Place of Meeting June 2012

Place of Meeting

Making a joyful noise One of the perennial joys at TUMC is making music together –– of all kinds. May was a particularly musical month, with participation by our many young string players, the ad hoc TUMC band and of course the always popular Youth Coffeehouse, which highlighted the musical and storytelling gifts of so many of our members and friends. See inside for more.

Toronto United Mennonite Church June 2012

Taking care of business Place of Meeting is the meaning of the Huron word “toronton,” from which our city gets its name. Fittingly, it can also mean “plenty” or “abundance.”

Place of Meeting is also the monthly newsletter of Toronto United Mennonite Church. May you find plenty here to enjoy and ponder. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily of the congregation as a whole.

Contributions of all kinds are enthusiastically received, through the mail folder in the lobby or at dmartens@pathcom.com Next month deadline: June 26 (July issue will be the last until mid-September) Have you discovered the allcolour online version of Place of Meeting? If you would like to receive it in PDF form via email, please write a note with details to the above address.

Production Editor: Doreen Martens

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A very full Pentecost Sunday included a potluck lunch followed by a congregational meeting led by our board chair, Richard Ratzlaff. Several items on the long agenda had to be put off until fall, but those present engaged in a full discussion of some pressing issues, including the youth program and the decision by our youth pastors, Maureen Louth and Jonathan Slater, not to seek an extension of their covenant, as well as a vote to cover the expenses of 6 Lark St. while it is vacant, pending a fuller discussion and decision on what should be done with the property.

Islam and Christianity: Telling a different story

By Peter Haresnape

‘T

he entire history of man is war,” the speaker told us, “conflict driven by racial, religious and territorial ambition.” He sounded regretful, as if he wished it could be otherwise, but knew it was foolish and negligent to trust any force other than violence for the common good. As he went on, outlining the dangers of Islamic immigration to Western countries, he branded those who disagreed with his analysis as “naïve,” even “traitors.” I saw that most of the crowd agreed.

The speaker was the leader of a right-wing fringe party in Britain that is critical of Islam and multiculturalism.

Those attending his Toronto event were warned against permitting large-scale migration of Muslims into Canada. Muslim immigration, he said, was a deliberate ploy by liberal elites to destroy Western culture. The “indigenous” population was at risk of becoming a minority in its own land. Muslims were a dangerous “other” that wanted to do “us” harm, and “we” had to use violence to protect ourselves.

He drew on population growth predictions and tabloid accounts of violence and fear as support for his narrative. The implication was clear –– there could be no hope for positive cooperation between communities, and any efforts at coexistence were doomed to failure.

The blame for this lay with Islam, as a religion he deemed inherently hostile to civilisation.

Following the event, I felt a heaviness of heart from the absence of hope in the crowd. Their willingness to believe the worst of their neighbours seemed to be foundational to their world view, and an impediment to the possibility of dialogue. If they ever heard a different message, would they be able to listen?

Waging Peace is one example of telling a different story. This film, which I watched at another event exploring Muslim presence in North America, shows diverse communities in North America reaching outside their comfort zones with joint programmes of learning, peace-building and fun. The film examines projects as varied as quilting, summer camps and Christian Peacemaker Teams as places to confront the idea that Christianity and Islam are bitter, implacable enemies, and

A panel of Mennonite and Muslim participants reflects on the message in Waging Peace after a screening at TUMC in February. craft an alternative.

The screening featured speakers from both Muslim and Christian communities, promoting respect instead of hostility as a starting point. Participants came prepared to listen and learn without any one voice needing to be in control of the dialogue, while at the first event there was no room for opinions beyond the speaker’s message. That message was exclusion, and anticipation of a bleak future of violence and suspicion towards anything defined as ‘different.’ By contrast, the vision that rose out of Waging Peace and the discussion around it opens up possibilities of peaceful coexistence and celebration of difference.

Following the film and discussion, I found my conviction to build peace through partnerships strengthened.

It was not a ‘light’ feeling, like optimism, but a realisation that this work was hard, necessary, and part of God’s plan for creation. In response to those who put their faith in systems of exclusion and division, I remember CPT’s vision statement: Building Partnerships to Transform Violence and Oppression, and commit to this process.

For more on Waging Peace, see Mennonite Church Resource Centre Thirdway

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Time to get outta town!

An old TUMC tradition, the annual retreat, returns to Silver Lake Mennonite Camp

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irst, a bit of history: TUMC has held a retreat each year since 1956. Until 1994, the congregation went to Scarcliff Lodge (on Lake Muskoka), which was a summer vacation property owned by long-time TUMC members Viktor and Hedwig Dyck. In June of each year, the Dycks invited TUMC people to arrive on Saturday and either stay in one of the dozen rooms at the lodge, or bring tents to camp out on the lawns. Activities centered around the sheltered cove of the lake for swimming or jumping/diving off rocks.

The Saturday night wiener roast and singing favorite camp songs was a highlight. More people came for the day on Sunday, when a worship service was held outside on the front lawn. Following the noon meal, which was held in shifts in the dining room, there were games for young and old, with the water balloon toss and tug-of-war.

