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 M...

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? ...

The Eigenheim Mennonite Church used to have a large cross facing the congregants from the pulpit area. On it were the words, “Prepare to Meet Thy God.”  The dominant image facing us now was created by member-artist, Wes Ens, and it’s a large wooden, walking-away figure of the sower, spreading seed. Position-wise, the congregation is following the sower. The dove/cross candle-holder was created by member craftsman Vic Janzen.  I hesitate to use the words logo or branding to speak of the symbolism represented in the two images; that would follow the advertising worldview. But just as leadership once decided that the large cross was the appropriate symbol in their time, the decision to replace it recently with the sower was made thoughtfully. Perhaps Kiran Desai’s central character in The Inheritance of Loss (p.29) senses a clue to the purpose of the cross and “the bleeding Christ” under which the sensibilities of the nuns—in the convent to which h...

Most church and conference meetings where questions of great import are to be decided seem to have a worrisome aspect in common : nobody comes away satisfied. Perhaps some manner of making decisions that leaves everyone contented—if not elated—will someday be found, but we are not there at present, obviously. An article in the US The Mennonite periodical (July 13, 2017) addresses the issue of sound decision making while reflecting on the experience of the Orlando National Assembly in 2017. The writer (Gerald Mast, author of Go to Church-Change the World) asserts that we conflate consensus decision making and the parliamentary procedures outlined in Robert’s Rules of Order, the result being a feeling for many that what was decided didn’t necessarily reflect best—or even good—practice. “When we approach the application of either a consensus or parliamentary procedure as a matter for Christian ethics, we will highlight what both methods share in common: seeking a collective ...

New Wine, New Wine Skins ". . . and some fell on stony ground . . ." Jasper, 2008 Quite coincidentally, we hit upon and watched The Diary of Anne Frank on a film streaming service , and  I looked for something to read and found Alison Pick’s Far to Go on a bookshelf, and —given the many free hours COVID-19 has forced upon us—I’ve become a bit preoccupied with times of horror and destruction and the rebuilding after loss and sorrow. Quite naturally, I couldn’t avoid the “why?” question, the one with which we’re currently wrestling in an uneven match whose outcome is still in doubt. The film and the book both focus on the lives of Jews caught up in the worst holocaust of all time for that ethnicity: the NAZI’s final solution beside which the exile to Babylon pales in significance. And then, we binge-watched UNORTHODOX , about a young woman in an Orthodox Jewish enclave of New York who by personality is unsuited to the rigours of her culture, escapes and is...

The Lord said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them. My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. In that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’ On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. Deuteronomy 31:16-18 (NRSV) We are firmly embraced in the arms of a world crisis , and many a Christian pundit will try to convince us that “. . . these troubles [have] come upon us because our God is not in our midst.” True, I firmly believe with others that many of our problems would vanish if we all carried a God-consciousne...

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” - Amos 5:24 Our current Adult Bible Study has taken us to the minor prophets: Amos, Habakkuk, Micah, Malachi. It’s territory we don’t traverse a lot. In summary: Amos deals with a peaceful time in the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel and warns—particularly the leadership—that their abandoning of the justice and righteousness that God demands of his children is going to have dire consequences. It’s easy, after reading Amos to conclude that the essentials of justice practiced in the everyday are so important that the very survival of the nation and culture are dependent upon it. Beverley McLaughlin traces her search  for the meaning of justice  in her biography, Truth be Told. McLaughlin was chief justice of the Supreme Court in Canada for 17 years. She concluded early on in her law career that a standard of economic fairness was fundamental to justice, a conclusion not...