Connect with Woven – Mennonite Women in Manitoba
Visit the Woven page on the MCM website to find contact information for this community of Mennonite Women in Manitoba. Goal number one: “Listen to the voices and experiences of women.”
Nationwide service shared by Foothills Mennonite Church – July 18 Foothills Mennonite Church shares a service from Calgary, Alberta this week. This service was recorded on June 20. It is led by the Montgomery family with a message from Reece Zablocki and a children’s feature with Linda Dickinson from MCC. Reece reflects on the difference between facts and the deeper truth told in our stories. As we read the story of David and Goliath, we are invited to listen to the stories of people on the margins in our own context, those whom Jesus is calling us to hear and listen to. We invite you to sing and pray and hear God’s word with us this morning.
Available at mennonitechurch.ca/worshipservices.
INDIGENOUS-SETTLER RELATIONS
Responding to Residential School revelations Over the last month and a half, more than a thousand unmarked graves have been identified at the sites of church-run residential schools. The discovery, long spoken-of by survivors, has shaken Indigenous communities and settler society. How might we respond? As we lament the violence of the residential schools, we need to learn more about the settler-colonial structures that created them. We need to support those who are addressing the past and present harms:
- Consider listening to recent podcasts from the Assembly of First Nations.
- Reflect on the ways that Mennonites have been involved in the Indian School System: see Confessing the Past
- Prayerfully read through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, and discern what action you can learn more about and respond to.
- Follow Reconciliation Thunder’s #94in94 campaign which is highlighting one Call per day toward September 30, the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
- Donate to one of the many groups that are supporting the ongoing work of survivors in their quest for justice.
News from our partners Christian Peacemaker Teams is on the ground supporting Indigenous land defenders as they resist the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipe line in Minnesota, under the Mississippi River. Join their call to U.S. Secretary Deb Haaland to uphold treaty law by stopping Line 3 construction. Learn more about this call here: https://cptaction.org/urgent-action-ask-deb-haaland-to-stop-line-3/.