How often does a church need a new hymnal? Every 25 years? Every century? Once for all time? Or are hymnals obsolete? Among the diversity of Anabaptists in North America, there’s someone who would answer...
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NORTH NEWTON, Kan. — Though most people call her Erica Littlewolf, on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Busby, Mont., she is known as Vonahé’e. Littlewolf is many things: An aspiring runner, an...
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“What can I do to help?” people ask after natural disasters. The question became more pertinent for me after dodging Hurricane Irma as it made its way toward Sarasota, Fla., where I live. Thankfully, the...
[read more]During my 25 years of traveling across the Mennonite church preaching about firstfruits stewardship, I don’t remember ever being concerned about the stewardship of my own name, much less identity theft....
[read more]Every time we meet, a mainline Protestant pastor bemoans the decline of churches like his. Fewer members, lower attendance, congregations closing. Yes, it is all true. Yes, but. Though ordained in the...
[read more]Was it terrorism? No. The shooter was white. The mass shooting that took the lives of at least 59 people and injured hundreds at an Oct. 1 country music concert in Las Vegas revealed much about American racial...
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American football players protesting racism recently took a knee instead of standing at attention during performances of the U.S. national anthem, triggering a Twitter storm from the president and a cloudburst...
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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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There may be nothing more unsettling to the (post)modern mind than zeal. Faith’s OK, many suppose, so long as it’s small and well-behaved, trotted out on a short leash at the odd moments — like birth...
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College president, relief administrator and theologian J. Lawrence Burkholder died in Goshen, Ind., in 2010 at age 93. Shortly afterward, his daughter Myrna began editing oral interviews that historian Arnold...
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We came to the party late. Mennonite Church USA created a national denominational superstructure just in time for the whole idea to crumble in Protestant circles. I still remember my hopeful response as we...
[read more]The closing of Grace University in Omaha, Neb., is a sobering reminder not to take the existence of a small Christian college for granted. Grace was never officially Mennonite, but its founders were. Most were...
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WINNIPEG, Man. — Delegates voted 94 percent in favor of taking Mennonite Church Canada’s existing structures off of life support equipment that some believe is designed for a society and church culture...
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Grace University in Omaha, Neb., founded by Mennonites in 1943 as Grace Bible Institute, announced Oct. 3 it will close at the end of the academic year. The interdenominational school was unable to overcome...
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 11 on behalf of a Mennonite teacher challenging a new Kansas law barring state contractors from taking part in boycotts against Israel. Esther...
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A task force is proposing a more cooperative and consistent relationship between Mennonite Church USA and its institutions of higher education. “We’re envisioning a relationship based more on collaboration...
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As assessment teams work their way across Puerto Rico, it becomes clear Hurricane Maria damaged Mennonite churches, hospitals and a school to a greater degree than originally understood. After Maria hit the...
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