Tag: Book Launch

Public invited to launch of new book detailing the life of educator and TV producer Vera Good

Post author By CMU
Post date November 30, 2017

SIMCOE, ON — The public is invited to a celebration for a new book detailing the life of Dr. Vera Good, a pioneering educator and television producer from Waterloo County.

Good and author Nancy Silcox will be on hand to launch The Exceptional Vera Good: A Life Beyond the Polka Dot Door on Sunday, December 10, 2017 at 2:00 PM. The launch will take place in the party room at Norview Lodge Retirement Home in Simcoe, ON (44 Rob Blake Way). All are welcome to attend.

Published by CMU Press, The Exceptional Vera Good traces Good’s life from her upbringing in an Old Order Mennonite family to her successful career as an executive producer of children’s programming for TVOntario from 1965 to 1981.

Vera Good with author Nancy Silcox — Nancy Silcox (right) has written a book about Vera Good (left), an award-winning TV producer and accomplished educator.

“Vera was a groundbreaker,” says Silcox, an award-winning writer who has penned a dozen books. “She climbed the ladder both educationally and professionally when there were no other women there, and she didn’t have an easy time of it, either. She is truly a remarkable person.”

Good laid the conceptual design and was the first executive producer for Polka Dot Door, an educational TV series for children that aired every weekday from the fall of 1971 until the show’s cancellation in 1993.

In recognition of her work on the show, Good received a Gemini Award in 2010 as part of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s MasterWorks program, which honours culturally significant works.

Prior to her work in television, Good was highly regarded as an innovative educator.

She holds a PhD from Columbia University in New York City, and she was one of the first female principals in the Toronto school system. She was also the first female Inspector of Schools in Ontario.

Good resides at the retirement home where the book launch will take place. Aside from the fact that she is now blind, she is in excellent health. The launch will double as a celebration for her 102^nd birthday.

“Vera is excited about the launch, and so am I,” says Silcox, who became close to Good during the 18 months she spent researching and writing the book. “I consider myself most fortunate to have been given the chance to tell this story.”

Anyone planning to attend the book launch is asked to RSVP to Silcox by emailing silcox@cwisp.ca or phoning 519-662-9303.

About CMU Press
CMU Press is an academic publisher of scholarly, reference, and general interest books at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg, MB. Books from CMU Press address and inform interests and issues vital to the university, its constituency, and society. Areas of specialization include Mennonite studies, and works that are church-oriented or theologically engaged.

For information about CMU Press, visit: www.cmu.ca/cmupress.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as graduate degrees in theology, ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 900 full-time equivalent students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:
Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Book Launch, CMU Press, Nancy Silcox, Vera Good

Events News Releases

Art and Mennonite history book to be launched at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

Post author By CMU
Post date October 26, 2017

Nearly 10 years in the making, the official book launch of Along the Road to Freedom – Mennonite women of courage and faith featuring the paintings of artist Ray Dirks will take place at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Wednesday, November 8 at 7:00 PM. All are invited, and admission is free.

The book includes comments from each Along the Road to Freedom committee member and Manitoba Lt. Gov. the Honourable Janice C. Filmon. The foreword by Dr. Marlene Epp, Professor of History and Peace and Conflict Studies, Conrad Grebel University College, offers a historical backdrop that connects with today. Dirks reveals his artmaking process and recounts his journey with each painting and sponsoring family.

Dirks, founder and curator of the MHC Gallery on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University, was visited by four senior citizens in 2008 who wanted to initiate a project honouring their mothers and others like them. These four individuals—Nettie Dueck, Hans Funk, Wanda Andres, Henry Bergen—escaped the Soviet Union during WW2 on what Mennonites call the Great Trek. In the midst of the war, 35,000 people, many widows with children, left their homes in what is now Ukraine and fled north and west, hoping to eventually reach Canada. Twelve thousand made it out to either Canada or Paraguay, while 23,000 did not make an escape.

Three of the four people had lost their fathers at an early age. The men were taken by the NKVD, secret police, and like so many others under Stalin, were either quickly murdered or shipped to Siberia where they died in the miserable gulag system. When it came time to flee, their mothers, alone, led them out under the worst of conditions.

