Native Mennonites gather in Manitoba

Riverton, Man.

A Métis woman challenged the stereotype of native children growing up in abusive alcoholic homes. A Manitoba man explained why he would rather not have a road connecting his remote community to the outside world. A Cheyenne leader from Oklahoma described how his tribe practised restorative justice long before there was a name for it.

Cook

These and dozens of other stories surfaced at the North American Native Assembly held here July 26-29. The 280 participants, from six provinces and seven states, represented Native Ministries of Mennonite Church Canada, and two U.S. groups—the Mennonite Indian Leaders Council and United Native Ministries.

Harry Cook, retired leader of Bloodvein First Nation in Manitoba, was one of the speakers. His father was the first person in his community to learn about Mennonites, and in 1948 invited Mennonite Pioneer Mission (now Native Ministries) to be a presence in his community.

Cook was frequently challenged and sometimes ostracized by community members for his views. It was “not me, but God that gave me the courage not to fight back,” he said. He introduced a ferry service and a post office in his community. But Cook would rather not have an all-season road because he fears an increase in alcohol and drug infiltration.

Barbara Shoomski, a Métis woman from an Anglican diocese in Winnipeg, talked about her life during a worship service. Her formative years were spent in a loving family which did not allow alcohol in their home.

Now she leads a soup kitchen in a downtown church and uses her social work skills to counsel native teens involved in street gangs.

Lawrence Hart delivered a passionate speech tying the Old Testament birthright story of Esau to historical evidence of his Cheyenne ancestors’ model of restorative justice. For over an hour, this graduate of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary moved seamlessly between biblical teachings, out-of-print books documenting the Cheyenne way, and conversations with judges in the American justice system.

God has been working in many ways among many cultures throughout history, said Hart.

In a moving moment during worship, DarDar Antoinette from the United Houma Nation in Louisiana belted out a French hymn in her clear, powerful voice.

During the weekend, participants assembled 103 health kits for Mennonite Central Committee.

Neill and Edith von Gunten, Native Ministries workers in Manitoba since 1969, gave leadership to planning this event. The children’s program was led by Karen Yoder of Macon, Mississippi, with assistance from Springstein Mennonite Church in Manitoba.

Youth participants experienced isolation (and a lack of shower facilities) by camping in the fishing community of Matheson Island under the leadership of several young adults.

Thirty volunteers from Manitoba congregations and native communities received accolades for their cooking skills, including a moose stew.

As worshippers moved to the front to celebrate communion with bannock and juice on closing night, the banner on the wall proclaimed the theme from Psalm 121:2: “Our help comes from the Lord.” —From MC Canada release by Dan Dyck

Manitoba society serves seniors in Ukraine

Winnipeg, Man.


Mennonites who travelled to Ukraine in the 1990s searching for their roots discovered tremendous poverty and a failing health care system. Former Mennonite villages are now swallowed up by the polluted city of Zaporizhzhya with nearly a million people.

Ann Goertzen visits an elderly client in Ukraine.

In the past few years, the Mennonite Benevolent Society (Manitoba), which since 1945 has been committed to expressing Christian faith by respond

ing to those with long-term health needs, has been addressing the desperate needs of the elderly in Ukraine.

Louie Sawatzky, who began working with the society two and a half years ago, tells the remarkable story of how this group has expanded its vision since 1997.

Several members visited Ukraine to assess the situation, and the society began to build a relationship with the Zaporizhzhya Mennonite Church.

Over three years ago, Ann Goertzen, a practical nurse at Bethania Mennonite Personal Care Home in Winnipeg, which the society founded, was seconded by the society to develop a home care program in Ukraine. Goertzen had worked in a Christian camping program in the USSR and knew the Russian language.

Home care has become the core progam in Zaporizhzhya, said Sawatzky. “About 30 people are receiving care. Local residents, many of them connected to the Baptist and Mennonite churches, provide that care.”

Goertzen, with the support of Anita Kampen, director of Bethania, and Olga Sazler, director of Resident Services at Bethania, gives leadership to the project.

“We provide a basic training course on how to provide comfort care, as well as a course in palliative care. When the students come through the course they feel qualified and empowered.” Participants receive an honorarium.

A year ago, a three-bedroom apartment was purchased and renovated for a respite centre.

“Many seniors don’t have a good situation to go back to, so although this is meant as a temporary (three month) respite facility, for many this may be their final resting place,” Sawatzky explained. “Here we provide comfort care for five people—a homey atmosphere, Bible studies, and worship services. We encourage people from the church to visit.”

Recently, the society purchased a neighbouring apartment.

