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General News News Releases

International & Local Peacekeepers To Teach At CMU’s Canadian School Of Peacebuilding In June 2010

John Bell of Scotland and Canada’s Ovide Mercredi among Renowned Instructors for First Session, June 14 – 18, 2010
For release May 27, 2010

When Canadian Mennonite University hosts its second annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) three weeks from now, June 14 to July 2, 2010, it will welcome a diverse group of peacekeepers to its south Winnipeg campus.

CSOP this year welcomes 12 instructors ready to share insights and perspectives at CSOP’s summer program, through its eight one-week intensive courses for professional development and academic credit. Applications in hand to date represent interested individuals from over 30 countries.

“We are honoured to welcome local and international members of the world peacemaking community as CSOP instructors for the 2010 program,” says CSOP Co-Director Jarem Sawatsky.  CSOP aims to create a space where people from different backgrounds and perspectives can connect in positive and respectful ways—learning together, supporting each other, and creating networks of engaged peacebuilders. CSOP is for peacebuilders from all faiths, countries, and identity groups.

The 2010 course offerings include the music of social justice, contested food systems, indigenous practices of nonviolence, intractable conflicts, peace skills practice, Mennonite approaches to peace, restorative justice, and congregational peacebuilding.

“The CSOP community is shaped by an ethic of respect and collaboration,” says Valerie Smith, who was recently appointed Co-Director along with Sawatsky. “We bring peacebuilders from around the world together in a collaborative learning community.” CSOP aims to nurture and equip its participants for various forms of peace practice and expose them to some of the most significant emerging ideas and teachers in the field.

Canadian Mennonite University, through Menno Simons College (CMU’s campus at The University of Winnipeg) and through its south Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate program in peace and conflict studies in the world. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

CSOP WELCOMES SEVEN INSTRUCTORS TO CSOP JUNE 14 to JUNE 18

POETS, PROPHETS, AND MUSIC OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

John Bell, The Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland
Irma Fast Dueck, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada

This course examines the relationship of worship and social justice, exploring the works of poets and prophets from biblical times on to the present, many of whom come from the fringe of the church, giving particular attention to their importance in the struggles for justice around the world.

John Bell
John Bell, a native of Kilmarnock, lives in Glasgow where he studied Arts and Theology. After spells of voluntary work in London and Amsterdam and engagements in student politics, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland. For ten years, he worked in youth ministry with his colleague, Graham Maule, before transferring to concentrate on music and worship.
John lectures, preaches, and conducts seminars across denominations in Europe, North America, Australasia and, more recently, in Southern Africa. He is a hymn writer, author, and occasional broadcaster on national radio and television, but retains a primary passion for congregational song. He and the work he shares with his colleagues has been honoured by the Royal School of Church Music, the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, and the University of Glasgow, the first and second of which bestowed on him the status of Fellowship, the third a Doctorate.

Irma Fast Dueck
Irma was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was a university chaplain and pastor before beginning her teaching career at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (a predecessor college of CMU) in 1991. She received her Doctorate of Theology from Victoria University at the University of Toronto, a Masters of Divinity from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo. Irma’s research interests frequently lead her to themes connected to the practices of the church and the theology purveyed/conveyed by those practices. In the past few years she has given more sustained focus to the rituals of the church such as worship and baptism and on themes related to power. More recently her commitment to peacemaking has led her to participate in a number of reconciliation endeavours including Muslim-Christian dialogue (sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee); she also continues to be involved with Mennonite-Catholic dialogue groups around Winnipeg.

A CREE PERSPECTIVE ON NON-VIOLENCE
Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, current Chief of Misipawistik Cree Nation in Manitoba, and current Chancellor of the University College of the North.
Mercredi will share a Cree perspective on non-violence based on traditional values and look at contemporary examples of these values. Culture and non-violence will be studied as it relates to maintaining peace and harmony within a family group or community.

Ovide Mercredi
Chief Ovide Mercredi is the first Chancellor of the University College of the North. He is a Cree, a lawyer, a negotiator, an author, a lecturer in Native Studies, and an activist on behalf of First Nations in Canada. He is known for his involvement in constitutional law reform issues, and Aboriginal and Treaty rights negotiations. He was a sessional adjunct professor on Aboriginal peoples at the University of Sudbury, the University of Lethbridge, and McMaster University. In addition, he has lectured at other Canadian universities, including the University of Manitoba and The University of Winnipeg. Mercredi acted as a key adviser in First Nations’ opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, and in 1989 was elected as the Manitoba Vice-Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He held the position of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations from 1991 to 1997, and led the First Nations negotiations in the Charlottetown Accord. Among Chief Mercredi’s many honours and awards are the Order of Manitoba, nomination for the Gandhi Peace Prize, and honorary law degrees from Bishop’s University, St. Mary’s University, and Lethbridge University.

