A group shot of Mennonite Fellowship of Montreal congregants at their fall retreat. (Photo by Yeabsra Agonfer)
Earlier this fall, members of the Mennonite Fellowship of Montreal had the chance to escape the bustle of the city and submerge ourselves in nature. For the first time in three years, we were able to do an in-person retreat, and we were blessed to have as our speaker Wendy Janzen, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s eco-minister.
Pictured clockwise from top right: host Aaron Epp and panellists Allegra Friesen Epp, Doyle Wiebe and Niigaan Sinclair.
This September, Canada marked its second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Throughout the month, people talked around dinner tables, in the media and at workplace meetings, about Indigenous-Settler relations and the country’s history of residential schools.
The first families of First Mennonite Church, Kelowna, B.C., gathered for worship in homes. (Archival photo supplied by First Mennonite Church, Kelowna)
On Sept. 10, First Mennonite Church in Kelowna, B.C., held a meeting to decide on the congregation’s future directions. (Photo by Johann Funk)
Members and friends gathered to mark the 75th anniversary of First Mennonite Church, Kelowna, in a celebration service on Sept. 11. The service was a time of reflection on the church’s identity as an Anabaptist congregation, the individual and collective history of worship and service, and a renewal of the church’s commitment to the vision and purpose of the church for the future.
Lethbridge Mennonite Church and L’Arche join for worship, pre-pandemic. (Photo by Ryan Dueck)
“When L’Arche comes, the lack of pretense, the joy, the enthusiasm, the simple faith and the light in Jesus, it was and is so refreshing,” says Ryan Dueck, pastor of Lethbridge Mennonite Church. He has thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between his congregation and L’Arche Lethbridge, which has been cherished for three decades.
A small group of participants race through a course of off-road bicycling, canoeing and kayaking around Camp Assiniboia’s new lake and running through the forest. (Photos by Darryl Neustaedter Barg)
The CwM fundraising day ended with a performance played on a burning piano.
The first adventure race fundraiser for Camps with Meaning (CwM) brought more than a hundred people to Camp Assiniboia on Sept. 18 to celebrate another summer of camp and to support its future.
The Pedal, Dash, Paddle fundraiser raised $5,100 for the camp’s Covid Recovery Campaign, which will put the money towards camp operations.
An ensemble of singers, accompanied by Julia Toews on violin, performs traditional Mennonite hymns at the Mennonite Historical Society of B.C. fundraiser on Oct. 2. The theme for the afternoon was ‘Music that shaped our Mennonite souls.’ (Photo by Jennifer Martens)
“What we have heard and known we will tell the next generation,” says the watchword of the Mennonite Historical Society of B.C., and on Oct. 2 at South Abbotsford MB Church, the society marked its 50th anniversary with a celebratory afternoon of music in the Mennonite tradition.
Spear throwing proves challenging. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
A Fury Road participant makes the climb up Quill Hill. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
A racer attempts to ‘army crawl’ underneath barbed wire as part of the Fury Road Race. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
Spear throwing proves challenging. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
Despite the intensity of the race, there were plenty of fall colours to enjoy. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
A man makes a leap over one of the walls on the obstacle course. (Photo by Taylor Summach)
A kayaker heads out for a paddle on the North Saskatchewan River. (Photo by Emily Summach)
Shekinah Retreat Centre, located in the North Saskatchewan River Valley, hosted its annual Move-A-Thon fundraiser on Sept. 17, with 120 people participating in the volunteer-led event.
A cyclist rides the Peace Trail, which crosses almost 55 kilometres of southeastern Manitoba. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Heritage Village)
The Shantz Immigration Sheds cairn, one of the waypoints on the Peace Trail, marks where Mennonites stayed when they first landed in Manitoba. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Heritage Village)
Volunteers prepare the Peace Trail with scythes. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Heritage Village)
A new trail, spanning almost 55 kilometres across southeastern Manitoba, has been created by a group of Mennonites.
The Peace Trail was dreamed up and implemented by the EastMenn Historical Committee, a group under the umbrella of the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society, along with community members volunteering on the Peace Trail working group.
