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Place of Meeting
Suffering and joy
Toronto United Mennonite Church April 2015
Through Lent we have been encouraged, in moments of silence and reflection, to put away
distractions for a time to focus on the journey to the cross in anticipation of the joy of the
Resurrection. This edition of Place of Meeting encompasses some of those themes, in
reflecting on the struggles, of our Anabaptist forebears and our refugee friends of today, to live
in peace and faithfulness to the Gospel.
Place of Meetingis the meaning of the Huron word
“toronton,” from which our city
gets its name. Fittingly, it can also
mean “plenty” or
“abundance.”
Place of Meeting is also the
monthly newsletter of Toronto
United Mennonite Church. May
you find plenty here to enjoy and
ponder. Opinions expressed are
those of the writers and not
necessarily of the congregation
as a whole.
Contributions of all kinds are enthusiastically received, throughthe mail folder in the lobby or at
dmartens@pathcom.com
Next deadline:April 28
Have you discovered the all-colour online version of Place of
Meeting, complete with liveweblinks? Check this month’s
issue out here: issuu.com/pomeditor/docs/
pom_april_2015l
NOTE: New address for submissions:
dmartens4@cogeco.ca
Editor: Doreen Martens
Milestones
Place of Meeting Page 2
Nadine and Ellie Cressman delight with folky harmonies on
“ComeThou Fount of Every Blessing” on March 22, while children
gather in a quilt tent for children’s time with Pastor Marilyn;
Bob Loewen leads children’s time on March 1.
This report will supplement the weekly bulletin updates on how our
building project is proceeding.
By Bob Tiessen
Recent EventsOur application to the Committee of Adjustment for changes
needed at 6 Lark was successful. We can now have a legal third
unit in the building, plus we only need to provide two parking spots
and we can reduce the size of the garages if we wish to. After a 21-
day appeal period we can apply for our final building permit. The
third unit will require the payment of development charges of
$20,000.
The TUMC Board and Aurora House have decided not to apply for
Social Housing designation, which would waive the development
and other charges. Two key factors in the decision: concern that we
would not be able to choose residents, and a restriction on the title
to the property for 15 years. This results in an extra cost of about
$22,000 that was not in the original budget.
A meeting with the Toronto Transportation Department and
Forestry regarding our ramp has resulted in an agreement that will
greatly improve access to the building. We will have gently sloping
ramps (1 in 20) both from the parking lot and along Lark Street.
The Lark Street ramp will in effect be a raised sidewalk. There will
be canopies over parts of the ramp and they will give access to a re-
located north door. The main Lark Street entrance will still involve
a few stairs but we will rework the door to have automatic openers,
as with the north door. A ramp to the Lark Street door would have
required a steeper slope and therefore a larger ramp involving po-
tential damage to trees and the need to move the sidewalk. The cost
of making these changes would have been substantial.
The Building Committee presented our interior plans to the Joint
Management Committee so that our building partners, the Mennon-
ite New Life Centre and the Toronto Mennonite New Life Church,
could see the proposed plans. They agreed to the current plan. We
will need to coordinate construction times, and obviously some
spaces will not be available for outside groups during the construc-
tion. We expect work on 1774 Queen St. East to start in the sum-
mer.
Construction at 6 Lark is continuing now that we have agreement
with the City on replacing the water line and sewer line. We need to
install a sewer ejector pump since the lowered basement floor is
now below the existing sewer line. The basement slab has been
poured and work in other areas is proceeding. We have been getting
some donations of building materials.
Place of Meeting April 2015 page 3
A building update
TUMC InteriorThe interior design of the work at TUMC
has not changed from the diagram in the
Annual Report booklet. The kitchen re-
design has been finished. The design com-
mittee must still decide on finishes,
colours, exact cabinet structures and loca-
tion of billboards etc. We have decided to
relocate the Mennonite timeline from the
basement to the meeting room adjacent to
the lobby.