When the Dycks retired to Kitchener, TUMC shifted the location of the retreat to Silver Lake Mennonite Camp.

Because of the distance to Silver Lake, TUMC now enjoys a 2-night retreat. Usually over 60 people attend and are accommodated in various cabins around the property. Group meals take place in the large “roundhouse” (no more meals in shifts) and social interaction thrives in front of the big fireplace and in and about the large modern kitchen. People usually arrive on Friday night, get settled and visit in front of the fire. We bring table games to play, and books to read. A general schedule of events and meals is posted, along with a jobs list, where everyone from age 3 and up can see what their assignments are for the weekend. On Saturday, meals and planned activities are interspersed with free time for visiting, swimming, canoeing, walking, sports, etc. On Saturday night, we have a campfire, and entertain ourselves with singing and, often, skits. Sunday begins with a pancake breakfast followed by a worship service at the lakeside.

There’s a hot dog roast for lunch and then it’s time to clean up, pack up and head back to the city. People sometimes spend time at nearby Sauble Beach before going home.

This year we are excited to welcome Arthur Boers, teacher at Tyndale Seminary, as the guest speaker at our retreat. Many nowadays feel overwhelmed, off balance, and too busy. Our retreat will be an opportunity to come away and reflect on some ways our lives go off course. More importantly, we’ll enjoy each other’s company and God’s creation in ways that do not just inspire us for the weekend but energize us to live the good and abundant life in our daily realities.

Scenes from the 2010 retreat at Silver Lake: Worship by the lake, hanging out at the pond, intergenerational activities, a skit on Saturday night.

The planning committee encourages you to register early. Forms can be found in your bulletin each Sunday, at www.tumc.ca, and on the back sheet of this newsletter. Plan now to attend!

–– Carolyn Loewen

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Editor’s note: POM needs an “official” photographer or two to cover this event for next month’s issue. If you’d like to help, please speak to Doreen Martens, dmartens@pathcom.com

Family in the shadow of Stalin TUMC’s Anne Konrad Dyck presents her new book, the fruit of years of research

By Faye Tiessen To the living we owe compassion, But to the dead we owe the truth…

–– Voltaire

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agdeleine Redekop, in introducing Anne Konrad to the large Heritage Club audience recently gathered to celebrate the launch of Red Quarter Moon: A Search for Family in the Shadow of Stalin, quoted the above epigraph from the first chapter. She described this book of hitherto unknown stories as relevant to all readers –– stories that might never have been revealed without Anne’s labour of love and truth– telling.

In 1929, Peter Konrad and his family, with five children, fled from their Siberian village of Maslianovka (near Omsk), to Moscow, seeking exit visas in order to escape from the persecutions and terror of Stalin’s USSR. When they and more than 5,000 German-speaking Mennonites, Lutherans and Catholics were finally allowed to emigrate, they were received by Germany, the only country that agreed to shelter them in temporary refugee camps. Some months later, they were allowed to go to Canada.

Anne with her daughter at the Heritage Club event.

Anne, born in Canada, living with her family in northern Alberta, observed her father praying for relatives left behind.Who were these people who had disappeared? Why were they important to her family?

Why did they send money and parcels of clothing and dry goods to them?

When Anne’s father died in 1989, she asked for the family archives. She now became the custodian of a cardboard box of photographs and letters, and felt it her duty to find and keep in touch with the people in those photos. Should nobody ever know what happened to them, and thousands like them?

The search for their truth involved travel to South America, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kirghizia, over a 20-year period. Historian Harvey Dyck, Anne’s husband, accompanied her.Through long interviews with survivors, Anne discovered how remarkable their lives had been and began to fully realize the magnitude of what her family was spared.

Anne involves her readers in her discoveries, giving us the background of historical events during the 1920s -1950s and later. She includes extensive footnotes, maps, a selected bibliography –– and yes, a family tree ––

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Family in the shadow of Stalin to help us through the maze of names. She acknowledges assistance from Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg; the Conrad Grebel Library, University of Toronto Library and Mennonite Centre Library at SCOC. And of course, Harvey’s private Mennonite history library.

There are stories of those who experienced collectivization, some who tried to escape across borders and frozen rivers, some who landed in prison, some sent to slave labour camps in the Ural Mountains, or to German factories. Some survived through silence,“white lies,” luck, military or political decisions.

Anne read two stories from the book: “Was Gerhard lucky?”

Red Quarter Moon is published by University of Toronto Press and available through Amazon, among other places.

The Gerhard Konrad story, about her father’s youngest brother, became known to the family 38 years after they last saw him in Moscow. He was not lucky enough to be able to emigrate, but was quick-thinking enough to avoid the many dangers that followed, and survived. He visited the Dycks in Toronto, telling the story of how he parlayed winning a Lada into obtaining permission to leave Russia to become an “Umsiedler” in Germany in 1976.

“The Agronomist” This second reading did not have a happy ending. Anne relates how she was able, at the Ukrainian Secret Services archives in Donetsk, to copy the records of the interrogation of Johannes Braun, her mother’s brother, who was executed and later posthumously rehabilitated.

