Volume 6, number 23
December 2, 2002
New voluntary service units in Ottawa and Toronto
Winnipeg, Man.
Seven weeks of prayer and raising $1,000 in a month are two of the investments that Danforth and Ottawa Mennonite Churches have committed toward creating new Mennonite Voluntary Service units in their congregations.
Both Toronto and Ottawa hope to have MVS units by next fall.
MVS participants spend one to three years living in community and working with service projects or charity organizations. Currently, MVS Canada has five units—in Edmonton, Hamilton, Montreal, Riverton and Winnipeg. Its partner organization, MVS USA, has 30 units.
“These new units will really expand the range of Canadian service opportunities,” said Brad Reimer, MVS Canada director. “I expect they’ll also have a transforming effect on their hosting congregations.”
MVS units are initiated at the request of congregations wanting to host them. The units receive prayer, hospitality and financial support from the hosting congregation.
Linda Redekop of Ottawa Mennonite Church said Habitat for Humanity encouraged the congregation to consider setting up a unit. A visit from Reimer also “inspired us with the possibilities.” A committee put a plan together and brought it to church council.
“It’s hard to say no to something that good,” said Redekop. The council approved the plan and in one month the church raised $1,000 of the anticipated $6,000 start-up costs, an impressive feat considering it is also paying for a church expansion and three homes for refugee families. Once established, the unit should be financially self-supporting.
Redekop says they were also inspired by Montreal Mennonite Fellowship, which has had an MVS unit for three years. Service opportunities in Ottawa might include working with Canadian Food for the Hungry, Canadian Council for Refugees or Habitat for Humanity.
Asked how an MVS unit might impact the congregation, Redekop said, “I think the idea of the MVS unit is to live a very simple lifestyle.... Our world is so driven by consumerism and I think this anti-consumerist stance could really help us.”
Tim Reimer, pastor of Danforth Mennonite Church, is excited about his church’s decision to host an MVS unit. “We wanted to think of ways to make an impact on our neighbourhood with the Gospel,” said Reimer. Danforth wants to respond to the challenge: “What difference does it make that Danforth is in this neighbourhood?”
The decision to host an MVS unit came from the church’s outreach committee, and sharing at a church retreat revealed how many members named voluntary service as an important formative experience.
Opportunities through the Toronto unit could include work with community centres or a daycare. In preparation for hosting the unit, the church committed itself to seven Sundays of prayer for the initiative.
—MC Canada release by Daniel Rempel
Hamilton church celebrates 50 years
Hamilton Mennonite Church’s anniversary quilt with members’ photos may be the largest church directory around.
Hamilton, Ont.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Hamilton Mennonite Church, member Rick Pauw wrote the song “Open Doors.” It begins, “Love is like a church with doors open wide, offering a place of refuge inside, with faith, hope and love.”
The lyrics speak well to our anniversary text, Psalm 90:1: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” The song, scripture and theme, “Remember, Rejoice, Renew!” laid the foundation of our various celebrations this past year.
How does one aptly celebrate God’s leading for 50 years? After all, our church was originally deemed an “unlikely risk” as Mennonite churches were just not being built in Ontario cities in those days! So, 50 years later, with our final mortgage burned, we do have much to celebrate!
We chose to “open doors” and invite others to share our joy throughout the year.
It seemed fitting to begin by hosting our sister church, The Welcome Inn, for worship in February. This church has its roots in our congregation going back to the 1960s. In May, the visit by Warden Woods church of Toronto (also founded 50 years ago) created opportunity to dialogue with another city church.
A few weeks later, an evening of sacred and secular music was presented by the Valleyview Male Choir in our “casually transformed” sanctuary. The September “neighbourhood peach and ice cream social” was literally a hot event as the ice cream melted before it was served.
Cooks from the Kitchener Grace Lao Mennonite Church prepared a wonderful meal on an October evening. This freed us to enjoy an evening of in-house entertainment.
To our delight, many former members and guests arrived for our final anniversary weekend November 2-3. We began with “Music and memories” on Saturday evening, followed by two worship services on Sunday.
In his message, “Renewal in the postmodern world,” former member Edward Janzen, now of Abbotsford, B.C., quoted Romans 12:1-2, which calls for renewal of the mind.
“The world is changing around us, but it is the set of our mind, the renewal of our mind, that will determine the direction we will travel,” said Janzen.
Our anniversary quilt, featuring computer-generated photos of our church families quilted into photo corners of fabric, serves as a state-of-the-art church directory adorning our wall. The cooks’ secrets have been given away in our Anniversary Cookbook. Still to be published is a commemorative book of photos and articles.
In recognition of the significant help we have received, we chose to support Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s Emerging Congregations Fund as our anniversary project.
As we look back we give thanks; as we look forward we pray with our songwriter that the church continue to be “a dwelling place where we’re reminded of God’s grace, through faith, hope and love.”
—Helen Cornies
Fiske church defies crop failure and builds addition
Volunteers from the Fiske Mennonite Church helped to rip off the old front porch and replace it with a roomy addition.
Fiske, Sask.
