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A declaration for peace
The walls were the trees of the forest, the lights and sound from solar-powered batteries and the waters for baptism were the river itself. The spirit of worship through singing, the fervent prayers and the calls to follow Jesus, our hope, in the way of peace are familiar across cultures. Mennonite young people in Myanmar…
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Ministry partner update: ICOMB – June 2023
This year’s summit of the International Community of Mennonite Brethren Churches (ICOMB), hosted in Abbotsford, B.C., Canada, provided delegates a unique opportunity to experience the rich Mennonite Brethren heritage in that region of Canada. With churches dating back to 1929, a Bible college founded in 1943 and a Mennonite Heritage Museum with exhibits spanning 500…
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In honour of God’s creation and the church universal
The Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford won’t soon forget that Mennonite World Conference guests were there in March 2023. A tree was left behind in remembrance. Mennonite World Conference has a tradition to plant tree on the grounds of a Mennonite institution when the Executive Committee meets: “in honour of God’s creation and the church…
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Peacebuilding after disaster
“Your textbook worked!” Darnell Barkman told his former professor Lisa Schirch after floodwaters overcame his region in November 2021. The pastor at Yarrow United Mennonite Church in B.C., Canada, implemented all his peacebuilding training to coordinate disaster response. For the last several decades, the poorest parts of the global church have been impacted by climate…
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Lessons enter through different doors
After last summer, you can’t deny it. It’s here. It was the driest year in France and it’s been like that for several years. So you can see people are becoming more aware of climate change. Now it is beginning to affect them. And yet there is still so much more to talk about.
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New ways of being the church
“The pandemic has challenged churches to look for new ways of being the church – especially as we exist in a multi-religious society as a minority,” says Cynthia Peacock, regional representative for Southern Asia. As an MWC regional representative, she relates to 350 local congregations, mainly through the nine national member churches in India and…
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Mennonite faith through history
The history of Mennonites in France goes back to the beginnings of Anabaptist history. There were Anabaptists in Strasbourg by around 1526. They were quickly forced to operate clandestinely, but an Anabaptist presence would continue in Alsace throughout the 16th century.
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A witness to the gospel together
One city, one decade, two movements, 500 years. Today, representatives of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) have embarked on dialogues with representatives of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), a movement that also arose in Zurich in the 1500s. Four MWC representatives and three WCRC representatives began dialogues at Camp Squeah, B.C., Canada, for several…
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The taste of generosity
As frequently as once a week, a welcome visitor shows up at the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) office in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, bearing gifts. “Pie man” Tim Sauer’s gifts involve strawberries, grapes, rhubarb, apples, sour cherries – and cheques. “I could never have been a preacher; I don’t have a good singing voice; [making pies]…
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Refusing to be a victim and an offender
It was one of the passages narrating the week of Jesus’ passion that first led SangMin Lee to consider the way of peace. Soon after he became a Christian, Lee was moved by Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies, especially his rebuke to Peter for defending him with a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Teach the gospel and hold the faith
In 21 January 1525, a dozen or so men slowly trudged through the snow. Quietly but resolutely, singly or in pairs, they came by night to the home of Felix Manz, near the Grossmünster, Switzerland. The chill of the winter wind blowing off the lake did not match the chill of disappointment that gripped the…
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Prayer requests YABs Fellowship Week 2023
Young Anabaptists from around the world share concerns and joys for communal prayer. Latin America El Salvador That we may give priority and recognize the importance of our relationship with God and the service to others, instead of thinking only of ourselves. That we can make a noticeable difference in our society; that we can…