Pending WorkThe Aurora House charitable status appli-
cation and our application for the rebate of
6 Lark property taxes are still pending. The
next meeting of the Building Committee is
April 20.
Finances
Pledges for 2014
Pledged: $324,477
Received: $312,450
Pledges for 2015
Pledged: $122,572
Received: $38,239
Expenses for 6 Lark
Budget: $400,000
Spent: $86,909
Expenses for TUMC
Budget: $550,000
Spent: $67,355 – includes all loans and
mortgages
The building committee appreciates the
support of the congregation in the many
ways it has manifested itself during this
project.
Special exhibit comes to TUMC
Place of Meeting page 4
From April 12 to April 26, TUMC will host an
exhibition of paintings by Winnipeg artist Ray
Dirks. Called Along the Road to Freedom, this
exhibit tells the stories of Mennonite mothers, daugh-
ters, grandmothers and sisters who led their families
out of persecution and suffering in Soviet Ukraine to
lives of freedom and peace.
This exhibition of 26 paintings, which each focus on a
particular woman’s story, and seven didactic panels,
which give the broader background and history of the
era, was shown at Conrad Grebel University College
in February. It has been made available to show in
Mennonite churches this spring enroute to the Men-
nonite World Conference in Pennsylvania in July.
TUMC, unfortunately, does not have room to display
the entire exhibition, but we have made arrangements
to show a reduced version in our sanctuary for the
three week period. We hope to have 15 paintings plus
the seven history panels. Harold Thiessen and Peter
Dick are coordinating the installation.
Along the Road to Freedom was initiated in 2008 by
four survivors of this refugee experience: Hans Funk,
Wanda Andres, Henry Bergen and Nettie Dueck.
Three lost fathers in the 1930s, swept up, as so many
were, in Stalin’s ruthless grasp. They wished to begin
a project that would honour and remember mothers,
grandmothers and sisters, like theirs, who had led chil-
dren safely out of the Soviet Union, through war-torn
Europe to establishing good lives in Canada. They
asked Ray Dirks, who is also curator of the Mennonite
Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg, if he could help.
Out of this discussion, Along the Road to Freedom
came into being.
There are numerous members (past and present) of
TUMC who experienced this history firsthand, and
whose stories parallel those shown in Along the Road
to Freedom. While you can view the exhibit on Sun-
day mornings (April 12, 19 and 26) we will also host
an evening showing Saturday, April18 from 7 to 9
p.m. and on Sunday afternoon, April 19, 2 to 4 p.m.
–– Submitted by Harold Thiessen
a project of the MHC Gallery
Along the Road to FreedomMennonite women of courage & faith paintings by Ray Dirks
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Special exhibit comes to TUMC
Place of Meeting April 2015 page 5
historical context, personal journeys & a universal message
Along the Road to Freedom Maria Friesen Neufeld
Katja Goerz
Katharina Loewen EppKatharina Epp KroegerKatharina Kroeger Neufeld
Intolerable persecution in the 16th century caused Anabaptists (Men-nonites) mainly from the Netherlands to flee to Poland, settling in areas near Danzig. In the later part of the 18th century many Mennonites began to move to Russia, at the invitation of Tsarina
Catherine II. At the start of World War I about 110,000 Mennonites lived in 56 colonies in Russia*.
The coming of the Russian Revolution in 1917 heralded periods of chaos, persecution and loss. Anarchists caused many deaths during the Civil War that followed. Then came devastating famine and disease. In the 1930s, many men were taken, killed or disappeared into Stalin’s Gulag.
Along the Road to Freedom honours Mennonite women — moth-ers, sisters, daughters, grandmothers, most without men — who found freedom in Canada in the 1920s and in Paraguay and Canada in the 1940s. In the 1920s journeying by train through the Red Gate to Riga, Latvia, from where they continued west by ship. In 1943, in the depths of World War II, 35,000 Mennonites fled Russia in what is called the Great Trek. Only 12,000, ultimately, succeeded in their quest for sanctuary across the Atlantic. Survivors who did not escape were shipped east in boxcars without facilities or food and dumped in the forests of Siberia, left to fend for themselves. Many did not survive.