Fiske Mennonite Church members and visitors gathered on October 27 to dedicate a new addition to the church. It was a joyous celebration, with exuberant singing by the children and adult choirs, as well as the congregation.
The project began with a plea for more space. For the longest time, the small church had only a porch on the front of the building used to store coats. Several years ago, some young couples came to the annual meeting with a request for a baby room.
At first the idea was met with opposition, but the next year a few more people agreed and gradually the concept gathered support.
Members decided in January 2001 to renovate. In fall, a special meeting was held to talk more. Plans were made to begin the following spring.
“We didn’t know then that there wouldn’t be a crop,” said Garth Ewert Fisher, co-pastor of Fiske Mennonite Church.
That reality didn’t seem to faze those who had pledged money for the project. All the money came in, plus a little more.
The dedication recognized the contributions of the many volunteers—those who gave and those who worked were given equal honour. In her meditation, co-pastor Clair Ewert Fisher spoke of the spiritual foundation of the church. It was a reminder that the building is only a structure; it is God working through the people that makes it a church.
The new facilities include an office/Sunday school room, wheelchair accessible bathroom, baby room, and a much larger foyer. The men who pounded through the cement wall to expand the basement can attest to the strength of the building’s foundation. The basement was also enlarged to make more room for potlucks. The addition has almost doubled the size of the church.
Just in the nick of time, it seems. In this town of 100 people, 7 babies were born this year. People have made many positive comments regarding the improved facilities and the various groups are appreciating their new spaces.
Some people may not have had enough, though, as they were seen eyeing the worn basement carpet and dull walls over their coffee cups.
—Charlene Siemens and Karin Fehderau
Festival promotes ‘peaceful tomorrows’
Conductor Len Enns, left, speaks with David Potorti, founder of Peaceful Tomorrows.
St. Jacobs, Ont.
The Way of Peace—A Festival” was the name of a November 9 program at St. Jacobs Mennonite Church. Guest speaker was David Potorti, co-director of “Peaceful Tomorrows,” a group which emerged out of the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
“What are we teaching our own children about solving conflict with violence?” asked Potorti. “Terrorism is not the problem, it is the symptom.”
Potorti’s presentation was wrapped in music and readings on peace. Narrator Allan Rudy Froese spoke in the spirit of poet Bob Haverluck: “And can there be singing in times like these?” And the response: “In times like these, there must be singing, singing about times like these.”
The concert began with a drum prelude by Joel Brubacher and Todd Schiedel. The aggressive hand drumming portrayed the oppressive nature of war. This faded into the peaceful hymn, “In the rifted rock,” arranged and played by pianist Amy Wideman.
The DaCapo Chamber Choir, directed by Leonard Enns, performed excerpts from Requiem for the Victims of Terrorism by Barrie Cabena. The Sequence declares: “Look not for justice: but rather practise forgiveness; look not for revenge: but rather practise unconditional love.”
Potorti told his story. His brother Jim (age 52) was on the 95th floor of the Trade Tower in New York on September 11, the floor which the first plane hit. “When you kill a person, you kill all their history, as well as traditions for the future.”
After receiving the news, his mother said, “I don’t want anyone to feel the pain I’m feeling now.” It is out of that attitude that “Peaceful Tomorrows” emerged. It is a group of about 40 persons who lost family members on September 11 and do not want those losses to justify other deaths.
Rita Lasar’s brother was killed that day. When President George Bush mentioned her brother in his speech at the National Cathedral, Lasar—incensed that Abe’s death might be used to sanction a war—dashed off an angry letter to the New York Times. A Chicago-based peace group called “Voices in the Wilderness” put her letter on their web site; other letters from 9/11 families followed.
David Potorti found that web site and made contact with families. By February they had formed Peaceful Tomorrows. “Our mission is to seek effective non-violent responses to terrorism, and to identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world.” By exploring peaceful options in the search for justice, the group hopes “to spare additional innocent families the suffering that we have experienced—as well as to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war.”
Potorti and his group have spoken to 125 groups since their inception, including an anti-war rally in Washington on October 6. Members of the group have visited Afghanistan and lobbied Washington on behalf of those “other victims of September 11,” urging Congress to pay reparations to people harmed by American bombs.
An Iraqi told Potorti: “In Iraq we cannot speak out. In North America you can, but don’t!” Peaceful Tomorrows hears from people in Northern Ireland, Israelis and Palestinians, and others who experience terrorism and war.
Potorti has found a spiritual family in the Quakers. He concluded by citing a 1912 meeting of Quakers that said: “We hold the moral law of forgiveness and love to be binding on us…it is our splendid responsibility.”
As a response, Stephanie Kramer sang the song cycle, The Prince of Peace, by James E. Clemens, based on the words of Menno Simons. The congregation sang Menno Simons’ words: “We are people of God’s peace.”
The Way of Peace—A Festival was presented by the Visitor Centre in St. Jacobs. Through a multi-media presentation, the centre tells the Mennonite story to tourists. Funds from this concert will help update the centre’s presentation. The Visitor Centre, which is operated by the St. Jacobs Mennonite Church and the Meetingplace Association.
—Maurice Martin
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