“Everyone needs a home — where families are safe and secure, where their basic needs are met, where they can come and go freely, and where they can imagine a future.” That’s the way a new campaign...
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Here in Canada, as in the United States, one of the biggest issues dividing the church is homosexuality. Churches are leaving Mennonite Church Canada over it. In British Columbia, I was told that as many as a...
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He was known as southern Africa’s Billy Graham. His name was Nicholas Bhengu, and he was an evangelist with the Assemblies of God in South Africa from the 1940s until his death in 1985. During his ministry,...
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One and a half billion dollars. That’s how much the places of worship are worth in Winnipeg, Man., where I live. That figure comes from what is called the “halo effect,” the value of the social,...
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A new survey is out about Canadians and religion, and it reveals some interesting things. The survey by Canadian pollster Angus Reid found that 21 percent of Canadians identify as religiously committed; 30...
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“I have three things I’d like to say today,” said American author Tony Campolo to a crowd at the 1982 interdenominational Spring Harvest church conference in England. “First, while you...
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This year is Canada’s 150th anniversary. The government will host celebrations to mark the country’s heritage, cultural diversity, citizenship, social contract, respect for pluralism, official languages...
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Like many churchgoers, I grew up with a steady diet of sermons about the parables of Jesus — stories about things like lost sheep, coins and sons; Good Samaritans and unforgiving servants; mustard seeds and...
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Last fall, researchers from two Ontario universities set out to discover why mainline churches in Canada are dying. Of the 22 Anglican, United, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches they surveyed, all in Ontario,...
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Are we on the verge of a spiritual renewal in North America — a renewal that might save our planet? That’s the question that comes to me after reading about the pipeline protest at the Standing Rock Sioux...
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More bad news in the world of Christian print magazines in Canada: In September, two of the country’s most venerable publications shut down: the Presbyterian Record, after 140 years, and the Western Catholic...
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One thing about the recent U.S. presidential election: Nobody can say religion didn’t matter. By now the story is very familiar; 81 percent of white evangelical voters supported President-elect Donald...
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In October, when Donald Trump’s comments about women were reverberating in my mind, I posted an apology to my female friends on Facebook. In it, I expressed my sadness and outrage for how so many had been...
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Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms. Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind. Theology is the study of the nature of God. Povology is — well, just what...
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Living so close to the United States, it is impossible for Canadians not to be inundated by U.S. news — and often impacted by it, too. As one of our former prime ministers put it, it’s like sleeping with...
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When it comes to turning points in history, a few come to mind for me: The assassination of John F. Kennedy; the first humans on the Moon; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the invention of the Internet; and 9/11....
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If you wrote a letter to your denomination or area conference, what would you say? That’s the question Carol Penner asked herself recently. In her case, it was about the Canadian Conference of Mennonite...
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With the war in Syria entering its sixth year, it’s easy to get lost in the facts and figures: As many as 470,000 dead; 4.6 million refugees who have fled the country; 6.6 million displaced within it; 13.5...
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What’s the fastest-growing Mennonite church in Winnipeg? St. Margaret’s Anglican. That joke came back to me early this month when I learned that the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and...
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In Canada, as in the U.S., lots of people don’t attend church. About 80 percent of Canadians and 60 percent of Americans do something else on Sunday mornings. Why is that? Joel Thiessen, a sociology...
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