Volume 15, Number 14
Encore!
After 20 years of service as children’s choir director at Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, Man., Lori Wiebe gets to sit back on May 8 and enjoy an encore of songs from past musicals she has directed over the years. Pictured at right is Mel Braun, who is also leaving his post as accompanist after 11 years.
For Lori Wiebe, the May 8 performance of The Rock Slinger and his Greatest Hit, a musical about David and Goliath, was a significant milestone in her life. After 20 years of directing the Sargent Avenue Mennonite Church Children’s Choir, this was her last musical.
Challenging the politics of empire
Cobus van Wyngaard, a pastor from the Dutch Reformed Church, left, and Mpho Putu, a pastor at a Vineyard church in Soweto, participate in the inaugural theological forum put on by the Anabaptist Network in South Africa. Both are members of the network’s steering committee.
As a young Christian man actively involved in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, Mpho Putu knew that some of the movement’s protest songs included themes of revenge killing that posed challenges to what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus.
Former Bible school helped shape the call for many pastors
The Bible school students of 1964 take their turn doing the dishes at lunch.
About 140 former students and spouses of Ontario Mennonite Bible School and Institute met at Mannheim Mennonite Church, Petersburg, Ont., for a reunion on May 29.
Working together in God’s vineyard
Anna Martens-Koop helps tend her grandparents’ grapes at their farm in rural southwestern Ontario.
The 15th chapter of the Gospel of John begins with the verse, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener,” then it goes on to speak about the techniques and practices used to assure a rich harvest.
Who is to blame?
The Vancouver Canucks’ inability to score and some people’s penchant for blowing things up has caused me to agree with a zealous atheist. “Religion poisons everything,” contends Christopher Hitchens. He may be on to something—at least to the degree “Hockeyanity” has become Canada’s de facto religion.
Partnerships create new ministry initiatives
In the past several years the Mennonite Church Manitoba board of directors consulted congregations to hear their wisdom and counsel for future direction. There was a desire for a more collaborative approach in bringing together congregations, individuals and other partners to build relationships and achieve ministry goals.
Seeds of discontent
I’ve been to the dark side, met the people there and survived. Of course, they wore black, had dreadlocks and tattoos, were probably anarchists and drove a bus powered by veggie oil. Oh, they were also Christian.
For discussion
1. Does your church have ways to connect personally with the individuals it helps? How important is this personal contact? Have you ever experienced awkward moments while providing help to someone? What aspect of the exchange was most awkward?
Just trying to help
My parents packed me, my sister and a Christmas hamper into the car. We were headed to an address provided by the local Cheer Board. The plan was for us to all go in for a short visit. I imagine the Cheer Board encouraged this to humanize the helping. Predictably, our venture took us to the run-down side of our Mennonite prairie town.
Time for the family to ‘pony up’
Although the thousand delegates and locals attending the annual assembly of Mennonite Church Canada represent only 3 percent of our 32,000 members, the event has the feel and dynamic of a family reunion.
