Trip to St. Jacobs
My parents and I visited St. Jacobs today. The village of St. Jacobs is located near Waterloo, ON and it takes around an hour and a half to get there from Mississauga on a Saturday morning. Even though the visitor centre opens at around 11am, we were there earlier to walk around the city for a bit – afternoon temperatures so it seems like we made a good choice.
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons (1496–1561), who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders. The teachings of the Mennonites were founded on their belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, which they held to with great conviction despite persecution by the various Roman Catholic and Protestant states. Rather than fight, the majority survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their radical belief in adult baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to nonviolence.
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I’ve learnt quite a few interesting things about the Mennonites in general and also about the Mennonite community in Ontario in particular (a good starting point was a video presentations in the visitor centre). It astonishes me how strong the community bonds are among the Mennonites and how pious and touching their service music is – I wish I had a chance to get a CD, but they weren’t selling those.
I got a feeling that the city itself was mostly targeting tourists that like to buy souvenirs – you won’t get a chance to see traditional costumes until you drive out of the city. We had a chance to see a few “real” Mennonites at the St. Jacobs market.
One day I’d love to go farther in the country and to maybe get a chance to hear some of the hymns I heard in the video in reality.
This was definitely and enjoyable roadtrip, if you have a chance to visit – do, there are a bunch of things to see there.
