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 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?”