Winnipeg mayoral candidates respond to questions about how they will engage the faith community

Winnipeg has a civic election on Oct. 28. In advance of the vote. I queried leading mayoral candidates about how they would work with the faith community if elected to that office. I asked them the following questions.  

1. As mayor, what will you do to recognize and support the efforts of Manitoba faith groups that serve the most vulnerable in the province? 

2. Churches in Winnipeg are exploring ways to convert their buildings into affordable housing. But they face challenges such as funding and dealing with regulations regarding variances and zoning. As mayor, what will you do to help churches use their buildings to address this pressing need for affordable housing? For example, what the city of Edmonton has done by creating a $2 million fund for churches through its Faith Lands Affordable Housing Incentive program. 

3. The Halo Project estimates that Winnipeg's 307 places of worship provide over $443 million of benefits to the community through things like hosting addictions programs, food banks, programs for youth and seniors, job training, support for refugees, hosting concerts, etc. This is money the city would have to provide if these places of worship ceased to exist. What will you do as mayor to see and support places of worship as community assets? 

4. The rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia makes members of those faith groups worry about safety and security. What will you do as mayor to address this concern? 

5. As you know, city hall can be hard for individuals and organizations, such as faith groups, to navigate. The city of Toronto adopted a motion in June 2026 specifically asking the city to examine how it could improve faith communities' access to information about space bookings, permits, parking exemptions and transportation, as well as community safety and inclusion. As mayor, would you be open to doing the same to help faith groups in Winnipeg access services, advice and support? 

Find answers from current mayor Scott Gillingham and challengers Kevin Klein and Mike Vogiatzakis in my recent Free Press faith column.

Three years after Oct. 7, no statement on Gaza from Canada’s largest church council

 

It has been nearly three years since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. More than 80,000 Israelis and Palestinians have died in the ensuing conflict and more than 174,000 Palestinians have been wounded in Gaza. 

And still, the Canadian Council of Churches, which represents about 85 per cent of Canadian Christians, is struggling to issue its first collective statement on the war. 

“I think it’s a tragedy that we have not been able to speak to the situation in Gaza, Israel, Palestine,” outgoing Canadian Council of Churches general secretary Peter Noteboom told Canadian Affairs.

Read Michael’s story in Canadian Affairs.

Religion and voting: What can faith communities say about municipal elections?

We have an election coming up in Winnipeg. With that in mind, the Free Press asked some columnists to write about it. What, they were asked, are the challenges ahead and how the city can become better? 

They mentioned things like how candidates will pay for their many promises, take seriously the concerns of inner city residents, tend to our relationship with Indigenous people, and offer people a vision for the future. 

What could a faith columnist say about the election? I wondered what faith communities in other Canadian cities have done, or are doing, during municipal elections—in places like Vancouver, Toronto, Alberta and Ottawa. 

And I was reminded of what Christian author and philosopher G. K. Chesterton wrote over 100 years ago about a horrible slum in London called Pimlico—about the need to love a place before trying to fix it. 

Read more in my latest column in the Free Press.

 

Catholics and coffee, Buddhists and tea: What's the connection between religion and these favourite beverages?

What’s the relationship between coffee and religion? That question occurred to me this summer when I was an instructor at a week-long event for aspiring Catholic journalists in Toronto. Whenever journalists gather, there will be conversation — and coffee. Lots of coffee. 

In that case, it was Catholic coffee. 

“Catholic coffee?” you ask. “What is that?” 

Catholic Coffee is the name of a small family business in Charlotte, N.C. Its goal is to use a daily habit of drinking coffee, especially in the morning, to focus attention on God through devotion and prayer. For decades, peacekeeping has been part of Canada’s identity — internationally and at home. 

Read more about Catholic coffee, and its tie to religion and ritual, with a bonus look at spirituality and tea, in my most recent column.

A "patient, observant and humane feature journalist": A tribute to Brenda Suderman (died Sept. 19, 2026)

I first met Brenda Suderman in the late 1980s when she was writing for the Mennonite Distorter, a satirical publication that made fun of denominational leaders and bureaucracy, theological disputes and the Mennonite tendency toward earnestness. 

