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MDS Canada offering Spirit of MDS Fund again

Bob Ratelle does cleanup in the kitchen at Scott St. Church in St. Catharines, Ont., after making meals made possible by support from the MDS Canada Spirit of MDS Fund. (MDS photo)

After a successful first year, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada has announced a new round of funding from its Spirit of MDS Fund.

The 2021 round of funding started Jan. 31 and runs to April 30. It will provide grants up to $2,500 to Canadian Anabaptist/Mennonite congregations.

Boxes of food help people affected by Beirut explosion

Hayat Mohammad, 10, and Ali al Sheikh, 11, participate in psychosocial activities sponsored by the Popular Aid for Relief and Development to help children deal with the trauma of the massive explosion in Beirut last summer. (Photo courtesy of PARD)

Eight of Alice Joubanian’s grandchildren—all under eight years old—lived with her and her daughter in a Beirut camp for Armenian refugees when a massive explosion of ammonium nitrate rocked the city on Aug. 4, 2020.

MC Canada: ‘Pray for the people of Myanmar’

Christians pray in Myanmar’s Chin State. (MC Eastern Canada file photo by Brian Bauman)

Mennonite Church Canada calls on the nationwide community of faith to pray for the people of Myanmar. Pray also for our Myanmar siblings here in Canada. They are deeply concerned for their loved ones and the effect that recent actions will have on peace within Myanmar.

Paul Bergman returns with new single

‘There are a boatload of songs in the works,’ says singer-songwriter Paul Bergman. (Photo by Ken Bergman)

It’s been more than five years since Paul Bergman’s last album, but the wait for new music is over.

“I Just Want to Walk in the Dark with You,” a three-minute single from the southern Manitoba singer-songwriter, is out today.

Deep dive into theology

Colin Friesen, far left, participates in a panel discussion at Conrad Grebel University College in early 2019. (Conrad Grebel University College photo)

Christian theology, ministry and the Bible are complex topics that can be studied using various approaches at Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ont.), whose master of theological studies (MTS) program offers students three distinct paths to complete their degree: course work, applied studies and thesis.

New ways of learning for a new time

Nindyo Sasongko, pictured in 2019, is one of the founders of a theology discussion channel on YouTube called “@Theovlogy.” (Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/nindyo.sasongko)

Nindyo Sasongko believes theology should be publicly available to a wider audience. His experiment in online discussions began in late 2018. When the pandemic hit last year, “@Theovlogy” increased in frequency to meet the demand for online means of connecting.

Watch: A tour of Voices Together

Waterloo Region music teacher Melinda Metzger with her copy of Voices Together.

It may be aimed at children, but everyone will learn something from a video exploring the new Voices Together hymnal.

The video walks viewers through everything that is on a hymnal page, as well as many of the hymnal’s indices. Melinda Metzger, a Waterloo Region music educator, created the video for the Sunday morning children’s time at St. Jacobs (Ont.) Mennonite Church.

MCC initiates research into historical connections with National Socialism

High-profile Nazi officials toured the Mennonite colonies in occupied Ukraine. During his 1942 visit to Molotschna, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and an architect of the Holocaust, exchanged greetings with Mennonite surgeon Johann Klassen. (Mennonite Heritage Centre photo [Alber Photo Collection])

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has initiated research into how national socialism (Nazism) shaped the contexts in Europe and Paraguay where MCC operated in the 1930s and ’40s, and how, at the time, MCC engaged with the German National Socialist government and worked to resettle Mennonite refugees from the Soviet Union.

Common Read continues with ‘I Am Not Your Enemy’

‘I Am Not Your Enemy’ is the Common Read book for winter 2021. (Photo courtesy of MichaelMcRay.com)

Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church USA and Herald Press began partnering in September to encourage Mennonites to engage in a “common read,” a shared reading experience focused on specific books written to nurture Christian faith in this cultural moment.