Waters 50th Anniversary, June 6 & 7.
Sudbury Star Article Sudbury Star Article, June 8, 2009...
Posted By LARA BRADLEY

Lively's Waters Mennonite Church celebrated 50 years this weekend with an open house, a supper and the launch of a book -- Casting Our Bread -A History of Waters Mennonite Church. The book project has been in the works for about one year. Edited and published by Laurence Steven, it features the work of reporter teams who were each assigned a decade. "The church has a half-time pastor. There's 10 of us who share the pulpit duties, so it was natural for us to share the writing of the book," he said. While the construction of the church was completed in 1959, the congregation began to gather in the area much earlier. Church founders Thomas and Elvina Martin moved from Waterloo to Markstay in 1946. Two years later, they relocated to the Lively area. "Raised in an Old Order Mennonite community, Thomas and Elvina were more familiar with a horse and buggy and the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect than they were with blackflies, mosquitoes and the unfamiliar tongue of their French neighbours," wrote Paul Martin, one of the many contributors to the book. "Years later, Elvina commented that for all the change and culture shock that she endured, they might just as well have been missionaries in the African jungle!" Their daughter Erma Nichol remembers how their conservative dress set them apart from others in the community. "They still were in their conservative dress there," she said, pointing at a photo in the book. "It wasn't too long before they dropped the extremes from their dress." After meeting in the Waters School for several years, the congregation was forced to take the plunge and begin building when they were informed they had 52 days to find a new home as a group of Jehovah Witnesses would be using the school. "We built the basement. The congregation was formed. Eventually built the top half," said the church's pastor, Dave Nichol. In 1959, the congregation had 20 charter members. It grew and then shrunk over the years to the current 30 or so members. However, there were many more attending the weekend celebration. "Today, we have several of the former living pastors and lots of people from down south and all over. It's sort of a family reunion," Nichol said. Maurice Martin of Kitchener traveled to the Lively church to give a talk on the story of Mennonites from Switzerland to Waters Township. He also spoke on many Mennonite myths. While many people think of Mennonites wearing bonnets and driving buggies, that conservative groups represents only one small branch of the Mennonite family, he said. Their dress is no more Mennonite than the garb of nuns to what all Catholics wear. Today's Mennonites are a diverse group --55% are non- Caucasian, non European, Martin said. For instance, the Mennonite congregations between Manitoba and New Brunswick worship in 13 languages including Korean, Chinese and Ethiopian. Waters began like many others as a "church plant." "There was an attempt by the core in Waterloo region to reach out and plant some Mennonite churches," Martin said. Article ID# 1602931