Wednesday 5th June Today was always going to be the fullest day of my Winnipeg leg of the tour, while at the same time the day when I did least travelling. Almost all of the day – but not quite all – was spent in the CMU/MCC building. It started quite gently, with the opportunity to sit in a vacant office and do some work catching up on emails and the blog – a brief mid-morning break for a warm drink and the chance to be introduced to the majority of the staff – then more emails. However, at the stroke of 12 noon I was taken to a boardroom and about 20 plus members of the staff brought their packed lunch to eat while they heard me talk and engaged in discussion for an hour. There was a really good vibe in the room, folk were really attentive as I spoke, as the night before, about the state of the church in the UK and about what the Anabaptist Network is doing and then about my book. Questions came thick and fast. What is of pressing interest for the Mennonite Church of Canada is the fact that they realise that over the next few years there will have to be radical change to conserve resources and personnel and enable it to meet the demands of the 21st Century – it is a tough call in the short term but very exciting in the long term. There were lots of questions about my thoughts on church and the future, which led on to exciting possibilities of engaging with people of other faiths and beliefs in conversation and action. Really good stuff – I loved it and was sad when we had to stop! Vic then took me to lunch with small group of senior staff. The purpose was to relax and get to know each other better and see what discussion (if any) arose. ‘Plan A’ was to go to an outdoor center on the outskirts of Winnipeg. We piled into two cars drove along an endlessly strait road past newly built mansions, with nothing less than a three-car garage. Then in sudden contrast we turned down a long dusty lane to the outdoor center. There was a large herd of bison in a field, a sanctuary for prairie dogs and much more. Outside the main entrance was a large stuffed bison – I had my photograph taken next to it – I’m not quite sure who was the most embarrassed, the dead bison or me! However, no one had checked to see if the restaurant was open - it wasn’t, closed for an annual staff BBQ! So a sudden embarrassed huddle to decide on ‘Plan B’, which headed our party back into town to an Italian eatery. We were given a large table in the back corner. Vegan choices were few but not absent. I settled on a salad - there was a warning at the top of the menu, “Our salads are HUGE!” – they were not wrong! My bowl had enough for a small family to share, mainly lettuce and olives it was delicious – much better for me than the pasta or pizza the others were having. We chatted about so many topics and it was good to just find a meeting of minds and a lot of laughter. Due to the hiatus over lunch we were now running a bit late. I was next due for a recorded Interview for ‘Church Matters’ radio broadcast with Dan Dyck, director of communications at MCC. This programme regularly gets 20,000 regular listeners and an average of 6,000 podcast downloads of the programme a month. It is recorded, edited to a 15-minute piece and then broadcast at a prime-time Sunday morning. Dan had sent me his questions, based on my book, well in advance, so I came to the interview well prepared. It was relaxed yet focused. He was very pleased with the result. On finishing he called through to recording engineer to find out how long the recording time was. He was told “28-minutes”. “Brilliant”, he replied, “This will make two excellent programmes!” I am really grateful for both the opportunity and exposure it might bring but only time will tell what the impact will be. At about 4.30 pm Vic and I met up with Vic’s boss, Willard Metzger, the Executive Director of MCC for supper. He has a reputation for having a good taste in food so I was looking forward to the meal. They decided on an Indian restaurant called, “The Clay Oven” (better choice for vegans). It was much more open in design than any I have been to in the UK – high ceiling, tall windows pouring in the light and the food was simply wonderful! I had a cauliflower and potato curry (hot and spicy), I finished with a really warm glow throughout my body. The waitress had advised against ‘spicy’ but she was so wrong! Willard, Vic and I had a good conversation around the challenges to the church in Canada today. I was impressed with his honesty and insights and also his sensitivity to different groups of people. It was a significant time of talking as far as I was concerned. It was then time for us to return to the CMU campus and prepare for what was expected to be my biggest meeting during my time in Winnipeg. It was a really beautiful sunny evening (spring came late this year) and the college only has a small number of students at this time in the term. About 45 people came, not as many as we had hoped but great to see them. Among them were at least six members of the MCC office staff that I had spoken to during the lunch break so it was encouraging they had come back for more! I spoke freely and enjoyed presenting what I had to say, though I was aware that there wasn’t quite the buzz we had experienced the night before in Winkler. But the questions were good and searching and I felt that it had gone well We returned to Vic’s after a good long day that had seen a lot of good things. I slept contented.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:27:19 +0000
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