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The International Rural Churches Association, after meeting with more than 80 delegates from 14 countries in Brandon, Man. this summer, issued a statement: “We are concerned by the way economic colonization is engineering society for the benefit of corporations and impinging on individual choice for the sake of monetary gain.” The group describes itself as a network of people with a passion for rural communities based on their passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
—irca-canada.org
Arnold Community Church of Abbotsford, B.C. celebrated 65 years of ministry on the Sumas Prairie in July, and launched a facility improvement project. The service included a baptism, testimonies of God’s faithfulness, worship and the Word, and video highlights of six and a half decades of ministry. Following the worship service, the congregation held a ground breaking ceremony and BBQ lunch.
B.C. executive staff of the MB conference completed a 17-day tour of all churches outside the Lower Mainland, starting on Vancouver Island, Oct. 17. Steve Berg, Bob Friesen, Marilyn Hiebert, and Gord Fleming met in three regional Councils of Church Leaders in Nanaimo, Prince George, and Kelowna, and discussed missional strategies. Each pastor was given a gift-wrapped copy of Alan Hirsh’s book, The Forgotten Ways, which emphasizes the church’s “potent force for transformational change” in the world.
—Barrie McMaster
MB Biblical Seminary campuses in Fresno, Langley, and Winnipeg are offering short-term courses shaped for individual communities based on their needs. “Part of empowering the pastoral ministry is providing opportunities for pastors, their staff and the lay community in the church to keep growing, becoming life-long learners,” says president Jim Holm. Courses in church health, counselling, evangelism, leadership, preaching, and Biblical studies are available.
—mbseminary.edu/resources
Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, B.C., now offers “on the road” courses in local communities by deploying faculty for traditional Bible college education. “Often when I have preached in churches someone will come to me and say that they wish they could come to Bible college. I’m very interested in offering these folks an opportunity to get this kind of teaching,” says faculty member Ron Voth.
—columbiabc.edu
Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, again placed first in Resource Conservation Manitoba’s Campus Commuter Challenge. The effort was spearheaded by Sanctoral Cycle, a student-run bike co-op that encourages students and staff to use bikes to commute to school. Co-op organizer Jacqueline Neufeld cycles 70 kilometres round-trip to CMU each day.
—release
Avante Records, a division of Family Life Network, won three Covenant Awards this year from the Gospel Music Association Canada. Amanda Falk was named Female Vocalist of the Year for the third time in a row. Drew Brown won Urban, R&B, Soul Album of the Year, and Lil’ Disciples took Aboriginal Song of the Year, written by Fresh I.E.
—FLN release
Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism, an initiative of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), released the first issue of its online journal Church & Faith Trends Oct. 18. The centre will help improve the accuracy of both scholarly and public representations of Canadian evangelicals and assist ministry leaders in their work.—EFC release The annual MCC Festival Auction and Relief Sale in Abbotsford, B.C. raised nearly $700,000 for peace projects worldwide. $31,000 came in the form of pennies, and will be matched 4–1 by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for food projects in Bangladesh.
—MCC release
Beautiful Unique Girl (BUgirl), an event designed to show teen girls their “image of God”–worth, is going international, with events booked across the western U.S. This fall a team of speakers, volunteers, and musicians including Juno award-winner Amanda Falk will also visit major centres from Victoria to Toronto, challenging 250–500 teenage girls each night to make a difference in their community.
—FLN release
“The anti-Christian attacks are increasing at an alarming rate day by day,” said the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, Sajan George. “There have been 70 reported cases of attacks against Christians in the last 18 months.” Christians held a rally in Bangalore, late September, protesting Hindu extremist violence. TransWorld Radio missionary Ajay Topno was shot dead in September for converting three tribal families to Christianity.
—Compass Direct News
Evangelical Anabaptist congregations in Honduras have “captured the imagination of young adults in unprecedented ways,” said Robert J. Suderman, general secretary for Mennonite Church Canada. Honduras church leader Javier Soler says many North Americans have accepted that their destiny is to give and many Latin Americans have accepted that their destiny is to receive. “Both sides [have] erroneous attitudes that we must try to correct and it seems that if we are able to give priority to relationships, these will help us in the process.” The August visit was part of the Mennonite World Conference Global Gift sharing initiative.
—MWC release
The 2006 Canadian census “paints a bit of a bleak picture” of Canadian families, according to Dave Quist of Focus on the Family’s Institute of Marriage and Family (IMF). Two-parent families are down to 68.8 percent and single parents up slightly to 15.7 percent, but the majority of these families are “at or below the poverty line.” The 2.1 million children in these families have less opportunity to receive a good education and get a good job and as a result enter “a downward spiral.”
—imfcanada.org
Canadian Mennonite, a publication of the Mennonite Church of Canada, celebrated 10 years in August. Its forerunner, The Mennonite Reporter, ran for 26 years, and before that The Canadian Mennonite for 18 years.
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