Canadian Mennonite
Volume 9, No. 04
February 21, 2005



Women sing
for women in need

Vancouver/Abbotsford, B.C.—On March 8—International Women’s Day—14 women, supported by a women’s choir from various churches, will perform Suor Angelica, Puccini’s one-act opera, at the First United Mennonite Church in Vancouver; the curtain rises at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds raised that night will go to the Magdalene Recovery Society, which works with sex trade workers on the Vancouver East Side.

On Sunday, March 13, at 8 p.m., the opera will be performed again at the Bakerview Mennonite Brethren Church in Abbotsford, to raise funds for MCC’s work in domestic violence prevention and response.

Five of the cast members—Heidi Peters, Katy Garden, Stephanie Manchulenko, Eugenia Fernandez and Riad Klassen—attend Mennonite churches, but come from diverse backgrounds, as do the other women in the cast. Four other cast members sang in the Oratorio for AIDS last December at First Mennonite.

Riad and Frank Klassen are doing the stage and music direction; both have extensive backgrounds in theatre and opera throughout Germany and other parts of Europe.

This fully-staged production was made possible with the help of many volunteers, including Fred Kaarseemaker at MCC B.C., who donated cloth for the costumes; Selma Sawatzky, who offered to design and sew them; and Rita Dhahan and soloists, who are promoting the show at various church services.

The story of Sister Angelica, an Italian nun in the 17th century, is filled with both comedy and tragedy, and leaves the audience with some serious questions for today.
—Frank Klassen

Churches sought
to offer sanctuary

Kitchener, Ont.—A coalition of Waterloo Region churches, with representation from Mennonite, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Ethiopian Orthodox congregations, is looking for local churches willing to provide sanctuary as a last resort for refugee families facing deportation.

At present, 10 local refugee families—encompassing 20 adults and 30 or more children and teens from Central and South America—are facing deportation, according to the group that includes Eunice Valenzuela, the executive director of the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support.

Group members hope local churches will band together to provide financial and other types of support to any congregation willing to provide sanctuary, which they consider a justified form of civil disobedience. Refugees chosen for sanctuary in local churches would be selected based on the risk of death or persecution if deported to their country of origin.

Currently, a dozen churches across Canada provide sanctuary for refugees facing deportation.

To promote its cause, the coalition has organized a forum at Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church, Kitchener, on March 10 at 7 p.m. Mary Jo Leddy, a theologian, social justice advocate, author and refugee advocate, is the keynote speaker. Leddy is the executive director of Romero House in Toronto, where transitional shelter and support is provided for newly arrived refugees. She will speak on the ways refugee advocates and those involved in the sanctuary movement are attempting to reform this country’s refugee laws.
—From a February 5, 2005, K-W Record news article.

MCC asks for
20,000 kits

Akron, Pa.—Mennonite Central Committee is asking for 20,000 relief kits to be donated by February 28. The kits will be shipped to Aceh province in Indonesia, where they will be distributed by the YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU), the emergency arm of an association of Indonesian hospitals. MCC has provided $253,000 for YEU’s work with tsunami survivors.

For information on how to make the kits and where to send them, visit the MCC website at www.mcc.org, or phone toll-free 1-888-622-6337. Provincial MCC offices also have the information.—From MCC release



2004 Index
is available

The 2004 Index for Canadian Mennonite will not be printed in the magazine this year. It is available on our web site or in print form. If you would like a free copy of the Index, contact the Canadian Mennonite office, phone toll-free 1-800-378-2524, or e-mail: office@canadianmennonite.org










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