So now it’s back to life as usual after our week away. In some ways, it was a week off, and in other ways, coming back home is a break too. Our days started with opening worship at 8:30am and closed when final worship ended at 8:30pm. We did have meal breaks and coffee breaks in there, but we were kept occupied. Here were some highlights:

Minister’s Conference
Before the rest of the conference began, the ministers and their wives etc. of Mennonite Church Canada were invited to attend a conference of their own. The key speakers were C. Arnold Snyder and Sue Steiner, both Ontario people that we have a lot of respect for. Arnold spoke in depth on the topic of Anabaptist Spirituality, while Sue spoke about analyzing our own congregational spirituality in our churches and different ways of nurturing it.

For a summary of Arnold’s presentation, Click here. Tim Chesterton was there and took notes more attentively than I did. He also introduced himself to us at one point as someone who reads our blog from time to time. I recognized the name as a blog that I have also read, but didn’t remember him as being part of MC Canada. Turns out he’s an Anglican who’s just interested in Anabaptism. His blog is actually quite interesting as well.

Fort Edmonton Park
One of our tour options for the Thursday afternoon was an historical recreation park. We chose it as a way of getting outdoors (a task which was otherwise quite difficult). It far exceded our expectations. It had four separate areas showing different time periods, with period correct food available all along the way, plus a real train, a streetcar, a working penny arcade and a midway. Even though the penny arcade took quarters instead of pennies, it was great. For 25 cents you could test your tolerance to electric shock. After inserting your money, you grabbed the two poles and turned until you couldn’t handle it anymore. Ana let go immediately, while I made it as high as the machine could go, which we were told was a rite of passage for the male staff. There were a few disappointments, I couldn’t ring the bell with the hammer swinging thing at the midway, the carousel wasn’t working, and the haunted house wasn’t even haunted (more about that in a later post).

Preach Off
The entertainment for the Thursday evening was a preaching contest. It’s better than it sounds. The contestants, including myself, were given a scripture passage before lunch on Thursday and then were supposed to give a three mniute sermon about it that evening. I was given Genesis 27:11. I didn’t bother writing down any notes for a three minute sermon, hoping I could just shoot from the hip. The other contestants had a lot of notes, some props, and had generally done more preparation than I had. I did however undo a few buttons on my shirt as a demonstration, and I was able to talk until about fifteen seconds left in my time. We all got obscure passages, and the sermons ranged from funny to quasi-serious and had various creative elements, and the whole thing was a lot of fun. I didn’t make any points during the serious discussions about the budget or other voting issues during the week, but I was remembered for my 3-minute sermon. Good times.

As far as other site-seeing, we did make it to the mall, but not Whyte Ave. The area of Edmonton we were in was quite pedestrian unfriendly. We opted out of the conference supper plan in order to save a bit of money and to experience some local fare. The part of town that we were in was full of just major chains, and since we didn’t have a car, we had to walk a way to get to them, usually without sidewalks. No car also meant that we didn’t get to get out of the city either. Ah well, we’ll get to see rural Alberta some other time I hope.