Hopewit

Let me take you back today to the winter/spring of 1949 and to Rosthern Junior College. It’s a kind of “golden age” in the life of the school. Kornelius G. Toews (KG), had been principal for over a decade as had the popular teacher Peter P. Rempel (P-squared).        Both KG and P 2 immigrated to Canada in the 1920s, both were products of the surge in educational excellence in Russian Mennonite Colonies in the 30+ years since most of the Valley Mennonites had settled here. Both were graduates of the German-English Academy that would become Rosthern Junior College (and now, RJC High School) as well as of the University of Saskatchewan where Toews earned a BA, a B.Ed and an MA and Rempel a BA and a B.Ed.         Both were loved by students of the time and molded distinguished careers after leaving the GEA.        (Rounding out the staff were David Paetkau, arguably the father of musical excellence among Valley Mennonites, and J.G. Rempel, Bible teacher who became Elder of th

Qu'appelle Valley  “ Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” “ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1, 26 & 27, NIV) We could talk endlessly about the Judeo-Christian creation allegory in Genesis, could look at how “humankind” today is reflected in the history of origins as the writers of that sacred text visualized it. We could even go to the internet and type in “man creates god” and be led to all kinds of sources that contend that “man created God in his own image; in the image of man created he God.” Either way, we would hit on the basic question, what then is mankind that his image should reflect God, and what is God that his nature and being should be the template for mankind?