Along the Road to Freedom has also been a travelling exhibition of large story paintings honouring women, most of them widowed, who led children to freedom either during the time of anarchy, famine, and chaos following the Russian Revolution or during WW2 on the Great Trek. The exhibition has toured to 20 venues in Canada and the US. The corresponding book will include all the paintings and stories on each of the women featured.

The book will be available for $35.00 plus GST.

BOOK ORDERING DETAILS FOR SINGLE AND MULTIPLE BOOK ORDERS WILL FOLLOW IN DAYS.

Please contact Connie Wiebe (cwiebe@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300, ext 344) for information on ordering book, including all bulk book orders.

Along the Road to Freedom Mennonite is a MHC Gallery project 100% funded and created by donations and in kind contributions from writers, editors, and artist/book designer Ray Dirks.

The MHC Gallery is a self-funded gallery of Canadian Mennonite University.

For more information, please contact:
Ray Dirks, curator
CMU Press/MHC Gallery
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 2N2

To interview Ray Dirks, write to rdirks@cmu.ca or call 204.487.3300, ext 346. Print resolution images are available upon request.

Tags Along the Road to Freedom, Book Launch, MHC Gallery, Ray Dirks

General News News Releases

CMU theology professor to celebrate publication of new book at launch event

Post author By CMU
Post date November 22, 2016

‘Take and Read’ includes essays reflecting theologically on books

Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a launch event celebrating the release of Take and Read: Reflecting Theologically on Books, a new book written by Dr. Paul Doerksen, Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies.

The event takes place Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 PM in the Atrium at McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Ave.). Admission to the book launch is free, and all are welcome to attend.

Published by Wipf and Stock, Take and Read is a collection of essays first presented as oral theological reflections on books, written to stimulate conversations among diverse groups of readers.

These reflections introduce and offer samples of theological readings of a variety of books. The result is a collection of essays addressing a wide range of topics from food security to violence, from dementia to indigenous issues.

“I hope that anyone interested in joining conversations about any number of issues will read this book, because it really is a series of conversations with other books which address various topics,” Doerksen says.

Take and Read takes its name from a theological book discussion group that Doerksen has led since 2004 as part of CMU’s continuing education initiatives.

The group has included farmers, physicians, teachers, poets, novelists, scientists, people involved in business, finance, relief work, and many other walks of life, ranging in age from 20-something to 80.

PaulDoerksenOct2016 — Dr. Paul Doerksen, author and Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies at CMU

Doerksen’s prepared reflections for these gatherings are never meant to draw conclusions about the books themselves, or about the topics addressed by the authors. Rather, the reflections serve as a starting point for the group’s conversation.

Reading the literary works that Doerksen discusses in his new book is not a prerequisite for enjoying the volume.

“My hope is that if you haven’t read the book and you read the essay about the book, it will drive you to it,” Doerksen says. “If you have, I hope the essay brings up connections and questions, and some evaluative dimensions in response to the book.”

Ultimately, Take and Read is a theological enterprise. The book is perhaps best described as an invitation to joining a conversation about books, and more importantly, about God.

“I hope that in reading the book, people join a conversation about something that is meaningful to them, and that they find something theologically meaningful in joining that conversation,” Doerksen says.

A professor at CMU since 2011, Doerksen has a PhD in Western Religious Thought from McMaster University. He also holds degrees from Conrad Grebel University College, the University of Winnipeg, and Briercrest Bible College.

He is the author of Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O`Donovan (Wipf and Stock, 2009).

About CMU

A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as graduate degrees in theology, ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

Tags Book, Book Launch, Book Signing, Paul Doerksen, Take and Read

Events General News News Releases

CMU to celebrate publication of Philippians with book launch event

Post author By CMU
Post date November 17, 2016

Commentary by Gordon Zerbe emphasizes citizenship, partnership, and joy

Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a book launch celebrating the release of Philippians, a new Bible commentary by New Testament scholar Dr. Gordon Zerbe.

The event takes place Thursday, November 24 at 7:00 PM in Marpeck Commons (2299 Grant Ave.). In addition to hearing from Zerbe, who will lead attendees on a “virtual tour through Paul’s Philippi,” people will have the one-time opportunity to purchase copies of the book at a 30 per cent discount at CommonWord Bookstore and Resource Centre.

Admission to the book launch is free, and all are welcome to attend.