It was famous for the first question its reporters asked everyone they interviewed: “So, where do you get off, anyway?"

I don’t recall what I told her. But I do recall many more meetings with her over the next 40 or so years as we both pursued careers that overlapped and then merged—me in communications for various non-profits and she as a journalist who sometimes interviewed me. 

In 2019, we found ourselves working as freelance religion reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press when she joined my Religion in the News project at the newspaper. 

I mention this because on Sept. 19, Brenda passed away. Her death has prompted a time of remembrance and reflection. 

Raised in Winkler, Brenda graduated from Carleton University’s journalism program in 1988 and worked for newspapers in Fort Smith, NWT, Portage la Prairie, MB, and Saskatoon, SK, as well as freelancing for various publications. 

I started writing for the Free Press as a religion columnist in 2003; Brenda started in 2006, writing general news and features along with religion. She continued doing that until 2023, when she retired. 

We worked together for four of those years, from 2019-23. We found ourselves touching base frequently during that time, checking in to see who would cover what story. 

When she signed off three years ago, she wrote in the Free Press about what that reporting had meant to her—the people and the places she had got to know and visit, and how they impacted her life. 

We never did talk about AI and writing, so I don’t know what she would think of my asking it about her reporting. Here’s what it said: 

Brenda Suderman’s Winnipeg Free Press work is best described as empathetic community journalism: carefully reported, warmly written stories about faith, immigration, memory, neighbourhood life, cultural institutions and the ordinary people who sustain them. 

She was not primarily a confrontational or investigative reporter. Her strength was to enter a community respectfully, find a human story within it, and explain why that story matters beyond the individuals involved. 

It went on to say that, in her reporting, Brenda put people first; that she had strong observational detail; that she had a narrative rather than an argumentative structure; she held a generous view of her subjects; and her writing was accessible without excessive simplification. 

It commended her broad and ecumenical faith coverage, seeing faith not just as something that happens in places of worship, but as part of civic and social life. 

In one sentence, it said she was a “patient, observant and humane feature journalist who turns Winnipeg’s religious, cultural and community life into accessible human narratives—less interested in exposing people than in helping readers understand them.” 

I echo all of that. 

Over the time we knew each other, we didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things. Sometimes we frustrated each other. But I respected her as a journalist and counted her as a friend. 

In journalism, the end of an article is noted with – 30 –. It comes from telegraphy in the 19^th century. That’s when messages came in a roll of paper and it was impossible to tell where one message ended and the other started. 

To assist readers, telegraph operators used it to let people know the end of a message. It meant: “No more — the end.” That code was later used by journalists transmitting stories by telegraph. 

So, for Brenda, we now also say – 30 –. But her stories will live on at the Free Press website.

 

 

 

 

Is God a Christian? Desmond Tutu said no

Is God a Christian? 

That’s the question asked by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his book God Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations. 

The book is a collection of sermons, speeches and interviews given by the well-known South African pastor, who died in 2021. 

“His concern is for all his children,” Tutu says in the book, refuting the idea that God is a Christian. 

“To claim God exclusively for Christians is to make God too small and in a real sense is blasphemous. God is bigger than Christians and cares for more than Christians only.” 

Some Christians might object to that line of thinking. Tutu anticipates their objection. For them, he has another question: “Can you tell us what God was before he was a Christian?” 

In a 1989 speech to leaders of different faiths included in the book, Tutu elaborated on this idea by telling the story of a drunk who crossed a street to ask a pedestrian a question. 

“I shay, which ish the other shide of the shtreet?” the drunk asked. The pedestrian replied: “That side, of course!” 

The drunk said, “‘Shtrange. When I wash on that shide, they shaid it wash thish shide.” 

For Tutu, “where the other side of the street is depends on where we are. Our perspective differs with our context, the things that have helped to form us; and religion is one of the most potent of these formative influences, helping to determine how and what we apprehend of reality and how we operate in our own specific context.” 

This seems overwhelmingly simple, he went on to say. “Accidents of birth and geography determine to a very large extent to what faith we belong. The chances are very great that if you were born in Pakistan you are a Muslim, or a Hindu if you happened to be born in India, or a Shintoist if it is Japan, and a Christian if you were born in Italy.”

