People & events

Roland and Irene Marsch were reaffirmed as pastor couple of German ministries in North Kildonan MB Church, Winnipeg Dec. 5. A staff with flowers in the shape of a cross was given to him to commemorate the day.

January 6, 2005 marked the 145th anniversary of the birth of the Mennonite Brethren Church. The Canadian Conference of MB Churches staff celebrated with a birthday cake. Staff pictured (l–r) are Abe Dueck (MB Historical Commission), Donovan Giesbrecht (Centre for MB Studies), Susan Brandt (MB Herald), Conrad Stoesz (Centre for MB Studies), and Gerald Hildebrand (MBMS International).

Correction: The Ontario MB Conference convention will be held Feb. 18–19 in Kitchener MB Church, not in Leamington as previously announced.

In 2004, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) provided a total of $9.1 million Cdn. of food aid to 28 countries. Sudan received the most, at $2 million, followed by Ethiopia and India. MCC shipped 6,939 metric tons of grains, beans, peas and lentils and 280 metric tons of canned meat. MCC spent $2.1 million to purchase local foods for relief and $700,000 on sustainable food production.

—MCC News

Millard Fuller, 70, recently stepped down as CEO of Habitat for Humanity. The transition involved internal battles over an unsubstantiated charge of inappropriate conduct with a female staff member as well as the organization’s future direction. Fuller and his wife Linda, millionaires before 30, sold everything to save their marriage and devote themselves to providing no-interest housing for the poor. Habitat hopes to house its one millionth person this year.

—news reports

Not just church folks are criticizing Dan Brown’s publishing phenomenon, The Da Vinci Code (17 million copies and counting). Maclean’s magazine, Dec. 20, set the book’s “rich stew of wild conspiracy theories” against the facts, calling it an “ambitious stretching of the truth.” Although the plot twists are “exciting,” Brian Bethune wrote, Brown’s “sloppiness” with the truth “leads him into flat-out lies that tap deeply into ancient wells of suspicion and bigotry.”

—Maclean’s

Grand opening: A multi-generational cutting of a ribbon into pieces to symbolize various ministries marked the opening of a building in Calgary (2946–32nd St. NE) Dec. 4 that houses a number of Mennonite organizations: MCC Alberta, Mennonite Mutual Insurance, Mennonite Historical Society, Material Resource Centre, Mennonite Foundation of Canada and the North Calgary Thrift Store. After 22 years, MCC had outgrown its previous location. Mennonite Foundation of Canada re-opened its Calgary office after 15 years absence.

—release

Antony Flew, called the most influential atheist philosopher in the world, says he now believes there is a God, though not one with a personal relationship with the world. He became convinced about an intelligent mind behind the universe because of the nature of DNA. He credits Gary Habermas, philosophy professor at Liberty University, who has debated him several times, with helping him change his mind.

—Evangelical Press News

“Pornography, The Secret Sin: Keeping Ourselves Pure” is a packet of articles and information compiled by MCC U.S. Women’s Concerns to help families and congregations better recognize and understand this problem. It includes stories and reflections on pornography’s impact on families, information on its dangers, and sections on prevention and recovery. Call 888-563-4676 or e-mail.

—MCC News

Megachurches growing: In 1970, there were less than a dozen “megachurches” of more than 2000 members in the U.S. Today there are more than 700. According to Church Growth Today, a church needed nearly 6,000 members to make it onto their 2004 list of 100 largest churches in America. The largest is Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas with 25,060 members.

—Evangelical Press News

An Oratorio for AIDS concert held at Vancouver’s First United Mennonite Church Dec. 1 raised $1,492 for MCC’s work with HIV/AIDS and exceeded attendance and participation expectations. Conducted by Frank Klassen, the concert moved people with its music and the story of Perdu, an AIDS orphan in Chad, told by Phil Schafran, director of Resource Development for MCC B.C.

—MCC B.C.

MCC has a “window” of about ten years to pass on ownership in a meaningful way to emerging generations, said Don Peters, executive director of MCC Canada, Nov. 20 at the MCC Manitoba general meeting. How the vision can be passed on from a generation that had in many cases directly benefited from MCC to a generation with different life experiences and “bombarded by options” came up several times in the meeting and in subsequent discussion on the floor.

—MCC Manitoba

Beginning at the gravesite of former civil rights leader Martin Luther King, an estimated 15,000 people marched through Atlanta in support of a constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage. Organized by the predominantly black New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and led in part by King’s daughter Bernice, the goal was to protect marriage between one man and one woman, and to promote education reform, affordable health care and economic stimulus packages for minorities.

—Evangelical Press News

The top five news stories of 2004 according to ChristianWeek, were: the redefinition of marriage; Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ movie; the passing of Bill C-250 which added “sexual orientation” to groups protected from “hate speech” under the Criminal Code; the affirmation of same-sex unions by the Anglican General Synod; and the ban on the Canadian Bible Society’s 50-year practice of handing out Bibles to new Canadian citizens.

—ChristianWeek

YAMEN!, the Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network, a joint program of Mennonite World Conference (MWC) and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), has appointed a new international coordinator. Karina Derksen-Schrock, who grew up in DR Congo with her missionary parents, will work from MCC’s Akron, Pa. office. YAMEN! is a worldwide youth exchange program that supplements and supports already existing national exchange programs.

—MWC News

Women’s Concerns Report, the publication of MCC Committees on Women’s Concerns launched 30 years ago, has been discontinued. Subscriptions had decreased to about 500 readers. Resources and articles relating to Women’s Concerns will be available in other ways, such as in a new peace-and-justice publication being developed by MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries and on the Women’s Concerns website.

—Women’s Concerns Report