Our contested food system: cultivating a just peace (In collaboration with Canadian Foodgrains Bank)
Cathy Campbell, Rector of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, Winnipeg, and author Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice
Martin Entz, Professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, researcher on cropping systems and natural systems agriculture.
Kenton Lobe, Instructor in International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, former food policy advisor for Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and organic farmer
Ray Vander Zaag, Assistant Professor of International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University, formerly with Canadian International Development Agency as a Project Officer

An interdisciplinary team including an agricultural scientist, a geographer, a theologian and a food activist will teach the course. Dialogue and participant engagement will play a critical role in the learning process.
This course examines the current realities of our food system, mainstream prescriptions, and emerging discourses around local food systems, sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty / democracy, with the aim of understanding the worldviews that underpin them.
It pays particular attention to faith-based narratives and the possibilities for cultivating a just peace in what are being called “food wars.”

Cathy Campbell
Reverend Dr. Cathy C. Campbell, rector of St.Matthew’s Anglican Church in the inner city of Winnipeg, is actively involved in the challenges of living out the food and justice dimensions of the Gospel. She is author of Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice (2003) and Faith as if Food Matters (2008). Prior to her ordination she taught at Cornell University and the University of Toronto and held volunteer positions in a variety of non-governmental organizations. She is delighted to have finally returned to her roots on the prairies.

Martin Entz
Martin Entz is a professor of “natural systems agriculture” in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences. Martin has spent 20 years developing food production systems based on nature’s own template. Projects include no-tillage (conservation) farming, organic farming, integration of animals and crops for small-holder production, and development of perennial grains. Martin heads the Glenlea study—Canada’s oldest organic cropping plots. Martin’s international work includes a “pesticides reduction” project in cooperation with universities in Central America. Martin enjoys rural extension and interaction with farmers. Martin is engaged in the debate around “power” and food. He questions the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops, and worries GM will decrease biological diversity necessary for a sustainable food system. Martin and his family operate a small farm near Libau, Manitoba.

Kenton Lobe
Kenton Lobe’s interest in food and agriculture stems from his interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management. His fieldwork was undertaken in Kerala, India where he explored the social and ecological impacts of globalizing shrimp markets on a small-scale fishing community. Kenton is a teacher/practitioner at heart and until recently balanced his teaching in International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University and Menno Simons College with work at an international development NGO. He spent six years working with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg as Policy Advisor, examining the structural injustices that allow hunger to exist in a world that produces enough food for all. In particular, his work focused on Canadian public policies surrounding issues of agricultural trade, the human right to food, and development assistance for small-scale farmers in the global South. This work took him to the World Trade Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

Ray VanderZaag
Ray VanderZaag was raised on a potato farm in south-central Ontario. After graduating from Calvin College (B.Sc. – Biology) and Michigan State University (M.Sc. – Crop and Soil Sciences), he went to work in Haiti with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. During the first five years in Haiti, he worked in a rural community development program, supporting local staff and community groups involved in agriculture, reforestation, cooperative, literacy, water, and leadership activities. The next three years he worked in Port-au-Prince giving overall leadership to three CRWRC programs in Haiti. Returning to Canada, he earned an M.A. in International Affairs (Development Studies) and a Ph.D. (Geography) at Carleton University. His dissertation involved 11 months of field research on NGO/local community relations in rural Haiti. Ray then worked for a year for the Canadian International Development Agency as a project officer in the Southeast Asia Regional Program before joining CMU’s faculty. Ray also teaches one course per year in the IDS program at Menno Simons College, CMU’s campus at UWinnipeg.

Visit www.cmu.ca/csop

For CSOP information, contact:
CSOP Co-Director Valerie Smith
vsmith@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 315
Canadian School of Peacebuilding at CMU

For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621

Categories
General News News Releases

150th Anniversary Commemorated Of Mennonite Denominations With Joint Gathering & Worship Service

Events commemorate the establishment of Mennonite Brethren Conference and the General Conference Mennonite Church
For release May 27, 2010

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of two major Anabaptist bodies, the Mennonite Brethren Church in the Ukraine, and the General Conference Mennonite Church in the USA. To help celebrate this important landmark, CMU will host an all day story-telling session on June 5, 2010 on campus, followed by an evening worship service, open to all, at Winnipeg’s Portage Avenue Church.
The stories of these two churches began in 1860, when two renewal movements, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, led to the formation of two different Mennonite denominations. In that year, one group seeking emphasis on discipline, prayer, and Bible study left the larger Mennonite church in the Ukraine to form the Mennonite Brethren Church. Simultaneously in North America, congregations in Iowa invited other Mennonites to join together to pursue common goals in mission work, service, and higher education, thereby forming the General Conference Mennonite Church, which later merged with the Mennonite Church to form Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA.
“The dynamics and influences within these origins, together with later migrations and events, shaped the minds and hearts of these two denominations in ways that are still present today,” says Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) President Gerald Gerbrandt. “We are delighted to present an opportunity to share and learn from the two stories in a way that we hope appeals to both church leaders and laypeople.”

“In this 150th Anniversary year, it is appropriate to reflect on what these two churches experienced and learned with and from ‘the other’,” says Gerbrandt. “Through the conference and worship service, CMU aims to foster better understanding of the Mennonite denominations, the forces that influenced them, and their continuing impact on current tendencies and emphases. Lastly, we wish to worship God together, celebrating the past, looking into the future.”

Known as peace churches for their commitment to nonviolence, the Mennonite churches worldwide have approximately 1.5 million baptized members in 51 countries on six continents. Both the Mennonite Brethren and Mennonite Church Canada, along with Mennonite Church USA, are member churches of a broader Mennonite World Conference. Together, these three churches account for 33% of the number of Mennonites worldwide.

The host of the 150th Anniversary Celebration, Canadian Mennonite University, is an accredited Christian university offering undergraduate degrees in the arts, science, music, theology, and church ministries, as well as master degrees in theological studies and Christian ministry. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through Outtatown, CMU’s eight-month adventure and discipleship program that offers students an enriching learning experience in Western Canada, South Africa, and Guatemala.

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For further information regarding the 150th Anniversary Celebration, contact:
Diane Hiebert, Executive Assistant to CMU President G. Gerbrandt
dhiebert@cmu.ca
Tel. 204.487.3300 ext 665

For general information relating to CMU, contact:
Nadine Kampen, Communications and Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca
Tel. 204.487.3300 ext. 621 | Toll free 877.231.4570
Canadian Mennonite University | 500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3P 2N2

Attachments follow:
JUNE 5 WORSHIP SERVICE PROGRAM AND
JUNE 5 CONFERENCE PROGRAM


EVENING WORSHIP SERVICE PROGRAM

OPEN TO ALL CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS AND ANY
OTHERS WHO WISH TO ATTEND THIS WORSHIP SESSION

Celebrating 150 Years – Worshipping Together
Portage Avenue Church
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm,
Saturday, June 5, 2010

Worship Leader: Christine Longhurst

Congregational Singing: Rudy Schellenberg

Stories within the Story: Janet Plenert and Ken Reddig will share a story from their larger story which represents a core aspect of their identity

Litany of Celebration: Gerry Ediger

Special Oratorio Choir Choral Music: Conducted by George Wiebe and Bill Baerg

Sermon: Gerald Gerbrandt

Birthday Cake: Following the service


THE CELEBRATING 150 YEARS CONFERENCE PROGRAM Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg MB
9:00 am to 3:30 pm, Saturday, June 5, 2010

Registration Fee: $20.00
(Fee covers lunch, coffee, and materials)
To register, contact Diane Hiebert: 204.487.3300
dhiebert@cmu.ca

The two stories will be reviewed with the goal of communally learning together about the stories and from the stories.

9:00 – 9:15 am : Registration and coffee

9:15 – 10:35 am: Session #1: Stories of Founding and Settling in Manitoba, 1860 -1930
This session of sharing stories focuses on the two stories from their origin in 1860 until roughly 1930 when both groups had become established in Manitoba. The stories will consider influences behind the two movements as well as dynamics around the origins, early developments, and background factors.
• The Mennonite Brethren Story – Abe Dueck
Respondent – Sheila Klassen-Wiebe
• The General Conference Story – Helmut Harder
Respondent – Connie Epp

10:35 – 11:00 – Break

11:00 am – 12:00 Noon: Session #2: Workshops
These workshops focus on topics relating to the interaction of the two stories. In some cases, interaction may have been in the events themselves; in some cases, the workshop will bring about the interaction by considering parallel developments within the two stories.

