Esther Epp-Tiessen Archive

The power of apology

May 25, 2018 Esther Epp-Tiessen

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced that his government would make a formal apology for Canada’s failure in 1939 to provide asylum to the 907 Jews who were fleeing Nazi Germany on board the MS St. Louis; 254 of those Jews later died in the Holocaust. When the formal apology is issued later this year, it will be the 5th one Trudeau has made to a group of people since his government was elected in 2015.  The other collective apologies include: May 18, 2016 to descendants of passengers of the Komagata Maru, a Japanese vessel carrying 376 Sikh, Muslim, and […]

A lament for the children

A lament for the children Esther Epp-Tiessen Twenty-three years ago, my husband and I held our son Timothy as life ebbed from his cancer-ravaged body. Over his short eight years, he had struggled with cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, and epilepsy, but it was medullablastoma (a form of childhood brain cancer) that ultimately killed him. Tim’s prolonged illness – and our journey with him – have made me especially sensitive to the suffering of children. Because of Tim, I cannot bear to see children suffer. I am especially enraged by the suffering inflicted on children by other humans. Consider these realities: According […]

God as advocate

July 28, 2017 Esther Epp-Tiessen

God as advocate by Esther Epp-Tiessen @ MCC Ottawa Office Our MCC Ottawa Office has been engaged in advocacy since it was founded in 1975, but we still occasionally are asked why we are involved in speaking to government as a church-based relief, development and peacebuilding agency.  After all, the question often goes, doesn’t scripture admonish us to simply feed the hungry, clothe the naked or give water to those who thirst? We as staff have developed a response to this question.  We have many reasons for justifying the work we are mandated to do, not the least of which […]

Riding the bus as spiritual discipline

May 25, 2017 Esther Epp-Tiessen

Riding the bus as spiritual discipline by Esther Epp-Tiessen I have always struggled with the traditional spiritual disciplines – contemplative prayer, disciplined scripture reading, meditation, fasting. I have tried them all many times, and fallen away every time. I have often felt like a failure. But I’ve come to realize that there are many more spiritual disciplines than the traditional ones. And for me, personally, what has become an important way of encountering the Spirit is through the very mundane act of riding the bus to work. Initially, my commitment to riding the bus was about reducing my carbon footprint. […]