Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 20
October 15, 2007
Readers Write
We welcome your comments and publish most letters sent by subscribers intended for publication. Respecting our theology of the priesthood of all believers and of the importance of the faith community discernment process, this section is a largely open forum for the sharing of views. Letters are the opinion of the writer only—publication does not mean endorsement by the magazine or the church. Letters should be brief and address issues rather than individuals.
Please send letters to be considered for publication to letters@canadianmennonite.org or by postal mail or fax, marked “Attn: Letter to the Editor” (our address is on page 3). Letters should include the author’s contact information and mailing address. Letters are edited for length, style and adherence to editorial guidelines.
Time is right for Christians to take back Halloween
In recent years the holiday of Halloween has been scorned in many churches. It has been branded as evil and satanic, so many have chosen not to be involved with Halloween in any way. Are our only options to boycott Halloween, close our eyes to it, pretend it doesn’t exist or hope it will go away? Or is there another option?
Perhaps it is time for us Christians to be assertive and reclaim the godly significance of Halloween. Christians throughout history have risked their lives to believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Mennonites, we are especially aware of the dangers that were involved in this. We have a “rich” history of saints who have gone on before us and sacrificed their lives because they believed that integrity was essential to our faith.
What better time to remember those saints who were martyred for our faith than a holiday that was specifically designed for this reason. As Menno-nites, we have more reason than many to embrace Halloween.
For the past two years, our youth group has celebrated Halloween. We have done different things—from dressing up in costumes representing characters from Scripture to playing “Who Am I?” games using biblical characters. Others have had dress-up events where people come creatively dressed up as saints. Always our Halloween parties involve a time of remembering, through story, those who have died before us as a result of their commitment to Christ.
Mural story appreciated by Thrift Shop president
I would like to thank Evelyn Rempel Petkau for the excellent coverage of the Sargent Avenue Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Thrift Store mural (“Looking back, looking forward,” Sept. 3, 2007, back page). We are thrilled with Annie Bergen’s artistry depicting the arrival of the first wave of Mennonites to Manitoba and subsequent generations welcoming new immigrants to Winnipeg.
The settlers travelled through Russia to Hamburg, Germany, then on to Liverpool, England, arriving in Quebec City, before heading inland to Duluth, Minn. From Duluth they went by rail to Fargo, N.D., where they boarded the steamer, International (pictured in the mural) plying the Red River flowing north through Winnipeg. [Incorrect information about the starting point of the steamer journey appeared in the story. Ed.]
A detailed account of those first journeys is available in Building Communities: A Changing Face of Manitoba Mennonites by John J. Friesen, 2007, CMU Press.
From Our Leaders
Becoming ‘God’s People Now’
As Mennonite Church British Columbia we are working at the task of becoming God’s people now. The whole thing began with some serious questions about who we were and what our purpose was. This led to the forming of a committee that was to develop some written statements that defined us. After multiple drafts of the identity and purpose statements and an action plan, they were finalized and accepted at the February 2007 annual meeting.
Our area conference leadership wanted all of our church members, not just church leaders, to be excited about moving in new directions as the entity that we call MC B.C. This led us to ask all of the churches to cancel their usual worship services in their various buildings in order to join in a united worship celebration on May 27 at Mennonite Educational Institute. Pentecost Sunday was chosen as the most appropriate day for such an event.
Following the event I wrote the following for the Emmanuel Mennonite Church newsletter: “I believe the wind of the Holy Spirit was at work moving those who had a part in the program and those who attended. The music rocked! The sermon challenged! The prayers blessed us all!” This sentiment was echoed by numerous others who attended.
[W]e hope to maintain the excitement of working together at various ministries.
In order to put the new documents into effect, a new organizational structure was proposed. One of the important features of this new structure was a shift from a conference minister to an executive minister. This has led to the hiring of Garry Janzen to take on the new role. We are looking to him to give us the leadership to implement our strategy for working at becoming God’s people now. To him will fall the task of assisting congregations in discerning what their role in MC B.C.—and even the wider church—should be.
Congregational challenges include declining memberships, helping members cope with aging, finding appropriate leaders, retaining youths and young adults, exercising wise discernment about the influences that bombard us from society, and a host of unforeseen events that crop up in the life of a church. He will be assisted in this task by the provincial Executive Committee and Leadership Board.
As congregations we hope to maintain the excitement of working together at various ministries. Among them, Camp Squeah has always ranked highly. Renovations to existing buildings there have already started and plans for some new adult-friendly accommodation are well underway. Columbia Bible College’s beautiful campus continues to delight us, as does news of a good enrollment. We are privileged to have our conference offices there and to draw on the resources provided by faculty and the library.
As we move ahead we are reminded to pray for our leaders and for our congregations, and invite our brothers and sisters across the country to do the same . . . for we are in the process of becoming God’s people now.
New Order Voice
Five reasons to stay in church
This column is for all those people who feel trapped in church. I recognize that worship services, which are one of the foundations of our Christian life together, simply don’t work for everyone.
