It's been 150 years since Mennonites first came to Manitoba and one Winnipeg school is reflecting on the history and working towards a peaceful future.
"It's an exciting milestone for all Mennonites, not just our school," says Judson Rempel, the Director of Community Relations and Marketing with Winnipeg Mennonite School. "There are two things going on. It's been 150 years since the first Mennonites landed here in Manitoba. They landed down at the Rat River and Red River. We're recognizing that milestone and what's happened since then."
The second moment in history for Mennonites is when a group of people seeking peace called themselves Anabaptists.
"It's been 500 years since the unofficial Anabaptist movement began. Anabaptists eventually became known as Mennonites, after the leader Menno Simons."
Looking Back in Time
Rempel did some research and was able to find out that his family were some of the first Mennonites to arrive in Manitoba.
"We do sometimes have a fuzzy history because we fled so many times and moved to so many different places," says Rempel. "The bulk of my family did not arrive at the beginning, they arrived in the 1920s or so. On my grandma's side, they actually arrived on one of the first boats. They were within seven days of the very first boat landing, 150 years ago. It was cool to follow their journey of when they landed, where they went, and now where they live today."
When the Mennonites first landed, they built relationships with the Metis people. Plus, the cold harsh winter was too much for some, leading to a group that headed south to Mexico.
How Winnipeg Mennonite School is Recognizing These Milestones
According to Rempel, Winnipeg Mennonite School (WMS) focuses on three pillars.
"We focus on discipleship, so serving one another. Stewardship, taking care of what you have. And then maybe the most important part and what distinguishes most Mennonites, is the peacemaking. We believe we are called to be peacemakers in everything that we do."
WMS is taking the grades 6-8 classes on the Peace Trail that begins at the Mennonite landing south of Winnipeg.
Related Stories:
- New exhibit marks 150 years of Mennonites coming to Manitoba
- Museum curator says faith helped 23,000 Mennonites move to Canada 100 years ago
"It follows the path of the first Mennonites through southeast Manitoba. It talks about what the landscape looked like, the area's history, and where all these things came from. We'll talk about why this area was even fertile in the first place. They showed up to four sheds that were leaking and falling apart. The Metis were the ones who helped bring all their stuff from the boats to the sheds, they helped build the sheds. We'll have an opportunity to talk about that relationship."
One other thing WMS is doing is putting up a Peace Pole.
"We really want to share with the whole community. We are going to erect a Peace Pole at each of our campuses. There are 25,000 across the world. Basically it's a post that has to say the words 'May peace prevail on earth.' That's the main thing, and it's in a bunch of different languages. We'll have English, German, and French as three, and then each campus is going to be able to pick the remaining five languages to reflect the area we're in and the students that we have."