Mennonite Church Canada

Mennonite Church Manitoba

Mennonite Church Saskatchewan

Mennonite Church Alberta

Mennonite Church British Columbia

Northwest Mennonite Conference

Mennonite Church Canada

Mennonite presence
growing on line

In February 2001, slightly over 2,000 visitors clicked through the Mennonite Church Canada web site at www.mennonitechurch.ca. A year later, in February 2002, nearly 8,000 visits logged in.

With each visitor requesting about 11 pages on average, up from the average of 4 pages each last February, these visitors racked up a total of 92,000 hits. Visits of Mennonite Church Canada staff in Winnipeg have been filtered out of these statistics.

The increase can be attributed to a constituency that is growing more web-savvy, and a web site that is becoming more user-friendly: in February 2001, one in six links resulted in an error message. That rate, about 17 percent, has declined to 0.33 percent.

In February 2001, MC Canada contracted a part-time webmaster; previously, limited staff resources were available to the site. Over the last year, the site has become more current, better organized, and with a major redesign launched this February, more attractive and easier to navigate. The site also gets updated more regularly with news and resources. New areas are being created.

At the Leadership Assembly in February, representatives of area conferences expressed interest in launching their own web sites. Mennonite Church Eastern Canada is the only area church currently with a site. MC Canada offers support as resources allow. This could include some design consultation, help in finding hosts, and permission to use domains based on the mennonitechurch.ca domain.

MC Saskatchewan is in the process of registering mennonitechurch.sk.ca for its e-mail addresses. Mennonitechurch domains ending in ab.ca, bc.ca, mb.ca and on.ca could also be used for area conferences. For congregations, names such as bethel.mennonitechurch.ca are available free of charge, although MC Canada cannot offer to host congregational sites.

-MC Canada release

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Mennonite Church Manitoba

Update on
Camps with Meaning

Kan and Mary Anne Doell of Altona have volunteered to serve as relief manager and food service coordinator, respectively, at Camp Moose Lake this summer. This will allow a season of refreshment for long-time staff Don and Christine Epp and their family. The Epps will return in fall.

Leaders for the summer program are nearly all in place. The most recent staff additions are Tom Wiebe as assistant summer program director at Camp Moose Lake, and Marsha Murdock as Bible instructor at Camp Koinonia.

The leadership staff will be meeting at Camp Assiniboia on May 17-19 to get summer plans underway. Retreats for persons 55 years and older are being offered at both Moose Lake and Koinonia this June. The theme will be "Nurturing hospitable hearts," with speakers Larry and Jessie Kehler at Moose Lake and John Bergen at Koinonia.

The Camp Moose Lake Workathon is planned again for the May long weekend. Projects will include work on the new cabin, shingling, building new bunk beds and general cleaning.

Communications
program reorganized

Faith and Life Communications (FLC), formerly a separate commission, has undergone reorganization. The programs, which include radio broadcasts and three choirs, are becoming part of an expanded Media Programs section within Evangelism and Service Ministries. Norm Voth, Evangelism and Service director, will oversee the program.

Edward Cornelson has been directing FLC for the past three years. His vision and ability allowed that ministry to blossom, said Victor Kliewer, MC Manitoba director. Cornelson explored new possibilities, most recently youth radio programming. The first youth program will be aired later this spring. Three other youth groups are also scheduled to record programs.

Cornelson will be leaving at the end of June.

New pastors

Altona Bergthaler Mennonite Church has hired Jayson Giesbrecht of Plum Coulee as youth pastor. He began on April 2. An installation service will be held June 16. Dan Kehler, former youth pastor, will become assistant pastor, a position that has been vacant since February 2000. Kehler will accompany the youth to a summer Mennonite Disaster Service project in West Virginia before leaving the youth position.

Bethel Mennonite Church in Winnipeg has hired Lisa Enns-Bogoya as associate pastor for care and education. She began February 1.

Camps offer
new adventures

Some new wilderness adventures await Manitoba youth this summer through Camps with Meaning. The Assiniboia Trail Ride, July 28-August 3, will provide 10 campers with horses for the ride through Spruce Woods Provincial Park. This trail ride is open to campers who have completed grade eight and have prior riding instruction.

On the Whiteshell Wanderers Canoe trip, July 20-26, canoeists will explore the famous Caddy Lake Canoe Route which reaches into the heart of the Canadian Shield. Campers must have completed grade seven and must have had prior canoeing instruction.

Camps with Meaning is also offering its first Bird Watching Retreat on June 7-9, under the leadership of experienced birder, Adolf Ens. The environs of Camp Koinonia in the Turtle Mountain Provincial Park will provide many species for observation.

For further information, call (204) 896-1616.

