history

Race explored in 2021 Bechtel Lecture

Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whitely perform ‘This Little Light of Mine’ as part of the Bechtel Lecture on blackness and whiteness in Anabaptist print and mission. (Screenshot by Janet Bauman)

Timothy D. Epp, left, describes Black and Mennonite relationships in the Shiloh community of Saskatchewan in the 1930s as part of his presentation at Conrad Grebel’s 2021 Bechtel Lecture on blackness and whiteness in Anabaptist print and mission. (Screenshot by Janet Bauman)

This year’s virtual Bechtel Lecture, “Blackness, whiteness and the Anabaptist ‘imagined community’ in print and mission,” featured two speakers:

Diana Braithwaite, an accomplished blues, gospel and jazz performer, and founder and director of the Rella Braithwaite Black History Foundation, where she researches, preserves and shares the story of Blacks in Canada.

'Be It Resolved' released

(Photo courtesy of Steve Heinrichs)

A new anthology published by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada and Mennonite Church Canada hit the press this fall. Be it Resolved: Anabaptists & Partner Coalitions Advocate for Indigenous Justice, 1966-2020 is a collection of more than 90 documents detailing commitments Anabaptists have made to Indigenous justice and decolonization since the 1960s.

175 years by faith

Three generations of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church share a readers theatre called ‘175 Years by Faith’ during a worship service celebrating its 175th anniversary. Pictured from left to right: Jonah Willms, Doris Kramer and Micah Jarvis sit on a bench from the 1851 meetinghouse at the church’s original location in the unmarked hamlet of Three Bridges. (Photo by Marcia Shantz)

A display celebrating 175 years of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church shows a key to the first meetinghouse, the first English songbook, and a baptism pitcher. (Photo courtesy of St. Jacobs Mennonite Church)

In 1844, just under a half-hectare of land near the east bank of the Conestoga River was purchased from John Brubacher for the sum of five shillings.

Didsbury drawing

Photo: David L. Hunsberger / Mennonite Archives of Ontario Mission Photo Collection

In 1893, Kitchener, Ont., businessman Jacob Y. Shantz secured land from the government and railway, and he promoted the Didsbury, Alta., settlement to eastern Mennonites.

Why I advocate for human rights

'I want to learn from our history and remind others that cultural and religious differences must not make us complicit in denying dignity and equality for all,' Leona Lortie writes. (Photo by Johannes Plenio/Pixabay)

In contemplating where our passions come from and why we do what we do, we often look to our childhoods. In my childhood, I was faced with several tensions, which formed me and led me to study history.


Leona Lortie is the public engagement and advocacy coordinator for MCC's Ottawa office. (MCC photo by Meghan Mast)

Chesley Lake accordion

Photo: David L. Hunsberger / Mennonite Archives of Ontario

An accordionist serenades a literary society meeting at Chesley Lake Camp in Ontario, in 1949. Chesley Lake was the first Mennonite church camp in Ontario and one of the first in Canada. Literary societies were common in Ontario Mennonite churches at the time, as social outlets and avenues for artistic expression.

Bergey

Photo: Doug Millar / Mennonite Archives of Ontario

Why do you travel? For fun, to learn, to connect? All three combined for Dorothy, Lorna and Gertrude Bergey as they joined a Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario bus tour to Pennsylvania in May 1983. Here, they stand in front of the Pennsylvania home of European emigrant Hans Ulrich Bergey in Salford. In 1897, Pennsylvanian David H.

‘A picture of his grandmother’

Henry and Gerald Neufeld have assembled a collection of about a thousand archival photographs of First Nation communities in the Berens River watershed. They are holding a photograph of Miskwaatesi ’oskiisik and his wife Kihcimoohkomaan from Pauingassi. (Photo by Gladys Terichow)

Gerald Neufeld and his father Henry share a passion for linking families from First Nation communities within the Berens River watershed in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario with archival photographs of their ancestors.

Women in church vocations

Photo: The Canadian Mennonite / Mennonite Archives of Ontario

To encourage women to enter church-related work, the General Conference Mennonite Church began the “Women in Church Vocations” program in 1957. Pictured, Elmer Ediger discusses the new program with interested young women at Canadian Mennonite Bible College in Winnipeg.

Bicycle trip

Photo: Almeda Kolb / Mennonite Archives of Ontario

Did your summer include a bicycle trip? In 1891, 19-year-old Fred Coffman, far left, his brother William, and their friends Abram and Aaron Kolb biked more than 700 kilometres from Elkhart, Ind., to Niagara Falls, Ont. Fred would become Bishop S.F. Coffman, an influential Ontario Mennonite leader. Abram would become a publisher of Mennonite periodicals, choir director and hymnwriter.