Published by Herald Press, Philippians is the 31^st volume in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series.

In the commentary, Zerbe challenges readers to allow Paul’s prison letter to interpret their own lives—not by extracting lessons out of historical and cultural context, but by imagining themselves in the ancient Roman world.

“Paul’s wisdom in the letter can mirror back to us some of our own circumstances and questions,” says Zerbe, who is Vice President Academic at CMU. “Once we live into the world of that text, we can look back at ourselves in a new way.”

He adds that to understand Paul and his beloved and beleaguered congregation in Philippi, we must learn to see him as a leader transformed by grace and passionate about enlivening patriotic loyalty to Jesus alone.

In the commentary, Zerbe emphasizes four main themes: citizenship, partnership, high-low inversion, and joy.

“What it means to fully realize the vision of partnership and mutuality that Paul articulated, and what it means to faithfully practice the way of being in solidarity with the lowly, are imperatives as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago,” Zerbe says.

He adds that he accepted the invitation to write the commentary because he has been absorbed in work on Paul and his letters ever since the days of his doctoral studies at Princeton Theological Seminary.

“This was a great opportunity to deepen my understanding of one letter,” Zerbe says. “In addition, I was already convinced that some new thinking about Paul and Philippians could make for an exciting new venture in a commentary.”

The Believers Church Bible Commentary series is designed to be accessible to lay readers, useful in preaching and pastoral care, helpful for Bible study groups and Sunday school teachers, and academically sound. The series also carries an underlying Anabaptist reading of Scripture.

The volumes are a cooperative project of Brethren in Christ Church, Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Brethren Church, Mennonite Church Canada, and Mennonite Church USA.

In addition to a PhD from Princeton, Zerbe holds degrees from Western Washington University, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Tabor College, and Columbia Bible College. He is the author of Citizenship: Paul on Peace and Politics.

After growing up in Japan as a child of mission workers, a highlight in his career was a series of years (1996–98, 2002–04) in the Philippines as visiting professor at the Silliman University Divinity School under the auspices of Mennonite Central Committee.

About CMU

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

Tags Believers Church Bible Commentary, Book Launch, Gordon Zerbe, Philippians

Events News Releases

CMU Press to launch new book about Mennonite woman’s refugee experience

Post author By CMU
Post date November 30, 2015

Author hopes book ‘will help readers enter into the lives of people who become refugees’

CMU Press is proud to announce the publication of its latest title, To and From Nowhere, written by Winnipeg author Hedy Leonora Martens.

In this gripping and moving novel, protagonist Greta Enns and her family struggle to exist in the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1976 after being displaced by Stalin along with thousands of Russian Germans, Mennonites, and other ethnic groups.

To and From Nowhere is the second of two books by Winnipeg writer Hedy Leonora Martens that tell the life story of Greta Enns.

CMU Press and Martens will celebrate the publication of To and From Nowhere with a book launch on Monday, December 7 at 7:00 PM in the atrium at McNally Robinson (1120 Grant Ave.). Everyone is invited to attend this free event.

“I hope this book will help readers enter into the lives of people who become refugees,” Martens says, adding that it wasn’t just Mennonites that Stalin displaced.

“Many nationalities were exiled, torn from their homes, some of them never to return. They were wiped off the map as if they never existed, which is why the book is called To and From Nowhere.”

Greta was a real person who belonged to Martens’ extended family.

Based on painstaking historical research and interviews with Greta and her family, To and From Nowhere tells a harrowing and beautiful story in the unusual style that Martens has fused, combining narrative, biography, poetry, history, and personal reflection.

To and From Nowhere is the conclusion of a two-part project that began with the publication of Martens’ 2010 novel, Favoured Among Women, which the Winnipeg Free Press called a “detailed and touching portrait of a Mennonite woman during the harsh early years of Soviet Russia.”

Dr. Sue Sorensen, Associate Professor of English at CMU, served as editor for both Favoured Among Women and To and From Nowhere.

Sorensen calls the new book unique and adds that readers will gain insight into history—especially war—and at the same time be moved by the details of a real family’s day-to-day existence.

Martens, a retired family therapist, spent three decades working on Greta Enns’ story.

