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<\/a>Celebrated at the end of each September, Fall Festival features opportunities for students, alumni, friends, donors, and community members to connect, learn, play, and celebrate with the CMU community.<\/p>\n
In addition to the folk music festival and farmers market, the weekend included class reunions, community meals,\u00a0a Manitoba Cycling Association-sanctioned bicycle race, MCAC\u00a0basketball games, and a tour of Marpeck Commons, the new building on campus that houses a library, a bookstore\/resource centre, learning commons, and a caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The weekend kicked off on Friday, Sept. 25 with a Face2Face community discussion exploring oil dependency.<\/p>\n
After a full day of activity on a warm and windy Saturday (Sept. 26), Fall Festival wrapped up with CMU\u2019s annual opening program, a time of worship to celebrate the start of a new school year.<\/p>\n
For the first time ever, the opening program was held in Marpeck Commons, which opened at the end of November 2014.<\/p>\n
Delivering a message based on CMU\u2019s chapel theme for 2015-16, Behold the Beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4), CMU President Cheryl Pauls spoke of the ways in which beauty and inquiry work together.<\/p>\n
Meditating on the popular phrase, \u201cLeave it better than you found it,\u201d Pauls talked about how that mentality has captured people\u2019s imaginations as they work amidst the complex, strained matters of today, such as economic disparity, climate change, food security, human sexuality, and reconciliation with First Nation, M\u00e9tis, and Inuit peoples.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve little doubt that the call \u2018Better than we found it\u2019 nurtures our commitments to these and many more hurting peoples and places,\u201d Pauls said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also little doubt that the mission entrusted to this university requires action and reflection\u2014action and reflection that\u2019s animated by bending towards beauty. That is, through postures of prayer in the courage and humility of inquiry and awe, ever seeking of God clear, compelling ways forward with matters and relationships that confound and trouble us. And also, perhaps more importantly, by ever releasing and offering to God the very best of our persuasions and of all we think we now grasp.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening program included the presentation of the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Awards, which annually recognize alumni who, through their lives, embody CMU\u2019s values and mission of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.<\/p>\n
Pauls presented the awards to Larry Plenert, an Olympian-turned-lawyer who has worked for the past eight years as an adjudicator of claims of serious abuse by former students of Indian Residential Schools; Cheryl Woelk, an educator and peace worker; Gerry Dyck, a businessman who has made significant contributions in the field of international development; and Arno and Lena Fast, a couple who have spent the past 46 years ministering at a church in Winnipeg\u2019s North End.<\/p>\n Later in the program, Pauls noted that $12 million of the $14.4 million needed to pay for Marpeck Commons has been raised so far.<\/p>\n She unveiled a donor recognition wall, which features an art piece commemorating people who contribute money to the project.<\/p>\n Created by Winnipeg artists Richard Finney and Ray Dirks, the piece is made up of brushed metal and glass.<\/p>\n The glass features an etching of a tree made up of phrases from CMU\u2019s mission statement.<\/p>\n The lower portions of the piece feature a laser cutting of the names of donors who contributed to the project, with room to add the names of future donors.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a field of names,\u201d Pauls explained. \u201cEach individual is a kernel, a kernel that matters and is vital to the actual, ongoing life of this place. As a collective, this field of names draws out the best of what is made possible through the learning, the conversation, the sharing together in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President External Terry Schellenberg noted that Fall Festival is an important community builder for CMU.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce again, Fall Festival opened CMU to alumni, friends, and the broader community,\u201d Schellenberg said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were moved by a significant Face2Face conversation; inspired by stories of ministry, restorative justice, business, and peacemaking from five alumni award recipients; gratified by the generosity of CMU\u2019s support community as we unveiled a beautiful donor wall in Marpeck Commons; and celebrated and blessed the start of a new academic year.\u201d<\/p>\n About CMU<\/a>
\n<\/strong>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n