Ericka Hoajaca and Ruth Ramirez examine their autograph from the Vancouver Canucks mascot, Fin, while enjoying worship music from the Punjabi Masihi Church. Hoajaca is Pastor Jorge’s wife and is a member of Sherbrooke and First United Spanish Mennonite Church. Ramirez attends Sherbrooke Mennonite. (Photo by Walter Toews)
Erwin Heinrichs and Sandra Teran worship the Lord with dancing while enjoying worship music from First United Spanish Mennonite Church. Heinrichs is a member at Sherbrooke, while Teran is a volunteer at Sherbrooke’s Thursday MCC Refugee Food Bank. (Photo by Walter Toews)
Three Mennonite Church B.C. congregations joined together for the annual Neighbourhood Fall Festival on Sept. 11.
First United Spanish Mennonite, Vancouver Vietnamese Mennonite and Sherbrooke (English & Korean) churches invited the Punjabi and Tamil churches that rent Sherbrooke, and together they had one big block party celebrating Jesus.
Gathering from across Canada, Mennonite youth, sponsors, volunteers and parents took part in Amplify! at Camp Valaqua. (Photo by Dan Driedger)
Guest speaker Christy Anderson challenges youth to work toward reconciliation. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Canadian Mennonite University organized a campfire at Camp Valaqua for youth participants at Mennonite Church Canada’s Amplify! gathering this summer. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Worship times happen under a large tent. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Worship (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Left to right: Mackenzie Hildebrand, Louisa Adria and Danika Warkentin lead the group in times of worship. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
During free time campers do crafts, including rock painting. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Youth assembled MCC school kits as a service project. (Photo by Mel Harms)
During free time campers do crafts, including rock painting. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
From July 31 to Aug 4, 132 youth, sponsors, volunteers, parents and planning committee members from across Canada gathered under the tall, tall trees of Camp Valaqua to learn, worship and fellowship, at the Mennonite Church Canada youth gathering Amplify!
Ethan Willms and Kai Willms (Photo by Deanna Willms)
Dinner in the dining hall. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Guest speaker Christy Anderson challenges youth to work toward reconciliation. (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Campers learn new songs and actions at Amplify! (Photo by Joani Neufeldt)
Ethan Willms
Foothills Mennonite Church, Calgary
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend Amplify! at Camp Valaqua. This was an amazing experience for me, and it left me wanting more.
Anna Nekola (left) and Jubilee Dueck Thiessen (right)
How have you experienced gendered language? Has certain language hurt you or made you feel welcome and safe? These are some of the questions that students reflected on in a recent peer-led survey about Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).
Woloschuk
Donita Wiebe-Neufeld leads members of Edmonton First Mennonite Church on a mushroom tour at their fall retreat at Camp Valaqua near Water Valley, Alta., from Sept. 2 to 4. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Edmonton First Mennonite Church has a long-standing tradition of holding its fall retreat every Labour Day long weekend at Camp Valaqua. For the first time in two years, members were once again able to come together and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and spend time in each other’s company.
One of the vintage cars on display during Vineland United Mennonite Church’s ‘Cruising on Menno Street’ event on Aug. 12, that also included a barbecue supper in the parking lot. (Photo by Maria H. Klassen)
“Cruising on Menno Street” was the theme of an outdoor event staged by Vineland United Mennonite Church on Aug. 12.
Many restored and polished vintage cars were on display in the church parking lot. Cars were labelled with the name, year, special features and owner’s name. Automobile owners answered visitors’ questions and even gave a few rides.
Displaced by conflict and trapped by drought, this woman seeks water in the Afar region in northern Ethiopia. (UNICEF on Flickr.com / Creative Commons 2.0)
This UN-chartered ship left Ukraine on Aug. 16, carrying 23,000 tonnes of wheat bound for World Food Programme efforts in the Horn of Africa. (WFP/Anastasiia Honcharuk, used with permission)
For much of my life I associated Ethiopia with famine. I’m just old enough to recall the searing scenes from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s: windswept, dull-beige landscapes; skeletal cattle; distended bellies; flies; people crowding trucks laden with sacks of food; and charitable rock concerts.
Dan Epp-Tiessen wrote the most recent volume of the Believers Church Bible Commentary series on Joel, Obadiah and Micah, which will launch in October with an event at the CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Centre in Winnipeg. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)
After almost 40 years of writing and editing, the Believers Church Bible Commentary (BCBC) series is nearing completion.
The collection of commentaries covers every book of the Bible, written by various biblical scholars across North America. Herald Press has published 35 volumes since 1986, and almost all of its final nine are currently in progress.
