Seniors and students grow vegetables and friendships using hydroponics

Seniors and high school students in North Kildonan are growing vegetables and community through a unique indoor gardening project. 

It began three years ago when Donwood Manor, which is owned by eight Mennonite Brethren churches in Winnipeg, purchased six three-tier indoor hydroponic gardens. 

Through the hydroponic gardening, seniors grow food like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and herbs year-round—and friendships students from a nearby high school. 

Read my story in the Winnipeg Free Press. 

Photo above: River East Collegiate students Jenna Martino, Dhyani Patel and Dyana Kehler and Donwood tenant Melba Doerksen with freshly harvested  produce from the hydroponic garden. Credit: Jennifer Kappy.

Community enrichment coordinator Minoli Maharage hands lettuce to Donwood tenant Adina Goertzen. 

Mennonite congregations in Canada, the U.S. reach across border to defy Trump's tariffs and talk of annexation or invasion

Mennonite churches in Manitoba and Ohio and Illinois are reaching across the border to build relations through a new program called Called Companion Congregations. 

It was created last year by Mennonite Church Manitoba when U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs against Canada — along with making threats about annexing or invading the country. 

“People in our congregations started talking about not going to the U.S. anymore,” said conference minister Michael Pahl of church events outside the country. 

Through the program, he hopes to create a practical way for churches to show that “the body of Christ transcends borders.” 

To date, four churches are participating: River East and Hope Mennonite in Winnipeg and First Mennonite in Bluffton, Ohio and Mennonite Church of Normal, Illinois.  

Read the article here in the Free Press.

Photo above: Keith Poysti and Don Loewen of River East show stained glass art they made to send to Bluffton Mennonite Church. 

 

Why are evangelicals and Roman Catholics so critical of Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act?

 

Why are Canadian evangelicals and Roman Catholics so critical of the government’s decision to remove the “good faith defence” from Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act? What do they want to preach and teach that might get their clergy into trouble if the Bill is passed into law with that provision removed? I asked the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops that question in order to find out. 

Click here to read their answers in my Free Press column. 

Image above from the Renew Church website. 

 

New horizon for me and for Winnipeg Free Press religion coverage: New partnership launched with Broadview Magazine

By: Paul Samyn

Posted: 12:00 PM CDT Friday, May. 1, 2026

In 2019, the Free Press launched our Religion in the News project on little more than a wing and a prayer. 

Seven years later, we can count more than 1,200 articles touching on all faiths as a testament to the value of that initiative — the only one of its kind among major Canadian daily newspapers. 

Today, I am pleased to announce a new chapter for this project that will broaden its reach and strengthen its journalism. 

As part of a new partnership, the Free Press will be working with Broadview, an independent Canadian magazine known for its award-winning coverage of progressive Christianity as well as its broader reporting on the diversity of religious and spiritual life. 

Broadview brings to our partnership an impressive track record since its founding in 1829, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in North America, and the second oldest in the English-speaking world. 

In its nearly 200-year history, Broadview has won international acclaim for journalistic excellence and garnered more editorial awards than any other faith-based publication in Canada.

By partnering with Broadview, donations to our Religion in News project will now be eligible for charitable tax receipts, a move that will help to ensure its long-term sustainability.

This new chapter will see Free Press editors work with the editorial team at Broadview on stories that will be published on both organizations’ platforms.

This new chapter will also see the addition of a new reporter as our longtime faith writer, John Longhurst, prepares to step down from the project he was instrumental in establishing.

Over the next few months, John will be working with Josiah Neufeld to guide him into the reporting role that has been key to the project’s success.

John’s body of work and passion for this project helped earn him the Order of Canada, an honour that speaks to his character and the importance of the work he has done for the Free Press.

In these increasingly polarized times, his reporting diversified our coverage and delivered a world of understanding.

I think Payam Towfigh, past-president of Manitoba Multifaith Council, may have said it best when he offered this perspective of the Religion in the News project: “Faith reporting by the Free Press helps create a space where the diversity of various faith-based communities can be showcased to create a just and caring society.”

I’m excited to welcome Broadview to the space we have created and to read what Josiah will bring to the project. 

And I am ever grateful for the faith readers put in the Free Press.

Paul Samyn is editor of the Free Press. Learn more about the Religion in the News project and make a tax-deductible donation here.

paul.samyn@freepres.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.

Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt.BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER

Paul Samyn