Katie Doke Sawatzky

4 weeks ago | canadianmennonite.org | Katie Doke Sawatzky |David Wiebe

Curtis Wiens, pastor of Aberdeen Mennonite Church, doesn’t consider himself a heavy smartphone user—“I’ve never downloaded a menu QR code in my life”—but he still limited his screen-time during Lent, leaving his phone on a kitchen shelf and treating it like a landline. “It’s exposed how much time I spend with my eyeballs on that screen,” he said.

1 month ago | canadianmennonite.org | Katie Doke Sawatzky

CommonWord hosted a book launch on March 6 for Mennonite Church Manitoba executive minister Michael Pahl’s book, The Word Fulfilled: Reading the Bible with Jesus. Fifty-three people gathered at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg and 34 online. Published by Herald Press in 2024, The Word Fulfilled is Pahl’s sixth book. It examines the ways in which Jesus engaged with Scripture. “How can we actually follow Jesus in how he read his Bible?” said Pahl in his opening remarks.

1 month ago | canadianmennonite.org | Katie Doke Sawatzky

Adriana Appleton’s three-year-old daughter knows what her father’s job is—“Daddy works on the choo-choo trains”—but when it comes to Adriana’s work, all the toddler knows is that “Mama meets with the people.”It’s age-appropriately vague. Appleton, 33, is the executive director of The Micah Mission in Saskatoon. In that role, she meets regularly with federal inmates, individuals recently released after being in prison for causing sexual harm, and people on parole.

2 months ago | canadianmennonite.org | Katie Doke Sawatzky

For 18 years, Sandra Sawatzky has been working with thread and fabric, embroidering pictures and text on large fabric panels that take years to create. The 67-year-old from Calgary, is exhibiting two works this spring. Her 2022 work, The Age of Uncertaint,y is at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery until early March and her 2017 piece The Black Gold Tapestry, a 67-metre long history of humanity’s relationship with oil, is part of a group show at the Museum of Design Atlanta, in Georgia until May.

Feb 28, 2025 | canadianmennonite.org | Katie Doke Sawatzky

Tany Warkentin’s experience on a recent learning pilgrimage in South Africa has inspired her to deepen the connections and relationships she’s forming in her own life and work. “I don’t know if I’ve experienced one week that has caused so much reflection in so many different areas of my life,” Warkentin said. Warkentin, 45, is in her fourth year as Mennonite Church Canada’s liaison to ministry in Africa.