The lesson to be drawn from these accidents of birth, he suggested, was not to “succumb too easily to the temptation to exclusiveness and dogmatic claims to a monopoly of the truth of our particular faith. You could so easily have been an adherent of the faith that you are now denigrating, but for the fact that you were born here rather than there.” 

This realization, he stated, should make Christians open to learning from people of other faiths. 

“We must acknowledge them for who they are in all their integrity, with their conscientiously held beliefs; we must welcome them and respect them as who they are and walk reverently on what is their holy ground, taking off our shoes, metaphorically and literally,” he stated. 

But that doesn’t mean giving up one’s own deeply held convictions, he added. 

“We must hold to our particular and peculiar beliefs tenaciously, not pretending that all religions are the same, for they are patently not the same. We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.” 

At the same time, he believes that members of all faiths should look for commonalities. 

“We have enough that conspires to separate us,” he noted. “Let us celebrate that which unites us, that which we share in common.” 

Tutu concluded his speech by saying: “Surely it is good to know that God (in the Christian tradition) created us all (not just Christians) in his image, thus investing us all with infinite worth… surely we can rejoice that the eternal word, the Logos of God, enlightens everyone — not just Christians, but everyone who comes into the world; that what we call the Spirit of God is not a Christian preserve, for the Spirit of God existed long before there were Christians, inspiring and nurturing women and men in the ways of holiness, bringing them to fruition, bringing to fruition what was best in all.” 

God, he stated, “does not need us to protect him. Many of us perhaps need to have our notion of God deepened and expanded.” 

So, is God a Christian? Tutu says no. What do you think?

Writing about Desmond Tutu gives me a chance to tell my one (and only) Tutu story. In the mid-1980s, when I was directing the Dallas (TX) Peace Center, I invited him to come speak at a conference in that city. We exchanged letters (there being no Internet back then), and at first it seemed hopeful — which was very exciting for the Peace Center board.

But then he wrote me and said he couldn't make it work with his schedule. I went to the next board meeting with the news. I told them: "Tutu said no-no."

Religion news you can use from all around the world, thanks to the Religion Media Centre

 
Jehovah’s Witnesses jailed in Russia. A shortage of clergy in the United Kingdom. A dispute between the Catholic Church and the Trump administration over a sacred site in New Mexico. Baptist churches in Ukraine providing warmth to people in that country in winter. 

These are stories you likely don’t know about. But you could have known about them if you subscribed to the Religion Media Centre. 

Read about those things, and learn more about the Centre, in my most recent Free Press column.

"Are you preparing to meet Jesus?" You might be surprised by who is behind evangelistic billboards across Canada and the U.S.

Maybe you’ve seen them where you live — billboards that say things like: “Jesus is alive!” “Are you preparing to meet Jesus?” “After you die, you will meet God.” They include a phone number to call: 844-FIND-TRUTH.

 

There are two billboards in Winnipeg, my hometown. Across Canada, they can be found in every province except Quebec. There are more than 1,700 scattered across the U.S.

 

Have you ever wondered who is behind them, and why they do it?

 

You might be surprised to learn they are created and sponsored by an Amish/Mennonite organization called Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). The Canadian branch is based in rural Ontario and is funded by Amish and some conservative Mennonite denominations and individuals.

 

Oh, and billboards aren’t the only thing they do. The group also sends out volunteers to do clean-up after natural disasters.

 

Find out more in my recent column in the Free Press.

"We are not numbers." A reporter in Gaza shares about life and faith during the conflict

“We are not numbers.” That’s what Diaa Ostaz, a reporter in Gaza for a Catholic publication, said earlier this month during a Zoom recording from the territory. 

Ostaz, 26, was speaking about the many who have died in Gaza since October, 2023. According to the United Nations, that’s over 73,000 people killed and more than 173,000 injured since that time. At least 20,000 of the dead are children, with more than 44,000 injured. 

The numbers of killed and injured in Gaza are staggering, but people there are not statistics, Ostaz said. 

