News

Klassen urges outreach at Saskatchewan AGM

Mennonite Church Saskatchewan Annual Delegate Sessions at North Star Mennonite Church in Drake. Photo by Will Braun.

“The gospel begins with ‘hello.’” This was the challenge Doug Klassen, executive minister for Mennonite Church Canada, gave to those gathered for the Mennonite Church Saskatchewan Annual Delegate Sessions on March 8-9 at North Star Mennonite Church in Drake, Saskatchewan.

A church basement tribute

Myrna Ewert (l-r), Vicky Toporchak, Betty Friesen, Tami-Lynn Lehr, Mary Jean Nicholson, Alvie Martens and Denise Bartel in the kitchen of North Star Mennonite Church in Drake, Saskatchewan. Photo by Will Braun.

As Mennonite Church Saskatchewan business played out in the sanctuary of North Star Mennonite Church in Drake on March 9, a group of women were doing church in the basement. On lunch prep duty were (left to right) Myrna Ewert, Vicky Toporchak, Betty Friesen, Tami-Lynn Lehr, Mary Jean Nicholson, Alvie Martens and Denise Bartel.

Over 1,000 Mennonites killed in Ethiopia

Meserete Kristos Church leaders visited a conflict region in Ethiopia in June 2021. Left to right: Gelagay Himiru, Tilahun Wase, Desalegn Abebe, Abayneh Anjulo and Addisu Legesse. Photo courtesy of Mennonite World Conference.

Violence has devastated Meserete Kristos Church (MKC), the Mennonite body in Ethiopia. As of February 12, armed groups had burned 49 MKC churches to the ground, looted and damaged another 81 churches, and killed 1,231 MKC members, including 31 church leaders.

The meaning of seeds

A Mennonite colony in Campeche state, Mexico. Photo by Anika Reynar.

At 9 a.m., it was already hot and humid in Hopelchén, a small city in the Yucatán peninsula. A collective of Maya farmers had gathered in the shaded courtyard outside the home where we were staying. We could hear laughter and chatter over the wall as we returned from our morning walk.

Giving back to the land

Photo by Artur Roman/Pexels

Our farmyard opened from its treelines to the south and southwest. A mile south, I could see the shelterbelts surrounding my paternal grandmother’s 1870s homestead. A few farmyards were dotted out in the horizon in the southwest, but looking that direction was mostly for watching weather systems develop, dissipate or roll in.

A spiritual covenant with churches and First Nations

A portion of an 1821 survey showing part of the Haldimand Tract area in southern Ontario (Wikicommons).

A most promising possibility for a tangible response by churches to past injustice in the Six Nations Grand River lands conflict came from a conversation I had after the monthly meeting of the Haudenosaunee Council at Onondaga Longhouse on Saturday, March 3, 2007.

New Bible school opens in Thailand

Students at the Friends of Grace Bible School in Thailand. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada.

People gathered for the opening of Friends of Grace Bible School. Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada.

Celebration of the opening of Friends of Grace Bible School. Supplied photo.

The Friends of Grace Bible School recently opened in the Issan area of Thailand. This school, supported by Mennonite Church Canada, will hold classes in the Friends of Grace Roi Et church. A Bible school had long been a dream for Friends of Grace, a network of about 100 worshipping groups in Laos and Thailand.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - News