A while ago I gave my grandmother a call. I was having a bit of an existential crisis when something clicked. “Is this what my grandparents felt?” I asked myself. The question referred to significant cultural changes, world happenings and environmental crises. For example, I cannot imagine what it must have felt like as a child to go through nuclear test drills, and then live through the tensions of the Cold War.
Mennonite Central Committee continues to provide humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip through a local partner after Israel banned 37 groups from operating there. But Israeli restrictions still severely limit the size and speed of aid efforts, despite a ceasefire.
Some early Anabaptists espoused a “gospel of all creatures,” as the natural world reveals God’s character. What does this concept mean to you?
There’s a curious phrase in the first chapter of Acts: “a sabbath day’s journey.” It refers to the short walk between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives — just under a mile. What I love about this detail is that it shows how Sabbath is not only about what we don’t do, but about how we move through the world with intention.
After a listening process by a Mennonite Central Committee partner, 209 families that survived an August earthquake in Afghanistan used cash assistance from MCC to buy winter clothing, shoes, medicine or cooking utensils.
Anabaptist Disabilities Network and MHS (Mennonite Health Services) Association received a grant of $1.2 million in 2025 from Lilly Endowment to support worship that is accessible for people of all ages and abilities, especially children with disabilities.
On the morning of Jan. 9, dozens of mourners and faith leaders gathered at the same intersection for an impromptu memorial — one of multiple in the area — for Renee Good, who died on January 7.
While the restoration of Hesston College’s J.D. Charles Hall of Science and Arts moved ahead after a May 9 fire, the fate of feathered friends in the building remained uncertain.
The Selective Service System has been instructed to make military draft registration automatic.
Noelle Cook arrived in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, to photograph the Stop the Steal rally, expecting to gather some images for a graduate thesis project in women’s and gender studies. She ended up chronicling an insurrection — and, more unexpectedly, growing close to some of the women who breached the U.S. Capitol that day.
In Indonesia, where Christians are a minority, the Christmas tree often serves as a marker of identity. My own family doesn’t keep that tradition, though my children often ask to have one. I always tell them, “That is not a tree. It is plastic that will end up stored in a warehouse like trash.” For us, a Christmas tree has always been a living one, growing quietly in front of our home.
