CMU integration means new roles for presidents

Winnipeg, Man.


Photos: (top to bottom) Gerald Gerbrandt, Dean Peachy and John Unger.


When Canadian Mennonite University president-elect Gerald Gerbrandt begins his appointment June 15, it will mark one of the final steps in blending the administrations of three colleges into one university.

It will also mark a personal transition for Menno Simons College (MSC) president Dean Peachey and Concord College president John H. Unger. Peachey takes on a redefined role at MSC while Unger is heeding a call back to pastoral ministry.

Dean Peachey has been appointed vice president and academic dean at MSC, where he will be responsible for all academic programming and administrative matters at MSC’s campus at the University of Winnipeg. The current acting dean of MSC, Paul Redekop, will serve as program coordinator of the Conflict Resolution Studies program.

Peachey describes the move as an opportunity to take a well-rounded look at the identity of the college. Developing that identity could include creating a residence program and shaping new academic and student programs.

“The shared leadership of the Federation era was a necessary transition phase,” says Peachey. “Now it’s time to move to a more streamlined structure. I’m looking forward to working with Gerald.”

Gerbrandt shares that optimism. “I am so pleased that Dean is taking on this significant responsibility. His appointment will provide continuity of vision and growth for MSC, and strong connections between the two campuses.”

After four years of serving as president of Concord College in a time of tremendous transition—including the mammoth task of moving Concord College to the CMU main campus—John Unger has decided to return to congregational ministry, becoming pastor at Fort Garry Mennonite Brethren Church in Winnipeg effective January 1, 2004.

Looking back, Unger says the fact that CMU has over 800 full-time-equivalent students, that government funding is ongoing, and that the administration building was successfully renovated, are all markers of success.

“This has been a miracle unfolding. That certainly has sustained me, and has brought a growing conviction that this has been worth my investment of time and energy,” says Unger. He adds that seeing changes in students’ lives is what gives him the greatest satisfaction.

Unger also served as acting president of Canadian Mennonite Bible College during the 2002-03 academic year while Gerbrandt completed a one-year study sabbatical. Prior to his university work, Unger spent a decade leading Richmond Park MB Church in Brandon, Manitoba. Unger says he is looking forward to a six-month transition period before shifting to his new role in the Winnipeg congregation.

“We will very much miss John’s pastoral care and contribution in the community next year,” says Gerbrandt. “But we wish him God’s presence as he continues his ministry in the congregation.”

Canadian Mennonite University is expecting approval this summer of a move to a smaller representative board structure, and is optimistic about overall enrolment growth this fall.
—CMU release by Kevin Heinrichs

Youth expected to be challened,
grow at St. Catherines 2003

St. Catharines, Ont.



As of May 15, 400 registrations had been processed for the July 9-13 youth assembly at St. Catharines, Ont.

Challenging questions and spiritual nurture will be the focus at the youth assembly this summer, says organizer Anne Campion, youth ministry director for Mennonite Church Canada. Youth will be challenged with questions like “What if Saddam Hussein and George Bush were friends?”

Gareth Brandt is one of the keynote speakers. Brandt says, “I am a skeptic as well as a dreamer and I like to ask questions like, ‘What if guns and weapons had never been invented?’”

Brandt currently teaches at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, B.C., where he also heads up the youth ministry program. He has studied at Steinbach Bible College, Brandon University, Tyndale Seminary, and University of Emmanuel College. He’s been on staff at Providence College and Swift Current Bible Institute, and filled the role of youth pastor and conference youth minister for Mennonite Church Alberta and the Northwest Mennonite Conference.

Kathy Giesbrecht spends her days as a Mennonite Church Canada staff person (Resource Centre) and has recently been ordained as youth pastor at Springstein Mennonite Church in Manitoba. Together with the youth, she will explore questions like “What if prayer was not our last resort?” and “What if love was always our bottom line?”

Rebecca Holst and Darren Kropf, both from Ontario, will lead worship on Friday afternoon. Holst is a third-year Theatre and English Major at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario. She is currently working at a four-month internship at Theatre & Company in Kitchener, with a special focus on stage management and education. “I have no idea what the future holds or where I will end up. But I am enjoying the adventure of following God’s call for my life,” said Holst.

Darren Kropf describes himself as a “hard core basketball player” who will graduate from high school this year. Active at Tavistock (Ontario) Mennonite Church, Kropf credits his faith community for encouraging him to become a pastor. He plans to attend the University of Waterloo in fall.