People who migrated to Canada prior to the Russian Revolution are recognized in the painting of Judith Epp who arrived as a widow in Saskatchewan in the late 1800s. Those who did not get out of Russia are remembered in the painting of Margarita Pankratz.
In the 1920s, many made it out of Russia families intact. In the 1940s many did not. Often only women and children escaped. Sometimes loss was even greater. Katherina Dirks Peters had five children. Three girls died young during the famine and disease infested post-revolutionary times. Her husband disappeared in the 1930s, taken by Stalin’s secret police and murdered. She left on the Great Trek with her two sons. She lost both while fleeing. She finally settled in Yarrow, British Columbia, poor and alone.
Katherina lived her remaining years quietly in a tiny, meticulously cared for shack with a beautiful blue plum tree out back. Someone from her church concluded her obituary in 1974, “For many years this beloved sister lived in Yarrow where her loving, peaceful and honest way of life was a blessing to many.”
While Along the Road to Freedom includes stories of great loss, persecution and suffering, the stories end, over and over again, with love, kindness, selflessness, faith and, yes, even forgiveness.
Stories like that of Katherina are life lessons for us all.
*Statistics from Mennonites: A brief history of Witness, Service, Peace by John J. Friesen, 2009
Coming Events at TUMC
April 11: Bible Quizzing competition at Rouge Valley Mennonite Church –– come out to cheer on our team!
April 17: 12 Years is Enough! Launch event for Luis Matas’ permanent residence campaign, 7 p.m.
April 19: Baptism and communion
April 12-26: Art exhibit at TUMC - "Along the Road to Freedom" - artworks honouring the Mennonite women who broughttheir families to Canada from Russia will be on display
April 26: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
April 26 - May 17: Four-week series in our Sunday worship service hearing the "Voices of our First Peoples"
May 10: Ecumenical service of hymns and prayer at St. Aidan in the Beach Anglican Church at 4:30 p.m.
Reflections on Anabaptist heritagefrom the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland
Place of Meeting page 6
By Faye Tiessen
Jacqui and Tim Schmucker were welcome speakers at
Heritage Club in February. Jacqui joined the Mennon-
ite Church in Bogota, Colombia, when she was 15.
The church was founded by Gerald Stucky of Berne, Indi-
ana,who started a school for children of parents with lep-
rosy. Jacqui found a sense of community in this church.
After having taken a Mennonite history course with
Arnold Snyder, Jacqui was motivated to learn more about
the ancestors of her faith. So on her 50th birthday, she and
Tim visited sites in Europe associated with the beginnings
of Anabaptism.
Tim explained that their presentation would not be a trave-
logue, but rather their “experience encountering the faith
and life of our foremothers and forefathers in the soil and
rocks, bricks and mortar of their time.”
Their journey began in Amsterdam, then across the Afs-
luitdijk to Friesland. This dike separates what used to be
called the Zuiderzee, now the Ijsselmeer,from the North
Sea. It was engineered by a Mennonite, Cornelis Lely, and
turned the Zuiderzee into a lake. A vast area of seabed was
converted to dry land.
In Pingjum,they visited a “hidden”church, a house with a
meeting room at the back, where Mennonites met in secret
to avoid persecution from the state church. In Pingjum
Menno Simons began as a priest.
In the nearby village of Witmarsum, they heard the same
church bell that Menno would have heard. It was from
Witmarsum that Menno left the Catholic church to join the
Anabaptist cause. Next stop was Leeuwarden,where the
first and last Mennonite martyrs were put to death ––
Sicke Freerks Snyder in 1531, Reytse Aysesz in 1574. The
martyr Elizabeth Dirks, executed in 1549, was a member
of Leeuwarden congregation.
