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Saskatoon, Sask.
MCC Saskatchewan takes care of legal housekeeping


Menno Simons was quoted in the Saskatchewan legislative assembly recently by a provincial politician urging members to support Bill 301, the Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan Act.

MCC Saskatchewan’s bylaws and constitution were not compliant with the province’s Non-Profit Corporations Act, and it took an act of the legislative assembly to rectify the situation, explained Bruno Baerg, executive director of MCC Saskatchewan. The Non-Profit Corporations Act does not accommodate the grassroots, church delegate governing structure that MCC Saskatchewan operates under, and a new act specifically for the organization was necessary.

Lawyers for MCC approached Pat Lorje, a local Member of the Legislative Assembly, and asked whether she would sponsor the bill as a private member’s bill.

On May 16, with Baerg and MCC Saskatchewan’s Chair Lucille Wall sitting in the visitor’s gallery, Lorje rose in the legislative assembly and asked fellow MLAs to support the Bill.

“It is my privilege to speak on behalf of Bill 301 because, members will know, it is both a fairly non-controversial bill, and at the same time, an extremely important bill for a very important group in Saskatchewan,” said Lorje.

“This Bill will provide for a continued system of governance that the MCC of Saskatchewan has been using for many years, but they will now be able to continue this as a not-for-profit corporation.

“They have been doing relief, helping communities recover from natural disaster and human conflicts. They have been working to develop locally rooted, sustainable service in food security, health, education and income generation. They have been working with community groups to build bridges of understanding and to develop peace-building skills. And they have been facilitating interchange and mutual learning so that all may give and receive.

“Mr. Deputy Speaker, they have been doing this because they have been following very carefully the words of one of their original founding leaders, Menno Simons, who said in 1539: ‘True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those who harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all men.’”

Lorje ended her speech by saying that what MCC Saskatchewan is doing is an embodiment of what it says in Micah 6:8: “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

The MLAs supported the Bill, which then went to the Lieutenant Governor for formal approval. Baerg said he and Wall marveled at the praise MCC received from the MLAs, some of whom came to talk to them after the session.

“It was humbling to receive such affirmation and recognition at the provincial level,” Baerg said.

 – MCC Saskatchewan

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Last modified August 12, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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