In 2017, Mennonite Church Canada put new structures into place based on the work of the Future Directions Task Force (FDTF). Over the last six years, we have been living into the newly imagined structures, with varying degrees of success.
Listen to the children. Listen without being defensive. (Wikipedia Commons photo by Dcpeopleandeventsof2017)
It’s worth celebrating that the regions of MC Canada have identified the climate crisis as a priority ministry area in recent years. Like all priorities, where the rubber really hits the road is not in reports and lists and minutes from meetings, but where two or three (or 200 or 300) are gathered—the congregation.
Mennonite Church Canada will provide grants to congregations that wish to upgrade their facilities in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Grants will cover 50 percent of project costs, to a maximum of $6,000.
(Photo by Vlad Shapochnikov/Unsplash)
In a meeting on Jan. 30, 2022, Mennonite Church Canada’s governing body, Joint Council, affirmed climate action as a nationwide ministry emphasis.
Melanie and Jonathan Neufeld. (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Neufeld)
If there are places where the church is centring the voices of people on the margins, Jonathan Neufeld wants to be there.
“Theologically, that’s my home,” says Neufeld, Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous relations coordinator.
Neufeld began his work at MC Canada, based in Winnipeg, in November. He also works half-time as pastor at Charleswood Mennonite in Winnipeg.
(Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/MennoniteChurchCanada)
Annual congregational meetings are just around the corner, a time when budget lines designated for regional churches are often queried. I’m reminded that many people do not have the history or know the people who stand behind the dollar figures.
MDS funds churches in Canada to be the hands and feet of Jesus. (MDS photo)
A Mennonite Church Eastern Canada congregation is among five Canadian churches that received grants this fall from the 2022-23 Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) Canada Spirit of MDS Fund. The purpose of the fund is to assist churches in Canada as they serve and support people in their communities.
Sandy Plett is MC Canada’s new climate action coordinator. (Photo courtesy of Mennonite Church Canada)
Sandy Plett of Morden, Man., is the new climate action coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada. Having started the half-time role on Nov.
Geraldine Balzer
Geraldine Balzer, a member of Nutana Park Mennonite Church in Saskatoon, was elected moderator of Mennonite Church Canada in July, replacing Calvin Quan, who served in the role for six years. We asked her to share about her life and vision. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Emily Summach: Where did you grow up?
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.
(Photo by Ryan Arnst/Unsplash)
In Ethiopia, almost every Mennonite church has an evangelist; in fact, there are more evangelists than pastors.
Having so many evangelists has formed the church to be very outward looking. This partly explains how the Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia, a denomination that is part of Mennonite World Conference, is baptizing 20,000 new believers each year. There are now more Anabaptists in Ethiopia than in any other country in the world.
Arlyn Friesen Epp portrays a cigarette-smoking Simon Peter in “About those Fish…,” a short film he created for Gathering 2022.
Arlyn Friesen Epp just made scripture a little fishier.
Members of MC Canada’s Joint Council, musicians and worship leader Tany Warkentin lead the gathering in words and actions of the ‘We declare’ affirmation. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
At the opening service of We Declare 2022, keynote speaker John Boopalan inspires, with a touch of humour, reminding listeners that they follow and proclaim an embodied God. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Doug Klassen tells the story of ‘Safari,’ a Mennonite pastor and church planter, who lives in a large refugee camp in Malawi but refuses to leave because of his calling to serve the people there. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Ontario pastor Kara Carter challenges the notion that, if congregations just work hard enough, people from the community will see the value of their message and join the church. ‘This, friends, is a stumbling block for the missional church.’ (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
MC Canada moderator Calvin Quan chairs Saturday’s delegate session. Quan, who attends Toronto Chinese Mennonite Church, completed six years in this role. (Photo by Ruth Bergen Braun)
Fanosie Legesse, part of Mennonite Church Canada’s Intercultural Church Steering Committee, leads a workshop entitled ‘When evangelism meets interculturalism.’ (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Through story and song, Cheryl Bear shares childhood memories of life on Nadleh Whut’en First Nation and the Indigenous connection to the land. Bear also spoke at the Saturday morning worship service. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Members of Gathering 2022 receive a warm welcome from Edmonton’s South Sudanese Mennonite Church during an organized tour. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Young Leaders Experience participants invited all young adults (under 30ish) to a campfire at First Mennonite Church on the evening of July 31. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Mariko Ogasawara, a participant from Baden, Ont., is excited to bring Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) school kit bags home to fill with her two grandchildren. The bags were crafted by women from First Mennonite Church in Edmonton and included a list of contents to fill and return to an MCC office or depot. (Photo by Jessica Evans)
Attendees participate in the opening worship service of We Declare: Gathering 2022. (Photo by Buth Bergen Braun)
For the first time since 2019, members from across the five regions of Mennonite Church Canada gathered in person for learning, inspiration and decision-making. Meeting at a conference centre in Edmonton, from July 29 to Aug.1, approximately 215 people experienced the joy of being together again in a large gathering.
George Epp lives and blogs in Rosthern, Sask.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Ten young adults from across the nationwide church will take part in the Young Leaders Experience (YLE) at “We declare: What we have seen and heard,” Mennonite Church Canada’s gathering in Edmonton, from July 28 to Aug. 1.
