Month: October 2017

Art and Mennonite history book to be launched at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Post author By CMU
Post date October 26, 2017

Nearly 10 years in the making, the official book launch of Along the Road to Freedom – Mennonite women of courage and faith featuring the paintings of artist Ray Dirks will take place at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Wednesday, November 8 at 7:00 PM. All are invited, and admission is free.

The book includes comments from each Along the Road to Freedom committee member and Manitoba Lt. Gov. the Honourable Janice C. Filmon. The foreword by Dr. Marlene Epp, Professor of History and Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, offers a historical backdrop that connects with today. Dirks reveals his artmaking process and recounts his journey with each painting and sponsoring family.

Dirks, founder and curator of the MHC Gallery on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University, was visited by four senior citizens in 2008 who wanted to initiate a project honouring their mothers and others like them. These four individuals—Nettie Dueck, Hans Funk, Wanda Andres, Henry Bergen—escaped the Soviet Union during WW2 on what Mennonites call the Great Trek. In the midst of the war, 35,000 people, many widows with children, left their homes in what is now Ukraine and fled north and west, hoping to eventually reach Canada. Twelve thousand made it out to either Canada or Paraguay, while 23,000 did not make an escape.

Three of the four people had lost their fathers at an early age. The men were taken by the NKVD, secret police, and like so many others under Stalin, were either quickly murdered or shipped to Siberia where they died in the miserable gulag system. When it came time to flee, their mothers, alone, led them out under the worst of conditions.

Along the Road to Freedom has also been a travelling exhibition of large story paintings honouring women, most of them widowed, who led children to freedom either during the time of anarchy, famine, and chaos following the Russian Revolution or during WW2 on the Great Trek. The exhibition has toured to 20 venues in Canada and the US. The corresponding book will include all the paintings and stories on each of the women featured.

The book will be available for $35.00 plus GST.

BOOK ORDERING DETAILS FOR SINGLE AND MULTIPLE BOOK ORDERS WILL FOLLOW IN DAYS.

Please contact Connie Wiebe (cwiebe@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300, ext 344) for information on ordering book, including all bulk book orders.

Along the Road to Freedom Mennonite is a MHC Gallery project 100% funded and created by donations and in kind contributions from writers, editors, and artist/book designer Ray Dirks.

The MHC Gallery is a self-funded gallery of Canadian Mennonite University.

For more information, please contact:
Ray Dirks, curator
CMU Press/MHC Gallery
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 2N2

To interview Ray Dirks, write to rdirks@cmu.ca or call 204.487.3300, ext 346. Print resolution images are available upon request.

Tags Along the Road to Freedom, Book Launch, MHC Gallery, Ray Dirks

Student Projects Video

CMU and Kenji Dyck Present: Reflections on Student Life (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 18, 2017

As a self-directed project, CMU student Kenji Dyck recently shot and produced a video which highlights an significant part of any student’s post-secondary education and sense of belonging—student life.

Here’s a look at what he chose to capture as a reflection on what makes the CMU experience special.

Kenji is a 3rd year Communications and Media major.

Tags Kenji Dyck, Student Life, video

Events News Releases

Lecture series to explore Protestant Reformation and its implications for today

Post author By CMU
Post date October 18, 2017

Acclaimed Anabaptist scholar Dr. C. Arnold Snyder scheduled to speak on campus

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) will mark the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with a special lecture series delivered by the world’s foremost scholar on Swiss Anabaptism.

Dr. C. Arnold Snyder will present the three-part series, titled, “Faith and Toleration: A Reformation Debate Revisited.” The lectures will take place in the CMU Chapel (600 Shaftesbury Blvd.) on Monday, October 30 at 7:30 PM and Tuesday, October 31 at 11:00 AM and 7:30 PM.

Snyder, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, ON, will ask the question: Should dissenting religious beliefs be tolerated on religious principle, and toleration established as civic policy?

The lectures will explore some of the events and debates that ensued 500 years ago when Martin Luther composed 95 theses for debate in Wittenberg, drawing some conclusions for our day.

