Youth encounter an old story

Teenagers – probably not the demographic you’d expect at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies (CMBS). And for good reason. The large majority of researchers, visitors and volunteers are on the other end of the age spectrum. They are the older and wiser among us, and their love and enthusiasm for our past is rarely matched. Nonetheless, they often raise a heartfelt concern: where are the young people?

On March 16 and 17, the young people were at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies – 75 of them, that is, from Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute (MBCI), Winnipeg. The visit grew out of talks between CMBS staff and a group of MBCI history and religion teachers. The archivists and teachers share several common goals: they want young people to engage our faith tradition, to encounter new ways of thinking, and to uncover their spiritual and cultural heritage. The field trip to the Centre was one small step.

After a tour of the Centre’s archival holdings, the grade 11 students had half an hour to browse through a selection of primary sources. Some read diaries written during the Russian Revolution, others listened to recorded interviews of conscientious objectors. Still others scanned through photographs of pioneering missionaries or flipped through the first issues of the MB Herald. As some scribbled down notes, teacher Mike Neufeld reminded students, “A report on your findings is due next class.”

It was a brief encounter. Nonetheless, it gave students a sense of what a primary source is, and, hopefully, made future trips to the Centre for MB Studies seem a little less intimidating.

Where are the young people? Truth be told, they’re not flocking to the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies. But in small ways, bridges between young people and an old story continue to be built.

—Donavan Giesbrecht, in Mennonite Historian