Mennonite Church Canada’s Joint Council approved updates to the MC Canada operating agreement at its latest meeting on June 8.
“We Declare: What We Have Seen and Heard”
Three guest speakers will engage the theme of witness at Mennonite Church Canada’s Gathering 2022, to be held in Edmonton, Alta., from July 29 to August 1.
“Come and share together… what God is doing in our congregations, regions and nationwide church,” Doug Klassen says. (YouTube photo)
Doug Klassen, Mennonite Church Canada’s executive minister, personally invites you to Gathering 2022, a nationwide church event happening July 29 to Aug. 1 in Edmonton, Alta.
In a video posted on YouTube earlier this month, Klassen outlines the goals for Gathering 2022 and introduces the event’s theme, “We Declare: What we have seen and heard.”
(Photo by PiggyBank/Unsplash/piggybank.ca)
Individuals increased direct giving to their regional church in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth is contrary to the experience of secular charities. According to the CanadaHelps fifth annual Giving Report, charitable giving fell an estimated 12 percent between 2019 and 2021.
A virtual choir sings as part a launch event for the Voices Together hymnal in 2020. Mennonite Church Canada is inviting Canadian Mennonites to join a virtual choir for Gathering 2022. (YouTube photo)
Mennonite Church Canada is putting together a virtual choir for Gathering 2022, and you are invited to join.
The choir will record “Greater Things Than These,” a song that Winnipeg pastor and songwriter Phil Campbell-Enns composed for the event.
Doug Klassen, pictured in March 2020, is one of six Mennonite Church Canada leaders who made a statement on Sunday denouncing the white nationalism being expressed at protests across the country. (YouTube photo)
The day after thousands of truckers and other protesters converged on Parliament Hill to call for an end to COVID-19 mandates and other public health restrictions, Mennonite Church Canada’s executive ministers released a statement decrying the white nationalism being expressed at related protests that are springing up across the country.
Steve Heinrichs, director of Indigenous-Settler Relations for MC Canada, will co-host a learning series on the climate crisis based on the book, ‘A Good War.’ (Photo courtesy of Instagram.com/heinrichs_steve)
Mennonite Church Canada is hosting a new online community learning series. “Creator’s Call in a Climate Emergency” starts on Jan. 20 and lasts eight weeks.
Tany Warkentin, left, is pictured with Adolphine, Marie and Hélène José, supervisors of the literacy program run by the Mennonite churches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Literacy teachers are trained and provided with basic teaching supplies, and they then offer classes in their own village to women and children who haven’t had opportunities to attend school. (Photo by Lynda Hollinger-Janzen)
Laurent, left, is a part of a youth association in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, created by a group of 10 incredibly motivated young people looking for work in a country with high unemployment rates. Each member contributes 25,000 francs ($12) at the end of each month, and then they take turns receiving 90 percent of the money for personal agricultural projects. The group uses the remaining 10 percent to collectively plant, harvest and sell peanuts, with the profit being added to the collective fund. As this fund grows, the youth association will invest in larger and more long-term agricultural projects. (Photo by Tany Warkentin)
The Grade 4 students at the Mennonite school in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, send their enthusiastic greetings. (Photo by Tany Warkentin)
Pastor Ambeké, left, prepares to help Daniel take his place as the general secretary of one of the Mennonite conferences in Angola. This is the first time this conference will have had a peaceful leadership transition since it began in 1983. Ambeké said, ‘Some of our young people have grown up thinking that the only way to change leaders is through tension and force. Usually, new leaders are selected from senior leaders who are not leading good lives. But this time, the church has called this “Little David” because he has the right character. He is humble and he is the one we want, even if he is young.” (Photo by Tany Warkentin)
This young woman learned to read in one of the Congolese literacy centres, and she is reading the Bible in her own language. Despite her physical disability, learning to read and write has boosted her self-confidence and opened new job opportunities. (Photo by Tany Warkentin)
Josué, standing, is a young electrician called by the Mennonite church in Burkina Faso to start a hardware store in the village of Mahon. Many business owners in Burkina Faso have set up hardware stores or bookstores in villages where there are no churches. Through their positive Christian witness, neighbours have come to know Christ and churches were planted. This is the prayer and hope of the Burkina Faso church for Josué’s store in Mahon. (Photo by Tany Warkentin)
Have you ever been introduced to a distant relative for the first time—maybe you didn’t even know that person existed—and yet you immediately felt a connection with them? After all, they are family!
Doug Klassen extends Advent greetings to the nationwide church in a video posted on YouTube earlier this week.
The executive minister for Mennonite Church Canada extends Advent greetings to the nationwide church in a video posted on YouTube earlier this week.
The organizers of the “7 Calls to Climate Action for Mennonite Church Canada,” from top to bottom, left to right: Steve Heinrichs, Mona Neufeld and Josiah Neufeld, Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Anna Bigland-Prichard, Katie Goerzen-Sheard, Justin Sun and Will Braun.
At the beginning of November, thousands of people from across the globe gathered at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, to address the climate crisis.