When asked to help plan the youth event at St. Catharines, he says, “... I immediately said yes ... I see this event as an amazing opportunity to strengthen everyone spiritually and bring us all closer to God. I’ve seen God move people in many ways, and the event hasn’t even happened yet! I’m excited, thrilled, and just a tad bit overwhelmed with everything that will occur...”
—MC Canada release

Radio ministry changes name, drops Low German programs

Winnipeg, Man.




Faith and Life Communications (FLC) has a new “home” in the Mennonite Church Manitoba structure,” said Darryl Neustaedter Barg, director of Media Ministries. “It has moved from being an independent ministry of Mennonite Church Manitoba to being part of Media Ministries under Evangelism and Service Ministries. We are working on creating a vision statement that will guide our work in this new structure.”

“FLC will continue to produce English and German radio programs, support a men’s, women’s and young adult choir and operate a recording studio. The name will likely change to Mennonite Church Manitoba, Media Ministries to reflect an effort to use more than radio and choirs to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ,” said Neustadter Barg. It will also include a greater emphasis to communciate the Christian message to younger people.

The decisions to cut the Low German radio program, “Wort des Lebens”, reduce staff time and cut programming to Alberta and Saskatchewan because of funding cutbacks has been a source of concern for many supporters. Neustaedter Barg explained that FLC has been operating with a deficit for a number of years. The deficit was financed by the FLC Memorial Fund which would have been depleted in 2003 unless changes were made.

Donations from listeners have been decreasing since the mid 1990s and with current programming aimed primarily at a more senior group, that funding base has been shrinking, he explained. “Our MC Manitoba German speaking constituency worships in High German, not Low German. Beyond MC Manitoba, we have little evidence that the program was a mission to Low German speaking newcomers to Canada,” said Neustaedter Barg.

Listener donations from Alberta and Saskatchewan covered approximately one third of the $28,400 a year cost to air programs in the two provinces.

Two-thirds of FLC’s $345,000 budget for 2002 came from outside the MC Manitoba budget. Of that $147,000 came from donations and sponsorships.

The Abundant Life, a 15 minute English radio program, will continue to air Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on CFAM/CHSM/CJRB with Bill Block as new host and producer. The 30 minute German radio program, Frohe Botschaft, continues Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on the same radio stations.
—Evelyn Rempel Petkau,

Aid worker reports on life in post-was Iraq

Akron, Pa.



As Baghdad fell to coalition troops in early April, looters ransacked Al Rashad Psychiatric Hospital, the only mental hospital in Iraq. Terrified, all 1,015 residents fled as looters stole medicine and equipment, then stripped the hospital of doors, windows and light fixtures.

On April 25, Mennonite relief worker Steve Weaver visited Al Rashad. Amid the overturned cabinets, he saw decades’ worth of patient records scattered about. A lone staff person was painstakingly sorting through the piles of papers, trying to re-file them.

This incident tells the larger story of post-war Iraq—the collapse and destruction of hospitals, water purification systems and other vital institutions, which are leaving vulnerable people in desperate straits. It speaks to the persistence needed to make these institutions function again.

Weaver of Landisville, Pa., spent nine days in Baghdad in April, helping to distribute Mennonite Central Committee relief kits and comforters. He also assisted MCC Middle East workers Menno Wiebe and Edward Miller to conduct the first in-country assessments for MCC since the war. Weaver reported on his experiences May 8 at the MCC office in Akron.

At Al Rashad, an institution that has received MCC food and assistance since 1996, Weaver learned that some 700 patients were still unaccounted for. As Weaver helped unload MCC relief kits for the remaining patients, a staff person confided that some female patients had been raped during the looting.

Although the Iraq war did not result in the refugee crisis that some had predicted, another crisis may be brewing—one caused by “tired infrastructure,” as Weaver termed it. Iraq’s water purification systems, for example, were strained before and are now in an even more precarious state.

Weaver visited a clinic in Sadr City (former Saddam City), a Baghdad slum. There he watched as a doctor examined a sick child and prescribed antibiotics and “two days’ worth of clean drinking water.”

“I was struck by how vulnerable some Iraqis are, how parents can’t even provide something basic like clean water for their children,” commented Weaver.

Iraq was one of the most centralized countries in the world with people depending heavily on the government for food and other services. Some 60 percent of Iraq’s 20 million people, for example, were wholly dependent on food distributed by the government at 44,000 public distribution points throughout the country.

