Canadian Mennonite
Volume 12, No. 19
Sept. 29, 2008


God at Work in the Church

‘Ground blessing’ at Camp Squeah

Dirt saved for planting trees at site of future retreat buildings

By Amy Dueckman

B.C. Correspondent

Hope, B.C.

Erwin Cornelson, left, Dan Friesen, Helmut Penner and Jake Redekop invoke God’s blessing at the site of the future Fraser Lodge at Camp Squeah. Overturned dirt in the wheelbarrow in the foreground will be saved and mixed with water from Emory Creek and the Fraser River to plant new trees beside the two new lodges.

The ground at Camp Squeah was already broken, but it was officially blessed on Sept. 7 for two new lodging and retreat centres now underway.

About 150 people gathered for the “ground blessing” ceremony that began with a slideshow, prayer and litany in the lodge. Helmut Penner, camp committee chair, spoke of the founding of Camp Squeah that began with a vision for a B.C. Mennonite church camp for youths some 46 years ago and now continues with the construction of these new adult-friendly accommodations.

The two new lodges will include rooms with motel-style, self-contained bathrooms and meeting rooms suitable for smaller retreat gatherings. They will be named Emory and Fraser after the two bodies of water adjoining Camp Squeah.

“You’re the community of faith, you’re the community of support, you’re the community of prayer,” Penner told the members of various MC B.C. churches who had come for the occasion. “God has worked through the community of faith to bring us to where we are today.”

Following the short service indoors, the group moved outside to where trees had been felled and ground cleared in preparation for the building projects. At the future site of Emory Lodge, camp director Rob Tiessen, MC B.C. chair Gerd Bartel and Friends of Squeah committee member Peter Redekop took shovels in hand to turn over the first soil. Long-time pastor Jake Tilitzky then offered a dedicatory prayer.

A short distance away at the site of Fraser Lodge, sod-turning participants included site manager Dan Friesen, Helmut Penner, and Jake Redekop of the Friends of Squeah. The prayer was offered by another B.C. senior Mennonite pastor, Erwin Cornelsen.

According to Tiessen, the dirt shovelled from both sites was saved in a wheelbarrow to be mixed with river water for the planting of a tree by each of the new buildings once the project is completed. “We will bring water from Emory Creek and the Fraser River . . . to help symbolically christen the new buildings,” he said.

Framing forms for footings and foundation began Sept. 10. Estimated completion for the buildings is uncertain, but Tiessen is optimistic it will happen by spring or early summer of 2009.

More than a ‘visiting chamber’

Visual artist attempts to introduce reverence and awe to Bethel Mennonite sanctuary

Story and photos by Evelyn Rempel Petkau

Manitoba Correspondent

Winnipeg

A sanctuary that buzzes with noisy visiting on a Sunday morning has always bothered Alvin Pauls. When he was much younger, he recalls the quiet respect there was for those who used the time before worship to pray and quietly prepare in the sanctuary.

“I remember people sitting in the pew with their Bibles in the stillness of the sanctuary praying and reading while others quietly entered and did the same,” says Pauls, a visual artist.

So when he was asked by Bethel Mennonite Church to design and create stained glass windows for the sanctuary, reverence and awe were what he sought to create.

But inspiration didn’t come easy for Pauls. “Something was missing,” he says of his early attempts. But “it” came to him as he listened to the radio one day and heard how the Lord’s Prayer had been engraved on a fountain. Upon discovering that Mennonite Church Canada worships in many different languages, he had the prayer etched in each of those languages at the entrance to the sanctuary. “It shows our diversity and our acceptance, and sets the mood for worship,” Pauls says of the etchings, which are featured on the back page.

Now he was prepared to work on the stained glass windows. He realized that, while the Lord’s Prayer at the entrance to the sanctuary sets the mood for worship, the stained glass windows needed to inspire worshippers with the message.

Visual artist Alvin Pauls, right, is extremely grateful for the help of volunteers from the congregation, who included Neil Heinrichs, Jake Letkemann, John Friesen, Dean Joyce, Jake Friesen, Edgar Klassen, Dave Zacharias, and Ike and Bonnie Derksen.

Pauls used the symbolism of colour and line in the sanctuary windows. Strong, dark colours represent sin, while soft, warm tones are used to represent God’s grace and love. In the north windows, or the “sin windows,” the stronger colours symbolize the sin in the world. The south windows, that he calls “the God windows,” show God’s manifestation on earth.

“We are reminded that we are human and play to the attractions of the world,” he says, adding, “It is only when we feel them overtake us that we seek the security of the warm light of the south windows.”

Above the seven windows on both sides are three windows of soft, colourless, textured glass representing God’s love, grace and mercy.

“Our eyes are directed heavenward with the pull of the vertical lines in the lower windows,” explains Pauls.

At the front of the sanctuary, four large triangular windows form the shape of the cross, and also symbolize the four gospels.

In medieval times, stained glass was used to educate the illiterate masses, notes Pauls, explaining, “I have based my work on medieval glass, where the message is more important than realism, and combined it with modern art, where less is more and keeping things simple.”

“I hope I have helped make it more of a holy place and less of a visiting chamber,” says Pauls.


Back to Canadian Mennonite home page