“Dr. Snyder brings together incredible scholarly acumen, a love for the church, and an incredible ability to communicate to people at all levels,” says Dr. Karl Koop, Professor of History and Theology, and coordinator of CMU’s Biblical and Theological Studies program. “He is not afraid to explore a variety of Anabaptist issues.”

The lecture topics are as follows:

Lecture #1: “Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Toleration Doubtful” – One might have thought that the central evangelical teaching that faith is a God-given, spiritual, inner, and personal matter would have led to a wave of religious toleration accompanying the Reformation. This never materialized. Instead, a tsunami of intolerance and violence swept away thousands of people into prison, exile, and martyrdom. What happened?

Lecture #2: “‘Compel them to come in’: The Theology of Intolerance Examined” – Protestant theologians, both Lutheran and Reformed, soon became champions of state churches that required all subjects and citizens to attend their churches and swear allegiance to state-sanctioned confessions of faith. How did these Christian theologians justify coercion, torture, and even execution in the name of true faith?

Lecture #3: “Hiding in Plain Sight: Anabaptism and Toleration in Switzerland” – Anabaptism was officially outlawed in every state of the Swiss Confederation, with all Reformed pastors and civil officials under oath to report violations. Nevertheless, Anabaptist communities survived into the seventeenth century. Archival records shed important light on the phenomenon of de facto toleration that made Anabaptist survival possible in Switzerland.

“The theme of faith and toleration is at the very centre of our global context,” Koop says. “In the news every day, we’re hearing about the clash of religions… It strikes me that this particular topic is really at the forefront of the issues that we’re dealing with presently.”

Snyder holds a PhD from McMaster University. His research focuses on sixteenth-century Anabaptism. He has written and edited several books on this topic, including Anabaptist History and Theology: An Introduction (Pandora Press, 1995), and Later Writings of the Swiss Anabaptists, 1529-1592 (Pandora Press, 2017).

Snyder’s lectures are co-presented by the J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series as well as the John and Margaret Friesen Lectures.

Founded in 1978 by one of CMU predecessor institutions, Canadian Mennonite Bible College (CMBC), the J.J. Thiessen Lectures are named in honour of a founder and long-time chairperson of the CMBC Board. The lectures seek to bring to the CMU community something of Thiessen’s breadth of vision for the church.

The John and Margaret Friesen Lectures in Anabaptist/Mennonite Studies are co-sponsored by CMU, the Mennonite Heritage Centre, and the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies. The inaugural lectures in November 2002 were delivered by Dr. Abraham Friesen (Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara), the generous donor who initiated the lecture series.

For details about this year’s lectures, visit cmu.ca/jjt.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as graduate degrees in theology, ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:
Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags C. Arnold Snyder, J.J. Thiessen Lectures, John and Margaret Friesen Lecture, Lecture, Lectures

Events News Releases

CMU, community orchestra to celebrate the Reformation at special concert

Post author By CMU
Post date October 17, 2017

The public is invited to a concert at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) celebrating the Protestant Reformation.

CMU, in collaboration with the Mennonite Community Orchestra, will present “Reformation 500” this coming Sunday, October 22 at 3:00 PM in the Loewen Athletic Centre (500 Shaftesbury Blvd.).

Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students, and are available at the door. Children 12 and under receive free admission.

The orchestra, under the direction of conductor Neil Weisensel, will perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, also known as the Reformation symphony.

Dr. Janet Brenneman, Associate Professor of Music, will lead a choir made up of CMU alumni, the orchestra, and soloists in performing J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 79 and Cantata No. 80.

Soloists include acclaimed Winnipeg singer Rachel Landrecht, as well as three members of CMU’s faculty: voice instructor Rose van der Hooft, political studies instructor James Magnus-Johnston, and music lecturer Matthew Pauls.

The concert is a way for CMU to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation through music, says Dr. Dietrich Bartel, Dean of CMU’s School of Music, who will host Sunday’s concert.

The Reformation was sparked on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther sent his Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the Archbishop of Mainz.

“My hope is that we can celebrate the Reformation as part of the story of the church, while also being careful to make sure that we also are critical of the story,” Bartel says.