John Staples, associate professor of history at State University of New York Fredonia, sees Anne’s book as an important contribution to the social history of the Soviet period.

“The ultimate truth is that history ought to consist of anecdotes of the little people who are caught up in it” –– Louis de Bernieres We thanked Anne for sharing these dramatic, tragic and heroic stories with us, and for giving us a unique perspective on the story of thousands of unknown Mennonites who suffered under Soviet oppression.

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Coffee, sweets and song

The talent just gets better every year at the TUMY fundraising coffeehouse. From top left, clockwise: Young women fly away on an old gospel song; Jonathan Slater performs Ben Harper’s “Power of the Gospel”; Quintin Fast, Jerrom Ogen Rwot and Derek Schmucker MC; Benjamin, Isaac and Jonah Thiessen perform a Beatles tune; D.M.LaFortune performs a song from her album, Beauty and Hard Times.

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Coffee, sweets and song

Clockwise: Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” gets a rockin’ performance from an intergenerational group; Alan Armstrong presents a metaphorical tale from the desert; Quintin and Derek give the guitars a workout; and Harold Thiessen makes a (very) surprise appearance as a composer/guitarist in his homage to John Cage, titled 0:15.

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Coffee, sweets and song

Eric Rizoli sets a great beat; John Teshima and Isaac Thiessen rock the guitar/cello combo; Jane Pritchard tickles the ivories; Siena Armstrong and friend sing Supertramp; Imogen Sloss plays a mean fiddle and Jerrom Ogen Rwot makes introductions.

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Wisdom from other traditions

A unique Adult Education series starting in May explored other faiths, how our own intersects, and what we as Christians might learn from them. Clockwise from top right, Lydia Harder, who has spent time in Egypt and Iran, begins her presentation on Islam wearing a hijab; Daniel Wolfear shares wisdom he has learned from Anishnabe elders; Janet Amina Berketa (on the harmonium) and Judith Stamp offer readings and music from various faiths, as is done in Sufi worship.

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A blessing for our children

May 13 brought a rather special child dedication service that included the kids in welcoming newcomers to the TUMC family. Aaron ahd Shelley Lepp Fransen brought their baby son Ryan for dedication, while Denise and Ken Salsman brought their chosen children, Jada and Thomas. The children present were invited to encircle them for a special prayer of blessing.

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A blessing for our children

A second child dedication on Mother’s Day, May 13, welcomed Samuel, son of Doug Johnson and Jodie Boyer Hatlem, along with siblings Simeon and Johanna, and Zachary, son of Elizabeth and Mark Andrews.

The wonderful young TUMC string players offered their gifts in the same service.

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Scene at TUMC

On Pentecost, Anita Tiessen explains the varied gifts given to the body of Christ using a musical analogy from the band (we need all the parts to make the song), as Ryan Janzen hilariously illustrates with the triangle; guest speaker John Wideman, of Willowgrove, preaches on May 6, and returns (below) with the cast of Gadfly: Sam Steiner Dodges the Draft, a thought-provoking travelling production performed at TUMC on May 18.

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Hwy 10 North towards Owen Sound Hwy 70 towards Hepworth Road #8 towards Sauble Beach Left on Road #21 (drive into Sauble Beach, and turn at the lights — If you hit the water you’ve gone too far!)

Left on Silver Lake Road Left on Elsinore Rd. and you will drive straight into Silver Lake (see back for maps)

You will be advised, the week before, on what to bring to contribute to the meals we will enjoy.

Wieners and buns for the Sunday noon wiener roast.

Sleeping bag / bed linens, pillow and extra blanket Casual clothes & warm clothes for cool evenings Toiletries, sunscreen & bug spray Swimsuit & towel (swimming & sauna), sand toys Games, sports equipment (ball glove, bat, soccer ball…)

Musical instruments for campfire singing

A large “round house” eating and recreation lodge with two fireplaces and well equipped kitchen.

Accommodation is in a variety of cabins with cots or bunk beds.

Activities include swimming, canoeing, basketball, volleyball, and hiking/nature walks.

A centrally located washhouse provides showers and flush toilets.

NOTE: IF YOU PLAN TO ARRIVE BEFORE 8:00 PM ON FRIDAY PLEASE CALL CAROLYN LOEWEN @ 416-466-5087.

CAMP PHONE #: 519-422-3200 WEB: www.slmc.org

If you have any questions, please contact Carolyn Loewen.

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Facilities at Silver Lake:

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Food:

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Directions:

TUMC RETREAT @ SILVER LAKE June 15 – 17, 2012

Local Map

Regional Map

Please include a cheque with your registration, made out to TUMC.

Cost: Everyone is invited to participate and pay what you are able. The cost to run this event is $110/family, or $45/ person. Children under age 2 are free.

___ I/We will bring our own tent or trailer.

Accommodation in cabins is available. Tents or camping trailers are also welcome.

___ I/We can provide transportation for ___ people.

___ I/We require transportation.

Names:

Please place this form with your cheque in the offering plate, or give to CAROLYN LOEWEN, by Sunday, June 10th.

TUMC RETREAT @ SILVER LAKE June 15 - 17, 2012