Workshop Options:
1) Confessing Our Faith – Karl Koop & Doug Heidebrecht
Both the Mennonite Brethren and the General Conference adopted their confessions of faith in the 1990s. This workshop reviews these confessions, tracing their backgrounds and observing differences and similarities between them.

2) Exploring Stereotypes – Terry Schellenberg & Don Peters
Over the decades, each group has developed stereotypical ways of imagining and speaking of the other. This workshop considers a number of such stereotypes, examining them for how they reflect reality and for how they mislead.

3) Marriage across the MB-GC Divide – Delmar Epp (moderator); John & Hedy Martens
A few couples who married across the divide will share stories of their experiences in their families and in congregations.

4) Worshipping and Working Together – Adolf Ens & Herta Janzen
Although Mennonite Brethren and General Conference Mennonites retained distinct identities, at many points and times they have interacted with each other. Examples include worshipping together in rural communities between the wars; studying together at the MCI; and working together in MCC.

5) Periodicals as Windows – Harold Jantz & Byron Rempel-Burkholder
This workshop considers how periodicals serve as windows into the soul and heart of the two groups. Particular attention will be given to the Mennonite Reporter, the Canadian Mennonite, and Rejoice.

6) Worship in the Two Stories – Christine Longhurst & Rudy Schellenberg
This workshop reflects on the worship styles of the two groups, both today and over the past decade or two.

12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:15 – 2:30 pm: Session #3: Observations from the CMU Story
CMU has brought the two stories into conversation with each other in a special way. After ten years of cooperation in CMU, it is appropriate to reflect on how the other has been experienced, and what each may learn from the other.
• Student panel discussion – Students will share of their impressions of the other and of the MB-GC dynamic at CMU
• Faculty panel discussion – CMU faculty will share what they have learned from the other through working together at CMU

2:30 – 3:30 pm: Session # 4: Gleanings from the Day
The two denominational General Secretaries, David Wiebe and Jack Suderman, will each share their observations as to what they have heard during the day, and then lead the group in discussion for the rest of the time.

3:30 – 3:45 – Closing coffee

Categories
Faculty inConversation Video

Kenton Lobe – International Development Studies Program

Kenton Lobe – International Development Studies Program at CMU ‘A Shrimp Buffet’

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Faculty inConversation Video

Sue Sorensen – English Program

Sue Sorensen – English Program at CMU ‘An Extraordinary Place’

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Faculty inConversation Video

John Brubacher – Biology Program

John Brubacher – Biology program at CMU ‘From Baseball to Biologist’

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News Releases

CMU Hosts 2nd Annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding

CMU welcomes world peacemakers in June 2010
For release May 6, 2010

Canadian Mennonite University, realizing a dream a year earlier when it established its first Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP), will hold its second annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding in Winnipeg at its south Winnipeg campus, June 14 – July 2, 2010.

“We offer peacebuilders from around the world courses from local, national and international peacebuilders, which will benefit a wide range of NGOs, practitioners and learners of peace,” says CSOP Co-Director Jarem Sawatsky. “For this year’s School, we have again attracted members of the world peacemaking community’s most respected practitioners and teachers. We are honoured to welcome them and are grateful to be in a position through their services to offer timely and meaningful courses to our CSOP participants in 2010.”

CSOP is hosted by CMU, a Christian university that is rooted in the historic Anabaptist tradition of peace, justice, and service. Drawing from this deep commitment to respectfully practice peace in difficult places in the world, CSOP offers opportunity for dissimilarly rooted peacebuilders from around the world to come together to learn, to share, and to practice peace.

The goal of the Canadian School of Peacebuilding is to serve peacebuilders around the world by bringing them together in a collaborative learning community, nurturing and equipping them for various forms of peace practice and exposing them to some of the most significant, emerging ideas and teachers in the field,” says Sawatsky.

CSOP aims to create a space where people from different backgrounds and perspectives can connect in positive and respectful ways—learning together, supporting each other, and creating networks of engaged peacebuilders. CSOP is for peacebuilders from all faiths, countries, and identity groups. The CSOP community is shaped by this ethic of respect and collaboration.

Collaborating Partners
The Canadian School of Peacebuilding is supported in its programming through the efforts of four collaborating partners: Canadian Foodgrains Bank; Congregational Peacebuilding Partners; Mediation Services and Resolution Skills Centre; Mennonite Central Committee Canada.

