MCC Canada marks 40th anniversary

J.M. Klassen remembers the days clearly. On Dec. 13 and 14, 1963, delegates from five church-related agencies gathered at Portage Avenue Mennonite Brethren Church in Winnipeg, to discuss their future. They emerged having created a relationship that would become MCC Canada.

MCC Canada’s first executive director, J.M. Klassen (left) and current director, Don Peters, cut a 40th anniversary cake at the MCC annual meeting Nov. 29.

Before MCC Canada was formed, there were five inter-Mennonite organizations in Canada: Non-Resistant Relief Organization in Ontario; Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council in the western provinces; Canadian Mennonite Relief Committee in Manitoba; Conference of Historic Peace Churches in Ontario; and Historic Peace Church Council of Canada across Canada. At the time, MCC was the relief and development agency of Mennonite churches in the United States.

Klassen, who served as MCC Canada’s executive director in 1963–1970 and 1976–1984, shared his thoughts and memories of the past 40 years with delegates attending the MCC Canada annual meeting in Winnipeg Nov. 29.

“The actual creation of MCC Canada was not that simple; nor was it easy,” he said. “[These] five inter-Mennonite agencies, which had served their respective constituencies for so many years, seemed to have grown old and stiff.”

“To the credit of our leaders of that day, they saw the handwriting on the wall,” Klassen said. “They caught the vision of what could be.”

Referring to the Acts 11 story of church leaders who responded to Agabus’s prediction of famine by helping the needy in Judea, Klassen recalled that in this situation too there had been “visionaries” who saw “the needs, the opportunities, and the challenges of bringing Canadian Mennonites and Brethren in Christ churches together.”

The former director said that the organization created 40 years ago has had to change to remain relevant, and that these changes have, for the most part, been good.

“I cannot predict what challenges we will face in the years ahead,” he said, “[but] we must hear the prophets among us and test their messages . . . MCC Canada cannot rest on its laurels. It must remain . . . energetic, creative and flexible.”

—Jonathan Tiessen, MCC Canada Communications