“Our plan is to provide room for three more people and use the additional space for training and a day program where the seniors in the area can have tea, visit, take a shower, get clothes washed, receive food and take part in weekly Bible studies.”

The society has also established “The Mennonite Family Centre” as a charity in Zaporizhzhya. “Its board is made of members from Winnipeg and three Zaporizhzhya members—one from the church, the city government and a member at large,” said Sawatzky.

New opportunities keep emerging. Last year recycled medical supplies were made available to the society. With assistance from International HOPE, Mennonite Central Committee, Christian Medical Association of Zaporizhzhya and Friends of the Mennonite Centre of Ukraine, the society shipped a 40-foot container of beds, wheelchairs and other supplies.

Another shipment was sent this summer and the society is currently gathering supplies for a shipment in October.

The society relies on donations from individuals and churches, and seed money from Bethania and Concordia Hospital.

“This work has to be supported by North Amercian donations,” said Sawatzky. “The elderly receive a very inadequate pension [in Ukraine]. There is no safety net and seniors are the lowest priority.”

“Our long-term objective is to involve local people in the decision-making and management,” he said. “We hope to offer this as a model that can be replicated by other groups there.”

One of the care providers in the Mennonite Family Centre, Julia Tsynkush, is in Winnipeg for a year to gain experience and training at Bethania. “We hope this learning experience will develop her skills to provide leadership to the Zaporizhzhya program when she returns,” said Sawatzy.

Members of the society are available to visit churches and can be contacted by e-mail: louiesawatzky@aol.com. —Evelyn Rempel Petkau

Leaders consider future of missions in Europe

Paris, France

Participants in the European mission consultation, from left: Alan Kreider, Wilbert Shenk, Herman Heijn and J. Robert Charles (Mennonite Mission Network). Photos by John D. Yoder.

The changing face of religion in Europe is causing Mennonite mission leaders to consider two very different possibilities for mission work on that continent.

Staff from North America and nine European countries met for a consultation on the topic here in May, hosted by Mennonite Mission Network (Mennonite Church USA). Peter Rempel, Mennonite Church Canada Witness Partnership facilitator for Europe, attended the event.

Participants agreed that the focus of missions could be either on secular Europeans who have lost interest in religion, or on new immigrants who need help adjusting to a foreign land. What form that outreach will take, and to whom it will be directed, was the subject of discussion as participants evaluated their programs and discussed how they might respond to the changing landscape.

The past 25 years have seen an increased secularism, along with a dramatic increase in Christian immigrants from the south (Africa, Latin America and Asia). Muslim immigration has also increased.

Rempel noted the parallels between how immigrants from the Soviet Union, many of Mennonite background, formed dynamic congregations in Germany and how immigrants from Africa are now forming congregations in western Europe.

“Christians in both immigrant groups perceived the existing churches in their new communities generally to lack vitality, to foster different pieties, and to be less welcoming of the immigrants’ language and culture,” said Rempel. “So they formed new congregations and groupings.”

Europeans at the consultation welcomed the interest of North Americans in Europe.

“We still need your help—both the population and the Mennonite church,” said Claude Baecher, Mennonite professor at the Free Church seminary in Paris. “The best people left from here,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “You owe us.”

Whether one looks at church attendance or beliefs, historic Christendom “has ended and religion no longer has a significant public role,” said Wilbert Shenk, who teaches mission history at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.

Alan Kreider, former mission worker in England and currently teaching at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, agreed that secularism is the norm and being religious is unusual and even threatening. “In England, one way for young people to unsettle their parents is to go to the university and become a Christian,” he said.

Secularization in Europe and Canada According to a survey taken in 2000, “44 percent of the British claim no religious affiliation whatever” and half of young adults “do not even believe that Jesus existed as a historical person.” Between 1989 and 1998, Sunday church attendance in England declined by 22 percent. Catholic countries show a similar pattern of secularization. In France and Italy, only about 8 percent of the population are practising Catholics. A similar trend exists in most other European nations. (Statistics from The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins, Oxford University Press, 2002.) Some think Canada is moving in a similar direction. “Canadian society mirrors European trends in many ways,” says Peter Rempel of Mennonite Church Canada Witness. “Yet, I would hesitate to call our society ‘secular,’ given that all Canadian social data points to a high level of interest in spirituality, religious belonging, and search for transcendence. “It would be more accurate to label our society post-Christian, or alternatively spiritual, but not secular.” In his role as Witness partnership facilitator, Rempel maintains connections with church bodies in Europe and Africa. Rempel notes that the impact of migration is also very real in Canada. “Our churches are heavily influenced by the influx of Christians into Canada from other parts of the world.” “The spiritual shift in Canada is largely a Christian revolt against institutionalized church life,” says Rempel. “Canadians want very much to identify themselves as Christian, but don’t want to hook that identity into participation in an established Christian church…it is different than the changes happening in Europe, the USA, and in other continents.”—From MC Canada release by John D. Yoder

However, scholars have been writing the obituary for religion in Europe for over a century, said Shenk. British sociologist Grace Davie describes the present attitude of many Europeans as “believing without belonging.” Religious activity is thriving, while traditional religious structures are in decline. The new dimensions colouring the religious landscape in Europe are Christian immigrants and the rise of Islam.