He adds that the three musical pieces that will be performed are linked. Each significantly quotes “A Mighty Fortress is Out God,” one of Luther’s best known hymns.

“I always thought we should be putting our CMU choirs and the Mennonite Community Orchestra together,” Bartel says of the collaboration, adding that the rehearsals for the concert have gone well. “Everybody’s pretty excited about how things are coming together.”

“Things are sounding really great,” he adds. “It’s going to be grand.”

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

Tags choir, Mennonite Community Orchestra, School of Music

Video

2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Story | Ken Esau (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 12, 2017

Born and raised in Coaldale, AB, Ken Esau was planning to become an engineer before studying at MBBC led him in the direction of becoming a teacher.

Since 1991, Esau has been part of the Biblical Studies faculty at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford, BC.

At CBC, Esau has taught Marriage & Family, Introduction to Psychology, Modern Western History, World Religions, and courses looking specifically at a number of Old Testament books.

It’s his Old Testament survey course, however, that he says has most defined him. Esau has taught the course 90 times.

Ken Esau, 2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient

Formerly a high school teacher, Esau holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Winnipeg and the University of Lethbridge, as well as graduate degrees from the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, CA and Regent College in Vancouver, BC.

Esau is committed to Jesus, Jesus’ church, and the Kingdom mission that Christians are invited to participate in.

As a teacher, his first main goal is to encourage young believers to become disciples who are similarly committed to Jesus, the church, and that Kingdom mission.

His second main goal is to encourage students to become life-long learners; passionate people who think critically and are strong communicators.

“There are many others you could have easily named,” Esau says of receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award. “It’s an honour to be recognized for what is, in many ways, a quiet occupation.”

Esau and his wife, Karen, have three adult children. They attend The Life Centre.

Tags Distinguished Alumni, Fall, Fall Festival, Fall@CMU, Ken Esau, video

Video

2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Story | Joanne Thiessen Martens (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 12, 2017

Joanne Thiessen Martens is an agricultural research technician in the Plant Science Department at the University of Manitoba (U of M) in Winnipeg.

For the past 13 years, Thiessen Martens has worked on ecological and organic agriculture research, including a wide variety of projects like cover crops, integrated crop-livestock systems, soil fertility management for organic farms, and more.

Joanne Thiessen Martens, 2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient

What Thiessen Martens most enjoys about her work is that it involves “all the steps in the knowledge-generation process,” from discussing theoretical ideas, to conceptualizing experiments, to conducting those experiments, and analyzing the results.

“We’re doing everything from the ideas to the nitty gritty of collecting the samples,” she says.

Thiessen Martens grew up on an 800-acre mixed farm in Austin, MB.

After finishing a degree in theology at CMBC, Thiessen Martens began studying science at the U of M. She became passionate about agroecology, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in the field. Thiessen Martens and her husband, Myron, spent 2000-2003 serving with Mennonite Central Committee in northeastern Brazil, where she worked with organic and vegetable farmers.

Thiessen Martens has also travelled to Malawi, where she developed curriculum for local farmers.

Additionally, Thiessen Martens co-authored the third edition of the Organic Field Crop Handbook (2016), which is used in university courses around the world. She is also the co-editor of the Canadian Organic Grower magazine.

Thiessen Martens and her husband have two children. They attend Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship.

Tags Distinguished Alumni, Fall Festival, Fall@CMU, Joanne Thiessen Martens, video

Video

2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Story | Henry Neufeld (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 12, 2017

Henry Neufeld has spent more than six decades building positive relationships among Mennonite and Indigenous peoples.

Born in Moscow, Russia and raised in Leamington, ON, Neufeld studied theology at CMBC.

He and his late wife, Elna, began working as teachers in Indigenous communities in Manitoba in the early 1950s. From 1955 to 1970, they lived and taught 280 kms northeast of Winnipeg in Pauingassi First Nation.

