News

At Conrad Grebel University College’s 24th annual Convocation Service in April, 63 students were challenged to strive to be bigger and better, dialogue with one another, and make a difference in the world. Achievements of University of Waterloo undergraduates who have participated in Grebel life were recognized, while four Master of Theological Studies students had degrees conferred upon them.

Mark Yantzi embodies the spirit and tradition of peacemaking and conflict resolution that lies at the heart of Grebel's Peace and Conflict Studies program,

says Henry Paetkau, Conrad Grebel University College President. Yantzi is the 2004 recipient of the Conrad Grebel Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

Professor Leonard Enns has been a member of Conrad Grebel's Music department since 1977. Conducting, music theory, and composition are his main teaching areas, and he has directed the College Chapel Choir since coming to Grebel.

Tom Harpur, columnist for the Toronto Star, Rhodes Scholar, and former Anglican priest and professor of Greek and New Testament at the University of Toronto, will speak at Waterloo North Mennonite Church at a fundraiser for Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC).

The Conrad Grebel Chapel Choir is embarking on a four-day whirlwind trip to Ohio, April 23-26, 2004. Stops on the tour include the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada Annual Conference in Leamington, Bluffton College, First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Oak Grove Mennonite Church in Smithville, and Central Christian High School in Kidron.

Mennonites and Brethren in Christ have historically upheld a peace position internationally that does not encourage the use of coercion or force to resolve disputes, seeking instead to find collaborative solutions that disputants voluntarily accept. While law is rightly viewed as an “operating system” that allows a diverse society to live together with minimal violence, law can often be viewed as an instrument of coercion and the use of the legal system a way of using power to “bend” someone else to your will.

Conrad Grebel University College is looking pleased to announce that Dr. Nancy Heisey will present the 2004 Bechtel Lectures in Anabaptist Mennonite Studies. Heisey is the President of Mennonite World Conference and is a professor at Eastern Mennonite University.

I love seeing the looks on people’s faces when I say ‘I live in a museum’. ‘In?’ Yes, in,

says Jennie Wiebe (BES ’99) who is a live-in host at Brubacher House Museum with her husband Colin (BASc in Mechanical Engineering, 2001; MASc in Biomechanics, 2003). Living at Brubacher House, situated on the University of Waterloo north campus, is as close to living on a farm as you can get when you’re in the city.

How can a work of art reflect 500 years of Mennonite community, persecution, migration, and settlement?

Metal artist, Jo-Anne Harder, has managed to express the Mennonite experience on 41 copper panels of a multilayered sculpture. This masterpiece was recently presented to Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo.

For many generations the Ontario Mennonite Bible School and Institute (OMBS & I) was the focal point of church leadership and theological education. Young people from across Canada and the northern United States found their way to First Mennonite Church in Kitchener and participated in a program that shaped their faith and trained them for leadership.