“In a situation like this, what happens when the government evaporates?” said Weaver.

In the weeks before the war, Saddam Hussein’s government distributed extra food rations. By early May, Iraqis were believed to still have at least three weeks’ worth of food on hand. However, most had not received any salaries for two or three months. They had no cash to purchase essentials, such as soap.

MCC’s relief kits, which contain basic hygiene items, will continue to be distributed by MCC partners. “The soap is very important,” said Weaver. “It’s more than just the luxury of feeling clean; it could mean the difference between health and sickness.”

He pointed out soap enables people to wash their hands to prevent passing germs. The laundry soap permits them to wash clothing and bedding, especially crucial if children develop diarrhea, a common illness in areas where water isn’t pure.

MCC had pre-positioned supplies in Iraq during the buildup to the war. Weaver learned that partner agencies distributed some 8,000 relief kits and 30,000 comforters during the war. MCC will continue to send relief kits—some 41,000 in all. Another MCC assessment team left for Iraq May 16 to determine future aid.
—MCC release by Pearl Sensenig

Mennonites and politics

Altona, Man.




Mennonites and politics in Manitoba was the topic for six meetings of the local history club here this winter with guest historians.

This was the fourth winter series. Earlier ones have touched on Mennonites emigrating from Russia, an overview of Mennonites, and the emigrations to Mexico and Paraguay.

The group of about 25 was under the leadership of Adolf Ens, long-time professor at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, along with input from archivist Lawrence Klippenstein. Several members of the group reported on their research projects.

For example, Dick Hildebrand had interviewed Jake M. Froese, the lone Social Credit member in the Manitoba Legislature for many years. A daughter, Judy Siemens, added personal insights on life in the Froese family.

Jim Dyck and Ted Klassen did a study on two friends of the Mennonite people—Valentine Winkler and his son Howard W. Winkler. Brothers Valentine and Enoch Winkler were instrumental in helping Mennonites homestead in Manitoba, and both sat in the provincial legislature.

Valentine owned a grain elevator and lumber business at Winkler, a town established in 1892 and named for him. He served in the legislature from 1892-1920, for a time as minister of agriculture and immigration.

Dyck noted that “by 1915-1920 it was no longer just Mennonite churches negotiating with government but individuals had begun seeking advice, favours, or seeking influence.”

After his father’s death in 1920, Howard Winkler ran the family business. In 1935 he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament and served until 1953. A prolific letter writer, Howard’s files include correspondence with D.K. Friesen, Bishop David Schulz, J.J. Siemens, and others.

Peace, Order and Good Government by T.D. Regehr provided background for the first four lectures, which included an overview of the Anabaptist stance on church and state.

Mennonites who came to Manitoba from Russia had already practised democratic self-government in Russia. When Manitoba “imposed” municipal government in the 1880s, Mennonites took three positions. The Kleine Gemeinde took the most apolitical position, accepting the leadership of the Chortitzer settlers and urging its members not to vote.

The Reinlaender Gemeinde accepted the idea of a district government of its own members but wanted it under the church, as in Russia. The Chortitzer (East Reserve), Sommerfelder, and Bergthaler did not oppose municipal governments in 1882. These governments did the work that the Gebietsamt, the Mennonite district administration, had done before.

Mennonites soon discovered that if they didn’t vote in provincial elections, their representatives would be chosen by the non-Mennonite population. So political involvement grew and Mennonites began running for office. However, not even the popular Erdman Penner could win against Enoch Winkler in 1892.

Highlights for the class were visits by three Mennonite politicians, all Conservatives: Siegfried Enns, MP during the Diefenbaker years, and former MLAs Jack Penner and Albert Driedger. For Enns, running for the Conservatives “was a case of a vacancy waiting to be filled, not really a matter of ideology” when he started. Penner, whose activities in farm organizations got him into the political scene, considered several parties before settling into the PC camp.

Both said the church seemed relatively indifferent to their moving into politics, and never interacted with them on political themes. Penner accepts this since he holds to a strong separation of church and state position. Enns, however, expressed regret that his congregation was not able to be more openly affirming, according to Klippenstein who led the session.

Perhaps deserving of a study, suggested Ens, is that Mennonites who entered politics tended to be children or close relatives of bishops or ministers.
—From report by Elmer Heinrichs