CSOP Sponsors
In addition, sponsors help to provide a vital connection between the Canadian School of Peacebuilders and existing networks of peacebuilders. CSOP sponsors include: Africa Peace and Conflict Network; CAUSE Canada ; Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Rutgers University; Centre de ressources sur la non-violence; Fellowship of Reconciliation; Institute for Community Peacebuilding; Institute for Theology and the Church; La Maison de l’Amitié Student Residence; Mediation Northern Ireland; Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies; Physicians for Global Survival; Project Peacemakers; and Somali Alliance for Peace and Democracy.

Cooperating Academic Programs
CSOP is enriched and its impact broadened through its association with cooperating academic programs, namely: The Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University; Justice and Peace Studies Program, Creighton University; The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University; Peace and Conflict Studies, Bluffton University; Peace and Conflict Studies Program, University of Colorado at Boulder; Peace and Justice Studies Program, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; and The Peace Studies Program, University of New England, New South Wales, Australia

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Canadian Mennonite University, through Menno Simons College (CMU’s campus at The University of Winnipeg) and through its south Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, offers what is considered to be the world’s largest, most comprehensive undergraduate program in peace and conflict studies. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

See below for 2010 CSOP Course Instructors and Course Titles

View CSOP course descriptions online at: www.cmu.ca/csop

Note: All courses can be taken for training or for undergraduate credit. In addition, Poets, Prophets and Music of Social Justice, Congregational Peacebuilding, and Mennonite Approaches to Peace and Justice can be taken for graduate credit.

For CSOP information, contact:
Valerie Smith vsmith@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 315

For CMU information or images, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca ; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University, 500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2


Session I – June 14-18, 2010

POETS, PROPHETS AND MUSIC OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
John Bell, The Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland with Irma Fast Dueck, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada
BTS-5314\3 (graduate credit)
BTS-3430\3 (undergraduate credit)

A CREE PERSPECTIVE ON NON-VIOLENCE
Ovide Mercredi (former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, current Chief of Misipawistik Cree Nation in Manitoba current Chancellor of the University College of the North)
PCTS/POLS-2950\3

Our Contested Food System: Cultivating a Just Peace (in collaboration with Canadian Foodgrains Bank)–
Cathy Campbell, Rector of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, author Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice; Martin Entz, Professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, researcher on cropping systems and natural systems agriculture; Kenton Lobe, Instructor in IDS at CMU, former food policy advisor for Canadian Foodgrains Bank, organic farmer); Ray Vander Zaag, Assist. Professor of IDS at CMU, formerly with Canadian International Development Agency as a Project Officer)
IDS/PCTS/INTG-3950

Session II – June 21-25, 2010

Agents of Change in Intractable Conflicts: Lessons from Middle East Peacebuilding
Marc Gopin, Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR). He is also an ordained Jewish rabbi and author of several books on peace and conflict.
Course PCTS-3950

Mennonite Approaches to Peace and Justice (in collaboration with Mennonite Central Committee Canada)
Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at CMU, author, formerly with Mennonite Central Committee in Jerusalem, and co-founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams
BTS-4720 (Note: this course can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit or for professional development)

Session III – June 28-July 2, 2010

International Perspectives on Restorative Justice
Howard Zehr, grandfather of the Restorative justice movement, Professor of Restorative Justice (Eastern Mennonite University), award winning author of 10 books on restorative justice
PCTS-3950

Thriving in a Firestorm: Congregational Peacebuilding
(in collaboration with Congregational Peacebuilding Partners)
Lois Edmund, Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution Studies (Canadian Mennonite University at Menno Simons College), clinical psychologist since 1980
BTS-5310
PACTS/BTS-3950

Categories
General News News Releases

CMU Press Publishes Novel by Dora Dueck

Offers one woman’s compelling, ordinary, and surprising life
For release May 6, 2010

CMU PRESS is pleased to announce the publication of a new novel by Dora Dueck, This Hidden Thing. The book will be officially launched on May 19, 8 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Beginning in Winnipeg in the1920s, This Hidden Thing tells the moving story of Maria Klassen, a newly landed Mennonite immigrant. Maria becomes a domestic for a prosperous Canadian family in order to support her family as they struggle to build a life for themselves on a farm near the town of Winkler.

“As I was writing Maria’s story, I thought of it as a way of expressing the immigrant experience,” Dueck reflects. “I think too that I’m always looking at how people, especially women, live their lives – as a way of navigating my own.”