“In addition to that, you are drawn into the author’s process as she herself comments on her interactions with the material she is writing about,” Sorensen says. “There’s a beautiful resonance to all these different voices and writing styles living side-by-side in the book.”

Sorensen adds that Martens has a gift for bringing characters to life. “Because of Hedy’s skill I felt like I also had met Greta,” she says.

CMU Press is pleased to publish To and From Nowhere, says General Editor Dr. Paul Doerksen.

“Hedy has provided an invaluable contribution by bringing to view the experience of particular characters, allowing us to both witness and imagine some of the experiences which enable us to deepen our own understanding of historical circumstances, personal encounters, struggles of faith, and so on,” Doerksen says.

“While the book focuses on particularities, nonetheless it has the capacity to speak to a reading audience that is much broader than any single ethnic or religious group.”

Martens, a retired family therapist, recently celebrated her 80th birthday. She is looking forward to the December 7 book launch after working on Greta’s story for three decades.

“It feels really good to have completed this,” she says.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as graduate degrees in theology, ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca.

Tags Book Launch, Book Signing, CMU Press, Hedy Martens

Events General News News Releases

CMU professor’s new book traces the history of Mennonites in California

Post author By CMU
Post date February 12, 2015

Book launch set for Wednesday, February 25 at McNally Robinson

A new book by a Canadian Mennonite University professor explores the experience of Mennonites in California.

Written by Dr. Brian Froese, Associate Professor of History at CMU, California Mennonites is available in stores now. A Winnipeg book launch event is planned for Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00 PM at McNally Robinson (1120 Grant Ave.).

2015-02-11 - California Mennonites by Brian Froese 01 The book traces the history of Mennonites in the Golden State from the nineteenth-century migrants who came in search of sunshine and fertile soil, to the traditionally agrarian community that struggled with issues of urbanization, race, gender, education, and labour in the twentieth century, to the evangelically-oriented, partially-assimilated Mennonites of today.

“What makes the California story fascinating to me is that, unlike many of the other Mennonite immigration stories, this one has very little to do with religion itself,” Froese says. “It is primarily for economic betterment, whether it’s escaping the depression of the 1890s or the 1930s, and it’s also a question of people pursuing physical healing and health.”

Froese places Mennonite experiences against a backdrop of major historical events, including World War II and Vietnam, and social issues, from labor disputes to the evolution of mental health care.

“It’s a book that speaks to the experience of people who are not just Mennonite and not just living in California,” Froese says. “This is a case study that looks at what happens when a small, ethno-religious group that is mission-minded finds itself in a rapidly changing environment that is marked by modernity, urbanization, and secularization.”

Three primary strategies emerged as California Mennonites strove to keep their identity intact: some embraced the twentieth-century American evangelicalism of Billy Graham; some reclaimed their Anabaptist heritage rooted in sixteenth-century ideals like pacifism, congregationalism, and discipleship; and others committed to a type of social justice that saw them working with the government to bring quiet transformation to Californian society.

One thing that makes the California Mennonite experience unique, Froese says, is that it is dominated by the Mennonite Brethren.

“This is one place where the Mennonite Brethren are more numerous, and much more influential, than other larger national Mennonite denominations,” Froese says.

He adds that Mennonites everywhere, regardless of their location or exact denominational affiliation, will be able to learn something from the book.

Dr. Brian Froese, author of California Mennonites, will host a February 25 book launch event at McNally Robinson

Ultimately, California Mennonites is a story about a people grappling with what it means to be good citizens and good Christians.

“The places may be different, and some of what’s going on of course is different from today, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from, be inspired by, or be cautioned by the experience of our co-religionists in other places,” Froese says.

“It’s no different than reading about the sixteenth century Anabaptists and learning from their experience in those contexts.”

Froese has taught at CMU since 2005. In the past, he has published articles on the Anabaptist vision; archival research and pedagogy; and, popular eschatologies from the horror of Left Behind, dystopic California in evangelical fiction, and lyrics of U2 and Black Sabbath.

California Mennonites is his first book.

About CMU
A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU’s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences and social sciences, and graduate degrees in Theology and Ministry. CMU has over 1,600 students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury campus and in its Menno Simons College and Outtatown programs.

For information about CMU, visit: www.cmu.ca.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
kkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

Tags Book Launch, Brian Froese, California Mennonites