“We are human beings and we love life. We love to sing, dance and laugh. We love to work, progress and achieve our goals. We laugh a lot and we cry a lot. We are not just images you see on social media and in news broadcasts. We are real. We are not monsters as some people think, or criminals. What happened in the October 7th attack does not represent the beliefs of an entire civilian population … we are looking for peace.” 

Read my interview with Ostaz in the Free Press. 

Photo above: Diaa Ostaz talks with a boy in the rubble in Gaza.

U.S. war against Iran puts some in awkward position due to Iranian government's persecution of Christians, Jews and, especially, Baha'is

The war between the U.S. and Iran has put some of us in an uncomfortable position. 

On the one hand, we can feel like cheering on the Iranians as we watch them stand up to the American bully. It’s like the enemy of my enemy is my friend, as the old saying goes. 

On the other hand, Iran doesn’t feel like much of a friend because of its terrible human rights record — including its treatment of religious minorities in that country such as Christians, Jews and Baha’is. 

Those abuses only seem to be increasing due to the war. The United Nations has condemned the Iranian government for how it is treating religious minorities during this time, saying it is using the war as “a smokescreen to deepen their machinery of repression and carry out crimes under international law with impunity.” 

Christians and Jews are among those targeted by the theocratic Shia Muslim regime. But it is members of the Baha’i faith who are getting the worst of it, and for the longest period of time. 

Read my latest column in the Free Press.

What are Canadian faith groups saying about Canada's increased military spending?

In response to growing threats around the world, Canada is increasing its military spending. In March, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country had met its NATO benchmark of spending two per cent of GDP on defence, with plans to spend five per cent by 2035. 

Is this the right direction? Is the money being spent in the best way possible? And what about other forms of international engagement such as aid, diplomacy and peacemaking? 

Those were some of the questions raised by 14 faith groups in the United Kingdom in July in response to that country’s decision to also increase military spending over the next decade. 

In a joint letter with other organizations, the groups stated there is “a clear public appetite for broader discussion on how to build a more secure, resilient and peaceful world … beyond military force.” 

The UK letter got me thinking about whether Canadian faith groups are asking for a similar discussion in this country. At least three of them are. 

Read more in my column in the Free Press.

Photo above: Spencer Colby, The Canadian Press.

Vanishing Gods: A conversation with Reginald Bibby about the changing Canadian religious landscape

 

Over his 50 years of writing and researching about religion in Canada, Reg Bibby has written books with the titles Fragmented Gods (1987), Unknown Gods (1993), Restless Gods (2002), Beyond the Gods (2011), and Resilient Gods (2017). 

If Bibby was to write another book about religion in Canada today, the retired University of Lethbridge professor said he might title it: Vanishing Gods. 

“Religion in Canada has known something of a golden era,” he said. “But that era has been over since the final decades of the 20th century.” 

Bibby chronicles these changes to the religious landscape in a chapter in his new book, The Canadian Transformation: Social Trends 1975-2025. (Project Canada Books). 

Read my conversation with Reg about his book in the Free Press.

Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches gift $1.5 million to National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

 

The Anglican Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada have collectively donated $1.5 million to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in Winnipeg. 

The donation, which was announced at a June 18 gifting ceremony in Winnipeg, will be used to assist in the creation of a new permanent home for the centre at the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba. 

Each of the three denominations contributed $500,000, which will be put toward the $100-million cost of the new centre. 

Read my story about the gift, including the response from the NCTR, in Canadian Affairs.

Humanism as Resistance Theme of Aug. 7-9 World Humanist Congress in Ottawa

Manitoban Daniel Dacombe is looking forward to the World Humanist Congress in Ottawa.

“I’m going to network with other humanists from around the world,” said Dacombe of the August 7-9 event.

 

“I’m looking forward to meeting people from other countries who have been building their own humanist communities, especially in places with more restrictive laws around non-belief.”

The theme of the Congress is “Humanism as Resistance.” That theme was chosen because, as the organizers put it, this is a time of “resurgent authoritarianism, escalating religious nationalism, and the aggressive spread of anti-science disinformation.”