Secrets are a major theme in the novel, but not necessarily in the way one might expect. As Dueck notes, the theme of “hiddenness” captures something of the Mennonite immigrant experience. “One of the hardest aspects about being a newcomer in another culture is not being ‘known.’” And for many Mennonite women, this sort of invisibility was already a fact of life. “Women did their theological work privately, and resistance to received wisdom, or knowledge against the grain as it were, would have to be held secretly, perhaps even subversively.” She continues, “In thinking about Maria’s decisions and use of silence, I’m hoping readers might be drawn to reflect on the ways in which secrets might be powerful, even life-giving, and the ways in which they destroy, or build one false wall after the other.”

Among Mennonite writers, Dora Dueck is somewhat unusual for her portrayal of individuals who have remained loyal to their communities of upbringing. Dueck’s previous novel, Under the Still Standing Sun, focussed on the pioneering story of Mennonites in the Chaco. According to Ann Hostetler, who is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Goshen College, This Hidden Thing “offers a worthy female, urban counterpart to Rudy Wiebe’s Peace Shall Destroy Many.”

“But above all,” continues Hostetler, “this is a novel of character. Dora Dueck inhabits her characters in such a way that the reader is drawn into a living, breathing world that lingers even after the covers of the book are closed.”
Dueck comments: “In my two novels, the protagonists remain ‘insiders’ as it were. It means they reference and use the religious categories, language of the church, the piety, as they live within that world. I’ve tried to present them and that world with integrity, but it shouldn’t feel less complicated for all that.”

This Hidden Thing (CMU PRESS) is available from the CMU Bookstore at 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg. Contact cmubookstore@cmu.ca; telephone 204.487.3300. The cost is $19.50.

CMU PRESS is an academic publisher of scholarly, reference, and general interest books at Canadian Mennonite University. Books from CMU Press address and inform interests and issues vital to the university, its constituency, and society. Areas of specialization include Mennonite studies, and works that are church-oriented or theologically engaged.

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, offering undergraduate degrees in arts and science, business and organizational administration, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music and music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in Theological Studies and Christian ministry. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

For CMU PRESS information, contact:
Jonathan Dyck, CMU PRESS Project Manager
cmupress@cmu.ca
204.487.3300

For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca
Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621

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Blogs Faculty - Gordon Matties

Biblical Archaeology Review

In 1978 I participated in an archaeological dig at Lachish. The site is mentioned in only 22 verses in the Bible. Yet it is one of the most important archaeological sites for understanding ancient Israelite history in relation to the imperial powers seeking to dominate the region at the time.

For me, archaeological sites are not simply “ancient stones.” They are storied places. People lived in these sites, worshiped their gods, raised families, and much more. Each site is alive with memory.

One of the ways tour members can prepare for a tour is to acquaint themselves with some of the ancient sites. Biblical Archaeology Review‘s website is a good place to visit now and then. There’s a wealth of information available there, even without subscribing to the magazine.

Here are a few examples. On this tour we will be visiting the Shrine of the Book (at the Israel Museum) as well as the ancient site of Qumran, where those scrolls were discovered. The scrolls have been in the news recently, as Jordan has asked Canada to return those scrolls currently on display in Toronto to Jordanian control. The News section of the website provides a link to the CBC news report on this item. Even more, BAR’s website includes a special section called “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Matter.” BAR tends to be a bit controversial at times. But that’s part of the fun of archaeology, which is a cross between science, detective work, and creative imagination.

While I was working on the archaeological dig at Lachish, Gabriel Barkay was the junior archaeologist on the site, working under the supervision of now retired archaeologist David Ussishkin. On the BAR site I found an audio lecture by Barkay on “Ten Key Points on Authenticity of Artefacts.” Parts of this lecture may not make sense unless you’ve had a little experience with archaeology, but it is interesting nonetheless!

Do enjoy exploring BAR’s website. You might even want to download a free e-book. Excellent options might be “Israel: An Archaeological Journey,” or “The Dead Sea Scrolls: What They Really Say.”

Categories
Faculty inConversation Video

Craig Martin – Business Program

Craig Martin – Business Program at CMU “Marketing that Matters”

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Audio

Proclaiming the Unique Claims of Christ 2010 audio

Proclaiming the Unique Claims of Christ Lecture Series
Negotiating the Christian-Muslim Interface
March 15 – 16, 2010

March 15, 11:30 am – 12:10 pm: Session 1 – Is Jesus only for Christians?
[audio:http://www.cmu.ca/media_archive/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/100315Apologetics.mp3|titles=100315Apologetics1]

March 16, 11:30 am – 12:10 pm: Session 2 – Do the Unique Claims of Jesus Make a Difference?
[audio:http://www.cmu.ca/media_archive/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/100316Apologetics2.mp3|titles=100316Apologetics2]