Weekly News
Welcome! Here you will find all the news and events that your congregation will need for the week - MCEC in Prayer, Event Highlights, Coronavirus Update Information, Annoucements. Check out the hot buttons to ministry opportunities and pastoral transitions. Administrative Assistants: make sure to see the Bulletin Cut and Paste below. Bookmark this page and check back regularly for updates. New items will begin to appear on Monday and the newsletter will come to your inbox on Wednesday.
- Pray for our MCEC community of congregations. We invite you to pray for Avon Mennonite Church, Stratford, ON.
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Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, is Anabaptist Global Fellowship Sunday! Mennonite World Conference calls us to prayer on this day. Praise God that Anabaptists around the world are united in faith in God’s kingdom across language and cultural differences. Give thanks for the growing networks in the MWC family: mission, service, health, peace and education.
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Pray for the Mission Anabaptist Church in Chin State, Myanmar, as they build a place where they can worship with and train members of their community. Pray that God will bless this place and use it to be a blessing to their region and country.
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Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Bolivia (IEMB) community daycare program for vulnerable and marginalized children in Santa Cruz has been forced to close due to COVID-19 numbers in the area. Pray for the families affected by this closure. Pray they can find ways to work while taking care of their children. Pray for the staff of the daycare program who have been without work for many months due to the closure.
- Innovate invites you to two free workshops in January and February - Digging Deeper in APEST: The theology and tactics to release latent potential in the Church and through the Church. Register at https://innovatebethechange.ca/event/9134-2021-01-14-5q-webinars.
- A Short Workshop for Lifelong Learning Journey - Jan 28th, 2021, 9 a.m. to noon. Pastors and other church leaders, join a one-time workshop for brainstorming, strategizing, and dreaming together about what the MCEC Learning Commons will focus on for the coming year. Register at https://mcec.ca/events for Zoom link.
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Mennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern Canada is offering a six-week Lenten Guided Prayer resource. Lenten Guided Prayer invites participants into deeper engagement with God, one's self, one another and the wider world. You will be encouraged, in the midst of uncertainty, to respond to, and find security in God's call to relationship, commitment, wisdom, healing growth and hope. Register online or through the CommonWord website.
MCEC in Prayer
- Each week we pray for the faith communities within our MCEC community of congregations. We invite you to pray for Avon Mennonite Church, Stratford, ON.
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Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, is Anabaptist Global Fellowship Sunday! Mennonite World Conference calls us to prayer on this day. Praise God that Anabaptists around the world are united in faith in God’s kingdom across language and cultural differences. Give thanks for the growing networks in the MWC family: mission, service, health, peace and education.
-
Pray for the Mission Anabaptist Church in Chin State, Myanmar, as they build a place where they can worship with and train members of their community. Pray that God will bless this place and use it to be a blessing to their region and country.
-
Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Bolivia (IEMB) community daycare program for vulnerable and marginalized children in Santa Cruz has been forced to close due to COVID-19 numbers in the area. Pray for the families affected by this closure. Pray they can find ways to work while taking care of their children. Pray for the staff of the daycare program who have been without work for many months due to the closure.
Upcoming Events
A Short Workshop for Lifelong Learning Journey
We invite pastors and other church leaders to join a one-time workshop for brainstorming, strategizing, and dreaming together about what the MCEC Learning Commons will focus on for the coming year. Help to shape our planning for MCEC events during the 2021-2022 year.
- Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
- Environmental sustainability at AMBS
- Anabaptist Witness: Call for Submissions
- Seeking Professor of Biblical Stuidies - Canadian Mennonite University
- Hybrid Learning
- Virtual Open House
- Through this Place - Shalom Counselling Services
- seeking Executive Director (apply by January 31) - Burning Bush Forest Church
- Mennonite Central Committee
- Theatre of the Beat
Partner Events & Announcements
Innovate invites you to two 5Q webinars in January and February!
Digging Deeper in APEST: The theology and tactics to release latent potential in the Church and through the Church
We will be hosting two free 5Q webinars in January and February discussing APEST and how it is one of the keys to unlocking and unleashing the latent potential held in the Body of Christ as a whole, as well as a key tool and dynamic for mobilizing and maturing disciples. In these two webinar sessions, 5Q will do a brief overview of APEST, and then shift to the discussion around Fivefold Intelligence (5Q) and how APEST can be integrated into your discipling culture, leadership development process and community life and release potential in your church.
Register for January 27 and February 24
Mennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern Canada
Lenten Guided Prayer 2021
Deep Calls to Deep
Mennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern Canada is offering a Lenten Guided Prayer resource. Rooted in the Lectionary texts of the season and inspired by the themes of Leader Magazine, Lenten Guided Prayer invites participants into deeper engagement with God, one's self, one another and the wider world.
The six weekly prayer guides offer questions for reflection and several prayer activities that invite you to go deeper to that place within, where one can experience God's calling from even greater depths of mystery and grace. You will be encouraged, in the midst of uncertainty, to respond to, and find security in God's call to relationship, commitment, wisdom, healing growth and hope.