Participants at the Congress—which was originally planned for Washington, D.C. until organizers decided it wasn’t safe for participants from around the world—will hear speakers and panels address the theme, and discuss their shared humanistic values such as respect and care for the natural world; the primacy of reason and science; rejection of the supernatural; standing against all forms of racism and prejudice; and promoting human rights for everyone, including the right to freedom of religion and unbelief.

 

Read more about the Congress in my recent Free Press column.

What is the future of Christian presence in Canada? Denominational leaders meet to discuss that question

What is the future of the Christian presence in Canada? How dependent is it on church buildings? What is the role of service to others? That was the topic of discussion in May when representatives from various Canadian Protestant denominations met in Winnipeg.

Read about that discussion in my recent Free Press column.

Standard or Daylight Savings time debate has implications for at least one religious group

Manitobans are being asked by the provincial government if they want to end seasonal time changes by making either standard or daylight savings time permanent in the province. 

So far, three-quarters of those who answered a survey by Winnipeg-based Prairie Research Associates support an end to seasonal time changes. Of those, 34 per cent prefer a move to permanent daylight time — which means the sun would rise and set later each day. 

Eighteen per cent prefer standard time, while 21 per cent just want the province to choose one time or another. 

Talk about time change got me thinking about how such a change could impact religious groups. 

As it turns out, at least one faith group would experience a serious impact: Judaism. Other groups? Not so much, or at all.

Read what some local rabbis say about why they prefer to stay on Standard Time in my recent Free Press column.

Story of the Doctrine of Discovery complicated, but still worth talking about

The negative impact of colonization on Indigenous people in the Americas is known only too well. So is the role the Roman Catholic Church played in it. That includes what became known as the Doctrine of Discovery — the idea that by “discovering” the Americas, colonizing countries like Spain and Portugal could claim Indigenous land as their own. 

But the story is more complicated than most people realize — and also incomplete without noting opposition from those in the Church during that age of discovery and conquest from Dominican priests and the Vatican itself. 

That included a Papal Bull issued in 1537 that declared Indigenous people must not be deprived of their freedom or lands. This remains the official position of the Roman Catholic Church — it was affirmed in 1987 by Pope John Paul II when he visited Canada. 

Read my recent column on this topic in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Premier's remark about Old versus New Testaments draws reaction from Winnipeg Jewish community and others

If you grew up going to Sunday school and church, you were probably taught that what Christians call the “Old Testament” was a book of rules and laws from a stern and punishing God. The “New Testament,” on the other hand, was about love, mercy and grace—as epitomized by Jesus. 

I don’t know if that was the experience of Manitoba premier Wab Kinew. But it seems like it might have been from when he described the province’s approach to the drug crisis: “Old Testament for the drug dealers, New Testament for the drug users.” 

Unsurprisingly, some Jewish people took exception, even as they cut Kinew some slack for his penchant for shooting from the lip. That’s not how they view their scriptures—which they call the Tanakh—at all. 

Sure, there are commandments and laws in the Hebrew Bible, along with accounts of divine punishment. But those accounts are balanced by messages of God’s mercy and an enduring covenantal relationship—a relationship that is characterized by God’s forgiveness, patience and redemption. 

It all added up to an educational moment, as I noted in my recent Winnipeg Free Press column.

The Canadian census and religion; what does it mean to be religious today?

 
Did you get the long form of the census? If you did, then you are among the 25 per cent of Canadians who had a chance to answer this question about religion: “What is this person’s religion? Indicate a specific denomination or religion, even if this person is not currently a practising member of that group.” 

The second part of that question is problematic for The Centre for Inquiry, one of Canada’s leading Humanist groups. It thinks that second part of the question skews the answer, with the result that there is an overestimation of how many people in Canada are actually religious. 

For the Centre, it's about accuracy. If you aren’t actually practising a religion — if you aren’t attending a place of worship, for example, or donating to help others because of your faith or following religious tenets in other practical ways — can you really say you are religious? The Centre says no, and it wants the question rephrased to: “Are you currently a practising member of whatever you selected?” 

Do you agree? What makes someone religious? 

Read more about this in my recent Free Press column.