Letters to the editor

Mennonite Brethren Herald welcomes your letters on issues relevant to the Mennonite Brethren Church, especially in response to material published in the Herald. Please keep your letters courteous, brief and about one subject only. We will edit letters for length and clarity. We will not publish letters sent anonymously, although we may withhold names from publication at the request of the letter writer and at our discretion. Publication is also subject to space limitations. Because the Letters column is a free forum for discussion, it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church. Send letters to: Letters, MB Herald 1310 Taylor Ave. Winnipeg, Man.  R3M 3Z6 or send via e-mail. (Please ensure that your postal address is included in your e-mail correspondence.)

Correction

In response to “More great MBs” (Letters, Feb. 25), I want to suggest a correction. Heinrich Voth in the 1880s was the first missionary from Mountain Lake, Minn., in southern Manitoba, particularly the Winkler area. He was much involved in the birth of the MB existence in Manitoba. His son, H.S. Voth was my pastor when I grew up; he baptized me and I had great admiration for him. He died in 1953. Both were great MBs.

Henry Klassen,
Simcoe, Ont.

A tribute

I have a special memory of David E. Warkentin, 1930–2005 (Obituaries, Feb. 25). He had started his medical practice in Agincourt, Toronto, in 1960, two years before the building of the Mennonite Brethren Church at 272 Ranee Ave. in Toronto. My wife, Justina, and I had just taken the leadership of this congregation when construction began.

Once the construction got past the concrete and into the wood – the medium he loved – David would arrive early at the site, work until it was time to get into his practice at 9:00 A.M. and do a busy day as a GP. On his day off he would come during the day to work at the church – there was no construction he did not understand, it seemed – and bring his supper so he could extend the day.

When Justina told him he did not need to pack a meal and asked him to join us for supper, he would accept occasionally, and thus we got to know David as few had the chance. The initials of his name, D.E.W., gave me a meaningful nickname for him, the “DEW Line,” from the ‘distant early warning’ system in Canada’s north. This is what he became for me: friend and advisor, a man of utmost integrity whose wisdom for and service to others, as his children and friends attest, just grew and grew.

On December 5, 1964 (we were living in Hamilton where I had returned to university) David phoned just before his practice opened to say that his son Bruce, not quite 13, had been struck by a car earlier while delivering the Globe and Mail and fatally injured. David requested that I speak at the funeral, using Luke 20:34–40. I asked David: are you taking patients this morning? Yes, I have made all the funeral arrangements and I have to be working! This is how David turned immediate grief into service.

The funeral showed the high regard in which Bruce was held in his school and was a momentous opportunity for the Warkentins and their church to give testimony to a triumphant faith out of seeming tragedy. As Brian said at his dad’s funeral now in February 2005: “God’s grace sustained them during this time though the loss produced a life-long tender spot.”

Soon after, God gave David and Eunice Warkentin the twins Brent and Brian.

Peter Penner,
Calgary, Alta.

Letter to prime minister

Reference was made in the Feb. 25 issue to a letter that was sent from the Canadian Conference to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

While I appreciate the Canadian Conference’s effort to stay on top of important issues in their recent letter to Paul Martin regarding same-sex marriage, I have to voice my disapproval of the general approach of the letter. The letter stated,

“We believe marriage was instituted by God as part of His creative design for men and women. Marriage is a covenant relationship between a husband and wife . . . We respectfully request that the legislation of the government of Canada continue to affirm marriage as a term applicable only to the lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”

Although there’s nothing wrong about the first statement (that in our understanding of our faith marriage is heterosexual) to jump to the next statement (that legislation should reflect our particular religious beliefs) is an insensitive position to take in a pluralistic, multi-faith society like Canada. We have a right, as Christians, to a place at the table, but legislation needs to be worked out in cooperation with other religious and non-religious perspectives. This statement simply seems to further the stereotype that evangelicals are power hungry and want to aggressively impose their views on morality on the wider society.

We as Anabaptists, who have benefited from rights granted to minorities (on things such as conscientious objector status), should of all people be sensitive to the needs of other minorities in our country, no matter whether we agree with them or not. Many felt that granting Mennonites conscientious objector status was a great evil and undermined Canadian society, but our government still saw fit to protect our rights.

This leads me to a second point. The letter never talks about what we as Mennonite Brethren believe about homosexuals as people. I would have liked to see a clear statement like, “We believe that God has created everyone in His image, and granted them independence and dignity for the simple fact that they are human. Even though we disagree with some of the lifestyle choices of homosexual people, we acknowledge that they are entitled to the protection of their rights, just as our religious rights are protected.”

This could then be used as a bridge to ask the prime minister to seek to include all voices at the table and come up with legislative solutions that protect the rights of homosexuals, while also listening to religious voices from Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh groups that want to preserve a heterosexual definition of marriage.

Finally, I wonder about the process. Can our Conference staff truly speak on behalf of 250 congregations and 50,000 participants? Why was the letter never published in our denominational periodical? I am troubled that it was not made available to the constituency. I received the letter from a mass e-mail sent to the churches. But is that really enough? The process does not seem to represent the notion that we are a “family of churches.”

David Eagle,
Victoria, B.C.

Powerful cover

Bravo for selecting the painting, “The Prodigal Son,” by Tamara Paetkau, for the cover. It is a powerful story made more so by Tamara’s artistic interpretation and further commentary. It is, as mentioned in the editorial, a story of many layers of meaning. I am deeply moved by several images: the humble brokenness of the prodigal, the gleeful embrace of the father, the warmth of the mother’s welcome (thank you, artist, for taking some artistic license here), the passive violence of the elder brother and the table beckoning all to fellowship. The warmth and vibrancy of the colours of the painting wonderfully enhance the subject.

I would encourage you to consider the inclusion of carefully selected works of art for your covers and also to illustrate various articles within. I am sure there are many artists amongst us who have powerful messages waiting to be displayed.

Steve Thiessen,
Abbotsford, B.C.

Editors’ Note: We would be delighted to know of other artists who could enhance our covers and articles. Please send low-resolution review photos of your art (jpeg format) to our graphic designer, Lorie Mayer, at lmayer @ mbconf . ca.