“Anabaptist cages”? Yes,these iron cages can be seen
hanging from the tower of St. Lamberti Church in Muen-
ster. Anabaptists who had led the Muenster rebellion,
among them Jan van Leyden, were tortured, executed, and
their bodies hung in these cages. Tim told us the followers
of Melchior Hoffman, Jan Matthias and Jan van Leyden
took over the town of Muenster using military force and
imposed adult baptism. It was at first a protest against the
The Anabaptist history tour group visits a “hidden”
church (which looks like an ordinary house from
the outside) in Pinjum, Netherlands. All photos by
Tim Schmucker.
Reflections on Anabaptist heritage
Place of Meeting April 2015 page 7
bishop’s rule of the city, but it became a place where
common ownership of property, polygamy and naked pa-
rades took place. It was regarded as a “New Jerusalem”
by some. After a siege lasting about a year,with an army
of 7000 mercenaries, Bishop von Waldeck retook the city
in 1535.
Menno and Dirk Phillips repudiated the Muensterite
views. In 1539, in his Foundation Book, Menno sharply
criticized such Muensterite practices as use of the
“sword” and polygamy. However, the actions of the
Muensterites resulted in severe repression of Anabap-
tists.
After a visit to Berne, Switzerland, the group learned
more about one of the early Anabaptist leaders, Michael
Sattler.Two years after the first adult baptisms in Zurich,
and the deaths of Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, there
was a meeting of Anabaptists in 1527 in Schleitheim
(canton of Berne).
The meeting, led by Sattler, hammered out a statement of
early Anabaptist faith, known as the Schleitheim Con-
fession: It began with adult baptism, terms of the ban
(Matthew 18), the necessary resistance to evil. There
could be no participation in the works, church services,
meetings and civil affairs of those who live in contradic-
tion to the commands of God, they declared. Commun-
ion was for the baptized. Non-resistance was a core
St. Lamberti Church in Muenster, where the bones of An-
abaptist leaders who led a violent rebellion hung until the
late 19th century; the cages (above the clock) remain.
Below, a memorial marker at the peaceful meadow site of
the Schleitheim meeting, near the city of Berne.
Reflections on Anabaptist heritage
Place of Meeting page 8
belief; a Christian must not pass judgment on worldly
disputes, or serve as a magistrate.
Shortly after this conference, Sattler and his wife were
arrested and executed.
In Baeretswil, the group were led to a cave where
early Swiss Anabaptists met for worship. How mov-
ing it must have been, standing in that cave and
singing hymns together. A local Reformed Church
pastor who accompanied the group asked their for-
giveness for persecuting the Anabaptists in the 1500s.
Next, a visit to the church that Jacob Amman attended
at Erlenbach of Simmertal. Amman, a Mennonite
bishop in the late 1600s, insisted that the ban applied
not just to attendance at the Lord’s supper, but also to
all of life. He and his followers migrated to America,
and later to Ontario. We know their descendants today
as the Amish. Tim reflected on how the Swiss Amish
in the Kitchener –Waterloo area generously opened
their homes to the Russian Mennonites during the mi-
grations of the 1920s, housing them until they found
jobs and places to live.
Trachselwald Schloss (castle) was for Tim the loca-
tion closest to his family history. His 5x great grandfa-
ther, Christian Schmucker, an Amish Mennonite
preacher, was imprisoned there in 1745. Banished
from Switzerland, he and his family finally made their
way to the Netherlands,where Dutch Mennonites
helped them to migrate to Pennsylvania in 1752. The
castle is being restored in a joint European-North
American project. This former prison will become the
centre of Anabaptism in Europe.
Tim told us that his great grandfather, ironically, was
also imprisoned in Pennsylvania, for not providing
wagons and horses to the military during the Ameri-
can Revolution. His friends, co-religionists and neigh-
bours appealed to the authorities for his release, which
was granted.