Henry Neufeld, 2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient

After serving two years as pastor at Springstein Mennonite Church in Springstein, MB, Neufeld—who is fluent in Ojibway—began visiting northern communities as a travelling pastor. Since then, he has made more than 600 trips. After 65 years, Neufeld’s work still is not finished. This past spring, at the age of 87, he participated in Mennonite Church Canada’s Pilgrimage for Indigenous Rights. Participants walked 600 km. from Kitchener to Ottawa in support of the adoption and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“I know our celebration on Canada Day was for 150 years, but if we look only at the past 150 years, then we are doing a real injustice to Indigenous peoples, because they have been here for 10,000 or more years,” Neufeld says.

“Even though our cultures are radically different, our backgrounds are radically different, we need to recognize and respect each other,” he adds. “If we respect each other for who we are and what we have to offer, then we can prosper.”

Neufeld has five children, 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He attends Springstein Mennonite Church.

Tags Distinguished Alumni, Fall Festival, Fall@CMU, Henry Neufeld, video

Video

2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Story | John Longhurst (video)

Post author By CMU
Post date October 12, 2017

John Longhurst is a communicator, marketer, author, editor, columnist, and media relations specialist in Winnipeg.

In his current role as Director of Resources and Public Engagement at Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Longhurst is responsible for the overall communications, marketing, and fundraising efforts of the organization.

Foodgrains is an ecumenical organization, owned by 15 Canadian churches and church-based agencies.

John Longhurst, 2017 CMU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient

“I find that endlessly fascinating,” Longhurst says, “because I get to interact with so many different people with so many different points of view.”

Originally from St. Catharines, ON, Longhurst has had an indelible influence in the Mennonite world and beyond throughout his 35-year career.

He has overseen marketing and communications work at Mennonite Publishing Network, CMU, Mennonite Economic Development Associates, and Mennonite Central Committee Canada.

Since 2003, Longhurst has written a weekly faith column for the Winnipeg Free Press, and in 2006, he shared his expertise in the book, Making the News: An Essential Guide for Effective Media Relations.

“I was just always curious about why people did the things they did, how things happened, how decisions were made, how the world ticked—endlessly fascinated with it,” Longhurst says of why he became a writer. “I wanted to tell stories and kind of interpret the world.”

Today, one of Longhurst’s greatest joys is mentoring the next generation of communicators.

“I like working with younger staff, helping them find joy and meaning, watching them grapple with a completely different communications world,” he says.

Longhurst attends St. Benedict’s Table. He and his wife, Christine, have two adult children.

Tags Distinguished Alumni, Fall Festival, Fall@CMU, John Longhurst, video

Events News Releases

Menno Simons College to host public lecture on interfaith peacebuilding

Post author By CMU
Post date October 4, 2017

Menno Simons College is pleased to present Dr. Jan Bender Shetler in a public lecture on interfaith relations in the city of Harar, Ethiopia, later this month.

Dr. Jan Bender Shelter — Dr. Bender Shetler of Gsohen College will speak at the University of Winnipeg on October 19.

The result of an eight-year collaborative research project between Dr. Bender Shetler and fellow academic Dawit Yehualashet, the lecture explores how Muslims and Christians have been able to maintain relatively peaceful relations in Harar over the last century, despite close and potentially volatile interaction.

“We like to examine conflict, to understand more deeply what happened and why, but spend less effort to understand peaceful relations,” says Neil Funk-Unrau, Associate Dean of Menno Simons College. “In a time of rising interreligious tensions, it is more important than ever to see how centuries of peaceful Christian-Muslim relations can be possible and sustainable.”

Over the course of the lecture, Dr. Bender Shetler, Professor of History at Goshen College in Indiana, and Chair of the History and Political Science Department, plans to show how this peace was achieved, despite the odds, why it was effective, and how these insights might be applied to our own context.

The lecture will take place at 7:00 PM on October 19, in the University of Winnipeg’s Convocation Hall.

For more information about the lecture, visit mscollege.ca/shetlerlecture or contact Neil Funk-Unrah at n.funk-unrau@uwinnipeg.ca.

Menno Simons College is a program of Canadian Mennonite University, affiliated with the University of Winnipeg.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Inter-Faith Discussion, Jan Bender Shetler, Menno Simons College, MSC, peacebuilding