Canadian Mennonite
Volume 11, No. 11
May 28, 2007
Church snapshots: Eastern Canada
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On April 22, Elmira (Ont.) Mennonite Church licensed Sherri Grosz, second from right, for specific ministry as a stewardship consultant with Mennonite Foundation of Canada, where she has worked in the Kitchener, Ont., office since last summer. Participating in the service were, from left to right: Foundation general manager Erwin Warkentin, church council chair Gloria Martin, MC Eastern Canada conference minister Muriel Bechtel and Grosz’s husband, Rob.
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To mark her 20th year of ordained ministry and her 60th birthday, Sue Steiner, left, hosted a “20 Sisters Lunch” in May at Waterloo North (Ont.) Mennonite Church, inviting women who have been on her faith and life journey over the last two decades. Those in attendance included women who had mentored her as a pastor, colleagues, and younger women she mentored, who later became pastors. Each guest brought a blessing to share—a reading, a prayer or anointing with oil (Mary Schiedel, pictured). Steiner intends to combine spiritual direction, freelance writing, clergy coaching and the occasional interim ministry assignment in the next phase of her life, while continuing to serve on the board of Mennonite Church Canada as chair of the Christian Formation Council.
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After a lengthy search, St. Catharines (Ont.) United Mennonite Church voted to approve Darryl Bergen as its new associate pastor at an April 29 membership meeting. Bergen previously served as associate youth pastor at Mountain Park Church in Niagara Falls, Ont. He graduated with a bachelor of religious education degree from Tyndale Seminary in Toronto in 2001 and is currently pursuing of a master of divinity degree. The St. Catharines congregation gave Bergen and his wife Lisa, a warm welcome and wished them God’s blessings on their work in their new church home.
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Volunteers Jessica Bowman, left, and Ruth Bowman carefully weigh each can of turkey at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) meat canning project held at the Elmira (Ont.) Produce Auction Cooperative, from April 23 to 26. The Produce Auction, owned by local Mennonite farmers, proved to be a good location, as 40,000 pounds of turkey were processed in four days.
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Dan Epp-Tiessen, assistant professor of Bible at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, centre, spoke at Hunta Mennonite Church, Driftwood, Ont., last month on how to deal with grief, touching on his own personal ordeal dealing with the loss of his eight-year-old son, Tim. Also pictured, from left to right: pastor Polly Johnson and elders Phyllis Miller, Glen Carney and Timothy Prior.
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John and Betty Wiebe, and Henry and Carolyn Hamm of Erie View Mennonite Church in Port Rowan, Ont., and Colin Wiebe of Waterloo North Mennonite Church in Waterloo, Ont., were part of a 17-member team that travelled to Dondo, Mozambique, in March to build a concrete block house for 30 orphaned children and their house-parents (pictured at right). The team finished installing the last block and putting the last piece of roof material on during the last hour of the last day of work. Team members witnessed the joy of the Lord in the people during the nearly four-hour Sunday morning worship service; they also met Mennonite Central Committee Mozambique representatives Cheryl and Steve Hochstetler Shirk, who work at sustainable agriculture and meeting the needs of local people.
Eastern Canada saints called to action
Kitchener, Ont.
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Executive minister David Martin opened the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada annual general meeting with a sermon entitled “Let’s stop coddling the saints.” In it, he quoted from author Annie Dillard’s view of church:
“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offence….”
“The church is a subversive body,” said Martin, called upon to change the world, moving from fear to boldness, and from anxiety to generosity. With its slogan, “Extending the peace of Jesus Christ—making disciples, growing congregations, forming leaders,” Martin challenged leaders from Ephesians 4 to stop being chaplains and, instead, equip the saints for the mission of the church, and to be the presence of Christ in the world.
Marianne Mellinger, coordinator of Leadership Formation, followed this up on Saturday morning with her sermon, “Let’s get serious about forming the saints.” Continuing to use Ephesians 4, she asked the question, “How might the world be different if the church had focused on the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?” The goal is to be so in relationship with God that Christians can creatively respond to new situations with imagination. Alluding to jazz music, Mellinger called on Christians to know their “music” so well that they can improvise on the basics in any situation, be attentive to others around them, and so be able to do their part in the mission of Christ.
In the afternoon Mellinger and Martin spoke, entitling their dialogue, “Let’s call the saints to action.” The gifts listed in Ephesians 4 are people, whose job it is to equip the saints to do the ministry, they said.
Following a pattern spreading across the area churches from MC Canada, delegates and guests interacted around tables, discussing specific questions each time. Only select tables reported to the delegates on topics such as guidelines for ordination and the budget. The process found wide praise and acceptance, as many more voices will be funnelled to leadership through the response sheets filled out by each table.
However, some delegates found this process stifling, especially after Martin’s call for space for God’s Spirit to swirl among participants. “The process felt overly controlled, leaving no room for real engagement of the issues on the floor,” commented one delegate. “We didn’t even have room to mourn the closing of Olive Branch Mennonite Church.”
But with a balanced budget, the acceptance into membership of Vision Mennonite Church (a Korean congregation), and new ministries being supported and old ones growing in new forms, leaders and staff were treated to a standing ovation by the delegates at the annual general meeting’s close.
Nith Valley tops Bible quizzers
Floradale/Kitchener, Ont.
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Emotions ran high as the all-day Bible quizzing tournament drew to a close at Floradale Mennonite on April 14. Youths from 12 congregations were anxious to place in the top six teams so they could go on to compete in the finals on April 28, but sometimes they faced tough questions from the book of Acts.
Quizzers found that the first 20 chapters of Acts include so many unusual names that it was hard to keep them straight. Paul had exciting adventures during his missionary journeys and it was confusing to remember what happened where.
There were no first-time teams this year, although it has been several years since Hawkesville fielded a team. The Markham area churches brought two strong teams, which tied for first place at the end of the day. The other congregations involved were: Breslau, First Mennonite (Kitchener), Floradale, Listowel, Mapleview, Nith Valley, Riverdale, Steinmann and Waterloo-Kitchener.
Two weeks later, the top six teams gathered again at First Hmong Mennonite Church, across the street from Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, where the MC Eastern Canada delegate sessions were being held. After the round-robin, the two Markham teams were again in top place, so everyone was surprised when they were both defeated in the semi-finals.
The final match between Breslau and Nith Valley was held before the MC Eastern Canada delegates at the end of their lunch break. The Nith Valley team must have gained confidence through the day because it began in sixth place and ended as the 2007 Bible quiz champions!