People & events

Solving puzzles: Craig Kasper, a health data analyst who attends the North Kildonan MB Church, Winnipeg, was the top foreign crossword puzzle solver in a recent U.S. championship organized by The New York Times. He finished first among six foreign competitors at the tournament. He also writes crossword puzzles, selling about 30 last year.

—Winnipeg Free Press

Sound in the Land, a conference to present, explore, study and celebrate Mennonite-related music, will be held at Conrad Grebel College May 28–30. Keynote speaker will be Mary K. Oyer; the list of guests includes composer Larry Nickel and pianist Irmgard Baerg. “It’s a big bash dedicated to Mennonites performing and studying their own music,” says organizer Carol Ann Weaver.

—Grebel Now

The Colombian Mennonite Church is urging action on behalf of Ricardo Esquivia, a key leader for peace and nonviolence among Colombian churches. He is at risk of arrest and imprisonment on false charges by the government. Church leaders believe an outpouring of international concern is the best hope for allowing him to continue his important work. Christian Peacemaker Team’s website has action suggestions.

—CPT

A Winnipeg carpenter who wants to be “part of a gentle movement for change in the way we deal with death,” has begun building caskets and urns as an alternative to high prices and limited choice in the funeral industry. Rick Zerbe Cornelsen’s business, called “The Village Casketmaker,” uses inexpensive and environmentally sound materials. More information is available at thevillagecasketmaker.com.

—Canadian Mennonite

Christians workers in Haiti report dramatic changes in mood since president Aristide’s ousting. World Vision New Zealand sources say Christians are hopeful a new era of spiritual freedom has begun. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has undergone 30 coup d’etats since its 1804 independence, and suffers under the stigma of being dedicated to voodoo religions.

—Evangelical Press News

A growing number of Canadian families are living on the financial “edge,” creating “workaholic families,” according to the annual report of the Vanier Institute for the Family (VIF). The top 20 percent saw their share of the total income pie increase in 2003, while the other 80 percent saw their share shrink or hold steady. The “biggest losers” are the poorest 40 percent. Bankruptcies are at record highs.

—Western Catholic Reporter

Mennonite Your Way Directory has issued an eight page update with over 100 new host listings and changes for Directory 9, 2003–2005 edition. The Directory offers over 1,500 host families in 41 countries. The Directory or the update is available through e-mail or 847-949-6179.

—release

Most evangelical Christians in the US have seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, or intend to see it, according to a poll conducted by Wilson Research Strategies (WRS) in March. Only 13 percent of this group do not plan to see the movie. As of March 10, the movie had grossed US$213.9 million. Hispanics were the most likely to have already seen the movie.

—WRS release

Ernie Regehr, executive director and co-founder of Project Ploughshares, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. The award recognizes him as “one of Canada’s most prominent and respected voices on international disarmament and peace.” Governments and other organizations call upon him as an expert in disarmament.

—Grebel Now

An Amish man who visited his ill father in Ontario is not being allowed back into the United States because he does not have photo identification. Previously, Old Order Amish, who take the biblical prohibition against graven images literally, were given waivers to cross the border, but heightened security standards under the Homeland Security Act have resulted in changes to the policy.

—Associated Press

Approximately 500 Aboriginal women have gone missing, disappeared, or been murdered in communities across Canada over the past 20 years, according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) president Terri Brown. Speaking to church representatives in October 2003, she challenged them to support Aboriginal women in their right to live.

—Voices For Non-Violence

More than 700 people opened their lives to God during open-air rallies in Chincha, Peru where Ernesto Pinto of the Mennonite Brethren media ministry, Family Life Network, Winnipeg, was preaching. Some 8000 attended the rallies. Pinto estimates 60 percent were young people. “I preached the gospel of love and reconciliation,” he says.

—FLN News

The camping program of Mennonite Church Manitoba is facing challenges in its relationship with public school groups because of its policy to exclude groups engaged in certain practices, including “sexual practices not in keeping with Jesus’ teaching.” Winnipeg School Division is threatening to no longer fund schools using the camps. The Division has also withdrawn funding for schools wishing to rent Camp Arnes, a Christian camp founded by Mennonite Brethren, for its similar policy.

—Canadian Mennonite

A ceremony of reconciliation between leaders of the Reformed Church in Zurich, Switzerland and Anabaptist descendants around the world will take place in Zurich this summer. A memorial to Felix Manz will be unveiled on the bank of the Limmat River where he was drowned in 1527 for his Anabaptist convictions. Larry Miller of Mennonite World Conference is coordinating broader participation on the Anabaptist side.

—The Mennonite

Not forgotten, but fixed: strong sales of the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook and its sequel, which have sold more than 4 million copies, have allowed Good Enterprises, Ltd. of Intercourse, PA, to complete the repayment of more than $9.7 million owing creditors, following a Chapter 11 reorganization. The publishing company was founded by Phyllis Pellman Good and Merle Good and several others in 1970.

—The Mennonite

The scandal of sexual abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church over the last 50 years is quantified in a study recently issued by the National Review Board. There have been 10,667 abuse claims against priests since 1950. More than 80 percent of the victims were male; over half were between ages 11–14 when assaulted. The claims involve 4,392 clerics, about 4 percent of the total serving during the years studied.

—Evangelical Press News

Roman Catholic priests in South Dakota have created a nonprofit organization called Lazarus Fund. They are donating 5 percent of their salaries to pay therapy costs for victims of sexual abuse and abusers. Responding to the scandal of sex abuse in US dioceses that erupted in 2002, the Dakota priests also fast one day a week and hold weekly prayer masses.

—Evangelical Press News

MCC’s dream to form deeper relationships with North Korea is starting to be fulfilled. Mennonite Central Committee is sending its first short-term English teachers (Karl and Evelyn Bartsch, Jake and Louise Buhler) into the country. They will teach English to 60 scientists. MCC hopes this opportunity, experimental on both sides, will yield further opportunities to make “friends out of enemies.” MCC has provided material aid to North Korea for years.

—MCC News