Dan Forrest of United Mennonite Church in Black Creek, B.C., presents his sermon on Psalm 126, to be shared with other Mennonite Church B.C. congregations. (Screenshot by Ross W. Muir)
Several British Columbia pastors cooperated this summer by preaching sermons on the Psalms and sharing them with each other’s congregations on Zoom.
Pictured from left to right, are this season's workers at Metanoia Farms: Trey Dornn, Megan Klassen-Wiebe, Kayla Drudge and Bryn Friesen Epp. (Photo by Daisy Belec)
Pigs are a new addition to Metanoia Farms. (Photo by Daisy Belec)
Metanoia Farms is an urban farm located on Canadian Mennonite University’s campus in Winnipeg. (Photo by Daisy Belec)
Trey Dornn, Megan Klassen-Wiebe, Kayla Drudge and Bryn Friesen are hard at work at Metanoia Farms. (Photo by Daisy Belec)
Lifetime experiences and vegetables are being harvested at Winnipeg’s urban farm, Metanoia Farmers Workers Cooperative Ltd., located on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU).
Many volunteers gathered in St. Catharines, Ont., on July 12, to celebrate 50 years of thrift. (Christian Benefit Store archives photo)
Fiftieth anniversary centrepieces adorned tables at a celebration of the beginning of thrift stores in the Niagara area, in St. Catharines, on July 12. (Christian Benefit Store archives photo)
The first Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) thrift store opened in March 1972 in Altona, Man. In 2022, the thrift stores are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this first store in Canada. Celebrations are taking place at various times in different locations.
Muriel Bechtel, left, Jay Freel Landry, John Stoesz, Fr. William Skudlarek OSB, and Samantha Lioi are pictured at the Bridgefolk hymnsing. (Photo by Gerald W. Schlabach)
Jaime Arsenault, tribal historic preservation officer for the White Earth Nation. (Photo by Gerald W. Schlabach)
Reverend Jim Bear Jacobs of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation. (Photo by Gerald W. Schlabach)
John Stoesz of Mountain Lake, Minn. (Photo by Gerald W. Schlabach)
Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Abbey takes part in a panel discussion with Bridgefolk founders Weldon Nisly, on screen, Gerald W. Schlabach, and Marlene Kropf about the history of Bridgefolk. (Photo by Joetta Schlabach)
Participants in the Bridgefolk movement for dialogue and greater unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics have long made the phrase, “Proceed through friendship,” their byword.
Jubilee Mennonite, which is located in northeast Winnipeg, was founded in 1995 as a dual-conference congregation through the merger of MC Manitoba’s Northgate Mennonite Fellowship and the MB Churches of Manitoba’s Valley Gardens Community Church. (Photo by John Longhurst)
After more than a year of discussion, study and prayer, Winnipeg’s Jubilee Mennonite Church—which is part of both Mennonite Church Manitoba and the Manitoba Mennonite Brethren Churches—has decided to welcome members of the LGBTQ+ community to become full members of the congregation.
Charitable Foundation Uman Help Center, an MCC partner, distributes MCC relief buckets, hygiene kits and blankets in Uman city, at a Baptist church, along with other humanitarian supplies. (MCC photo)
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada has joined other leading Canadian aid organizations to launch Aid for Afghanistan, a national campaign calling on the Government of Canada to immediately act to remove barriers that have blocked and deterred the provision of lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan for the past year.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci of Little Flowers Community, left, surveys the Winnipeg neighbourhood with Melanie Neufeld, MC Manitoba’s mission engagement director. (MC Manitoba photo)
Eight Mennonite Church Manitoba congregations will receive a total of $30,000 for missional engagement in their local communities.
“Finding intentional ways to love our neighbours is an important practice for the church,” says Melanie Neufeld, MC Manitoba’s director of mission engagement. “We’re excited to see what God will do with these new and ongoing initiatives.”
Glen Guyton, MC U.S.A.’s executive minister, was the guest speaker for the afternoon session. His session focused on key concepts from his book Reawaken: Activate Your Congregation to Spark Lasting Change. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Pastors and other leaders from across the five regional churches joined together at First Mennonite Church in Edmonton for Spiritual Leaders Day, part of the Mennonite Church Canada’s Gathering 2022.
After breakfast together on July 29, attendees were invited to spend the morning in worship. The theme for the morning was “be at rest.”
