Editorial

History—keeping our story alive—takes many forms.  Scholarly essays and lectures are only one aspect. Story abounds in our everyday lives: the plants we grow, the food we eat, our stories, songs, poems and dances.  The Great Oak of Chortitza has lived through many stories in its lifetime and there are stories connected with the large variety of plants brought by settlers to this new land.  Cooking a ‘heritage meal’ for children and grandchildren is another way of bringing the past to life.  Local cemeteries are rich sources of story.

You can help keep our story alive.  Contribute letters, articles, stories to the Roots and Branches.  Become a member of the Society.  Volunteer at the Archives.  Tell stories to your friends, children, grandchildren.  Our past is too rich to let die.

Thanks to Lora Sawatsky for her work as contributing editor to Roots and Branches.  Lora is now concentrating on her volunteer work at the Archives; her work on the newsletter will be taken over by new board member, Bob Martens.  LBP

Future Events

October 14, 2006, 6 pm.  Annual Fundraising Banquet At Eben-Ezer Mennonite Church.  Speaker: Professor Harvey Dyck.
Topic:  Soviet Mennonite Uprootings: through Communist documents and Mennonite eyes.   Tickets are $15 and   must be bought in advance from the office or board members.  Free shuttle bus service from Garden Park Tower to Eben-Ezer at 5:00 pm.
Professor  Dyck is emeritus professor of Russian and East European history at University of Toronto, as well as director of the research program in Czarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies at the Monk Centre for International Studies.
During the last 15 years, he has helped pioneer the retrieval of Mennonite materials from Soviet archives.  His books and articles cover international relations, East-European foreign policy, and Mennonite subjects.  Some of our readers will be familiar with his book  A Mennonite in Russia; the diaries of Jakob D. Epp, 1851-1880.  Currently, he is preparing a four volume collection of sources on Johann Cornies.

November 11, 2006. Genealogy workshop.  . Speaker TBA; call office for details.

November 17, 2006. Bakerview Church, 7 pm.  “Controversy, Consensus and Change; Theological Issues in the Mennonite   Churches in the 20th Century.”  Lecturers: Dr. David Ewert ( Abbotsford) and Dr. John Neufeld  (Winnipeg.)

February 17, 2007. Garden Park Tower.  Lecture and quilt show.  Speaker: Ron Matthies.

InMagic update from a report by Erica Suderman:  As of June, 60 boxes of materials have been described and arranged.  Average cost of acid-free materials per box is $25.  Because this process is labour intensive, more volunteers have been recruited and trained.  Also, the staff has had three in-service training sessions with Linda Willis, and feels confident that they can now produce permanent and professional description and arrangements of our records.

Hymns and Platz in Arnold

When people who’ve grown up in Arnold meet, they often hug.  There were lots of hugs as approximately 165 people attended the hymns and platz evening on June 11 at Arnold MB church.  Ushers handed out programs and hymnbooks at the door, since Arnold, like many other churches, now sings ‘off the wall.’  Ruth Derksen Siemens and her husband Vic, both ‘alumni’ of Arnold, led in singing a number of familiar hymns.  Helen Rose Pauls used a PowerPoint presentation of photographs to tell stories of Arnold’s past—there were many smiles and chuckles as people recognized familiar faces.  Later there was faspa in the basement, a low-ceilinged room where, at many weddings of the past, it took 3 or 4 ‘settings’ before everyone was served.

It was a comfortable, inspiring  evening for those of us who cherish the old hymns. Thanks go to Arnold Church for hosting this event, John Neumann for supplying the photos, and to David Giesbrecht for arranging them in Power Point.

 More ‘Hymns and Platz’ events are being planned in the future.

by Louise Bergen Price