Herman Heijn, pastor and head of the Dutch Mennonite Mission Society, said the religious situation in the Netherlands has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. To make the point, he held up a book with pictures of current religious leaders in the country. Page after page showed Muslims and African Christians, with a few Dutch Reformed leaders.

Heijn called the shift in religious loyalties “the silent Reformation.” His involvement with African Christians has “changed his life,” he said.

The group learned about one immigrant church firsthand from F. Mas Miangu, associate pastor of an African immigrant church in Paris, and by worshipping in his congregation.

“Be flexible, be open, and go toward these people [African immigrants] who are coming toward you,” said Miangu. “Be ready to discern and understand God’s message for today.” Miangu is a seminary student of Mennonite professors Neal Blough and Linda Oyer, who are supported by MC Canada Witness and the Mission Network.

The consultation did not map out a blueprint for Mennonite mission in Europe; rather, it gave participants a framework for moving forward.

Kreider likened the future of Mennonite missions in Europe to participating in a choir. “Christianity [in Europe] is a seven-part motet,” he said. “The missing part has been Anabaptism. We need to sing our part strongly and sensitively (listening to the other parts).”

Europeans welcome that partnership. “One thing that really, really moved my heart is that…there is still this deep concern and desire for North American Mennonites to work in Europe,” said Margo Longley, a mission associate serving in Finland. “As a European that is really very precious to me….”

MC Canada Witness partners with the Mission Network in the USA to administer ministries in Spain, France, Ireland and England.—From MC Canada release by John D. Yoder and Dan Dyck

While Europe has become largely secular, churches among African immigrant communities are thriving. This is a choir from the Assemblée Evangélique Le Rocher (Evangelical Church of the Rock) in Paris. Members of the congregation come from 15 countries, mostly in French-speaking Africa. “These churches are creating a kind of French gospel music,” says Neal Blough, a Mennonite mission worker and seminary professor in Paris. “It’s a mixture of charismatic praise songs, some translated from English and with different African influences coming together.” Pastor F. Mas Miangu, who has studied with Blough, hopes to go beyond African influences to build “a truly multicultural church…. We want to challenge Europeans to come back to the true values of the gospel.”

MCC Canada opens national warehouse

Plum Coulee, Man.


Over 350 people turned out September 1 for the dedication of Mennonite Central Committee Canada’s national warehouse here. Several hundred more toured the new facilities in this rural community south of Winnipeg.

At the opening of MCC’s new national warehouse in Manitoba, Daniel Lepp Friesen explains where donated blankets will be sent.

The national warehouse is expected to streamline the gathering and shipping of goods.

“It also enables us to provide [a more] rapid deployment of our resources to all parts of the world,” said Don Peters, MCC Canada executive director, at the o

pening ceremonies. “This central Canadian warehouse will [also] reduce the space needed by provincial centres for storage, freeing up space for group work projects.”

MCC had been considering adding warehouse space to its current facilities in Winnipeg. But discussions with representatives from Plum Coulee led to an offer to rent a 7,200-square-foot facility from local business owners for a two-year period.

The warehouse will collect relief supplies from across Canada for shipment abroad. The warehouse will also include a work-centre space for youth groups and volunteers to assemble health kits, school kits and other aid packages.
“I hope volunteers from the surrounding communities will have the ability to support MCC, both here and from their own homes,” said volunteer and local businessman John Redekop, of JR Welding.

According to MCC Manitoba director Daniel Lepp Friesen, MCC is already preparing to send a relief shipment from Plum Coulee to Sudan.

Winkler resident Helen Dyck related some of her postwar experiences in Russia, noting how much the family appreciated receiving three MCC blankets.

“These blankets comforted even our broken spirits,” said Dyck, commenting on the display blankets. “MCC made a big impact on us. We saw them as a symbol of God’s love.”—Elmer Heinrichs for MCC Canada

Canadian Mennonite
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Phone: (519) 884-3810
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