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Mennonite Church Saskatchewan

Saskatoon churches
join for Good Friday

Three Saskatoon churches joined at Easter to celebrate Good Friday together. First Mennonite, Mount Royal Mennonite and Cornerstone Mennonite all met for worship and communion on March 29 at First Mennonite.

Each congregation participated equally. Each pastor gave a short devotional. During communion, Arnie Fehderau of First Mennonite gave the invitation to the table, Mel Braun (Cornerstone) broke the bread and Jack Dyck (Mount Royal) blessed the wine. Music was provided by a wind and brass ensemble from Mount Royal and a mass choir which was open to all.

"It was the best service I've been to," said Vic Krahn, "and I've been attending these things forever."

For 40 years, the entire Mennonite community of Saskatoon met every Good Friday to worship at the Centennial Auditorium. This tradition ended in 1999 due to a lack of leadership.

Although Cornerstone has a greater seating capacity, it could not host the Good Friday service because of its Easter production. This year, its community outreach brought 2,000 people in to hear the Easter story.

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Mennonite Church Alberta

New pastor at Foothills

Foothills Mennonite church has Ryan Siemens as an associate pastor beginning August 1. Siemens, originally from Winnipeg, attended Foothills for a short time when his family moved to Calgary. He has since graduated from Canadian Mennonite University and spent time in a service unit in Georgia.

Conference
committees meet

The new Mennonite Church Alberta executive met at Menno Simons School in Calgary on April 6. On the agenda was reviewing decisions made at the March 1-2 annual sessions, and sharing plans and ideas.

This year, conference leaders will be faced with implementing the new constitution and working out any "bugs" that are found. Committees met for their sessions, after which they presented their plans and priorities to the larger council.

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Mennonite Church in British Columbia

Newsletter acknowledges secretaries

April 24 is Secretaries Day and so it was appropriate that the April issue of Mennonite Church B.C.'s newsletter focused on the many secretaries serving B.C. churches.

The issue included comments and memories from several women (none of the churches has a male secretary) and included honourable mention to the two newest: Tracy Hildebrandt at First Mennonite in Vernon and Chris Gilbert at Emmanuel in Abbotsford, and to the two longest serving: Betty Heinrichs at First Mennonite in Vancouver (28 years) and Elly Gunther at Bethel Mennonite in Aldergrove (30).

The newsletter encouraged congregations to recognize that these women deal with a variety of issues, including schedules, high expectations, and "shielding staff, often at personal emotional cost." Churches were reminded to encourage their secretaries with prayer and thoughtfulness. Several of the women mentioned the joy that they feel in serving their congregation, and the many people who drop into their church offices during the week.

"There are so many tasks that come my way during the week that would not be found listed in my job description, but, without them my job would be common," said Cheryl, secretary at Cedar Valley in Mission. "It is in doing these jobs for others that I find I can become creative and stretched to where God can use me best. I love it!"

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Northwest Mennonite Conference

Delegates vote
on conference future

The Northwest Mennonite Conference, which is entering its 99th year, met in its annual convention at the Salem Mennonite Church near Tofield, Alberta, on March 22-23 to decide its future.
The major decision facing the conference was its affiliation with Mennonite Church Canada. After surveying the congregations, the Conference Board had prepared a recommendation to remove the Northwest Conference from Mennonite Church Canada by March 31, 2003.
This recommendation was discussed at some length. Henry Paetkau, MC Canada denominational minister, graciously answered questions about MC Canada's stand on holding conferences and congregations accountable for their beliefs and behaviours.
In the vote, 69 percent approved the first part of the recommendation: "That NWC terminate provisional membership and decline full membership" in MC Canada. The second part, approved by 86 percent of the delegates, stated: "That the above action take place at the end of NWC's next fiscal year (March 31, 2003). This would allow the NWC board, in consultation with congregations, to take the necessary steps to explore and lead NWC into the future."
Delegates noted that these actions can be divisive and a call was made for prayer and the need to treat others with respect. There is no need to "run away from each other."
Another significant action was the decision to initiate a capital fund-raising project to support church planting. A new church plant has begun in Saskatoon. Another is in the embryo stage in Calgary and one is being considered in Great Falls, Montana.
Members of the Conference Board are Don Alberts, Lars Rude, Raul Gurdian, Arnold Weber and Dwight Roth. The conference office will continue to be in Carstairs, with Margi Sayer as the office administrator.-From conference report

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Unless otherwise credited, the articles in TheConferences pages were written by: Daniel Rempel (Mennonite Church Canada), Maurice Martin(Eastern Canada), Evelyn Rempel Petkau (Manitoba), Karin Fehderau (Saskatchewan), Donita Wiebe-Neufeld (Alberta), Angelika Dawson (B.C.). Go here for a list of contact information.