of Love... Read More
April 12, 2011 | Feature | by Bonnie Price Lofton

Hilda Epp, holds a blanket symbolizing the exposure to new diseases (small pox, tuberculosis, measles) that arrived with the European settlers on Turtle Island—an aboriginal term for North America—as Diane Tiessen looks on. On the far left is Denise Bartel and on the far right is Eve Klassen. (Photo by Dick Benner)

Early relationships between European settlers and aboriginals were characterized by cooperation and interdependence, John Bartel , a farmer from Drake, Sask., and a member of... Read More
April 7, 2011 | Feature | Dick Benner, editor/publisher

One of the issues is the cutting of $7 million in renewed CIDA funding to Kairos of which Mennonite Central Committee is a member

It’s election time in Canada once again. You might be wondering if this election really matters, or if your vote can really make a difference. That’s why it is timely to draw... Read More
April 6, 2011 | Feature | Dan Dyck
1. How was your spirituality formed as you grew up? In what ways has Mennonite spirituality been changing? 2. Do you feel that you encounter God through your current spiritual... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature |

Ray Martin, left, and Scott Brubacher-Zehr, centre, listen to a presentation by Arnold Snyder, retiring Conrad Grebel University College history of theology professor, on the history of Anabaptist-Mennonite spiritual formation beliefs and practices.

Over thirty pastors and lay people gathered earlier this year to hear Arnold Snyder, retiring Conrad Grebel University College professor of history, give two two-hour long... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature | By Dave Rogalsky
Books A Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster A Mennonite Woman by Dawn Ruth Nelson Discover Your Spiritual Type by Corinne Ware Dissident Discipleship by David Augsburger... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature |
However difficult this book is to read, Dawn Ruth Nelson has done the church a significant service in her study. Her effort to both diagnose the malaise in North American... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature | Reviewed by Dave Rogalsky
Growing up in a family with an Evangelical Mennonite bent meant that I early on learned about going to church. While we had prayers at meals, bedtime and on special occasions—like... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature | By Dave Rogalsky

‘Kingdom spirituality’ is well suited to Mennonites. This is the ‘give me something to do for God’ spirituality that goes on peace marches, works with Mennonite Disaster Service, sits at the quilting frame or helps with building projects like the one at Silver Lake Mennonite Camp, Ont., pictured.

God is a living God who encounters us in our daily lives.” So said Arnold Snyder, professor of history at Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ont., during a Reformation... Read More
March 30, 2011 | Feature | By Dave Rogalsky
In addition to the usual Assembly 2011 activities, local organizers have planned a number of tours of Waterloo Region, including: Historic Ebytown. Engage the historical Mennonite... Read More
March 16, 2011 | Feature |

A 1797 Conestoga wagon, refitted with rubber tires, travels from Lancaster, Pa., to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., in 1952 to mark the centennial of Waterloo County. (File photo by David Hunsberger, Mennonite Archives of Ontario)

It is 1786. The first Swiss Mennonites have just arrived in Ontario, having travelled from Pennsylvania in Conestoga wagons. They crossed the mighty Niagara River by taking the... Read More
March 16, 2011 | Feature | Maurice Martin

Jeff and Tany Warkentin, formerly of Leamington, Ont., Springridge, Alta., and Winnipeg, Man., have three small children. Their assignment is scheduled to end this year.

Jeff Warkentin, Mennonite Church Canada worker in Burkina Faso, West Africa, has sent out a prayer appealRead More
March 16, 2011 | Feature | Deborah Froese
1. When did your congregation first have a woman preach a sermon or first have a woman pastor? How open was the congregation to this change? Were there surprises in who resisted?... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature |

Martha Smith Good, left, talks with Johanna Wall, pastor of the now-closed Warden Woods Church, Scarborough, Ont., in June 2009.

Throughout her childhood and youth Martha Smith Good believed her conservative Swiss Markham-Waterloo Mennonite church north of Toronto was all about rules and regulations. “In my... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature | By Dave Rogalsky

Erin Morash pastors at Trinity Mennonite Church in Mather and Crystal City Mennonite, rural Manitoba congregations 20 minutes apart.

It was the simple yet profound welcome she received as a stranger in a Mennonite church that made all the difference to Erin Morash, who says she grew up in “an extraordinarily... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature | By Evelyn Rempel Petkau

Emily Toews, left, pastor of North Star Mennonite Church, Drake, Sask., colours alongside the children attending the church’s Vacation Bible School last summer.

Recently ordained, Emily Toews—at 35—is the youngest female lead pastor in Mennonite Church Saskatchewan. She has served for four years at North Star Mennonite Church in Drake,... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature | By Karin Fehderau

Donita and Tim Wiebe-Neufeld are ordained in May 2006 by Jim Shantz, Mennonite Church Alberta conference minister.

As far as I know, I’m the only one. I’m the only home-grown Alberta woman who left the province, studied in Mennonite institutions, and is a pastor back here. Friends in other... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature | By Donita Wiebe-Neufeld

Wilf Dueck, moderator of First Mennonite Church, Burns Lake, B.C., presents Pastor Eve Isaak with flowers and an education bursary from the congregation at her ordination service last June.

Growing up in a very conservative Old Colony Mennonite home in the 1950s and ’60s, I soon learned that education was not encouraged. Church was meant only to attend. I was to keep... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature | By Eve Isaak
Canadian Mennonite profiles the inspiring stories of women pastors from each of Mennonite Church Canada’s five area churches, beginning with Eve Isaak from British Columbia and... Read More
March 2, 2011 | Feature |

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