Mennonite Church Canada pandemic resources
On March 11, 2020, the World Heath Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic in order to encourage governments to ramp up efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
Below are resources for how congregations can respond to and live through pandemics as communities of faith. This page is regularly updated with resources from our regional churches and from CommonWord. If you have questions or concerns, please e-mail our communications officer at kdsawatzky@mennonitechurch.ca.
Highlighted resources
"Caring for the vulnerable" reflection by Executive Minister Doug Klassen
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world and the church into uncharted territory. How can our Anabaptist biblical interpretation, faith, and practice inform a long-term strategy for ministry and mission for such a time as this? Download this FREE digital issue of Leader Magazine for resources to help address these and other pressing questions facing our churches.
A continuation of Rejoice! A Time Such as This, and Rejoice! A Time Enduring. Writers share about life in the shadow of COVID-19 -- now a space where communities are challenged to confront their racism.
Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Anxiety by Walter Brueggemann
Why bother with the interpretive categories of biblical faith when in fact our energy and interest are focused on more immediate matters? This answer is simple and obvious. We linger because, in the midst of our immediate preoccupation with our felt jeopardy and our hope for relief, our imagination does indeed range beyond the immediate to larger, deeper wonderments. Our free-ranging imagination is not finally or fully contained in the immediacy of our stress, anxiety, and jeopardy. Beyond these demanding immediacies, we have a deep sense that our life is not fully contained in the cause-and-effect reasoning of the Enlightenment that seeks to explain and control. There is more than that and other than that to our life in God's world!
More pandemic resources hosted by 
Related organizations and their resources
Canadian Mennonite magazine
Federal and global health authorities
Government of Canada:
Infection Prevention and Control Canada
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
World Health Organization (WHO)
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Provincial authorities
Equipping congregations
In response to the flu pandemic of 2009-10, the Mennonite Church Canada Taskforce on Pandemic Preparedness and Response compiled and created resources to help equip Mennonite Church Canada churches and congregations for pandemic preparedness and response. This section offers these updated resources for congregations.
- Starting a congregational dialogue
- Outbreak prevention in the congregation
- Adjusting congregational practices
- Care of congregants and neighbours (pre-, during, post-pandemic)
- Prevention in the home
- Get involved locally
- Resources for emergency management
- Checklists
- Different flu types
An example of one Mennonite Church's pandemic response