On Wednesday, I had an opportunity to talk about Mennonites. I was a Mennonite pastor for almost 30 years, so I thought that this was a good thing for me to do. A high school friend of mine teaches biology at the University of Waterloo. He was taking 30 grad students out for a field trip into the Grand River watershed, and that includes the Elmira and Floradale neighbourhoods. My friend, Mark, has done this before, and saw that there were lots of Mennonites living in the area. He thought I could tell the group about the Mennonites of this part of Waterloo Region.
While they were eating their lunches in the Floradale Park, I gave brief history of the Mennonites beginning from the 1500’s . About half of my presentation, was about the different kinds of Mennonites living in this area of the world. There many different groups of Mennos, almost all based on obedience of ethical standards. We tend not to break up based on theology.
So, I thought, do I speak only about the positives of who we are ? Or, do I speak about the problems we have had in our past and present history ? We are not a perfect people. The good questions asked by the graduate students allowed me to speak about the realities of who we are, both are sins and our grace-filled living.
How would you answer, if someone would ask you about your faith, or about Mennonites,or about non-faith ? I thank Mark for inviting me to reflect on my faith. It was great to think about who I am in terms faith and being Mennonite in this world.
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 