Email from Kim Thiessen to Rick Cober Bauman and Darryl Loewen

Kim Thiessen shared this January email to Darryl Loewen (Executive Director of MCC Manitoba) and Rick Cober Bauman (Executive Director of MCC Canada) with the MAST steering committee and gave us permission to share it on our website. We have added some links and [dates] for clarification. - MAST

Effects of dismissal linger for decades

In 1980, I returned to Canada from my mission assignment, happy to be home after four very difficult years. I looked forward to telling the mission staff about my experience, but the very people I thought would be the most supportive did not listen or ask about my time in Congo.

I was told I was terminated, without discussion or explanation. I was devastated and sought professional help.

Eighteen years later, my final paper at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary was titled “A Theology of Dismissal,” something which, of course, we don’t have. When word got out that I was writing on this subject I had students at my door—pastors, mission workers, and Mennonite Central Committee workers—telling me their stories.

The experience of my termination still haunts me. I try not to think of it too often because emotions surge to the top. I thought it might be good to let people know that these inexplicable dismissals have long-term effects.
Now, my heart aches for the young people who experience the same thing I did.

Surely our Mennonite scholars can come up with a theology of dismissal. It is incredibly sad that there still is a lack of justice and peace.

Anita Janzen, Leamington, Ontario

Hi Rick and Darryl,

The letter above is from the most recent edition of the Canadian Mennonite. I don’t know it Anita Janzen volunteered with MCC in Congo, or with a different organization, but it’s largely irrelevant. What is relevant is her experience of termination with no explanation, no support, no help in coming to terms with what happened and why. It speaks of pain that rises quickly to the surface even decades (45 years) after her termination.

And here I am writing to you again, though this time sending an email to both of you. Christmas has come and gone. It is a time for deep reflection, a time of gratitude for all the richness of family and friends. And it can be a time of discord and tension among family and friends, and also with institutions and leadership. That is where I find myself with MCC.

Since last May when the open letter was made public, I and thousands of other folks, constituents, MCC volunteers and staff, have been waiting and hoping for a genuine response from MCC to folks who have been devastated by MCC leadership decisions and actions. A response that says, “We’re sorry. We can and will do better. Tell us where we went wrong.” But instead, what has come from MCC in the most recent internal memo is an attempt to placate, soothe and distract. A lot of words with little meaningful substance. What is most concerning about the internal communication is that there will be no external investigation, but rather internal. It makes the process of an investigation largely meaningless and untrustworthy. The whole memo is full of MCC spin. And what “smells” the most is the hiring of former MCC “insiders” who will be leading the investigation. Such a huge misstep and a glaring lack of integrity and honesty. Why is MCC afraid of an external investigation? I would think MCC would welcome such a process given its reputation as a peace and justice organization. If no wrongs have been committed, why hide? I have spoken with current and former MCC volunteers and staff and none of them are convinced by the spin, nor believe in the process going forward as outlined in the internal memo. What is also concerning is the damning findings of Veritas Solutions. And still no external investigation? What is MCC trying to hide? How will MCC spin itself out of this one?

I think you are both aware that Ron Ratzlaff emailed me a few months ago asking for a meeting. He had a short window of time when he would be in Winnipeg and asked to meet me for coffee so that he could understand the hurt that people are feeling. I was gobsmacked to be honest. One cannot read the open letter and be left wondering how people were hurt and devastated. It is beyond me what Ron hoped to learn from me that the victims/survivors of MCC abuse had not already laid out plainly in the open letter. I declined the meeting and encouraged Ron to instead meet with the people who have been hurt, to hear the reasons for their hurt from them firsthand, not from me.

After my letter to the editor was published in the Canadian Mennonite, you reached out to me, Darryl, and asked to meet for coffee. I initially declined. My father-in-law had just passed, and we were getting ready to leave for BC to plan his funeral. But apart from that I was also puzzled by the request and asked the same question of you that I asked of Ron. Why is MCC leadership not connecting with people who have been hurt by MCC? Why would you ask to meet with me? But during the week we were away, there were so many memories and stories coming to us from folks who had worked with my father-in-law at MCC, memories from folks he had encouraged to serve with MCC. And memories of dad confiding in me about the hurt that he too experienced while volunteering and working as staff at MCC. I realized that I had more to say.

I want to thank you, Darryl, for organizing the small gathering, and for your courage in facilitating and listening to what became a raw and difficult conversation with both advocates and folks hurt by MCC recently and from years ago. Not an easy task. As people shared their stories their pain rose to the surface in an instant. Decades after their termination. I think MCC leadership underestimates the deep pain that has been caused by early and unexplained terminations. But Darryl, your humility and concern created a safe space for people to talk, share, ask questions, and offer meaningful challenges to MCC leadership. Thank you.

One comment during our gathering that I believe came from a provincial ED in response to my letter to the Canadian Mennonite has unsettled me. I believe the comment was something like, “Well, now Kim has written a letter. We have to say something” (please correct me if I have that wrong). For a moment or two, I was glad that the letter had even a little impact. And I responded by saying that MCC needs to say they are sorry, be humble, listen, learn, say sorry again, and then change. But increasingly that comment from the provincial ED makes me unsettled and angry. I hope that the impetus for the gathering was not only in response to my letter. The impetus should have been the open letter and the more than 1500 signatures on the petition and the stories and comments that people have shared on the petition, plus the stories that MAST has received over the past few months. You mentioned, Darryl, that you have been fielding questions and concerns from constituents, and I am assuming that those concerns were also behind the reason for the gathering. My hope is that the focus shifts from meeting with concerned constituents to meeting with folks who have been hurt by MCC. The practice of termination without stated cause appears to have become so entrenched in the culture that is MCC. Folks that I know and trust from the 1960’s up to only two or three years ago have been at the receiving end of that practice. And all of them have hit the velvet wall of silence and have not received answers or support when they were at their most vulnerable. And when talking to them now, again, the pain rises to the surface so quickly. The absence of answers and resolution decades later still sits so heavy for so many good people.

I said it in my [November 2024] letter to the CM, and I’ll say it again in this letter, the only word to describe this practice is cruel. I am not naïve enough to believe that conflicts have only one side. I understand that conflicts are layered and complicated and have many sides. But I don’t understand that MCC, an organization that prides itself on working for peace and justice, does not put in the effort to show understanding, provide answers, or support in meaningful ways to terminated staff. I have had my own experiences of walking MCC staff to the door and asking for their keys and laptop. But that came after multiple conversations, listening, having my perspective broadened and sometimes changed. And after the termination there was follow up…counselling offered, additional meetings if requested, and apologies for the pain the termination caused. It took extra time and effort to make those connections, but I like to think that we were able to protect some sense of dignity for the person being terminated, and we communicated care.

Part of the gathering that Darryl led focused on the group reflecting about what we would like to see MCC do in response to the open letter and petition. We asked that Darryl share our comments with you, which I’m sure he did. So, this is just a repeat. You have been a part of some incredible advocacy and justice work with MCC. And you have been a part of a leadership team that has hurt people deeply. A comment that was repeated more than once around the table during the gathering with Darryl was that because you are leaving MCC you have nothing to lose. You have an opportunity to back away from the binational MCC spin, to take the high road, the right road, ask for a meeting with people who have been hurt, listen to them, apologize to them, implement changes in HR policy, and leave MCC having restored some trust and commitment from many disillusioned constituents, former and current staff, former and current volunteers, and former and current colleagues. So many are still waiting to hear from you.

Kim