Viewpoints
Senior blessing
Readers write: May 28, 2012 issue
Scattering seeds for a new season
Spring is here! And with it come various chores around the yard and garden: cleaning out the withered growth left after the snow melted, digging the moist earth to let in air and water so new growth can happen, and pulling out those ever-present weeds. I’m always amazed at how those pesky dandelions can take root and appear in full bloom before you know it.
The R’s beneath a radical sabbath
I was asked to preach on Earth Day. If I was a typical Mennonite minister, I would start with a few statistics, cite high levels of consumption, touch on some exotic form of injustice that doesn’t implicate us too directly. I’d gently exhort that we’re called to care for creation, be good stewards and drink fair-trade coffee, and then I’d offer a rote prayer for courage and wisdom.
No longer, but not yet
I was engaged for four months before the big day. Engagement is an interval in time determined by things that are no longer and things that are not yet. The engaged are not really single, but not yet spouse. My experience of engagement was of a time in between. It involved longing (hey, I’m a guy and I was longing). It involved work (and a wedding takes a lot of it . . .
75 years of church
Readers write
Embracing the absurdity
Our mothers’ wombs
Recently, I watched a young mother and her family seated nearby in an airport restaurant. The mother was calmly multi-tasking: feeding her son small bites of food, wiping her daughter’s face and carrying on a conversation with her husband. Just before the kids ran off to play at the toy structure, they raised their faces for Mommy kisses.
Learning generosity
Generosity doesn’t just happen. It can be learned.
ZenithOptimedia projects that advertisers in Canada will spend $11.3 billion in 2012, hoping that consumers will learn to spend money on their products. Rather than just succumbing to this tide, why not commit to engaging with at least one generosity resource this year?
Worship as drama
Occasionally, because of my background in dramatic arts and pastoral ministry, I have been asked how well worship and drama mix. The query often assumes a disconnect between the two, or, at best, a sense that if the “dramatic element” is missing, it can simply be added to an existent worship outline with a skit, reading or other piece.
Readers write
Show and tell a different world
Behind Anglican lines
Be prepared!
Recently there has been more sharing via Facebook by people who grew up at Morrison Academy in Taiwan. This has brought back to life a number of memories. One of these was a picture of me and some friends at a Boy’s Brigade event in our school gym. Like the well-known Boy Scout motto, we were often reminded to “Be prepared,” including in our Bible lessons.
Readers write: April 16, 2012 issue
Pointless to teach anything other than Jesus and him crucified
Re: “No religion superior to another,” March 19, page 36.
The trouble with normal
Have a blessed, refreshed summer
Paying tribute
Dust off your Bibles!
Readers write
Wake up, women! Let our lights shine!
It’s time to throw down the gauntlet and say, “Wake up, women!” Our mothers and grandmothers left us a wonderful legacy of working together, and we need to pick up the slack in our own generation by participating in the work of Mennonite Women Canada (MW Canada).