As part of Mark Wilson's Mennonite Studies class at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler, a community service project is typically part of the course. Among others, past projects have taken students to Salem Home, or to the MCC Thrift Store to work.
This term's project looked to get to the heart of community healing and to learn the difference between discussion versus debate.
Wilson said the idea was to get two people together with different views and have a discussion moderated by a community member. He stressed the goal was to have a discussion and not a debate. "So, we spent some time looking for folks we felt would be a good fit for that, and then we had John Klassen moderate it," said Wilson.
John Klassen is a local pastor and Garden Valley School Division Trustee.
"About five or six weeks ago, I received an email from a class member in the GVC Mennonite Studies class asking if I would host or moderate a conversation between two community members who held different understandings between health mandates and requirements. I was intrigued and I asked if I could have a conversation with the class before responding. I wanted to know the class motivation and the hopes behind such a conversation," said Klassen.
"The students explained this was part of their Mennonite Studies course, and as part of the course they were studying pacifism and peacemaking. Each year some time is devoted to a project on peacemaking," Klassen noted, recognizing how divided our community has been in the last two years, they indicated peacemaking would be best practiced in our own community.
Several meetings were arranged by the students of the Mennonite Studies class. During the first meeting, the students came up with a list of appropriate questions that would try to draw out what they were looking to accomplish.
"Not a debate between the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine. Not at all. Quite the opposite, but how to move forward," said Teacher Mark Wilson. "So they drew up a list of questions, and then with the help of Mr. Klassen, we fine-tuned them."
Wilson pointed out the Mennonite Studies course includes a lot of discussion about pacifism, what the role of a pacifist should be, and what pacifism actually is. He felt this would fit well with this term's chosen community service project.
Walter Friesen and Peter Loewen, the two individuals that agreed to participate in the project, were then invited to meet with the students, along with Klassen, to go over the questions.
"They had a chance to look over the questions, work through it, look at the background behind what the project is, and what we're actually trying to accomplish," added Wilson. "So there'd be no surprises, there are no ‘gotchas’," Wilson stressed that would be the opposite intent of this project.
Wilson said the goal was to bring people in the community, divided on the topic, back together. "Our class is not different than our community. I would say we're divided on the issue as well, but I was pleased to see people willing to engage with ideas that were different than their own. I hope the students found it worthwhile. I was heartened to see them actually buying in a bit," chuckled Wilson. "They did all the organization, all the leg work, creating all the questions, even getting coffees for the folks, picking them up at the door, recording all the videos, they did all the work...that's a good thing there are some of our younger people in our community actually taking the lead on how to reconcile, so that's probably what I was most pleased about."
"I've been a pastor in this community for almost 40 years and have cared deeply about building relational bridges for the majority of my life. That's the reason I am here," said moderator John Klassen. "I wear no other hats than the hat of one who hopes broken relationships within our community can experience healing."
The pandemic has created some strong divisions within our community, noted Moderator John Klassen. He went on to ask Loewen how we best move forward as a community?
Loewen said the question of how to rebuild the bridge in our community has been something that's been on his mind for a while. He said it's important to continue to do things to keep the dialogue going, like the conversation the students started in Mr. Wilson's Mennonite Studies class. He said in his eyes, the pandemic topic has become a political issue, and if something isn't done now to bridge the gap, the divide will only grow once the next 'big stressor event' comes along. "For a community to flourish, you cannot have that," said Loewen."
At the school level, Loewen suggests holding more events to celebrate school pride and bring people together by creating events. "We need to find points of interest that we all have, where people of different mindsets can come together."
In answering the question how do we best move forward as a community? Walter Friesen said, "I think scripture has some great advice on reconciliation and how to move forward. Openness to conversation is I think the first step, and I think it's pretty cool we have the opportunity to do this. To sit down and have an open and honest conversation, willingness to hear each other, honest representation of facts and information, willingness to admit fault, and to make restitution when necessary."
Meanwhile, student Sierra Fast said she really enjoyed listening to the two participants, adding both Friesen and Loewen explained themselves well and knew where they stood, and why they stood there. In her opinion, she feels they also felt a sense of healing being brought back together from their separate views.
Fast was asked how she'll take what she learned from this assignment, and apply it to her future decisions if she's faced with the opportunity to choose whether to debate an issue, or have a discussion.
Personally, through the process of this project, Fast said she came to the realization when people have an opinion on a matter, it's for a reason, and we as people in general, should pay more attention to what those reasons may be.
She said it's definitely important to practice these ideas of healing and listening to each other in everything you do. She said having different ideas than the people around you doesn't mean you can't be together.