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Racial justice and equality
The Conference Council of Virginia Mennonite Conference is forging ahead with a leadership initiative on racial justice and equality. This leadership initiative emerged following the death of George Floyd and the subsequent and ongoing cultural awakening to the realities of systemic racism in American society and the church. Alicia Manning, a member of C3 (formerly…
Read MoreVirginia Mennonite Relief Sale announces preliminary results
The 2020 Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale was unlike any other. While a lot of favorites were missing from the fairgrounds this year, what I missed the most was seeing everyone gather and enjoy being together. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is celebrating 100 years of helping others around the world in the name of Christ in…
Read MoreBowman’s workmanship a sight to behold
Daniel L. (Dan) Bowman, 79, of Harrisonburg may be blind, but is very much in touch with the world around him. Having completely lost his sight at age 12, Bowman has not let that physical disability hamper an aggressive pursuit of personal and career endeavors over the years – vocational rehabilitation counselor, piano tuning technician…
Read MoreA modest proposal for refugee relief
We know that refugees are people who are fleeing for safety, especially to a different country, but we may not know that more people than ever before have been displaced because of war or conflict, hatred, prejudice, greed, poverty, or natural disasters, to name a few reasons. The UN Refugee Agency, estimates that 25.9 million people…
Read MoreFour responses to the SOS “Hundreds for Hundreds” campaign
In celebration of Mennonite Central Committee’s 100th anniversary, the Virginia Relief Sale’s SOS Committee (Sharing Our Surplus) is launching a “Hundreds for Hundreds” campaign to raise much needed donations for MCC worldwide refugee relief. Most of our efforts this year will be focused on promoting generous online giving. We are also planning a two-mile “Hundreds…
Read MoreVirginia Relief Sale: How will it happen this year?
The global pandemic has dealt nearly everyone the ole one-two punch in our corporate (masked) faces. We may feel at times like we’re down for the count, but not out. This feeling extends to long-scheduled public events that have needed to be canceled, postponed, or re-invented in different shapes or forms. The annual Virginia Mennonite…
Read MoreGemeinschaft Home celebrates 35 years, launches campaign
Gemeinschaft Home is a community non-profit offering therapeutic services to nonviolent offenders who have been released or diverted from incarceration in support of a transition to healthy community living. This year we our celebrating our 35th anniversary providing residential and non-residential programming for men and women in the local area and throughout Virginia. Recent calls…
Read MoreFirst Mennonite Church responds to the protests
Since our congregation is located in the capital of the Confederacy, and large protests for police reform and eliminating racism are a daily occurrence here, the leadership of First Mennonite Church posted the following statement on our website and Facebook page, and sent it to the congregation: “This is an historic moment for Richmond, and…
Read MoreWalk, don’t run, to your nearest Relief Sale
“I’m walkin’, yes, indeed, I’m talkin’, ‘bout you and me . . .” -Fats Domino Harvey Yoder of Harrisonburg probably doesn’t have this 1957 Fats Domino song ricocheting down the cobwebbed corridors of his mind while out on his daily constitutional, but there’s a determined look on his face to keep time with his pace.…
Read MoreLife in exile at Lindale Mennonite Church
There is a commercial for a life insurance company that begins by showing some idyllic scene where everything is going well; and then something surprising and unexpected changes the whole scenario. Their tagline is “Life comes at you fast.” Indeed, we could use that tagline for 2020! Church leadership and the congregation were preparing…
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