Keyword: BTS

Sunday at CMU: April 2026

Difference and Disagreement: Lessons from scripture and a tradition of peacebuilding

This month on Sunday at CMU, we are hearing from Valerie Smith, Associate Registrar for Graduate Studies at CMU. She was previously Co-Director of CMU's Canadian School of Peacebuilding for its first 10 years, and co-edited the book, Voices of Harmony and Dissent, a collection of writing by peacebuilders who were instructors at the school. Valerie is also an alumna of Canadian Mennonite Bible College, a predecessor of CMU, and holds a Master of Divinity from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. In this series rebroadcast, she explores themes of difference and disagreement through lessons from scripture and traditions of peacebuilding.

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Alumni in their own words - Marnie Klassen (CMU '21)

Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?

After graduating I very quickly got a job doing communications and admin support with A Rocha Manitoba, a Christian nature conservation organization. I was eager to explore volunteer and service opportunities elsewhere, and through some encouragement I applied and was accepted to the worker program at Romero House in Toronto. Taking this step felt so big for me, in a wonderful way. In the one-year term, I lived and worked with refugee claimants in Toronto's west end. I was the volunteer coordinator for the organization, which had me managing a team of over 140 volunteers, and was a settlement case worker for several claimant families. I learned a lot about the refugee claimant system in Canada, and a lot about interfaith and intercultural relationships. During my time in Toronto, I made connections at Eglinton Saint George United Church and ended up getting a job with that congregation as the Growth Initiatives Project Coordinator, which meant I was coordinating and running food justice-based events and programs through the church. All during this time I began freelance writing and preaching for organizations and churches, mostly exploring the themes of faith and climate. When the contract at the church came to an end, I decided to move back to Winnipeg and focus on developing a podcast called 'The Schism Between Us', which explores religious polarization in Canada, particularly within the Mennonite community. I've also recently taken on work as communications assistant for a worship resource hub called "Together in Worship."

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Dr. Paul Doerksen | 2025 Kay and Lorne Dick Teaching Excellence Award recipient (video)

Dr. Paul Doerksen, Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies and P.M. Friesen Co-Chair in Biblical and Theological Studies, has worked at CMU since 2011. He and Verna Wiebe, Teaching Assistant Professor of Music, are co-recipients of the 2025 Kay and Lorne Dick Teaching Excellence Award.

The award, established in 2022, is granted annually to two faculty members who best exemplify CMU's commitment to excellent teaching.

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Sunday at CMU: March 2026

Broadening Our Capacity to Love

This month on Sunday at CMU, we are hearing from Jeff Friesen, Director of Leadership Ministries for Mennonite Church Manitoba. Jeff is an alumnus of CMU's undergraduate and graduate programs, and he spent almost 20 years as a pastor. In this sermon series we're rebroadcasting, he focuses on the politics of God's love as seen in 1 John and Acts and he explores how we can broaden our capacity to love.

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Sunday at CMU: February 2026

Faith and Technology

This month on Sunday at CMU, we are featuring a new sermon series from Lizzie Wipf, pastor at Elim Mennonite Church in Grunthal, MB. Lizzie is an alumna of CMU, where she completed both a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies and a Master of Divinity. In this four-part series, she is questioning the intersection of faith and technology, and how scripture can help us navigate our rapidly changing world.

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2025 J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series featuring Dr. Kevin Hector (videos)

These lectures explore spirituality under the rubric of sacredness: what would it look like to notice more of the sacredness around us and respond appropriately to it? They try to shed a bit of light on this question by considering three broad forms of sacredness—transcendent value, transcendent beauty, and transcendent power—and suggesting that religion can play a crucial role in helping us hold these together. The first lecture makes a general case for this approach. The second and third lectures then give an example of what this looks like. In particular, they argue that Christianity's higher-order beliefs teach us to see all things in light of God and, just so, to see the sacredness in all things; they likewise argue that Christian virtue attunes us to this sacredness. Lectures two and three, accordingly, sketch an odd sort of systematic theology—spanning revelation and faith, creation and love, consummation and hope—that can serve as a guide to spirituality.

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From student to teacher: A journey of faith, learning, and community

Kenny Wollmann is a high school educator, teaching primarily Bible, theology, and world religions—but not in a typical classroom. Wollmann teaches students online in Hutterite communities across Manitoba and even into the northern United States.

Hutterites are communal Anabaptist Christian groups who live in rural colonies, share belongings and resources, and often sustain themselves through agriculture. With only small groups of students in each community, sharing resources, like teachers who are each experts in their subjects, helps ensure a robust learning program.

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From engineering to pastoral leadership: The impact of theological study

When Everton McLennon stepped onto CMU's campus for the first time, he was not like the majority of students. He was in his 40s, with a full-time career and an engineering degree under his belt. But he had also been called to pastor his congregation, and he took that call seriously.

"I wanted to educate myself to better serve the congregation and gain a deeper understanding of theology," McLennon says. "Reading the Bible, I felt, did not provide me with full background and prepare me properly for the role of pastoral ministry, and CMU did that for me."

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Faith in Practice: How CMU Inspires Community-Centred Leadership

For Kyle Penner, CMU was where he learned how to think about faith, community, and leadership in ways that continue to shape his life today. "My time at CMU helped shape who I am and how I think in the world," he says.

After graduating in 2005 with a major in youth ministry, Penner reflects on the practical lessons CMU offered. Courses on preaching, church history, and biblical texts didn't just give him knowledge, he says they taught him how to communicate with clarity across generations. Something that he says comes in quite handy in his current role as the pastor of Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach, MB.

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Rooted in faith, growing through ecology: A CMU alum's path of environmental leadership

Sometimes the most pivotal moments are only possible because of the communities we've already been part of. For Joanne Moyer, that moment came at an airport.

While seeing off a friend who was volunteering in Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams (now Community Peacemaker Teams), she bumped into Esther Epp-Tiessen who then worked for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Because they already knew each other through CMU's close-knit circles, the conversation quickly turned into opportunity.

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