Johnny Kehler

Photo: Conference of Mennonites in Canada / Mennonite Pioneer Mission Photo Collection

Johnny Kehler, left, with his plane and George Groening, at Matheson Island, Man. Groening grew up near Lowe Farm, Man., and served the Mennonite church community for decades. As a long-serving leader, he not only witnessed change but instituted changes as well.

From grief to gratitude

Historian Aileen Friesen speaks to a full house at St. Catharines United Mennonite Church at an event commemorating the centennial of the Russian Revolution. (Photo by Randy Klaassen)

Moments in time can change the course of history. Decisions made in Russia in the years following the Russian Revolution in 1917 changed life for thousands of Mennonite families.

Patricia Beach baptism

Photo: Selkirk Christian Fellowship Photo Collection

Malcolm and Esther Wenger moved to the town of Selkirk, Man., in 1979. Malcolm worked for the Conference of Mennonites in Canada’s Native Ministries program and pastored the small Selkirk Christian Fellowship. Pictured, Malcolm baptizes Gillian Thororanson at Patricia Beach, Man., on July 22, 1979.

A united witness

The first issue of the Canadian Mennonite Reporter, August 3, 1971. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

The first issue of The Canadian Mennonite, July 3, 1953. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Frank H. Epp works on The Canadian Mennonite on a manual typewriter in the 1950s. Notice the landline telephone on the wall in the background. (Mennonite Archives of Ontario photo)

Frank H. Epp served as editor of The Canadian Mennonite from 1953 to 1967 and Mennonite Reporter from 1971 to 1973. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Larry Kehler served as editor of The Canadian Mennonite from 1967 to 1971. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Karen Bowman works on a photo-typesetter. Between 1971 and 1988 stories were typed on this machine and strips of copy were literally cut and pasted into position on the layout sheets. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Editor Dave Kroeker gets in close to correct a typo in 1973. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Mennonite Reporter staff circa 1990 include, from left to right: Karen Bowman, office and circulation manager; Ron Rempel, editor; Margaret Loewen Reimer, associate editor; and Ferne Burkhardt, editorial and production assistant. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

The first issue of Canadian Mennonite, September 15, 1997. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Clockwise from front right: editor/publisher Tim Miller Dyck; editorial assistant Barb Draper; managing editor Margaret Loewen Reimer; office manager Natasha Krahn; and ad sales rep Barb Burkholder. (2004 Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Canadian Mennonite magazine in its first year of the 2007 redesign. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

In March 2009, board chair Larry Cornies (left) thanked outgoing editor/publisher Tim Miller Dyck and presented him with one of the six bound volumes of Canadian Mennonite that he helped to create. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

Dick Benner, left, was editor/publisher of Canadian Mennonite from 2009 until 2017. Virginia A. Hostetler has served as executive editor from 2017 until the present. (Canadian Mennonite file photo)

This month marks the 65th anniversary of English-language magazine publishing for Mennonites in Canada.

Peace Factory

Photo: MCC Ontario/Mennonite Archives of Ontario

“Groups keep pleading for Peace Factory,” said a Mennonite Central Committee memo in 1996. An interactive exhibit, Peace Factory was a cooperative Mennonite project. Its goal was to “help all Christians connect their faith in God with a life of peacemaking.” In 1997, it toured southwestern Ontario.

From ‘never a teacher’ to ‘why not?’

Photo courtesy of Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld’s first classroom in Pauingassi in 1956. (Photo courtesy of Henry Neufeld)

In northern Manitoba, winter travel in the 1960s was by snowmobile and summer travel was by boat. This early snowmobile was made by Ingham Brothers of Lanigan, Sask. The seat and steering at the front were connected to the frame and motor at the back by hinges on the runners. It was propelled by a metal cleat track. (Photo courtesy of Henry Neufeld)

Elna and Henry Neufeld are pictured in front of the Moose Lake School in 1952. (Photo courtesy of Henry Neufeld)

Henry Neufeld learned to fly this two-seater ‘bush plane,’ obtained in 1961 by the Mennonite Pioneer Mission. (Photo courtesy of Henry Neufeld)

“Never a teacher,” I declared from the time I was in public school, growing up in the Leamington district of southwestern Ontario.

Lonely creek

Photo from the Jake Peters Photograph Collection / Mennonite Heritage Archives

A lonely bridge over a creek near Winkler, Man., in 1907. A humble structure, but so very important. Bridges connected farmers to markets, children to schools, families to church, and pregnant women to midwives. Many of the everyday things that we use are humble pieces that someone has expended effort to make.

George Neufeld’s letters

Photo: George Neufeld Collection / Mennonite Heritage Archives

George Neufeld worked in England, France and Germany after the Second World War, from 1946 to 1948. He wrote in his diary on Monday, Jan 7, 1946: “Received letter from Helene dated Dec. 6. I wonder what all has happened since then.” Sunday, Jan; 13: “Wrote a 20-page letter to Helene. Am lonesome for her.” Monday, Jan.

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