News

This past June, scholars, practitioners, support workers, health care experts, and interested parties from across the globe gathered together virtually over the course of three weeks to advance the connections between spiritual practice and the effects of aging at the ninth International Conference on Aging and spirituality. Many health care support workers and religious/spiritual practitioners recognize the benefits to a broader approach of spiritual needs among all aging individuals and communities beyond end of life care, and recognize the diverse experiences of elder care around the world. The conference connected researchers with practitioners in a way that fosters community and advances this important intersection of care.

At the University of Waterloo, innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities are around every corner. Yet in the Spring semester an opportunity arose to rethink how students can be involved in changemaking. What if UWaterloo could provide a space for students to apply their innovative and systems-change mindsets to a real-life, ever-changing problem: the COVID-19 pandemic?

“Worship is the beating heart of the Christian church,” reflected Professor Carol Penner, who teaches practical theology at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo. Carol and a team of six volunteers from Mennonite churches across Canada and the USA have spent the last two years creating a website of worship resources with an Anabaptist Mennonite approach designed to aid leaders in the Mennonite Church.

For the first time in its history, the Conflict Management Certificate Program (CMCP) is being offered online. The program is based out of Conrad Grebel University College’s Peace and Conflict Studies department, and offers workshops in a variety of conflict management and mediation practices.

This article was written prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When one hears of a hymn sing, university students spending their evening singing from a hymnal is rarely the first image that comes to mind. However, at Conrad Grebel University College, students have organized Sunday evening hymn sings for several years.

Students who take courses with Jennifer Ball appreciate her active example of what it means to live peaceably. Jennifer is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo. She holds a Doctorate in Rural Studies with a focus on Sustainable Rural Communities. Her research stretches across women’s community-based peacebuilding, Circle practice, and community development. Jennifer is known by her students as someone who, as Charity Nonkes explained, “not only teaches the course concepts, but also embodies them.”

The only visitors to the Grebel campus these days have feathers. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, students, faculty, and staff have settled into a new normal of working and studying from home.