I hear complaints about fluffy songs, outdated hymns, exclusive language, narrow theology, judgmental messages, too much fashion consciousness, sheer boredom or simply being indoors on a free morning.
Some people leave, but others stay in spite of their gripes, usually for family reasons. One young man I chatted with a couple weeks ago felt stuck going to church because he wanted to give his children an experience similar to his own, even though he has drifted theologically from the group.
One of the gifts I bring to the church is doubt.
Instead of yielding to bitterness, why not find positive reasons to stay, even though you don’t approve of everything? Here are some strategies.
• Anabaptist principles. As Anabaptists, we have a radical theology. We believe that everyone in the gathered community can bring a word of God to the group. We believe in a spiritual unity that allows for a diverse expression of gifts. One of the gifts I like to bring to the church is doubt. I often doubt we’re heading in the right direction. In Anabaptist fashion, I agree to speak, listen and discern together. The voice of dissent may be prophetic or dopey; it takes a group to know.
• Take an interfaith approach. If you can’t abide by some of the core Christian affirmations, then you may wish to consider an interfaith approach. I know this is unorthodox, but look for the God that is present everywhere, in all people and, dare I say, in all faiths, including Christianity and your local church. [Note that the church teaches that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, referencing Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name . . . by which we must be saved.” Ed.] Look for glimpses of wonder, love, grace and compassion, you’ll find them.
• How we express our beliefs. God talk takes many expressions. In my case, I no longer use conservative evangelical language to describe God. But it’s only the labels that have changed, God hasn’t. This means I can “worship” with more traditional believers. But I don’t use the word “worship” to describe the activity, I prefer to see it as a time when we “participate in the divine.” The difference in language helps me, and may help you.
• Social circles. It’s important to have friends with similar social ethics, especially if they are outside of the mainstream (like pursuing downward economic mobility, for example). In my view, the communal rapport trumps most theological gripes. Furthermore, commitment to a group, especially if you are bugged by some things about people in the group, can be a witness to the power of unconditional love.
• Sabbath. Like most people, I work and think too much. Sunday morning can be a fast from a constant concern for productivity. If I let go of my need for agreement on everything that happens in church, I can sit and rest in the sermon, I can sing and be moved by the chorus of voices, regardless of the song. The sanctuary really is a refuge from the hecklers and hucksters in workaday consumer society. It is non-productive space. For me, it can be a deliberate time set aside to meet God in the present moment, but only if I can let go of the need to have everything my way.
Out of the Box
Big box monuments
In a TV interview historian Michael Wood reflects upon the world’s great historic civilizations and observes that their impressive building programs were implemented in the dying days of their influence. The places modern tourists visit were, in fact, the last gasps of inflated kingdoms suffering an incurable wound. I doubt the Aztecs designed their temples as the perfect image for 21st century tourist brochures, but at the height of power they were unsuspectingly raising their own tombstones.
You have probably seen great European cathedrals like St. Paul’s in London or St. Vitius’ in Prague. Although awesome in grandeur, the eerie lament of an abandoned faith echoes mournfully amidst the ancient pillars. That same dirge is haunting rural and urban Canada, where buildings once-full sit empty, with the occasional well-intentioned few searching for ways to “save the church,” a thought rich with tragic irony. Our building-centredness has served as blinder, blunder and burden.
Is it really a feather in our cap when a non-believer compliments us on our nice church?
And still the Canadian church, never more in decline, has entered a new era of temple-raising. Will we never learn? Why are we so determined to sink obscene amounts of God’s money into temples he does not inhabit? Why have we assumed this is the only God-inspired model we must follow into eternity? Is it not clear by now that this is a human religious enterprise and not necessarily the heartbeat of our Father?
Who are we building these big box monuments for? And will our children or grandchildren, when they bear grey hair, care two cents about keeping these new basilicas up to code in a new economic and environmental reality, amidst a culture that will be—actually already is—avowedly secular and indifferent to our steeples and welcoming foyers? Our culture is headed away from Christian faith at breakneck speed, so why do we think wads spent on ourselves will spark some great revival? It won’t. In fact, such decadence may feed and speed the exodus.
Far too much “church life” is spent trying to coax people into our hallowed halls. Church buildings have ceased being remotely meaningful to the life of most communities. This is no great loss, for the church is the body of Christ and her people collectively are God’s building. If we wake up, we may yet live out justly, mercifully and humbly the radical hopeful kingdom God’s people can build for a society both justifiably critical of our self-centredness and aching to see what they subconsciously dream we’re capable of.
Can we honestly not read the signs of the times and deduce that our current blueprint is nothing more than the temple-raising of a fading empire and that God’s kingdom does not depend—indeed, never has—on church buildings? Is it really a feather in our cap when a non-believer compliments us on our nice church? Isn’t this merely a sign that they have yet to encounter the church at all?
A new imagination is desperately needed that will risk thinking, listening and conversing with the body of Christ internationally that has no choice but to live in true fellowship, plant seeds and engage their troubled contexts, rather than raise temples. This is no longer a “build it and they will come” world, if it ever really was. If we don’t learn this soon, we are primed to join others who built big just before becoming historical curiosities. l