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Readers write: February 9, 2024
Categories: OpinionHistory lesson Will Braun’s editorial about Di Brandt (“The institution of messiness,” September 22, 2023) is a valuable piece that I hope many people will read. In the past two centuries, the arts have gone through an unprecedented transition in…
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Responding to God’s call
New Year’s Day is often a time we reflect on the events and experiences of the past year. It is also the time we look forward to what might lie ahead. At the beginning of 2023, I received an email…
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In due season
Categories: OpinionWhen I first started working out at a CrossFit gym, my muscles ached constantly. After a few months, I asked one of the trainers, “When does the pain go away?” After clarifying what kind of pain I was referring to,…
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A different kind of yes-man
Categories: OpinionSince Will Braun’s strong editorial in the December 1, 2023, issue (“What kind of peace church are we?”), the pages of Canadian Mennonite have included some passionate responses. This is a good thing. Perhaps I’ll add one more. I begin…
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The unend of this story
Categories: OpinionHow many sermons do you remember from 25 years ago? Likely not many. Even the most meaningful and formative sermons from long ago tend to fade and become less a specific memory and more an unrecallable influential moment; a ripple…
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Thoughts for our unfinished journey
Categories: OpinionBecoming an intercultural church does not happen by accident or by wishful thinking. It takes a lifetime to create space in which everyone can gather and be welcomed, celebrated, integrated and reconciled to God and one another. This new humanity…
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Speaking in tongues: 5 responses to 2 key stats
Categories: OpinionThe following is adapted from a sermon that Kevin Barkowsky, pastor of Sherbrooke Mennonite Church in Vancouver, preached on January 28. Reprinted with permission. Key Stat #1: Across the world, English Mennonite churches are shrinking, and non-English Mennonite churches are…
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A modest proposal
Categories: OpinionThe question was how churches in North America could directly communicate their support to Palestin- ian churches. It came during a December 18 call that Mennonite Central Committee convened with four Palestinian pastors and several dozen North Americans. Pastor Ashraf…
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Readers Write, January 26, 2024
Categories: OpinionLiterature saves lives Your editorial and feature interview with Di Brandt struck a chord (“Poetic justice,” September 22, 2023). I have been reading Brandt’s poetry and essays for decades; her poem, questions i asked my mother changed—no, saved—my life, as…
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Seek the blessing of your city
“That’s great!” That is my usual response when I speak with individuals and churches who name a desire to engage their neighbourhoods more actively, or to be a mission presence in their community. And yet, at some point in every…
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God on the line
Categories: OpinionIn this new joint column, the four writers will take turns writing the primary column, with the other three offering replies. God on the line By Ryan Dueck I recently became the owner of an orange rotary telephone. This artifact…
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On loneliness and lifelines
Categories: OpinionThis most recent December terrified me. Moving to Toronto in the first year of the pandemic and certain events since mean I haven’t made many social connections in this city. My few good friends here all had major life changes…
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The state of community in 2024
Last year was a tough one. Global concerns raged around us, including images of climate crisis and state-led violence that continued to swirl. I watched my church community formally come apart, by vote, in a deeply divisive scenario. Of course,…
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Linking membership and participation
Categories: OpinionIt will soon be congregational annual meeting season. Do you look forward to these meetings? Are they well attended in your congregation? In my congregation, the number of people who participate in voting meetings is small compared to the number…
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Beyond boxes
Categories: OpinionMost of you have heard, and likely agree with, this statement: “You can’t put God in a box.” Of course, this means you can’t be put in a box either, for you are made in the image of God. If…
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Becoming an intercultural church
Categories: OpinionJust as Matthew 7:21 states, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” not every intercultural church will experience the fullest stage of reconciliation in fellowship with others, which is an ultimate goal of…
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A Prayer for Peace — Advent 2023
Categories: Web First – OpinionOut of the depths I cry to you, Lord. Save us, God our Savior, gather us and deliver us from the nations. From north to south, nowhere is safe in Gaza. For unto us a child is born and the…
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Needlework from the Middle East
Categories: OpinionMennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker Alice Snyder (right) shows needlework done by rural and refugee women in Jordan and the West Bank to Esther Weber at the MCC Ontario offices in Kitchener in 1964. The Overseas Needlepoint and Crafts Project…
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The church cannot be silent
We have entered the days of Advent. It’s usually one of my favourite periods in the church calendar, but this year, the waiting is heavy. The candle is a tiny flicker in a world of darkness, and Christmas music rings…
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The gift of Greg
Categories: OpinionIt’s that season where gifts are received, admired, beheld. When thinking about gifts, my thoughts turn to my friend, “Greg.” Greg is interesting for many reasons. He has spent close to 30 years incarcerated and will be on parole for…
