Email from Kim Thiessen to MCC executive directors and boards, Feb. 17, 2025
MAST received this email from Kim Thiessen. She has given permission for it to be shared on our website. We have added links where Kim quotes from or refers to material that is available online.
“To say that the problem is not systemic is simply wrong. It would be laughable were it not so unbelievably tragic for all the people hurt by MCC, spouses, children, extended family, friends. Not to mention the relationships that have been built with national and international partners.”
February 17, 2025
Rick, Ann, Ron, and Gilberto,
For your awareness, this letter has been forwarded to MCC Canada and US board members, to members of MAST, to the editor of the Canadian Mennonite, to Mennonite Church Canada Executive Minister, Doug Klassen, and to Mennonite Church Manitoba Executive Minister, Michael Pahl.
A quote from the most recent publication of the Canadian Mennonite:
“Cober Bauman emphasized the extent to which MCC has changed over the years to include more staff from outside North America. He said some of these people from ‘non-dominant cultures’ have been ‘highly critical’ of the attention MCC and Canadian Mennonite have given Clarke and Fast, saying that they would receive much less attention or accommodation. ‘We have to be careful when privilege drives the process,’ Cober Bauman said.”
The quote about being “careful when privilege drives the process” is concerning for me. But how right those voices are to be highly critical of MCC’s attention to Anicka and John. That comment says to me that MCC has not been responding equally to complaints of abuse, harassment, neglect, and corruption, coming from folks from non-dominant cultures. John and Anicka are from the dominant culture, and the treatment they received from MCC ended with a finding of harassment, a court case, and a financial settlement. Many MCC national and international staff and volunteers do not have the option to voice their concerns for fear of reprisal from MCC. They need their jobs to live, to support their families. Others are not ready to go through what MCC has put people like Anicka and John through over several years. And now MCC has received a serious challenge from Pastor Abebe, President of the Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia. How will MCC respond? Will senior staff be held to account? Area Directors? Human Resources? Will meaningful internal change take place?
It is imperative that MCC undergo a full, unbiased, and external investigation into all cases of abuse, including those cases that ended with non-disclosure agreements being signed. It is also critical that MCC no longer minimizes the findings of harassment by Veritas by senior MCC staff. In MCC’s workplace policy on harassment and violence in the workplace it states:
“Managers and supervisors who knowingly allow or tolerate harassment, violence or retaliation, including the failure to immediately report such misconduct to HR, are in violation of this policy and subject to discipline.”
Have senior staff, supervisors, or managers, been disciplined based on the Veritas findings according to MCC policy?
I have read through MCC’s response to the settlement with Anicka and John in the Canadian Mennonite a few times. Each reading makes me feel angry, disheartened, disillusioned, and even more committed to continue advocating for people hurt by MCC. In my last letter that I wrote I talked about the “spin” in MCC responses that have come out since the open letter was made public. The spin usually includes pastoral language, citing MCC’s commitment to living in right relationship with God, creation, and one another. MCC’s “North Star”. But none of the statements own any wrongdoing on MCC’s part, or any mishandling of Anicka and John’s termination. No apology. Since Anicka and John were terminated, more than 50 stories of abuse from MCC have been documented. To say that the problem is not systemic is simply wrong. It would be laughable were it not so unbelievably tragic for all the people hurt by MCC, spouses, children, extended family, friends. Not to mention the relationships that have been built with national and international partners. I wondered how MCC will spin its way out of the Veritas findings, and the financial settlement, paid for by donors. MCC did it. And in the spin, MCC managed to hurt, again, John and Anicka, their kids and extended family, and all survivors, with your words of deflection and defense. Your latest statement will surely make others who have been hurt by MCC second guess whether or not they will speak out.
For months I have been writing letters saying that if only MCC would apologize and say, “we’re sorry for the hurt we have caused. We are committed to doing better.” Even that would restore some faith in an organization that prides itself on peace, justice, restoration, living in right relationship with God, one another, and the earth. I am so disheartened that I gave 16 years of hard work into MCC, spoke to countless audiences in Canada, the US, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Kenya, about AIDS, and the justice and peace work of MCC, raised more than $1 million for an organization that so easily dismisses staff and volunteers, ignores corruption within international partner programs, ignores reports of sexual assault, gaslights staff and volunteers, and withholds resettlement money, or at least a significant portion, unless an NDA is signed.
An apology is only the first step. And an apology is meaningless without concrete action. MCC must agree to an external investigation. And MCC must look internally. It is not just about changing “systems”. It is about holding staff to account for their actions and inaction. End the use of NDA’s, and release those who have signed NDA’s. After internal changes have been made, be willing to listen to the stories from staff, volunteers, and partners, about the corruption and abuse happening in MCC. Suspend the creation of a “listening space” for people who have been hurt by MCC until meaningful internal change has taken place, then apologize. Listen. Learn.
MCC’s termination policy for service workers states that workers who are terminated without cause are entitled to 90 days of benefits, 30 days if terminated [with cause], plus travel home in both cases. The settlement with Anicka and John was far beyond policy requirements. Given the hurt and trauma that they experienced at the hands of MCC, that settlement was less than generous. If more people come forward with stories of termination without cause, no-to-little support financially and otherwise from MCC, all depending on if they agreed to sign an NDA, how will MCC afford the payouts? Donors surely won’t feel good about giving MCC money to pay for MCC leaders mishandling staff and volunteer situations. Dedicated donors who give to MCC monthly, small but consistent amounts, or big donors, all of them understand that staff and leadership need to be paid, offices need to run, utilities need to get paid…but do they know how much of their money has gone to pay lawyers, or to pay for the silence of terminated staff and volunteers?
Will MCC retroactively reimburse terminated volunteers who refused to sign an NDA? Will MCC release former staff and volunteers from NDA’s they have signed? Folks who are in their retirement years and who had been counting on that reimbursement to help them enter retirement without significant debt. Will they be compensated fairly? In the upcoming facilitated conversations that MMN and MWC are helping to arrange, will the MCC board come to the table ready to commit to an external investigation of all cases of alleged abuse? Will MCC ask for forgiveness, make truly restorative changes internally, and in how they handle supporting volunteers and staff working in difficult situations, and will listen to truth telling, make right with financial compensation for all those who have and will come forward? Become the MCC that donors believe they are supporting.
Kim Thiessen
Looking for a next step to take in response? Check out our list of ways to get involved (speak out publicly - sign the petition or write a letter - ask for an external investigation - support survivors - coordinate your efforts with others - educate yourself and your congregation about institutional abuse dynamics).