Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference withdraws from MCC Canada over change in hiring practices related to same-sex marriage

A decision by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada to no longer require all staff to be celibate outside of heterosexual marriage has prompted the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Conference to withdraw as an official supporting member of that organization. 

The conference made the decision because of the lack of congruence between MCC Canada’s new position on marriage and the denomination’s Confession of Faith, which defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman, said interim executive director Terry Hiebert. 

“It’s no secret the conference has had some disconnects with MCC over the years,” Hiebert said, noting the denomination has been able to live with those tensions in the past. But the change over its hiring practices related to marriage “shows them heading in a different direction,” than the conference, he added. 

The change only applies to MCC Canada, not to MCC U.S.

Read more about it in Anabaptist World. 

Why do LGBTQ+ people stay in churches that consider them to be sinful? A seminary student set out to find out why

Same-sex marriage and sexual and gender diversity is accepted as normal and celebrated in Canada today. But it is still seen as wrong by some conservative evangelical Christian denominations.

And yet, there are many LGBTTQ+ people who still attend evangelical churches where their sexual identity is considered sinful and their full participation is not welcome. Why do they stay?

That’s what Naomi Isaac, who graduated in April from the Master of Arts in counselling psychology at Providence Theological Seminary in Otterburne, sought to find out in her thesis titled “2SLGBTQ+ Christians’ Experience of Spirituality in Canadian Evangelical Churches.”

Read about it in my recent Free Press column.

 

Jewish Member of Parliament reaches out to Muslim colleagues, constituents to promote conversation

With relations between Jews and Muslims in Canada strained over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and pro-Palestinian encampments on university campuses, there’s an argument to be made that rather than risk igniting emotions, the less said the better.

Ben Carr doesn’t agree. The Liberal member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre and a member of the Jewish community believes it’s exactly the time to talk.

"In order to work through conflicts in a meaningful way, we have to understand where each other are coming from,” he said about his efforts to engage with Muslims in Parliament and in his riding. 

Read my article about Carr’s efforts to engage with Muslims in the Free Press.

 

"Money that is owing." Four Canadian Mennonite churches pay reparations to Indigenous people

In many Canadian churches today, it is common to hear a land acknowledgment at the start of a service. It’s a way to recognize the First Nations people who originally occupied the land. 

Now three Mennonite churches in Winnipeg, Man., and one in Kitchener, Ont., have taken that a step further by deciding to pay reparations to Indigenous people on whose land their buildings are located.

The way they are doing this is by annually donating 1% of their budgets, or of the value of their properties, to local Indigenous-led organizations. It is a way symbolically recognize what was lost by the original occupants of the land through broken treaties.

For Esther Epp-Tiessen (photo above) of Home St. Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, it “isn’t about a charitable donation from our benevolence. It’s a powerful symbol of a commitment to be treaty people. It is money that is owing.” 

Read my story about these churches and their reparations in Anabaptist World.

Church closings and Monty Python, or can churches in the U.K. avoid the fate of the dead parrot?

One thing I have never been able to do so far is mention Monty Python in my faith page columns—until now.

When doing a follow-up to my earlier column about church closings, I discovered that Michael Palin, formerly of Monty Python, is vice president of the National Churches Trust in the United Kingdom.

“Right now, many church buildings are in danger of closure,” he wrote on the Every Church Counts website, a new effort to save the U.K.’s historic churches.

“Churches are a vital part of the UK’s history and we need to act now to prevent the loss of tremendously important local heritage.”

I ended the column with a line from the famous dead parrot sketch, played by Palin and John Cleese, and then wondered if churches in the UK—unlike that dead bird—can avoid the fate of having “kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible.” (Another Python reference!)

Read the column about how people in the U.K. are trying to save that county’s churches. including a former member of Monty Python.

New book asks: Will unneeded churches be gone for good?

By 2030, it is estimated that as many as 9,000 Canadian churches and other places of worship, out of about 27,000, could be closed. In the U.S., that figure is 100,000 out of about 380,000 that could close in the next 20 years. If that happens, what’s going to happen to all those buildings, and the land they sit on?

That’s the question being asked in Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition (2024, Eerdmans).

Read my Free Press column about the book, in which various authors highlight the challenges facing congregations in the years ahead as membership and attendance falls and interest in traditional forms of religion wane—and provide ideas for how they can re-purpose their buildings. (Including giving the land back to Indigenous groups.)

Manitobans weigh in on Premier's call for new prayer for Manitoba legislature

 

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew wants to create a new prayer to open sessions of the Manitoba legislature — one that reflects and includes the views of Manitobans of all faiths, as well as atheists.

To do that, he plans to set up a roundtable to consult Manitobans about what kind of prayer they’d like to see prayed before the province’s MLAs get down to business.

If a small online sample of 56 people last week is any indication, what most Manitobans want is no prayer at all. That was the feeling of 71 per cent of those who offered their opinion about the premier’s idea.

 

Meanwhile, faith leaders in the province think it might be best to either have a variety of different prayers—no one prayer could satisfy everyone—or just a moment of silence.

 

Read more about what people think in my April 20 Free Press column.

Photo above: John Woods, Canadian Press