In Zurich,where the Swiss Reformation movement
began with sweeping reforms by pastor Ulrich
Zwingli in the early 1520s, our travelers learned of the
conflict caused by his students. Conrad Grebel, Felix
Manz, and George Blaurock had joined a Bible study
group with Zwingli. In 1525, in a public debate,with
The group climbed a trail to visit a cave in
Baeretswil, where persecuted Anabaptists met to
worship in secret. An especially moving moment
came when a local Lutheran pastor who had ac-
companied them offered an apology on behalf of
her church for the suffering of those long-ago days,
echoing a more formal process of reconciliation by
the Lutheran church several years ago.
Reflections on Anabaptist heritage
Place of Meeting April 2015 page 9
Zwingli arguing for infant baptism, the
students for adult baptism, the Zurich city
council decided in favour of Zwingli.
The young radicals were ordered to bap-
tize their babies, and to cease gathering
for discussions. Several days later, Grebel
and his group met in Manz’s mother’s
house, where Blaurock asked Grebel to
baptize him on confession of faith.
Grebel, Manz and Blaurock were in
prison for six months, but escaped in
March 1526.
Grebel died of the plague in 1526. Manz
was executed by drowning in the Limmat
River across from the Grossmünster
Church in 1527, the first Swiss Anabaptist
to be martyred for his faith.
After years of travelling throughout
Switzerland to preach the Anabaptist mes-
sage, Blaurock was burned at the stake in
1529.
For Jacqui and Tim, their two-week jour-
ney led them to places associated with
the origins of their faith. We were carried
along with them through photographs and
narrative. We thank them for sharing this
experience.
Trachselwald Schloss, above,
was a place of imprisonment for
Swiss Anabaptists, including Tim
Schmucker’s ancestor Christian
Schmucker. It has been turned
over to Swiss Mennonites for use
as a historical museum, with an
international campaign to raise
funds. Above, Tim and Jacqui
ponder a cell where Christian was
held. Left, a marker by the Lim-
mat River, where the first (Felix
Manz) and last Swiss Mennonites
to be executed for their faith
faced a sentence of death by
drowning.
Hosannas and borscht
Place of Meeting page 10
Palm Sunday (March 29) featured the
traditional procession of palms well as the
children’s choir leading the congregation
in song. Afterwards, the Borscht Battle
announced a couple of weeks earlier
(below) had us testing and enjoying eight
cooks’ attempts at a winning pot of
cabbage soup. Then we got a chance to
see our Bible Quizzing team in action with
a test run of their knowledge from the book
of John. Go team go!
Hosannas and borscht
Place of Meeting April 2015 page 11
The TUMC youth serve out soup during the
Borscht Battle competition –– an especially
busy job since most participants tried several
versions before marking their ballots. A tie was
declared before two late ballots broke the dead-
lock, leaving Erna Neufeldt, top, and her
superior soup the winner of the coveted Golden
Spoon. The real winners, though, are the youth,
the beneficiaries of a pay-what-you-will
admission to the lunch. Proceeds will go to
help their good-sized delegation attend the
Mennonite World Conference assembly in Har-
risburg, Pa., this July.
Place of Meeting page 12
EEENOUGH!UGH!UGH! NONONO 12 years is
LIMBO...LIMBO...LIMBO... more lives in
Luis Alberto Mata is a recognized refugee from Colombia. He is a writer, human rights and social justice advocate who has been waiting for his waiting for his PermanentPermanent Residence Residence since 2003. since 2003. 12 years is enough!12 years is enough!12 years is enough!
SPEAKERS: Gloria Nafziger (Amnesty international Refugee Network) Michele Millard (York University Centre for Refugee Studies) Leigh Salsberg (Refugee Lawyer)
Marilyn Zehr (Pastor Toronto United Mennonite Church) Ilian Burbano (Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance & LACSN) MC: Francisco Rico (FCJ Refugee Centre)
MUSICAL GUESTS: Mark Andrew (pianist) TUMC String Ensemble
Join us to Join us to launch the launch the campaign for campaign for
Permanent Permanent Residence!Residence!
FFRRIIDDAAYY AAPPRRIILL 1177,, 22001155
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Toronto United Mennonite
Church (TUMC) 1774 Queen Street East Toronto, ON. M4L 1G7
Des
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