Letters and statements of support
Kim Thiessen responds to MCC leaders about “apology” monograph
“To not agree to an external investigation, to me, implies that there are things that MCC leadership and boards want to hide, decisions and actions they want to cover up. Restoration and reconciliation cannot happen without truth telling. And truth telling must be driven by the people who have been harmed. They are the ones to lay out the terms, with proper support. And in that truth telling process there must be public accountability.”
Where is our voice? Is this the kind of peace work we are fine with? - by Julene Fast
Julene Fast, a member of the MAST steering committee, shared these thoughts with Mennonite Church Canada leaders during a recent meeting.
“In late August 2023 – the day I heard [Anicka and John] were fired – the world crashed in for me.
As the details started to be shared with me, I experienced disbelief, incredulity, and horror. Something very precious inside me was being split open and gutted – like an offense to my soul.
For those of us who rely on MCC to do humanitarian and peace work around the world: where is our voice? Is this the kind of peace work we are fine with? Do the ones who signed up gladly and wholeheartedly to serve with MCC, and whose lives have now been shattered by the very people and offices they trusted, and who because of that have experienced such a devastating setback in so many ways – do they have to be the ones shouldering this load?
I am astonished – what on earth is the motivation behind the silence from MCC? And the silence from all of us that care so deeply for MCC? What on earth is being gained by this silence?”
Letter from Kerry Fast to MCC Canada Provincial and Regional Executive Directors and Boards
“I am asking you to use your positions of leadership to reset the direction of MCC…
Having worked for MCC, I know that addressing governance matters and senior staff accountability is a hard task. It is a slow task. It is a painstaking task. But it is a vital one, and I have no doubt, a life-giving one.”
Letter from Doopsgezind Gemeente Bussum-Naarden (Netherlands) to MCC leaders
“We hope that there can be some process of reconciliation between you (MCC directors) and the writers of the letter. In the meantime we are standing next to Anicka and John and their children. We pray for them and for you as directors that there can be a whispering of the Holy Spirit to come out of this dark dynamic. We pray for openness, to search for an answer (maybe) beyond institution, protocol and legislation, but in the unexpected creativity that Jesus learned us.”