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Canadian conference redesign reflects core values and growth
Mennonites return aid to ancestral home
Five Questions
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Canadian conference redesign reflects core values and growth
Same URL, different look, new features
The Canadian Conference of MB Churches launched a new design for their website May 1 to coincide with the unveiling of their new logo.
The site is now content management-driven, allowing users to easily and instantly post information and upload multimedia. Churches can upload congregation-specific content to their homepages, including general information, events, pictures, videos, podcasts, and customizable links.
Visitors to www.mbconf.ca will also notice a new logo at the top
left-hand corner of the homepage. The logo reflects the conference’s core values, and the growing and changing nature of the organization.
The arrangement of four abstract shapes creates a cross in the negative space. The cross is not only a unique, instantly recognizable symbol, but also a key value of the conference, says director of communications Cam Rowland. The new logo symbolizes growth and life by including visual elements of leaves, as well as the colours blue and green.
For more information about the logo or website, please contact communications@mbconf.ca.
—CCMBC release
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Mennonites return aid to ancestral home
With support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Mennonite Economic Development Associates’ new project in Ukraine aims to help smallholder farmers in areas once populated by Mennonites who fled to Canada after the Bolshevik Revolution. The five-year, $10-million project will help 5,000 smallholder farmers in the Zaporozhye and Crimea regions improve production of table grapes, potatoes, berries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and medicinal herbs.
Every year, Glenbush (Sask.) MB Church members Martha Boldt, Pauline Bovair, Wilma Isaak, Donna Klassen (not pictured), and Mennonite Church member Katie Neufeld of Medstead, Sask., stitch tied quilts for MCC over the winter. This year, the ladies’ efforts yielded 45 colourful blankets which will warm recipients in locations such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, Palestine, and Ukraine.
—MEDA release
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Five Questions
Church: Gateway Community Church
Co-Pastors: Paul Francis and Kathy Francis
Location: Lower Sackville, NS (a suburb of Halifax)
What does your congregation’s name mean?
A gateway is a computer device or program that enables two dissimilar programs to communicate. We desire our church to communicate the gospel clearly to those who do not know Jesus.
How would you describe your congregation?
Sixty percent is under the age of 40. It’s a very active group – there are few who just sit in the pews. Average Sunday attendance is 175 people; our membership is 153.
What does it mean for your church to be evangelical Anabaptist?
We take MB theology and work it into the fabric of what we do. For us, to be evangelical Anabaptists means we place our emphasis on Jesus and on community – we encourage people to live lives in interdependence. We are involved in peace and social justice activities. One of our hallmarks is bringing unity to the body of Christ in the Halifax region.
What makes your church unique?
Physically, our facility is a former fire hall. Our building houses a food bank, a room for emergency shelter, an animation studio, and counselling offices. Program-wise, Sunday mornings are planned but our worship style is contemporary and open to expression. We have artists and dancers in our congregation whom we invite to express themselves creatively throughout the service. During the service, a team discerns which passages, ideas, and pictures are shared with the congregation. Our God is a living God who communicates with us, and our worshippers are given freedom to openly respond to that.
What would your neighbours miss about your church if it were gone?
They would miss the way we are involved and encourage others to be involved in the community: we have a food bank that serves around 100 families; we reserve one room as an emergency shelter; we provide office space for 2 part-time counsellors from a Christian counselling ministry out of Truro; we have a float in our annual Canada Day parade; and we help facilitate Love Sackville.
Mennonites return aid to ancestral home
Five Questions
____________________________________________________________________
Canadian conference redesign reflects core values and growth
Same URL, different look, new features
The Canadian Conference of MB Churches launched a new design for their website May 1 to coincide with the unveiling of their new logo. The site is now content management-driven, allowing users to easily and instantly post information and upload multimedia. Churches can upload congregation-specific content to their homepages, including general information, events, pictures, videos, podcasts, and customizable links.
Visitors to www.mbconf.ca will also notice a new logo at the top
left-hand corner of the homepage. The logo reflects the conference’s core values, and the growing and changing nature of the organization.The arrangement of four abstract shapes creates a cross in the negative space. The cross is not only a unique, instantly recognizable symbol, but also a key value of the conference, says director of communications Cam Rowland. The new logo symbolizes growth and life by including visual elements of leaves, as well as the colours blue and green.
For more information about the logo or website, please contact communications@mbconf.ca.
—CCMBC release
____________________________________________________________________
Mennonites return aid to ancestral home
With support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Mennonite Economic Development Associates’ new project in Ukraine aims to help smallholder farmers in areas once populated by Mennonites who fled to Canada after the Bolshevik Revolution. The five-year, $10-million project will help 5,000 smallholder farmers in the Zaporozhye and Crimea regions improve production of table grapes, potatoes, berries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and medicinal herbs.
Every year, Glenbush (Sask.) MB Church members Martha Boldt, Pauline Bovair, Wilma Isaak, Donna Klassen (not pictured), and Mennonite Church member Katie Neufeld of Medstead, Sask., stitch tied quilts for MCC over the winter. This year, the ladies’ efforts yielded 45 colourful blankets which will warm recipients in locations such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Iraq, North Korea, Palestine, and Ukraine.
—MEDA release
____________________________________________________________________
Five Questions
Church: Gateway Community Church
Co-Pastors: Paul Francis and Kathy Francis
Location: Lower Sackville, NS (a suburb of Halifax)
What does your congregation’s name mean?
A gateway is a computer device or program that enables two dissimilar programs to communicate. We desire our church to communicate the gospel clearly to those who do not know Jesus.
How would you describe your congregation?
Sixty percent is under the age of 40. It’s a very active group – there are few who just sit in the pews. Average Sunday attendance is 175 people; our membership is 153.
What does it mean for your church to be evangelical Anabaptist?
We take MB theology and work it into the fabric of what we do. For us, to be evangelical Anabaptists means we place our emphasis on Jesus and on community – we encourage people to live lives in interdependence. We are involved in peace and social justice activities. One of our hallmarks is bringing unity to the body of Christ in the Halifax region.
What makes your church unique?
Physically, our facility is a former fire hall. Our building houses a food bank, a room for emergency shelter, an animation studio, and counselling offices. Program-wise, Sunday mornings are planned but our worship style is contemporary and open to expression. We have artists and dancers in our congregation whom we invite to express themselves creatively throughout the service. During the service, a team discerns which passages, ideas, and pictures are shared with the congregation. Our God is a living God who communicates with us, and our worshippers are given freedom to openly respond to that.
What would your neighbours miss about your church if it were gone?
They would miss the way we are involved and encourage others to be involved in the community: we have a food bank that serves around 100 families; we reserve one room as an emergency shelter; we provide office space for 2 part-time counsellors from a Christian counselling ministry out of Truro; we have a float in our annual Canada Day parade; and we help facilitate Love Sackville.