Cost:
- $40 Congregational Use (Prayer Sheets are available in either single booklet format or individual 8 1/2 x 11 pages for easy weekly mailing to members.)
- $20 Individual Use
- $10 Student Use
Registration: Please sign-up for this year’s Lenten Guided Prayer by following online registration or through the CommonWord website.
Mennonite Church Canada
Camp Elim in Saskatchewan is inviting applications for the position of Executive Director, starting May 2021. This is a full time position, based at Camp Elim, 48 km south of Swift Current, SK on beautiful Lac Pelletier.
More information about the Executive Director role or about Camp Elim, or contact any member of the search committee;
- Lorna Wiens (lornawiens@sasktel.net <mailto:lornawiens@sasktel.net> ),
- Mark Wurtz (mark@yfbc.ca <mailto:mark@yfbc.ca> ) or
- Ryan Siemens (minister@mcsask.ca <mailto:minister@mcsask.ca> ).
Please forward your cover letter and resume to Camp Elim, attn: Lorna Wiens, Chairperson, Camp Elim Board of Directors, by February 15, 2021.
The book chosen 
for Common Read's winter title is I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World by Michael T. McRay.
“No matter how much some of us might wish it, the people who don’t vote like us or think like us aren’t going anywhere,” McRay says. “We’ll always live together, so we must learn to live together well with those we find difficult. More often than not it’s how we deal with difference that determines our potential to be peaceable.”
McRay has a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Trinity College’s Belfast campus and works with the global story nonprofit Narrative 4. He traveled to Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa to interview activists, peacebuilders and former combatants, including grieving parents who comfort each other across enemy lines, a woman who meets her father’s killer and a young man who uses theatre to counter the oppression of his people.
International Witness
Anabaptist Global Fellowship Sunday – January 24, 2021
Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, is Anabaptist Global Fellowship Sunday! MWC calls us to prayer on this day. Praise God that Anabaptists around the world are united in faith in God’s kingdom across language and cultural differences. Give thanks for the growing networks in the MWC family: mission, service, health, peace and education. Resources are available.
Myanmar congregation builds church
Pray for the Mission Anabaptist Church in Chin State, Myanmar, as they build a place where they can worship with and train members of their community. Pray that God will bless this place and use it to be a blessing to their region and country.
Daycare program offered by Bolivia Mennonite Church forced to close
Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Bolivia (IEMB) community daycare program for vulnerable and marginalized children in Santa Cruz has been forced to close due to COVID-19 numbers in the area. Pray for the families affected by this closure. Pray they can find ways to work while taking care of their children. Pray for the staff of the daycare program who have been without work for many months due to the closure.
Indigenous-Settler Relations
35 years and going strong: A webinar with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)
For more than three decades, Mennonite Church Canada partner CPT has been transforming violence and undoing oppressions around the world. Join us for a webinar this Jan., 28, noon CT, to learn about the current work in Colombia, Greece, Iraqi Kurdistan, Palestine and here on Turtle Island. Be inspired and discover ways that you can support. Register for the webinar.
Join a 4-Week February Bookclub to Discuss Unsettling the Word
How might we read the Bible so that it can be an instrument of reconciliation and decolonization? In partnership with the New Leaf Network, Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations is co-hosting a four-week book club on Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization.
Join editor Steve Heinrichs, along with Indigenous authors and activists Cheryl Bear and Sylvia McAdam, for life-giving conversations on justice, faith, reparations, and healing. Borrow or order the book through CommonWord.
More information and to register.
CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Centre
Lent resources
- Resources for Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday
- Lenten Guided Prayer from Mennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern Canada
CommonRead
Our winter 2021 CommonRead title. Additional savings for group studies: 20% off when purchasing 5 or more copies!
Featured Mennonite Church Canada resources:
- What happens to Mennonite Church Canada plastic communion cups once they are blessed and then used? In 2016 Lois Siemens was asked to "take care of them." So she did! She began to photograph them in Mennonite worship spaces across Canada to remind us that we are all beloved children of God.
- A personal memoir by former General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada.
- A novel set in Lusaka Zambia in 1974 by First Mennonite Church, Edmonton writer.
- A new companion study guide by Dan Epp-Tiessen for Peaceful at Heart, Anabaptist Reflections on Healthy Masculinity – free to download.
MC USA At-Home devotional guides for family
Worship Calendar
Quick Links Ministry Opportunities Pastoral Transitions Guest Speakers
Ideas and Pandemic Resources
How might we Extend the Peace of Jesus Christ to those around us?
Mennonite Church Canada Pandemic Resources
CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Centre
The Regional Churches (MCEC, Mennonite Church Manitoba, Mennonite Church Saskatchewan, Mennonite Church Alberta and Mennonite Church British Columbia) are working with Mennonite Church Canada and CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Center to offer you the best pandemic resources. The Mennonite Church Canada page will highlight resources and direct you to CommonWord. CommonWord continues to provide amazing resources to our nationwide community of faith.
Youth Ministers, Workers and Sponsors throughout MCEC have gathered some helpful information for those focused on youth ministry during this time of physical distancing.
Please see their resources on our MCEC website.
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