On August 10, 2026, I resigned from Mennonite World Conference (MWC). I could no longer remain part of an institution that refused to appropriately confront mounting evidence of abuse inside MCC-funded young adult programs.

Why I cannot stay inside Mennonite World Conference:

Harm is occurring on MWC’s watch. People are getting hurt inside YAMEN. YAMEN is a joint MWC-MCC program. MWC has a direct responsibility to protect these vulnerable young adults.
2. MWC is complicit if it does not speak out against MCC abuses. MWC’s dependence on MCC for a significant part of its budget creates pressures that make public accountability much more difficult.

3. The problem is systemic. Accountability cannot be limited to YAMEN only. The patterns of abuse are connected to broader issues within MCC’s leadership culture.

October 13, 2026

September 26, 2026

MCC responds to report of facilitated conversations

September 26, 2026

“Despite extensive safeguards, intentional efforts to ensure balanced power, and the goodwill of all participants, these facilitated conversations resulted in further harm from MCC to John and Anicka, re-traumatizing them. In our view, this outcome stems from the MCC Board’s failure to engage in trauma-informed practices, inattention to power dynamics, and lack of a culture of accountability.”

(Conclusion from facilitators’ report)

“MCC Boards and staff have addressed these concerns internally and externally and legally. While there were ways we failed in timely and clear communication, this situation does not constitute systemic abuse.”

(MCC’s public statement in response)

September 26, 2026

May 10, 2026

Campaign letter writer responds to Ann Graber Hershberger’s recent letter

May 10, 2026

MCC’s response doesn’t add up!

Dwight Krehbiel responds to a letter from Ann Graber Hershberger, denouncing MCC’s ongoing “veil of secrecy.” Dwight writes,

“Your continuing refusal to allow a truly independent external investigation is further evidence of your lack of commitment to transparency… hiding the truth about abuses of MCC from its constituents. The idea that you are doing this to protect survivors is not credible. Are we to believe that the dozens of abuse reports against MCC arose because of how committed you are to protecting survivors?”

He concludes, “the evidence of widespread abuse by MCC makes it impossible for me to support MCC financially and that instead a just response would be to transfer that support to survivors. That is what I have begun to do and plan to advocate with others.”

Read on for Ann’s full letter and Dwight’s full response.

May 10, 2026

Blog

Featured

July 21, 2026

When your Mennonite job hurts you

July 21, 2026

Who will hold MCC accountable?

Now that we know the Boards will not question MCC’s treatment of workers or investigate the stories of mismanaged funds, we ask “Who will hold MCC accountable?”

MAST was approached by the European Mennonite Regional Conference (CMERK) to partner in offering a workshop at their recent annual conference held in the Netherlands, titled “When your Mennonite job hurts you.” MCC was a case study in this context, as MAST alleges a long-standing pattern of unethical firing practices, neglect of worker health and safety, and cover-up of financial misconduct.

The workshop voiced the important truth

July 21, 2026

March 20, 2026

What is systemic abuse? And what are the MCC boards going to do to “untangle” this “spaghetti”?

March 20, 2026

In this excerpt from the transcript of the facilitated discussions with MCC board members, parties discuss the definition of “systemic abuse.”

Anicka and John define systemic abuse as the combined effect of harmful individuals, enabling culture, and organizational policies that together perpetuate and shield wrongdoing. Systemic abuse occurs when misuse of power is embedded across an organization’s structures, culture, and leadership. It involves individuals who misuse power with evil intent, both active and passive enablers who look away or follow harmful norms, and policies or practices that centralize authority and discourage accountability. When abuse appears at senior levels and every attempt to report it is blocked across multiple departments, the system itself becomes complicit, creating a web that protects abusers, silences whistleblowers, and makes participation in the system’s dysfunction feel almost unavoidable.

The board members receive this definition with openness and appreciation, express their plan to take this definition back to their boards, and state clearly that they do not think everything is fine within MCC. They commit to working to “untangle” the systemic issues that John and Anicka named.

March 20, 2026

March 19, 2026

Closing statements in facilitated conversations between MCC board members and John Clarke and Anicka Fast

March 19, 2026

The last half hour of the final session of facilitated conversations (March 2, 2026) was devoted to closing statements. These are shared here in the order in which they were made.

March 19, 2026

Survivor Stories

Featured

April 23, 2026

Long time MCC volunteer fired from her 4hr/week shift at MCC Thrift and Gift in Elmira, Ontario for speaking up for the silenced and vulnerable

April 23, 2026

I stand up for what I have done in speaking about MCC Abuse to customers and other volunteers. I am a committed volunteer who has been supporting MCC's values of peace and justice for most of my life and most recently by speaking out against abuse in the organization and by insisting that MCC needs to follow its own values in the way it treats its workers.

April 23, 2026

July 10, 2025

Dedicated thrift store employee and longtime volunteer fired after false accusation of theft

July 10, 2025

One day, she was falsely accused of stealing a small amount of money. No one provided proof to support the allegation. A delegation came from the regional MCC office to fire her. She was given a non-disclosure agreement to sign and was offered a small amount of severance.

She was devastated and suffered a mental breakdown. She stopped attending church. It took at least a year for her to recover enough to return to society. At some point a friend told her the store had found that she was not guilty of stealing money. But no one ever apologized or offered to reinstate her in her position.

July 10, 2025

February 6, 2025

MCC survivor story from a concerned committee in a US congregation: forced mediation, NDA, gaslighting and bullying

February 6, 2025

We are writing as members of a concerned committee in a Mennonite congregation in the United States… We feel compelled to share a story from our congregation that also touches on mistreatment of MCC employees… Through our attempts to address this incident, we have borne witness to much of what has been shared by MAST: a callous lack of regard for a worker’s well-being; bullying, harassing, and gaslighting; addressing allegations with private investigations; and using settlement agreements.

February 6, 2025

Frequency and Types of abuse of workers within Mennonite Central Committee

Updated by MCC Abuse Survivors Together (MAST) in May 2026.

Check back here for regular updates; see the Survivors page for individual stories. To share your story, see https://www.mccabusesurvivors.org/share.

Notes:

● MAST is now aware of 21 cases where NDAs were offered at termination; 18 of these were signed, sometimes under duress, and all but two of them have been in the last 8 years.

● Sectors of MCC where abuse is reported include Executive leadership, Senior staff in US & Canada, Human Resources, Planning/Learning/Disaster Response, SALT, IVEP and YAMEN, International program leadership, Communications and Donor Relations, Financial Services, Voluntary Service, Ten Thousand Villages, Thrift stores.

● Most cases involve workers in International Programs; North American service workers who reported about abuse very frequently mentioned the additional victimization of more vulnerable local staff, who often do not feel safe to come forward with details and be added to the tally