Embodying God's mission with authenticity

At the 2020 Mennonite Church Canada study conference, plenary speakers from Mennonite Church Canada-affiliated schools will share on themes of ecclesiology, worship and mission.

For the five-person team planning the conference, these themes are essential for our time. The global pandemic has scattered our worshipping bodies and introduced new ways of being church together. The team sees the present moment as an opportunity to discern, discuss and explore what we really mean what we say when we are church.

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Open to us a door by Doug Klassen

Yet I feel the need to reflect on this moment. I think it is significant. While this scramble to offer digital worship services is understandable, I believe COVID-19 has revealed how “worship-focused” western churches are at the expense of being missional communities. I knew this, but I had not seen it as starkly as I do now.

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After Wet’suwet’en: Re-membering the Church’s “Future Directions”

I was in Wet’suwet’en territory when COVID-19 social-distancing protocols were implemented across Canada. For two weeks I served as a legal observer with Christian Peacemaker Teams. I took vacation time to leave my family in Winnipeg in order to join Gidimt’en clan members and land defenders out on their Yintah (ancestral homeland). I wanted to support their nonviolent struggle for the recognition of their jurisdiction in the face of a government determined to build a fracked-gas pipeline on their territory, at the cost of Indigenous peoples’ full consent and Earth Mother’s well-being.

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Mennonite Church Canada study conference goes virtual

“Table Talk: Does the Church Still Have Legs?” will examine what it means to be the church and the role of worship. The conference will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020, through Zoom, a virtual-meeting platform.

“Our separation as churches at this time is difficult, but it also presents an opportunity to take a step back and think critically about what it means to be the church,” says Kim Penner, who sits on the conference planning committee.

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Church in our everyday, everyday as church

Pamela Obonde has worked with children’s and women’s rights organizations in Kenya for the past 17 years. Three years ago she switched her focus to women in the church when she realized the same issues “out in the world” remained the same issues for women in the church. In an interview with Mennonite Church Canada she speaks about demystifying "mission" and working towards shalom in the church.

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Web of connections by Jeanette Hanson

One evening, Pastor Duan invited several people from different agencies, including myself, to a banquet. The banquet setting is the meeting table for people from all walks of life in China. It also signals the beginning of relationship building. It is understood that the relationships around the table must be acknowledged and established first before people can work together.

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