Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 13
June 26, 2006
Pastors urged to ‘stand under’ Scripture
Water Valley, Alta.
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Jim Shantz, Mennonite Church Alberta conference pastor, will never read Genesis the same way again after participating in this year’s Theological Studies Week, May 29 to June 1, at Camp Valaqua. Guest speaker Dan Epp-Tiessen, assistant professor of Bible at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, presented lively in-depth sessions on the major stories in Genesis and how to interpret them, spicing them with illustrations from history, contemporary society, and anecdotes from his recent sojourn in the Middle East.
The 15 pastors and lay leaders who attended agreed it was an intellectually and spiritually renewing experience.
“We are hungry for that kind of feeding, we lap it up,” said Shantz. “It is such a feast—God’s Word, good food and God’s creation.”
Participants stressed the importance of setting time apart in their busy schedules for this kind of spiritual renewal, something that Epp-Thiessen reinforced.
“Because pastoral ministry is profoundly incarnation, and the Christian faith is profoundly incarnation,” he said, “spiritual renewal and nurturing your own walk with God is especially important for pastors.”
Besides spiritual renewal and hoping to spark some ideas and insights for preaching, Epp-Tiessen hoped the week would deepen the pastors’ know-ledge and understanding of the Book of Genesis. He believes Christians do not study the Bible simply to understand information about the past, but to “stand under” the text by submitting themselves to it. In other words: to fully understand the claims the biblical story makes, to be transformed, and to commit to the God who stands behind that story and to the community who worships that God.
This reverent approach to understanding the text by standing under it was reflected in Epp-Tiessen’s teaching style.
“As a teacher I am now passing on what I have received from others,” he said. “What the person says is important, but there’s so much more that comes through about who the person is. I am becoming more deliberate about sharing my faith and connecting people with God as I teach.”
Rosthern Jr. College honours retiring principal
Rosthern, Sask.
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The latter part of May was spent by many in Saskatchewan and Alberta in honouring Erwin Tiessen, who is retiring after 33 years at Rosthern Junior College (RJC), the last 18 as principal.
On May 18, current and former students, parents and friends of the college gathered at Foothills Mennonite Church, Calgary, for an evening of coffee, desserts and tributes to Tiessen. Organized by RJC board member Bev Patkau and emceed by vice-principal Jim Epp, the evening was a time of celebration, laughter and thanks. Tributes were given by Arnold and Miriam Bezeau, parents of four RJC grads; board member Howard Enns; former students Jason Ritchie and Justin Enns; and former board chair George Epp.
Just over a week later, 240 people came for a banquet and evening of entertainment and tributes at the college. Tributes were brought by Vern and Barb Harder, parents of four RJC grads; RJC board chair Karen Martens Zimmerly; Jim Brown of the Mennonite Foundation; and former students Jill Krikau, Brent Guenther, Dan Richert and Paul Comrie. Special tributes were made by Tiessen’s children Josh and Maida; Brad Nichol, speaking on behalf of the college staff; and Menno Epp, who brought best wishes from Tiessen’s church home in Leamington, Ont.
At both events, Tiessen spoke of the importance of Christian education and how fortunate he felt to have been called to this work. He expressed appreciation for the many colleagues with whom he worked, and especially for the students who gave him energy, purpose and hope for the future.
In appreciation for 18 years of leadership and service to RJC, Tiessen’s current and former colleagues on staff and the board presented him with a travel voucher enabling him and his wife Ruth to fulfill a dream of travelling to Israel.
Both events were also fundraisers for the newly established Tiessen Family Bursary Fund, which will enable more students to attend RJC.
As part of Erwin Tiessen Week, the college held a series of events to pay tribute to Tiessen. The triathlon, held on May 31, was a huge success, as students ran, skateboarded or rollerbladed 10 kilometres, swam 1 kilometre and biked 22 kilometres. Most students participated in this event, many of them in costumes. Pledges collected for the triathlon went to the Tiessen Family Bursary Fund.
—RJC release
Silo singing a resounding experience
Conestogo, Ont.
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John A. Weber claims that “if you really want to blend your voices in song, do it in an empty silo!” Weber, along with Marcia B. Shantz, helped organize the fifth annual St. Jacobs Mennonite Church “silo sing.”
What is unique about the acoustics singing in a silo? “You have to experience it!” says Weber. “It really has an excellent sound, a blending of tone.”
He got the idea in 1999 when, as a retired farmer near Conestogo, Ont., he was recovering from knee replacement surgery. Some of their neighbouring Old Order Mennonite young people came to visit and sing for him. Then they spoke of going afterward to sing in an empty silo before the fall silo filling. Apparently, they do this each fall before corn harvest.
This started the wheels turning for Weber, who has been a singer all his life. He asked permission of their neighbours, Dave and Sue Eby, to use their empty silo.
Regarding the first silo singing five years ago, Shantz wrote in their church newsletter: “At the end of it all, what felt like half-an-hour was really an hour-and-a-half! A Sunday afternoon in October and an autumn breeze encircles a farmyard outside of Conestogo. Thirty people of all shapes and sizes, and even a few with prosthetic replacements, wedged their way through a small ground level opening into an empty concrete silo. Any a pensive mood soon dissipated as our voices joined in harmony in this acoustical wonderment for our first silo singing.”
While some people sit outside the silo on lawn chairs beneath umbrellas, other congregational folk from the St. Jacobs church shimmy their way into the silo, no small feat as the hole at the bottom is elevated. Weber arrives on his John Deere tractor, unloading a foam mattress covered with heavy plastic, which makes up the entrance “silo slide” to cushion their comings and goings. A bale of hay acts as the landing step inside.
One year, the Old Order Mennonite neighbour girls confessed after the event that they had hidden in the corn growing around the silo to listen to the concert.
This year, it was decided to hold the event on May 28, to benefit from the warm spring weather.
As the wife of new pastor Mark Diller Harder, it was Rachel Diller Harder’s first silo singing. “‘When in our music God is glorified’—that is the music of our Christian faith that we sing about, our hopes, our joys and ardent laments, and the beauty of God’s creation in the texts seem to come alive on such an afternoon.”
People simply shout out their requests, while song leader Laverne Brubacher operates his pitch pipe and informally leads the group.
“Each year when the singing begins, the first few notes give you a chicken skin,” Sharon Bauman, a regular silo singer, says. “It is truly a musically exhilarating acoustical sound. A certain song might stir up a memory and people interject and say, ‘This reminds me of…’ There is laughter and there are tears on an afternoon such as this.”
The annual event concludes with a wiener roast back at the Weber farm, around the bend from the “silo singing.”