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Public invited to grand opening of CMU’s Marpeck Commons

The newest building on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University. “We are honoured to open this spectacular space,” says university president Cheryl Pauls. (CMU photo)

Canadian Mennonite University will celebrate the grand opening of Marpeck Commons, CMU’s new library, learning commons, and bridge, on Sat., Nov. 29, 2014.

The public is invited to join CMU staff, faculty, and students at 2299 Grant Ave. for the grand opening celebration from 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. An open house is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.     

MDS volunteers shovel out their neighbours

In response to an extremely large snowfall, volunteers from the Drayton, Ont. area, shovel snow off the roof of a dairy barn near West Seneca, N.Y. (Credit: Paul Hunt)

Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) volunteers often describe their service as being “the hands and feet of Jesus.” During the weekend of Nov. 21-23, those hands—and backs—were working hard, shovelling the historic snowfall in upstate New York.

‘Come, let us all unite to sing’

Bobby Switzer, organizer of the hymn marathon, leads a hymn during a Goshen College chapel service. In 2012, he started the Goshen College Hymn Club, which regularly invites the campus community to sing four-part hymns out of the blue Mennonite hymnal. (Photo by Brian Yoder Schlabach)

Singers work their way through the “Hymnal: A Worship Book” just before midnight during the “Sing for Peace” hymn marathon at Goshen College. (Photo by Brett Conrad)

Bobby Switzer did not grow up going to church or singing, but he has become passionate about hymns and congregational music since coming to Goshen College four years ago.

When he started the Goshen College Hymn Club in 2012, little did he know that he would end up singing through every verse of all 658 hymns in Hymnal: A Worship Book, in a 30-hour marathon of song.

On the bridge between Mennonite and Catholic shores

Laura Funk and Gilbert Detillieux live on the bridge between the Mennonite and Catholic faith. (Photo courtesy of authors)

The authors participate in the activities of Bridgefolk, “a movement of sacramentally-minded Mennonites and peace-minded Roman Catholics who come together to celebrate each other's traditions, explore each other's practices, and honor each other's contribution to the mission of Christ's Church” (Bridgefolk website).

Goshen College students to sing for peace in hymn marathon

Goshen College students will sing all 658 songs in the Mennonite hymnal from Nov. 14-16 in order to raise money for Christian Peacemaker Teams, an international peacemaking agency. (Credit: Goshen College)

With the goal of uniting in harmony to bring peace to a troubled world, Goshen College’s Hymn Club will bring together students and community members to sing continuously through every verse of all 658 songs in Hymnal: A Worship Book.

An open letter to my beloved church

Chester and Sara Jane Wenger on their 70th wedding anniversary (Credit: Greta Shenk Bucher)

I am profoundly reluctant to write this letter because I know there are those it will wound deeply. But I have also come to the conviction that I can no longer hide the light the Lord has lit within me, under a bushel. I want to share with you what the Lord has been telling me and my dear life companion.

Canadian legislation would ban ‘barbaric cultural practices’

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has proposed a bill that would ban marriage for underage children and make polygamy grounds for deportation. (RNS photo courtesy Michael Swan/Flickr)

Canada is weighing legislation that would ban arranged marriages of minors and make polygamy grounds for deportation.

The “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act,” introduced on November 5 by Chris Alexander, minister of citizenship and immigration, would set 16 as the minimum national age for marriage in Canada.

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